. The Open court. s spends in increasing the life-giving fruit for men. At last Triptolemos, a local hero of Attica,is sent out into the world as Demeters messenger for the instruc-tion of all the nations in the art of agriculture. Schiller has cast similar ideas into German words and hassucceeded in producing a most thoughtful poem under the title ofDie Klage der Ceres, in which he describes the search of the discon- IThe sacrifice to Demeter consists in a burning sheaf. She is worshipped by the peoplewhom she changes from barbarians into civilised men. Zeus approves of her mission and herser
. The Open court. s spends in increasing the life-giving fruit for men. At last Triptolemos, a local hero of Attica,is sent out into the world as Demeters messenger for the instruc-tion of all the nations in the art of agriculture. Schiller has cast similar ideas into German words and hassucceeded in producing a most thoughtful poem under the title ofDie Klage der Ceres, in which he describes the search of the discon- IThe sacrifice to Demeter consists in a burning sheaf. She is worshipped by the peoplewhom she changes from barbarians into civilised men. Zeus approves of her mission and herserpent guards the altar, decorated by her symbols, flowers, wheat, and fruit. 644 THfi OPEN COURt. solate mother, the institution of agriculture together with the es-tablishment of cities and states, the restoration of her lost child,and the celebration of the Eleusinian harvest festival. Grote, in his History of Greece Wo\. I., p. 55, after an admirableanalysis of Homers Hymn to Detneter, recommends it no less as a. 3- Christ as Orpheus.• I and 3, from paintings in the cemetery of St. Calixtus in the Catacombs of Rome. 2, from a coin of Antoninus Pius (third century). picture of the Mater Dolorosa than as an illustration of the natureand growth of Grecian legend generally, saying : In the mouth of an Athenian, Demetfir and Persephonfi were always theMother and Daughter, by excellence. She is first an agonised sufferer, and then 1 Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art. By Louisa Twining. PI. i6-London, 18B5. ON GREEK RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. 645 finally glorified,—the weal and woe of men being dependent upon her kindly feel-ing. Grote adds : Though we now read this hymn as pleasing poetry, to the Eleusinians, forwhom it was composed, it was genuine and sacred history. They believed in thevisit of Demeter to Eleusis, and in the mysteries as a revelation from her, as im-plicitly as they believed in her existence and power as a goddess.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade188, booksubjectreligion, bookyear1887
