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Demeter
(redirected from Dêmêtêr)

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Demeter (dĭmē`tər), in Greek religion and mythology, goddess of harvest and fertility; daughter of Kronos and Rhea. She was the mother of Persephone Persephone or Proserpine , in Greek and Roman religion and mythology, goddess of fertility and queen of the underworld. She was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter.
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 by Zeus. When Pluto abducted Persephone, Demeter grieved so inconsolably that the earth became barren through her neglect. Searching for her daughter, she wandered to Eleusis, where the Eleusinian Mysteries Eleusinian Mysteries , principal religious mysteries of ancient Greece. The mysteries may have originated as part of an early agrarian festival peculiar to certain families in Eleusis. The Athenians later (c.600 B.C.) took over the ceremonies.
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 were inaugurated in her honor. She revealed to Triptolemus, an Eleusinian, the art of growing and using corn. The Thesmophoria, a fertility festival held in her honor at Athens, was attended only by women. The Romans identified her with Ceres Ceres , in Roman religion and mythology, goddess of grain; daughter of Saturn and Ops. She was identified by the Romans with the Greek Demeter. Her worship was connected with that of the earth goddess and involved not only fertility rites but also rites for the dead.
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Demeter

Enlarge picture
Demeter of Cnidus, sculpture, mid-4th century BC; in the British Museum.
(credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum)
In Greek religion, a consort of Zeus and the goddess of agricuture, especially grain. Though rarely mentioned by Homer and not an Olympian deity, she is probably an ancient goddess. She is best remembered for her role in the story of Persephone, in which her lack of attention to the harvest causes a famine. In addition to appearing as a goddess of agriculture, Demeter was sometimes worshiped as a divinity of the Underworld and as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage.


Demeter
Greek myth the goddess of agricultural fertility and protector of marriage and women

Demeter
goddess of corn and agriculture. [Gk. Myth.: Jobes, 429–430]
See : Farming

Demeter
goddess of fecundity. [Gk. Myth.: Jobes, 429–430]
See : Fertility

Demeter - A CASE tool developed mainly by Karl Lieberherr.

["Contributions to Teaching Object-Oriented Design and Programming" Aug/Sep 1988 issue of JOOP, OOPSLA '89 Proceedings].

Demeter 

in ancient Greek mythology, the goddess of fertility and protectress of agriculture; daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of Zeus.

The myth of Demeter, which evolved in the ancient center of her cult, the Attic settlement of Eleusis, reflected the primitive concept of the periodic death and rebirth of vegetation. Demeter’s daughter Persephone (Kore) was abducted by Hades, god of the underworld, and the enraged Demeter deprived the earth of its fertility. Therefore Zeus ordered Persephone to spend two-thirds of the year with her mother on the surface of the earth. But between the time of the summer harvest of the winter crops and the appearance in autumn of the first shoots of the new crop Persephone had to return to the kingdom of the dead. The Demeter cult, which became widespread throughout many localities in Greece, merged in ancient Rome with the cult of the Italian goddess of vegetation, Ceres.



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