Demeter and Persephone Mythology and Science Ep. 4

Welcome to the 4th episode of Mythology and Science in which I narrate fantastic stories from Greek and Indian mythology and also explain their scientific implications. Every traditional festival of a land has a story behind it.  When we look beyond the symbolic rituals, we can understand what these stories try to teach us. 

Click here to WATCH this content https://youtu.be/ntyry5z9xtU

Alright, its story time. 

Story 

The Greeks speak of 3 worlds – the heavens ruled by Zeus, the Earth ruled by Poseidon and the Underworld ruled by Hades. Zeus is the God of Thunder and rain, one of his many wives is Demeter, the goddess of Agriculture. Through their union was born a beautiful daughter Persephone, the epitome of prosperity. She was always surrounded by flowering plants, fruit bearing trees, dancing butterflies and singing bees.  

    One day, Persephone and her friends visited a garden on Earth. She sang songs and plucked flowers to decorate her hair. Hades, the king of the underworld, heard her song and made a small crack on the earth to see the owner of such a sweet voice. When his eyes fell on the beautiful Persephone, he instantly fell in love with her. Hades impulsively caught her by the ankles and pulled her down to the underworld. 

 He took her to his luxurious palace and expressed his wish to marry her. Persephone was very agitated and unresponsive to his advances. Meanwhile, Demeter searched for her missing daughter all over the earth in vain; worried sick, she neglected her duties. Consequently, the crops failed, trees dried up and the earth became barren.  Helios, the sun god, who had been watching everything, took pity on Demeter and told her the whole story. He even asked Hermes, the messenger of the worlds, to escort Persephone back to earth. 

     Back in the underworld, Persephone had developed a liking for Hades; despite his unruly behaviour in their first meeting; he was indeed a handsome man with very desirable qualities. So, when Hades offered her a pomegranate, she ate a few seeds from it. Little did she know that eating a pomegranate will forever bind her to him with a promise of no escape. For pomegranate is the fruit of the underworld, of death and fertility, it is said to have sprung from the blood of Adonis.  

Demeter was devastated at the turn of events and cried bitterly for her daughter. Hades felt sorry for his mother-in-law and agreed to let Persephone go to Earth and spend two thirds of the year with her mother and come back to him for one third of the year.  

Every year, when Persephone steps out to meet her mother, the earth becomes green again marking the onset of spring. And when she goes back to the underworld the earth becomes barren, as in winter when no plant or tree can grow. 

Science 

      What seems like the story of the seasons is also a valuable lesson on sustainable farming.  

      The topography of Greece is not exactly the best for farming, there is very little percentage of cultivable land and only a small variety of crops can be grown in it due to the climatic condition. The seeds are sown with the onset of monsoons in Mid-October and harvested after 8 months in May, that is exactly 2/3rds of a year that Persephone or prosperity spends with her parents, the Gods of rain and Agriculture. The land is then deliberately left unused or Fallow for the next four months which is 1/3rd of the year when Persephone goes to her husband in the underworld. The following October when the farming activities ought to resume, the Greeks celebrate the mother daughter reunion as an agricultural festival called Thesmophoria.  

All the married women farmers, come together for this 3-days celebration and perform rituals for the fertility of the land and themselves. It involves animal sacrifice. Here, the animal blood is representative of pomegranate seeds that came from Adonis’s blood. They trust that sprinkling the coagulated blood of piglets on the soil and burying pieces of its flesh in the land will lead to a bountiful yield.  

 Sounds superstitious? Barbaric? Before we get judgemental, let’s understand why they do what they do and how relevant it is in today’s times. 

Why leave the land Fallow (unused) for four months? 

   The resting period of four months allows the land to regain its nutrients from the atmosphere. There are disease causing pathogens in the land that thrive on crops. The practice of fallowing cuts their food supply forcing them to perish, this ensures that the next batch of crops are pathogen free. Fallowing has long been replaced by crop rotation and pesticides; but in recent times it is gaining popularity among organic farmers. 

Why animal sacrifice and bloodshed?  

Blood is indeed a good soil fertilizer, so is meat. They are rich in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. And the process of first getting rid of the pathogens and then feeding the land with blood ensures that only the good microbes thrive. Currently, many organic farmers in Europe use natural fertilizers such as blood meal, meat meal and bone meal on their farms. They are nothing but dried and powdered blood, meat and bones of cattle and hogs. The farmers who swear by the efficiency of these fertilizers do not perform any sacrifices, the meat packaging industry does it for them. Yes, once the animals are slaughtered, their skins are sent to tanneries; the flesh is processed for consumption and other body components are converted into fertilizers. The only difference between then and now is, what was once a sacred ritual has become an industrial procedure, that’s all. 

   This is proof enough that mythological stories are the common man’s access to quality education. They teach us to live, work and celebrate. Precisely why it is important to keep these stories alive. Tell me about your favourite festival and its backstory in the comments. I’ll meet you soon with another interesting story. 

Adios! 

Credits & References 

Story of Persephone 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-mythology/Types-of-myths-in-Greek-culture#ref533661 

https://storywrite.com/story/11513409-The-Seven-Pomegranate-Seeds--greek-myth-as-told-by-Tate--by-Keira. 

 

What is Fallowing? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallow 

https://www.britannica.com/technology/agricultural-technology/Regional-variations-in-technique#ref67799 

Fallowing & Crop rotation 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.01171/full 

https://www.sare.org/publications/crop-rotation-on-organic-farms/physical-and-biological-processes-in-crop-production/managing-plant-diseases-with-crop-rotation/ 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335489835_Crop_rotations_fallowing_and_their_environmental_benefits 

https://oxfordre.com/environmentalscience/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.001.0001/acrefore-9780199389414-e-197 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/fallow 

Pomegranate 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118911/ 

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2014/686921/ 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/diet/pomegranate-benefits/articleshow/60114168.cms 

https://www.phytojournal.com/vol1Issue5/6.html 

Adonis 

https://www.bartleby.com/196/117.html 

https://theodora.com/encyclopedia/a/adonis_mythology.html 

Festivals Anthesphoria & Thesmophoria 

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/acg2248.2-07.005/390:8?page=root;size=100;view=text 

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/acg2248.2-07.005?node=acg2248.2-07.005:8&view=text&seq=389 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thesmophoria 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thesmophoria 

http://cityfullofgods.weebly.com/thesmophoria.html 

Blood meal, meat & bone meal – organic farming/gardening fertilizers 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_meal 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/2251-7715-2-6 

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4020-5760-1_21#:~:text=Meat%20and%20bone%20meal%20(MBM,useful%20fertilizer%20for%20various%20crops.&text=A%20similar%20experiment%20with%20barley,for%20larger%20amounts%20of%20MBM. 

Agriculture in Ancient Greece (fallowing and crop rotation) 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_ancient_Greece 

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/113/food--agriculture-in-ancient-greece/ 

https://www.savvyleo.com/world-history/ancient-greece/farming/ 

https://study.com/academy/lesson/ancient-greek-farming-lesson-for-kids.html 

Agriculture in Ancient India 

https://www.giftwonders.com/india/ancient-india/ancient-indian-agriculture/ 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322745690_Development_of_Agriculture_in_Ancient_India 

https://www.indictoday.com/long-reads/ancient-indian-economy-part-ii-agriculture-ancient-india/ 

https://www.academia.edu/9576297/Agriculture_in_the_Early_Tamil_Society 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312447963_Heritage_rich_agricultural_technologies_of_the_Sangam_Period 

Schmita (fallow year) in Israel 

https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2019/04/17/climate-new-tool-ancient-jewish-practice-sustainable-agriculture 

https://thisismold.com/space/farm-systems/shmita-a-jewish-farming-future-of-food 

https://www.setapartpeople.com/the-sabbatical-year-why-the-land-must-lie-fallow 

Sabbath year in bible 

http://www.joyfulheart.com/new-years/fallow-ground.htm 

Pomegranate and fertility 

 

https://www.fertilityhelphub.com/blog/wellbeing/pomegranate-fertility-benefits/#:~:text=Pomegranates%20are%20rich%20in%20antioxidants,healthy%20uterine%20lining%20for%20implantation. 

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318385 

https://biomedpharmajournal.org/vol8no2/the-effect-of-pomegranate-juice-extract-on-hormonal-changes-of-female-wistar-rats-caused-by-polycystic-ovarian-syndrome/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20above%2C%20consumption,of%20polycystic%20ovary%20syndrome%20complications. 

 

https://zenodo.org/record/2016780#.YOQR2OgzZPY 

Images 

https://www.onverticality.com/blog/zeus-poseidon-hades 

https://www.freepik.com/premium-vector/goddess-demeter_12156385.htm 

https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-story-of-demeter-and-persephone-110898 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter 

https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/myth-of-hades-and-persephone/ 

Hades and Persephone: Pomegranate by Lleye on DeviantArt 

 

https://www.wga.hu/html_m/b/baursche/abductio.html 

https://studyabroadingreece.org/thesmophoria-the-ancient-greek-womens-festival/