Demeter, the goddess of the grain, female fertilization, and the harvest, who is the mother of Persephone, represents the great matriarch in ancient Greek mythology. Her power to cultivate the bounties on the Earth’s surface for us are illustrated significantly during the myth of Demeter and Kore/Persephone. Before the Christian era, the Eleusinian Mysteries (as they are known today) were practiced for millennia and pervaded daily life throughout ancient Greece and southern Italy (Magna Grecia).
This relief featuring the mother-daughter goddesses from the last quarter of the 5th century B.C.E. is currently on display at the Museo Civico Castello Ursino in Catania and was found with other buried debris in the 1930s in the city’s St. Nicolelle Square.
