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

Chapter II. Demeter And Persephone. 79Corn,” 218 “Sheaf-bearer,” 219 “She of the Threshing-floor,” 220“She of the Winnowing-fan,” 221 “Nurse of the Corn-ears,” 222“Crowned with Ears of Corn,” 223 “She of the Seed,” 224 “She ofthe Green Fruits,” 225 “Heavy with Summer Fruits,” 226 “Fruitbearer,”227 “She of the Great Loaf,” and “She of the Great Barley [064]Loaf.” 228 , x. 9. p. 416 C{FNS.Of these epithets it may be remarked that though all of themare quite appropriate to a Corn Goddess, some of them wouldscarcely be applicable to an Earth Goddess and therefore theyadd weight to the other arguments which turn the scale in favourof the corn as the fundamental attribute of Demeter.How deeply implanted in the mind of the ancient Greeks was Belief in ancientthis faith in Demeter as goddess of the corn may be judged bythe circumstance that the faith actually persisted among theirChristian descendants at her old sanctuary of Eleusis down tothe beginning of the nineteenth century. For when the Englishtraveller Dodwell revisited Eleusis, the inhabitants lamented tohim the loss of a colossal image of Demeter, which was carried offby Clarke in 1802 and presented to the University of Cambridge,218 Polemo, cited by Athenaeus, iii. 9, p. 416 B{FNS.219 Nonnus, Dionys. xvii. 153. The Athenians sacrificed to her under this title(Eustathius, on Homer, Iliad, xviii. 553, p. 1162).220 Theocritus, Idyl. vii. 155; Orphica, xl. 5.221 Anthologia Palatina, vi. 98. 1.222 Orphica, xl. 3.223 Anthologia Palatina, vi. 104. 8.224 Orphica, xl. 5.225 Ibid.226 Orphica, xl. 18.227 This title she shared with Persephone at Tegea (Pausanias, viii. 53. 7),and under it she received annual sacrifices at Ephesus (Dittenberger, SyllogeInscriptionum Graecarum, 2 No. 655). It was applied to her also at Epidaurus(Ἐφημ. Ἀρχ., 1883, col. 153) and at Athens (Aristophanes, Frogs, 382), andappears to have been a common title of the goddess. See L. R. Farnell, TheCults of the Greek States, iii. 318 note 30.228 Polemo, cited by Athenaeus, iii. 73, p. 109 A{FNS B{FNSand modern timesthat the corncropsdepend onpossession of animage of Demeter.