CLAS 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Athamas, Maenad, Thiasus
11 Mar 2013
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Abduction of persephone by hades where the ground rips open, a black chariot snatches persephone and takes her away. Persephone vanishes and demeter leaves all her fertility tasks while searching for her daughter all over the world. While demeter rests at a well (in a disguise as an old women), the daughters of a king from a nearby palace offer demeter to go back with them to their home. While at the palace, the queen (metaneira) hire demeter to be the nurse for her newborn son (demophon). While demeter tends to demophoon, she grants him the gift of immortality by holding him over a fire (requires more than one treatment). Eleusinian mysteries: lesser: yearly; greater: every 5 years, mystai, telesterion, anakteron, pan-hellenic (open to all greek speakers without blood guilt, secret; penalty for revealing mysteries: death, lasted until 396 ad. Cadmus: cadmus marries harmonia; have many children. Travels not always welcomed back into greece because he was not.
