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"Are we to believe, then,
that vines, not previously existing, appeared at a
certain stage; and olives, likewise, and the gifts
of Demeter and Core? And that some
Triptolemus was the minister of such
fruits?" [Plato,
Laws
782b]
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Triptolemus received from
Demeter seeds and a
chariot of winged dragons, with which he, flying
through the sky, sowed the whole inhabited earth.
This is the story of Triptolemus in a nutshell; and
whereas some have believed it, others have analysed
it, none of them going farther than the other. And
since the story is about something else, still
others have done neither.
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Demeter's darkest day
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Persephone, the
sweet girl who loved to gather flowers, was
abducted by Hades, lord of
the dead, and taken by him to the
Underworld, where she
became his wife.
This was the darkest moment of
Demeter, the girl's
mother; and since not even the gods could help her,
she, unable to find consolation, quitted Heaven and
went about seeking her daughter all over the earth,
carrying torches by night and by day.
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Demeter in Eleusis
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In her wanderings,
Demeter came to Eleusis,
where King Celeus 1 ruled. Having become the nurse
of Queen Metanira's babe Demophon 2, the goddess
attempted to make him immortal by setting the child
on the fire during the night. But a servant, having
discovered her manipulations, spoiled
Demeter's work with a
shriek of terror, and the babe was consumed by the
fire.
Others say that the king of
Eleusis was Eleusinus,
and that Demeter,
pretending to be a nurse, took care of Triptolemus
(instead of Demophon 2). They assert that the
goddess fed Triptolemus by day with divine milk,
hiding him by night in the fire. As time went by,
Triptolemus grew more than mortals usually do; so
the master of the house started to watch
Demeter, and when
Eleusinus finally discovered terrified that
Demeter was about to put
the child in the fire, the goddess, being caught in
the act, struck Eleusinus dead.
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Triptolemus' mission
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Until then no one knew that the nurse was a
goddess, but when one of these things happened,
Demeter revealed
herself, and having made a one-wheeled chariot
drawn by winged dragons, she gave Triptolemus wheat
to be sowed from the air throughout the earth.
According to some, this is how the goddess rewarded
the information about her daughter that she had
received from Triptolemus.But Triptolemus is
remembered mainly for the goddess' gift, and for
having accomplished his agricultural mission,
spreading the cultivation of grain.
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Triptolemus about to
depart on his mission. Behind him is
Persephone with
torches
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Mythical symbols
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A scholar has thought that the wheel "represents the sun", and
that Triptolemus represents the "mythical embodiment of the first
sower", apparently meaning by the expression
"mythical embodiment" that, whereas the sowing
reflects the true part of the story, the "mythical"
(whatever that is) conveys its falsehood. Others
would probably support this view by affirming that
many sowers are known who walk on earth, and yet no
one among them has been seen flying around in a
one-wheeled chariot. Satisfied with such an
evidence, they may then go on to say that wheat was
not really given by a goddess, but that it came out
of other seeds from plants resembling it, which in
turn originated in the course of a long chain of
events that began with a distant explosion, which
occurred, not "once upon a time", but so and so
many billions of years ago, which is before any
other time, since not even
Time existed at the
time. And they would be pleased with this story,
and find it more credible.
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What Triptolemus learned
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Now, if Demeter had
taught Triptolemus just agriculture, making him the
first sower, then there would not have been any
hush-hush. For what a sower does and how he does
it, although it may require training, is not that
difficult to discover, and Triptolemus was supposed
to divulge that art of sowing anyway.
But what Demeter
taught Triptolemus was mainly "the conduct of her rites"
and "all her
mysteries"; and of them it has been said
that they were:
"... awful
mysteries which no one may in any way transgress or
pry into or utter, for deep awe of the gods checks
the voice."
[Homeric
Hymn to Demeter 475ff.]
Accordingly Pausanias writes:
"After I had
intended to go further into this story, and to
describe the contents of the sanctuary at
Athens, called the Eleusinium, I was
stayed by a vision in a dream. I shall therefore
turn to those things it is lawful to write of to
all men."
[Description
of Greece, 1.14.3]
And what is further added about the mysteries
learned by Triptolemus does not appear to refer to
any mythical embodiment of a first sower, unless
one deems it likely that a man, once he is dead,
cares much about agriculture:
"Happy is he
among men upon earth who has seen these mysteries;
but he who is uninitiate and who has no part in
them, never has lot of like good things once he is
dead, down in the darkness and gloom."
[Homeric
Hymn to Demeter 480]
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Agreement in Heaven
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When Rhea 1 told
Demeter that it had been
agreed in heaven that
Persephone should go
to the Underworld for
a third part of the year and then return to be with
her mother for the two remaining parts, the
goddess, recovering her joy, made fruit spring up
from the lands, covering the earth with leaves and
flowers, and imparted her secret teaching to
Triptolemus, Polyxinus, and others.
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Various parentages
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It has also been pointed out that the accounts
given of the parentage of Triptolemus are "very various", a
circumstance we are advised not to wonder at, since
he was "probably a purely
mythical personage". This friendly advice,
however, is given as if myth could fail to cause
wonder if the parentages were not very various, or
as if a rule existed, establishing that a larger
number of parentages is more mythical than a lesser
number. Not such rule exists, although it is true
that several parentages are attributed to
Triptolemus [see below].
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Stories about what is not unknown
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His distribution of the grain is naturally the
most remembered of his deeds. Not because this was
his only or more important deed, but rather because
this gift of the goddess was known by all, whereas
her other gifts were kept secret. Therefore,
several stories refer to the distribution of the
grain, and none to the rest.
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Some who received the grain
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For example, it is told that among those who
received the cultivated corn from Triptolemus, was
Eumelus 4, the first man to settle in the land of
Patrae in Achaea. While
Triptolemus was there, Eumelus 4's son Antheias
yoked the dragons to the car, when its owner was
asleep, and tried to sow the seed himself. However,
he fell off the chariot and died, wherefore
Triptolemus and Eumelus 4, in memory of the
latter's son, founded the city Antheia near
Pylos.
Also Arcas 1, the son of
Zeus and
Callisto who civilized
Arcadia, teaching men to
make bread, to weave clothes, and other things,
learned the cultivation of crops from Triptolemus.
Some upset chronology by asserting that the
first strangers to whom Triptolemus revealed the
rites of Demeter and
Persephone were
Heracles 1 and the
DIOSCURI, but perhaps
they just mean that it was upon the Peloponnesus
that Triptolemus first bestowed
Demeter's seed, saying
"Heracles 1" and
"DIOSCURI" as a way of
calling the region by the name of its dearest
children.
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Triptolemus ambushed
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Triptolemus, while distributing his grain, came
to Thrace, where King Carnabon of the Getae,
received him, at first hospitably. But soon, at the
king's order, Triptolemus was ambushed, and one of
the dragons was killed, so as to make it impossible
for him to escape in his chariot. But as they say,
Demeter substituted
another dragon, and punished Carnabon by picturing
him among the stars holding a dragon in his hands,
which he is for ever about to kill. The story shows
that becoming one of the
CONSTELLATIONS
not necessarily is a blessing.
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Fighting to become a benefactor
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In similar manner, when Triptolemus came to
Scythia to spread the
knowledge of Demeter's
grain, King Lyncus 1, after offering him
hospitality, attacked him with a sword when
Triptolemus was asleep. It has been guessed that
the king tried to murder Triptolemus, so that he
himself would appear as the giver of corn to
mankind, which is not a wild guess, since fights
and mutual destruction are not uncommon among
benefactors, who seldom refrain themselves in their
ambition to appear as great men. In any case, when
Lyncus 1 was about to kill his guest,
Demeter saved
Triptolemus by turning the king into a lynx.
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Lyncus 1, taking the first
step to appear as benefactor of
mankind
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Triptolemus hated at home
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It has also been told that Celeus 1 wished to
kill Triptolemus on the latter's return, but when
his intentions came to
Demeter's knowledge, she
handed over the kingdom to Triptolemus, who called
the city Eleusis after
his father, and established those sacred rites in
honor of Demeter, which
are called Thesmophoria.
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No reason for amazing behaviour
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Now, some may wonder why Triptolemus, a
beneficent visitor, was, in several places,
received with treachery, being on his return to
Eleusis threatened to
death by King Celeus 1 because of his benefactions.
But to search for sound judgement in the behaviour
of mortals is a vain enterprise, since their nature
compels them, with or without a reason, to
ceaselessly wage war against each other. And so,
either in the hope of attaining pleasures that do
not satisfy them, or in order to obtain useless
things, they impose upon each other limitless
sufferings, thereby securing the loss of the
happiness they so eagerly seek.
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Judge of the dead
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Triptolemus was taken to heaven, and some
believe that he is among the stars. But others
count him among those who judge the dead, since
they say:
"For if a man
when he reaches the other world, after leaving
behind these who claim to be judges, shall find
those who are really judges who are said to sit in
judgment there,
Minos and Rhadamanthys, and
Aeacus and Triptolemus, and all the other
demigods who were just men in their lives, would
the change of habitation be undesirable?"
[Socrates. Plato,
Apology
41a]
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