The Two Great Gods of Earth - Demeter and Dionysus

The Two Great Gods of Earth

Demeter and Dionysus

The broad topic of Mythology was somewhat forgotten, but is now being rediscovered. Mythology involves tales of gods and goddesses to explain things that are now used science for. Demeter and Dionysus are two different characters in this tale of gods from Greek mythology. Demeter and Dionysus are two characters that are closely related but are both very different at the same time in terms of their views and how they are depicted.

Mythology is the body of stories associated with a culture. Mythology was around as early as 8th century B.C. (Nardo 86). It started in the area near and around the Mediterranean Sea. These were called Mt. Olympus, Olympia, Athens, Corinth, and Sparta otherwise known as modern day Greece. Mythology came from people that needed explanations for things and these stories were a great way to do so.

The people involved in mythology were gods, goddesses, and heroes, but there were also people who wrote the myths down for documentation. Some of the characters were Zeus, Hera, Hades, Cupid, Ares, Persepherone, Demeter, Dionysus, and the Titans. All of the stories that these gods were passed down from generation to generation. Stories such as Hercules and Troy were made into movies. Other stories were written down like The Odyssey.

Demeter is the Goddess of Crops and Fruit. She is mainly associated with corn (Lindemans 1). She is the daughter of the two Titans, Cronos and Rhea (Nardo 85). Demeter is considered to be older than the other god Dionysus, because crops came before wine (Hamilton 48). She is the sister of the all mighty Zeus and she is the mother of Persephone, maiden of spring (Hamilton 51). There is a great story behind this mother and daughter relationship.

In the story of Persephone, Hades brother of Zeus and ruler of the underworld, rises from the underworld and steels Persephone from her mother. Demeter was so devastated, that she withheld her gifts from the earth. Demeter went on a search for her daughter. She searched high and low over land and sea trying to find her beautiful daughter, Persephone (Lindemans 1). Then Apollo God of the Sun came to her and told her how Hades had taken her to his kingdom in the underworld (Hamilton 51). Demeter was devastated, so she took her problem to her brother Zeus for help.

Zeus listens to the news about what happened and allowed Persephone to come back to earth. Zeus sent his messenger Hermes to make a deal with Hades about the return of Persephone (Lindemans 1).The deal was made that she could not eat anything while she remained in the Underworld. She broke the deal by eating some pomegranate seeds (Nardo 85). Now she must return to the Underworld for a third of every year. Demeter is very sad during this time and she withholds her crops and fruit from the earth. When her daughter returns she becomes happy again and lets the crops and fruit grow (Lindemans 1). This is how the goddess Demeter is related to the seasons.

Dionysus is also another god of Greek Mythology. He is known as the God of Wine. His father was Zeus, King of the Gods (Lau 1). At first, most people did not respect Dionysus because he was one of the youngest of the major gods (Nardo 86). Then he started to grow on people. He appeared in the work of Homers only as a small piece role but over time he became to play a much larger character, thus people could get to know him much better (Nardo 86).

Dionysus, a patron of Athens, was the head of several different cults including a very important mystery cult, the Eleusinian Mysteries. He also had many different names, Bacchus, Bromius, Lenaeus, and Dendrites.