The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

247seeks to infuse his own vigorous life into the languid or decayingenergies of nature. 619 Another glimpse of the savage under thecivilised Demeter will be afforded farther on, when we come todeal with another aspect of these agricultural divinities.The reader may have observed that in modern folk-customsthe corn-spirit is generally represented either by a Corn-mother(Old Woman, etc.) or by a Maiden (Harvest-child, etc.), not bothby a Corn-mother and by a Maiden. Why then did the Greeksrepresent the corn both as a mother and a daughter?Why did the Greekspersonify the cornas a mother and adaughter?In the Breton custom the mother-sheaf—a large figure made Demeter wasperhaps theout of the last sheaf with a small corn-doll inside of it—clearlyripe crop andrepresents both the Corn-mother and the Corn-daughter, the latter Persephone thestill unborn. 620 Again, in the Prussian custom just referred to, seed-corn.the woman who plays the part of Corn-mother represents the ripegrain; the child appears to represent next year's corn, which maybe regarded, naturally enough, as the child of this year's corn,since it is from the seed of this year's harvest that next year's cropwill spring. Further, we have seen that among the Malays of thePeninsula and sometimes among the Highlanders of Scotland [210]the spirit of the grain is represented in double female form, bothas old and young, by means of ears taken alike from the ripecrop: in Scotland the old spirit of the corn appears as the Carlineor Cailleach, the young spirit as the Maiden; while among theMalays of the Peninsula the two spirits of the rice are definitelyrelated to each other as mother and child. 621 Judged by theseanalogies Demeter would be the ripe crop of this year; Persephonewould be the seed-corn taken from it and sown in autumn, toreappear in spring. 622 The descent of Persephone into the lowerworld would thus be a mythical expression for the sowing of the619 See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 97 sqq.620 See above, p. 135.621 See above, pp. 140 sqq., 155 sqq., 164 sqq., 197 sqq.622 However, the Sicilians seem on the contrary to have regarded Demeter asthe seed-corn and Persephone as the ripe crop. See above, pp. 57, 58 sq.