Demeter Shadow [Chapter 2]

Demeter was the Greek goddess of grain, the harvest, and possibly the grape and hence wine. Hades, god of the underworld, abducted her daughter Persephone. Demeter asked Zeus, a brother of Hades, to return Persephone. When Zeus refused, Demeter withheld the harvest from man until Zeus relented. He agreed to allow Persephone?s return if she had not eaten while with Hades. However, since Persephone had eaten 6 pomegranate seeds in the underworld, Zeus determined that she would spend 6 months with her mother and 6 months with Hades. This is the mythic origin of the six months of spring and summer when Persephone walks the earth with her mother and the 6 months of fall and winter when Persephone must return to the underworld. The pomegranate is still for many a potent symbol of death and renewal. The Elysian Mysteries were public celebrations of the myth of Demeter and Persephone. During a night, Demeter, lost in the wood heard the cry of a forest chant. A new vision appear, not a reality, just a dream.