1. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter
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“Demeter”
“Persephone”
“Kore”
“Eleusis”
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for map, images and outline of Eleusian mysteries
Composed in dactylic hexameters, (the meter of epic), perhaps between 650 and 550 bce, the hymn was a prayer and a song performed to honor the goddesses Demeter and Persephone (also known as κορή - [Korē] the maiden). At the end of the poem, Demeter founds the Eleusian mysteries, an historically attested cult performed from the archaic through classical periods at Eleusis, south of Athens.

2. Notable Vocabulary
xenia - from Ancient Greek: ξένια, fem. noun, “hospitality, guest friendship”
aischrologia - from Ancient Greek αίσχρος, adjective, “shameful, ugly” + λόγος
aition - from Ancient Greek αἴτιον, neut. of αἴτιος “to blame, responsible for”
chthonic - from Ancient Greek χθών, χθονός, fem. noun, “earth”
Homeric Hymn to Demeter
epithet - from Ancient Greek: ἐπίθετον, neut. of ἐπίθετος, “attributed, added”

3. μύειν - to close / be shut (referring to the eyes)
The Mysteries
from the Ancient Greek for
“with eyes shut”
μύειν - to close / be shut (referring to the eyes)
μύστης - an initiand / one about to be initiatied into the mysteries
τὰ μυστικά / μυστήρια
- the mysteries

4. from Latin limen “threshold”
liminal
from Latin limen “threshold”

5. τὰ ὄργια mysteries, secret rites performed at Eleusis for Demeter
(see Homeric Hymn, line 476),
or for Dionysus

6. Narcissus

7. Crocus Flower

8. Greek Baubo figurine Read more on Baubo at JSTOR.

9. Roman Baubo figurine from Priene

10. Kourotrophos (child-nurturing) goddess (6th century bce from Paestum in Southern Italy)

11. Goddess with Pomegranate (5th - 4th century bce from Paestum in Southern Italy)

12. Madonna / Mary as Goddess with Pomegranate and Child from Paestum in Southern Italy

13. Boticelli’s Madonna Melagrana

14. ἣ ῥόα (Greek) melagrana (Italian)

15. “Fertile Goddess” in Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, now at the Brooklyn Museum of Art