CLA 10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Enki, Ptolemaic Kingdom, Hierophant
Document Summary
Chapter 10 myths of fertility: demeter and related myths, or the balance of power. Introduction: greeks say female fertility as a continuing force of creating. Fertility myth themes: cycle of life, death, renewal of life, goddess loses her companion (can be her daughter, or spouse, necessity of sacrifice for renewal (you need to give up something to gain something else) Fertility of the earth connected to sex and reproduction: demeter, mistress of wheat, name = wheat mother? (not likely) She"s the force that makes grain sprout from the seed: mother of persephone, who is abducted by hades (but not forever) Persephon is known simply as the daughter or the girl = kor (she is a virgin, parthenos: her father is zeus. The two goddesses (earth and grain) as one: homeric hymn to demeter, our major source for the myth, 7th century bce.
