The Rape Of The Maiden

Although the Eleusinain Mysteries have for the most part been forgotten, most people are at leas vaquely aware of the mythology they were based on, that of the abduction by Hades, Lord of the Underworld, of Persephone-also kown as Kore (Maiden)-who was the daughter of Zeus and his sister Demeter, the ancient grain goddess.

The way the story goes, one day Persephone, still a young maiden, was out and about wandering through a field of flowers, when suddenly she was abducted, taken by Hades to his underworld realm. While there, he fed her a number of pomegranite seeds, whereby she was from that point on forever bound to him and to his deark realm.

Demeter was distraught, and had no idea where her daughter had vanished to, or who had taken her, and in her state of extreme grief, wandered the earth searching for her. As she did so, she neglected her duties of maintaining the earths abundance, whereby the days became shorter, the nights longer and darker, and the earth grew ever colder, as all plant life began to die out.

Eventually, she came to the area of Eleusis (near Athens) where a young boy described to her the events he had seen, of the beautiful maiden being abducted by what appearred to be an invisible man driving a team of horses that sprang up from he ground, down into which he took the maiden that matched Persephnes description. Demeter knew immediately this was Hades, wearing his helmet of invisibility.

Demeter demanded action from Zeus, who after some wrangling made a deal with Hades. For one half of the year, Pesephone would remain in the Underworld with him, as his bride. For the other half, she would return to earth to dwell with her mother. Her time in the Underworld is generally perceived as beginning at the time fo the Autumn Equinox, and ending at the beginning of the Vernal Equinox, whereupon she returns to earth, ushering in the worlds renewed fertility.

This is a very powerful myth. It is powerful even today. What person does not recoil in horror at the thought of a child being abducted, raped, murdered? You naturally feel a sense of near uncontrollable outrage at such a perpetrator, and while you hope for the safe return of the victim, you fear and prepare for the worse. This is just taking into account the reactions from bystanders, and the world at large, it doesn't even begin to take into account the anquish of parents and extended family members.

Still, whatever power it holds to us now, is minor compared to the hold it had on people in ancient times. During the days when this myth was cconceived, about 1600-1500 B.C.E., it was standard proceedure for a couple to produce a large family. Extremely rare indeed would be the parent or parents who did not outlive one or more of their many children.

It was not the exception. It was the rule.

At one point in time, somebody seized on this theme and transposed it into a myth which tied it to the seasonal cycles of the earth. Whoever that person, or persons, was, has long since been lost to us, but they had to have been very inspired by then current events. Possibly it had something to do with the recent fall of the Minoan Empire, which would have thrown that part of the Medditteranean world into a prolonged state of chaos. Possibly this person, or these people, had personal experience in their own lives of thes matters, experiences of a deeply profound and unsettling nature.

Before the eventual onset of the Mychaenaean Era, and it's resultant return to stability and propserity, there would have been periods of brigandage and piracy, and doubtless raids that resulted in death, destruction, and enslavement of whole populations. Rape, was well, would have suddenly bcome commonplace.

The people of the area of Eleusis probably, like all of the Meditterranean world, were thrown into a long period of privation, famine, poverty, disease, and general uncertainty, and this myth would have held out the promise of a return to better times.

Just as the spring follows the winter, so too would the earth eventually return to peace and prosperity. Life would go on.

During the festival to celebrate the Eleusinian Mysteries, an interesting thing happenned somewhere at the point of the beginning of the processional pilgriamge from Athens to Eleusis. At some point along the road, the worshippers would all stop, and en masse suddenly would begin to engage in shouting obscenities.

With the passage of time, and the fading from memory of many of the ancient origins of the ritual, this was interpreted as being in remembrance of a goddess who inadverdently made Demeter laugh and so temporarily forget her sadness.

More than likely, this spot was in reality the scene of some tragic occurrence that was relevant to the overall mytholoy of the Mysteries. But again, it like so much else has long since been forgotten.

But everything has not been, fortunately. The young child who gave Demeter the information as to what happenned to her beloved daughter was rewarded by the Goddess. She taught him the original Mysteries of Eleusis- the rites of agriculture. Therefore, through him, the first farmer, mankind would be assurred of a method of growing food and therefore insuring their survival. He himself would trvel the earth and teach these mysteries to all the worlds inhabitants.

And there may have been other aspects as well, involving a kind of spiritual rejuvenation, an assurrance of survival into an afterlife, of an ongoing connection to a persons descendants, and possibly even the prospect of a future return to physical life by way of reincarnation.

After all, the physical world of earth is surely a reflection of the life cycles of all it's children. It is something that is certainly worth reflecting on at this time of the year. As we reflect on the past year through this winter, in anticipation of the earths return inthe spring to fertile abundance, will it as well bring us the promise of greater abundance and fertility in our own lives, both of a material, emotional, and spiritual nature? We can always hope for that. We can try, at least, to live it.

The portrait of Persephone pictured above is from the JackalGallery.