The Hymn to Demeter Summary

"The Hymn to Demeter"

This lengthy hymn combines two mythic stories of the earth/mother/agricultural goddess Demeter. It begins with a brief narration of Demeter's beloved daughter Persephone being kidnapped into the underworld by "He who Receives so Many," later revealed to be Hades, the Lord of the Dead. The poem then narrates Demeter's increasingly desperate search for her daughter, and how the crops of the whole world suffered as the result of her neglectful, obsessive wandering. Narration then describes how Demeter, disguised as an old woman, was welcomed into the home of King Celeus, whose wife Metanira had just given birth to a son that both she and her husband had longed for. In gratitude for being so unconditionally well treated, Demeter begins the process of making the baby immortal by holding him every night...