GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY. 97 
abode. Demeter heard her shrieks, but arrived too late to rescue her from 
the ravisher. Lighting a torch at Etna, she mounted her car (fig. 
26a@6) and wandered over the world in search of her daughter, but did 
not find her. After nine days and nights’ fruitless effort, she learned trom 
Helies (the sun), the all-seeing, both the fate and the habitation of Perse- 
phone. In grief and rage she cursed the earth for assisting in the escape 
of the ravisher, denied herself food and drink, renounced her divinity, and 
in disgust abandoned the society of the gods. 
In vain did Zeus send J/rzs and others to recall her to Olympos, and 
induce her to revoke her malediction upon the now sterile earth; she 
remained inflexible until she secured the promise of having her daughter 
restored. Zeus despatched the divine messenger Hermes to Evrebos (the 
lower world), to bring back Persephone; but Hades had induced her to eat 
with him a pomegranate, and this bound her to his domains. Zeus, how- 
ever, so modified the penalty of her indiscretion as to allow her to pass 
eight months of the year with her mother, and the remaining four with her 
husband. Gratified at this concession, Demeter now forgot her resentment, 
revived the fertility of the soil, promoted husbandry, and for this purpose 
visited the kings of the earth, showing herself particularly communicative 
to Triptolemus, King of Attica. She taught him to use the plough (pl. 23, 
jig. 18), and presented him with a chariot drawn by winged dragons, in 
which he rode over every country, teaching the inhabitants the arts of 
tillage, and the method of performing her sacred rites ( pl. 24, fig. 6). After 
this Demeter returned to Olympos. 
5. Patras Arnene (Minerva). We have already remarked that Athene 
was daughter of Zeus and Metis. She was regarded as the goddess of 
intellectual power, of cool, calm reason; and the poets and philosophers 
have assigned to her various and contradictory attributes. She presided over 
systematic warfare, and was supposed to be present in those contests which 
were decided rather by military skill than by the rude courage of the belli- 
gerents. On the other hand, she favored the reign of peace, promoted the 
pacific occupations of spinning, sewing, and embroidery, and patronized the 
fine arts so far as they contributed to mental cultivation. Accordingly she 
befriended poetry, oratory, and the sciences in general, taking them 
cordially under her special protection. 
As she was not born of a mother, she exhibited no signs of female tender- 
ness. Unsusceptible of the influence of love, she ever remained the virgin 
goddess, disdaining all womanly weakness; and yet this apparent incon- 
gruity between her sex and character was finely reconciled by the artists. 
Her eye, unlike that of Artemis (Diana), does not open fully, is rather 
steady and downcast. Her compressed lips indicate earnestness, and the 
whole face is rather small and elongated than full and round. The chin is 
prominent and somewhat sharp, the nose long and finely formed, the hair 
massive and artlessly drawn back from the forehead, falling loosely over her 
beautiful neck. In short, the whole figure is in accordance with the ideal, 
and the masculine character of the vigorous and compact frame is softened 
by the feminine expression which may be traced in all its outlines. 
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