HYMN TO DEMETER

The rape of Persephone by Hades points to an original ἱερὸς γάμος, or annual holy marriage between a god and goddess of vegetation, instances of which are frequent in Greece and elsewhere; see Frazer G. B. i. p. 227 f., ii. p. 186 f., Harrison Proleg. p. 549 f. Here, as often, the marriage is by capture (ib. ii. p. 195 f.) The presence of Hades in the myth suggests an early chthonian triad, Demeter, Core and Zeus Chthonius (Hades, Pluto); see references in Pauly-Wissowa 2754. But the relation of the male God to the two goddesses at Eleusis is uncertain. It may be noted that the ἱερὸς γάμος was obscured before the period of the hymn; as Ramsay remarks (p. 127), the annual Theogamia had become a mere disagreeable episode in the life of the two goddesses.

Cf. Theog. 913 ἣν Ἀϊδωνεὺς ἥρπασεν ἧς παρὰ μητρός: ἔδωκε δὲ μητιέτα Ζεύς. For the influence of Hesiod on the hymn see Introd. p. 13.