Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/87

 THE GREEK GODS 78 she seems to have been worshiped in the Mysteries as a consoling example of one who experienced a resurrec- tion and a happy after-life in the lower world. In the older art no fixed form was developed for Deme- ter except that she was always represented as motherly and fully clothed. As distinguishing attributes she car- ries ears of corn and the poppy, a scepter or a torch. Her daughter is distinguished from her only by her youthful, maidenly figure ; and the two are often seen side by side, sitting or standing. 99. The nourishing earth in its totality is represented by Gaea or Ge (Lat. Tellus or Terra Mater). She is the broad-breasted, great mother of all, who produces men, animals, and plants, and hence was worshiped in Athens as Kurotroplios (' nurse of children'). But because she also receives back into her bosom all that die she is like- wise goddess of death. She knows the secrets of the realm of death, which lies in the earth, and so she was consulted as an oracular goddess, especially at chasms in the ground, which seemed to lead down to that realm, particularly at Aegae in Achaia. The real belief prob- ably was that she sent up the dead themselves to be consulted. As Kurotroplios she is represented sitting and holding children and fruits in her lap ; at her feet cattle and sheep are feeding. Far more frequently, however, she is represented as a gigantic woman, with only the upper part of her body in view, rising up out of the ground ; more rarely, with only the head appearing. In the latter form she .is usually handing over her son Erich- thonius to Athena to be brought up. In later times she is reclining on the ground, holding a cornucopia; and this conception is the one followed in the personifica-