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

Chapter II. Demeter And Persephone. 63which is more apt to be moved by considerations of profit thanby sentiment. At all events the reasons suggested for delaying theharvest-festival accord perfectly with the natural conditions andseasons of farming in Greece. For in that country the summeris practically rainless, and during the long months of heat and [050]drought the cultivation of the two ancient cereals, barley andwheat, is at a standstill. The first rains of autumn fall aboutthe middle of October, 172 and that was the Greek farmer's greattime for ploughing and sowing. 173 Hence we should expect himto make his offering of first-fruits to the Corn Goddess shortlybefore he ploughed and sowed, and this expectation is entirelyconfirmed by the date which we have inferred for the offeringfrom the evidence of Theocritus. Thus the sacrifice of barley toDemeter in the autumn would seem to have been not so mucha thank-offering as a bribe judiciously administered to her atthe very moment of all the year when her services were mosturgently wanted.When with the progress of civilisation a number of pettyagricultural communities have merged into a single statedependent for its subsistence mainly on the cultivation of theground, it commonly happens that, though every farmer continuesto perform for himself the simple old rites designed to ensurethe blessing of the gods on his crops, the government undertakesto celebrate similar, though more stately and elaborate, rites onbehalf of the whole people, lest the neglect of public worshipshould draw down on the country the wrath of the offendeddeities. Hence it comes about that, for all their pomp andsplendour, the national festivals of such states are often merelymagnified and embellished copies of homely rites and uncouthobservances carried out by rustics in the open fields, in barns,and on threshing-floors. In ancient Egypt the religion of Isisand Osiris furnishes examples of solemnities which have been172 August Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum, p. 193.173 See above, pp. 44 sqq.The festival of theProerosia (“Beforethe Ploughing”)held at Eleusis inhonour of Demeter.