Demeter, daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and sister of Hestia, Hera, Aides, Poseidon, and Zeus, was the goddess of the harvest. One of the original goddesses on Mount Olympus, Demeter is still considered one of the most well-known of her counterparts.

The most well-known myths about Demeter is her daughter’s descent into the underworld, taken from her by Hades. Proserphine (or Persephone) was a beautiful maiden who was just out in the fields one day and unguarded by her mother. Knowing this and having fallen in love with the girl, Hades asks her to marry him. When she refuses (as most maidens do in Greek mythology), Hades takes her to the underworld. Unfortunately, Persephone was kind of a ditz. She was hungry and asked Hades for food, but, not knowing that eating anything in the underworld would keep her there permanently, she ate a pomegranate. Alas, Demeter begins to miss her daughter and finds out that Hades has taken her. She confronts him but he tells her that he did not do anything wrong; in fact, he should be praised for not letting Persephone starve. Thus, they struck a deal: Persephone would go back to earth during the spring, and this makes Demeter happy and everything grows. However, she goes back in the winter, and this makes Demeter sad, and everything dies. The cycle renews itself every year.

Demeter is depicted in art much like Hera, her sister. No statue of Demeter exists today, but in painted art she is a graceful woman with a somewhat stern face. The most celebrated depiction of Demeter is one with three goddesses (or three faces). Each face represented a phase in a woman’s life, and because Demeter is in the middle, she is the face of the middle-aged woman.

This is a very important aspect about Demeter. She is, essentially, the epitome of woman itself. She ferociously protects her daughter and mourns her loss when Hades “kidnapped” her (proved by the myth that when that happened, the earth was starving for nine days). Demeter is always representing an aspect of a woman: sometimes, she would disguise herself as an old woman, illustrating barrenness (as compared to her power over fertility and the harvest). Thus, Demeter is the portrait of a woman in every way, and unlike the other Greek goddesses, she has her heart set on nurturing others. So, her compassion and love towards others, such as Demophoon and Triptolemos show that her love extends also to the mortal world, a rare characteristic that separates Demeter from other frivolous goddesses.