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The hymn to demeter7/6/2023 ![]() ![]() In disguise as an old woman, Demeter attempts to turn a human child immortal by placing him into the fire. Through its themes the Homeric Hymn also provides a warning lesson on how to treat divinities, that is to say, show them respect, honour them, worship them, and trust that their word is law. ![]() Demeter ended the famine and the Hymn concludes with the founding of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Persephone had consumed a pomegranate seed, partially linking her to the Underworld, but she was still able to spend two-thirds of the year on Earth with her mother. "Demeter might well have destroyed the whole of humankind by a famine" (Line 278) if not for Zeus commanding Hermes to bring Persephone back. She was welcomed initially but after failing to turn a human baby immortal she commanded that a great temple be built in her honour and ragefully created a famine on earth. ![]() After Demeter discovered that Zeus had given Persephone to his brother to marry without the consent of the young woman, "she left the immortals who gathered together in council on the broad expanse of Olympus" (Lines 86 - 87) and travelled to the town of Eleusis disguised as an elderly woman. Persephone was picking flowers when Hades carried her to the Underworld in his chariot. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter is an epic poem that tells the story of the abduction of Persephone by Hades and Demeter's struggle to bring her beloved daughter back (Foley, 1994, p. ![]()
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