Demeter, Persephone’s mother, wants her daughter back from the underworld, and because of that she comes in conflict with almost literally every Olympian god. After finding out that her daughter was given to Hades by Zeus, Demeter goes to live with the mortals for a while, then has a temple built for herself in Eleusis. She secludes herself in the temple, and, being the goddess of harvest and agriculture, makes it so that no seed grows for a whole year. The world is in famine, and Demeter “would have made away with humankind, and all the splendid things it gives and sacrifices to Olympus” (Unknown, Hymn to Demeter, 310-312), had Zeus not taken action to stop her. This shows how ruthless and amoral the Greeks perceived their gods to be, willing to wipe out mankind from the face of the earth over a dispute between themselves in which no mortals are involved. The same quote also reveals that the Greeks believed their gods only valued them for the sacrifices the Greeks dedicated to Olympus, since this is the reason they intervene with Demeter’s annihilation of mankind. Demeter has no medium through which she can take revenge for having her daughter kidnapped or make a formal request that her daughter be returned, so she in turn has to threaten all the gods with the annihilation of the mortals who give them tribute. It is clear that the Greeks perceived the gods to have little regard to mortals …show more content…
This is the Greeks’ aetiological myth for the seasons of the year, spring happens when Persephone returns from the underworld, making Demeter happy again so she blesses the fertility of plants and agriculture. The resolution to this conflict is also interesting, especially in contrast to the resolution of the conflict in Hippolytus. In Hippolytus, the conflict between Artemis and Aphrodite is never resolved, the reader knows that Artemis plans to smite a mortal dear to Aphrodite, but there is no way to tell they stopped after that, or if they continued on this cycle of revenge. In the Hymn to Demeter, there is a clear solution to the conflict, with each of the conflicting parties managing to concede a bit and come to terms. This shows that the Greeks believed their gods were not that petty and obsessed with vengeance, but were able to communicate and reach