Demeter
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Demeter: Ancient Greek goddess of agriculture, grain, and bread. In Italy she was identified with Ceres. Her name appears to derive from da (= “earth”) and meter (= “mother”). The island of Sicily was considered especially sacred to Demeter and her daughter Kore (Persephone), where they were usually worshipped in unison. By the Hellenistic period many of the myths concerning them were connected with sites in Sicily. For example, Kore’s Rape and abduction were said to have taken place in a meadow near Enna. Her abductor, Hades, brought her underground at the spring of Cyane near Syracuse. Each year the Syracusans held a festival there in her honor. This was one of many such festivals to the “Two Goddesses”; held in Sicily during the times of harvest and sowing.
The mystery cult of Demeter was one of the most important in the ancient world. While her most famous shrine was located at Eleusis, on mainland Greece, centers dedicated to the goddess were established through Sicily as well. It was here that she was called Ceres, the name by which she came to be known in Roman times. She had important shrines at Syracuse, Gela, and Enna. On mainland Italy other shrines were established at Locri Epizephyrus and Hipponium.
Demeter’s shrines were called Megara, and were usually located in sacred groves outside of the towns.
Her cult promised a path to a happy afterlife accessible only to initiates into her mysteries. So sacred were the rites of initiation into her cult that no record of them survives. More is known about her many festivals which tended to be orgiastic in nature and centered on symbols of fertility.
Demeter was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and thus one of the principal Olympian deities. More than any of the other principal gods, she is has the most direct long-term effects on the earth and on humans. She rules over the seasons and over human sustenance.
Demeter was the mother several children, the most famous of whom was Kore-Persephone. The myth of the abduction of this beloved daughter by Hades is closely associated with ancient Sicily. It was said that the abduction took place while Kore was gathering flowers with her friends in the meadows near Enna. The sacred spring of Cyane was said to mark the spot were Hades entered the underworld with her.