Expert: Irulan Serena - 2/21/2005

Question
I was reading in my edith hamilton mythology book that the greek god demeter was the god of corn, yet corn was not introduced to the Europeans until the days of Columbus. can you explain this discrepancy?

Answer
Diego,



Demeter is not a god, she is a goddess.

Demeter  is the goddess of fertility, and the mother of the corn.   she, after inventing the grain in the island of Sicily, was the first to gather, prepare, preserve it, and the first to instruct mankind how to sow it.  

The corn you refer to is the maize cultivated and  used as the ‘staff of life' by the American Indians, however, this is not the same type of ‘corn' to which the term “Corn Mother' refers to.  The term ‘corn' is a generalized term used to refer to different types of grains such as:  amaranth, barley, buckwheat, bulgur,  groats, kasha, pozole meal, kamut, millet, oats,  rye, spelt,   etc.

Regardless of which term is used, corn, maize, or any other grain, Demeter was / is the Goddess of the Grain, agriculture and fertility of human, beast and plant.

Caution –  mythology should not be taken literally since, like the bible, myths were written by men and passed on from writer to writer who placed their own spin [agendas] on the myths.

Regards,

Irulan