In Greek mythology, Demeter was the mother of Persephone and goddess of agriculture.
Demeter was one of the children of Cronus and Rhea and an Olympian goddess associated with grain, fertility, harvests, and the cultivated earth. Her best-known myth concerns the abduction of Persephone by Hades. Demeter’s grief caused crops to fail while she searched for her daughter.
A settlement allowed Persephone to return for part of each year, because she had eaten pomegranate seeds in the underworld. Her annual departure and return became a mythic explanation for the seasons, although the length of her time below varies among sources.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were major secret religious rites dedicated to Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis near Athens. Initiates believed the rites offered special religious knowledge and hope concerning the afterlife. Demeter’s Roman equivalent was Ceres, whose name gives us “cereal.”