Hymn to Demeter

As the basket comes down, cry out, you women: "Demeter, great hail to you, nurturer of many, giver of many measures!" As the basket comes down, you uninitiate shall watch it from the ground, and neither from the roof nor from on high look upon it, neither child nor woman, nor she who has let down her hair, nor when from parched mouths we spit, still fasting. Hesperus from the clouds watched for the hour it should come, Hesperus, who alone persuaded Demeter to drink, when she went after the untraceable tracks of her ravished daughter. Lady, how could your feet carry you as far as the sunset, as far as the black men, and where the golden apples are? You did not drink nor eat in that time, nor did you bathe. Three times you crossed silver-eddying Achelous, and as often you passed each of the ever-flowing rivers, and three times you sat upon the ground beside the well Callichorus, parched and unwatered, and you ate not, nor did you bathe.

No, no, let us not tell these things that brought a tear to Deo; better to tell how she gave to cities laws that please; better to tell how she first cut the stalk and the sacred sheaves of the corn-ears, and set oxen to tread them, when Triptolemus was being taught the good craft; better—that one may also avoid transgressions— . . . to behold . . . Not yet did they dwell in Cnidus; they still inhabited holy Dotium, and for you yourself the Pelasgians made a fair grove, thick-set with trees: an arrow could scarcely have passed through it. In it were pines, in it great elms, in it pear-trees too, and in it fair sweet-apples; and water like amber welled up from the channels. And the goddess loved the place as much as Eleusis, as much as Triopas, as much as Enna.

But when the favouring fortune turned against the Triopidae, then a worse counsel laid hold of Erysichthon: he rushed off, having twenty attendants, all in their prime, all giant men, enough to lift a whole city, arming them both with axes and with hatchets, and into Demeter's grove the shameless men ran. There was a poplar, a great tree reaching to the sky, upon which the nymphs were wont to sport toward noon; which, smitten first, cried out an evil strain to the others. Demeter perceived that her holy wood was in pain, and said in anger: "Who cuts down my fair trees?" Straightway she likened herself to Nicippe, whom the city had set up as its public priestess, and she took in her hand the fillets and the poppy, and held the key upon her shoulder. And, soothing the evil and shameless man, she said: "Child, you who cut down the trees dedicated to the gods, child, hold off, child much prayed for by your parents, cease, and turn back your attendants, lest she be angered, the lady Demeter, whose holy thing you ravage." But he, glaring more fiercely than a lioness glares upon a hunter in the Tmarian mountains, a lioness fresh from her young, whose eye they say is the grimmest, said: "Give back, lest I drive my great axe into your flesh. These trees shall make my close-roofed house, in which I shall ever hold feasts to my heart's content, abundant, for my comrades." So spoke the youth, and Nemesis recorded the evil speech. And Demeter was angered unspeakably, and the goddess resumed her form: her steps were on the earth, but her head touched Olympus. And they, half-dead, when they saw the lady, suddenly sprang away, leaving their bronze in the oaks. She let the others go, for they followed under constraint, under a master's hand, but she answered the grievous lord: "Yes, yes, build your house, dog, dog, in which you shall hold feasts; for frequent shall be your banquets hereafter." So speaking, she devised evils for Erysichthon. Straightway she cast upon him a harsh and savage hunger, blazing and strong, and he was wasted by a great disease. The wretch—however much he ate, the desire for as much came again. Twenty prepared his feast, and twelve drew his wine; for whatever afflicts Demeter afflicts Dionysus too; for with Demeter Dionysus shared the wrath. Neither to the clubs nor to the common dinners did his ashamed parents send him, and every excuse was found. The Ormenidae came, summoning him to the games of Itonian Athena; but his mother refused them: "He is not within; for yesterday he went to Crannon to demand a debt of a hundred oxen." Polyxo came, mother of Actorion, since she was preparing a wedding for her son, inviting both Triopas and his son. But the woman, heavy-hearted, answered her, shedding tears: "Triopas will come, but a boar struck Erysichthon on Pindus of the fair glens, and for nine days he lies sick." Poor child-loving woman, what lie did you not tell, mother? Someone gave a banquet: "Erysichthon is abroad." Someone led home a bride: "A discus struck Erysichthon," or "he fell from his horse," or "he is counting his flocks on Othrys." Then, shut indoors, the all-day banqueter ate countless things of every kind; and his evil belly leapt up, ever more as he ate, and all the food, as into the depth of the sea, ran down in vain, ungrateful, and without thanks. And as the snow upon Mimas, as a wax doll in the sun, and even more than these, he wasted away to the very sinews: to the wretch only sinews and bones were left. The mother wept, and the two sisters groaned heavily, and the breast that suckled him, and the ten handmaids often. And Triopas himself laid his hands upon his grey head, calling thus upon Poseidon, who did not hear: "False father, look upon this third one of your line, if indeed I am the offspring of you and of Aeolian Canace, and from me this wretched child was born; would that he had been struck down by Apollo, and that my hands had buried him! But now an evil ox-hunger sits in his eyes. Either drive off the grievous disease from him, or take him yourself and feed him; for my tables have given up. Empty are my folds, and bare already are my pens of four-footed beasts; for already the cooks have refused. Indeed they have even unyoked the mules from the great waggons, and he has eaten the cow that the mother raised for Hestia, and the prize-winning and the war-horse, and the cat, at which the small beasts trembled."

So long as there were goods in the house of Triopas, only the household chambers knew the evil. But when his teeth had dried up the deep house, then the king's son sat in the crossroads, begging for crumbs and the cast-off leavings of feasts. Demeter, may that man be no friend of mine who is hateful to you, nor share my wall; evil neighbours are my foes.

Sing, maidens, and you mothers cry out: "Demeter, great hail to you, nurturer of many, giver of many measures!" And as the four white-haired horses bring the basket, so to us the great goddess, wide-ruling, bringing white spring, and white summer, and winter, shall come, and autumn too, and shall keep us safe to another year. And as without sandals and without headbands we tread the city, so shall we ever keep our feet and our heads free from all harm. And as the basket-bearers bear baskets full of gold, so may we possess gold without stint. As far as the prytaneum let the uninitiate accompany, but the initiate as far as the goddess herself, all who are under sixty; but the heavy with child, and she who stretches her hand to Eileithyia, and she who is in pain— enough, so far as their knees suffice. To these Deo will give all things in full measure, even that they come to the temple.

Hail, goddess, and keep this city safe, in concord and in prosperity, and bring all homecoming fruits from the field; nourish the oxen, bring the sheep, bring the corn-ear, bring the harvest, and nourish peace too, that he who sowed may also reap. Be gracious to me, thrice-besought, greatly reigning among goddesses.