Greek Goddess Demeter

The Greek goddess Demeter was another one of Zeus's siblings that he forced Cronos the Titan who was his father to regurgitate after he had eaten them. The relationship that Demeter had with her brother Zeus went further than that though, because according to Greek legend Zeus was the father of her daughter Persephone who ended up being the consort of Hades the Greek god of the Underworld.

Demeter was credited by the ancient Greeks with being the goddess that brought them agriculture and with it the advanced form of civilization that they enjoyed. She was the goddess of the earth who taught the wandering tribes that were to become the settled Greeks the art of ploughing and sewing and thus ending their meager nomadic existence.

Because Demeter was responsible for lifting up Greek society through modern agriculture she was held in particularly high esteem by urban Greeks that dwelled in the cities. The legend that the ancient Greeks used to explain the regularity of the planting and growing seasons involved Demeter's daughter Persephone.

The legend has it that after Persephone was taken by Hades to his domain in the Underworld to be his consort Demeter wandered the earth looking for her. During this period that Demeter spent wandering the earth looking for her daughter Persephone there was no agriculture on the land and people subsisted by hunting and gathering nuts tubers and wild berries.

After spending countless years watching his sister Demeter searching the earth for their lost daughter to no avail Zeus ordered the his son Hermes to to retrieve Persephone and return her to her mother. Hermes was the only god other then Hades and Persephone that could traverse in and out of the underworld, so it was a task he was able to perform.

Hermes found Hades and was able to secure the release of Persephone but before she left Hades gave her a pomegranate which is the Greek symbol for fertility to eat. Hades was known to use trickery on Persephone from time to time and this was one of those times because when Persephone tasted the red juice of the pomegranate it bound her to return to the Underworld for a third of each year to live with Hades and thus the agricultural seasons were created.

During the time of the year that Persephone spends above ground with her mother Demeter her mother is happy and allows the fields of grain to grow. However when Persephone returns to the underworld for the third of each year to be with Hades Demeter shows her sadness by ending the growing season and allowing the fields to sit fallow and empty.