DEMETER’S CULT CENTERS:

 


By Mary Harrsch - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96137324


To preface this short section on the cult centers of Demeter, here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

 

Major cults to Demeter are known at Eleusis in Attica, Hermion (in Crete), Megara, Celeae, Lerna, Aegila, Munychia, Corinth, Delos, Priene, Akragas, Iasos, Pergamon, Seli nus, Tegea, Thoricus, Dion (in Macedonia), Lykosoura, Mesembria, Enna (Sicily) and Samothrace.

 

An ancient Amphictyony, probably the earliest centred on the cult of Demeter at Anthele (Ἀνθήλη), which lay on the coast of Malis south of Thessaly. This was the locality of Thermopylae.

 

OK, so, Anthele was the most ancient cult center devoted to Demeter. That’s great, of course; but I had no idea where Anthele was when I read this, and the quote gives no idea of how old the cult center there was except to say, “probably the earliest”, so I went to the source

That source is none other than the “Father of History”, Herodotus, and here is what he had to say:

 

There is another river south of the Asopus, the Phoenix, a little stream, that flows from those mountains into the Asopus. Near this stream is the narrowest place; there is but the space of a single builded [sic] cart-way. Thermopylae is fifteen furlongs distant from the river Phoenix. Between the river and Thermopylae there is a. village named Anthele, past which the Asopus flows out into the sea, and there is a wide space about it wherein stands a temple of Amphictyonid Demeter, and seats withal for the Amphictyons and a temple of Amphictyon himself.

 

Coins and ceremonies honoring Demeter are known from this shrine; but Herodotus’ writing, the oldest account of the Anthele cult center, only dates from the fifth century BC. It is unknown how long the cult center to the Earth Mother at Anthele stood before 499 BC. If not the early dating for which I had hoped, that date at least gives us a better idea of the earliest dating of the Earth Mother.

For a really early Demeter, we must rely on the inscriptions of her name. For those, we have the Minoan dates. If she was known in the early Bronze Age Aegean, Demeter may have been based on an even earlier goddess from the Continent…or elsewhere.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Herodotus, Unknown. “Herodotus The Persian Wars (Godley)/Book VII.” Herodotus The Persian Wars (Godley)/Book VII - Wikisource, the Free Online Library, 9 June 2017, 18:07, en.wikisource.org/wiki/Herodotus_The_Persian_Wars_(Godley)/Book_VII. 

Murray, A. T., and Homer. The Iliad. Vol. 3, Heinemann; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1924. 

Sovenok212, Unknown. “Demeter.” Wikipedia, Sovenok212, 12 Mar. 2008, 6:33:28, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Склеп_Деметры.JPG. 

Unknown, Unknown. “Demeter.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Nov. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter#Etymology. 

Unknown, Unknown. “Γαῖα.” Wiktionary, 2 Oct. 2017, 22:59, en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%B3%CE%B1%E1%BF%96%CE%B1#Ancient_Greek. 

Unknown, Unknown. “Γῆ.” Wiktionary, 11 Apr. 2019, 17:44, en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%B3%E1%BF%86#Ancient_Greek. 

Unknown, Unknown. “Δημήτηρ.” Wiktionary, 25 Sept. 2019, 5:12, en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%94%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%AE%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%81#Ancient_Greek. 

Unknown, Unknown. “Μήτηρ.” Wiktionary, 1 Sept. 2019, 23:23, en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BC%CE%AE%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%81#Ancient_Greek. 

Unknown, Unknown. “𐀀𐀯𐀹𐀊.” Wiktionary, 18 Nov. 2019, 14:35, en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%90%80%80%F0%90%80%AF%F0%90%80%B9%F0%90%80%8A. 

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