In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Demeter suffers a tragedy that many Greek women went through, the loss

of a daughter through marriage. Demeters daughter Persephone is kidnapped by Hades to become his wife, which Zeus, Persephones father and Hades brother, allows to happen. This incident resembles how Greek girls were married off by their fathers without their own consent, often to the dismay of the brides and their mothers. Thus, some may argue that Demeters experience is like that of a human woman, namely a typical Greek mother. However, Demeter retains the characteristics, actions, and qualities of a goddess that make her experience in the Hymn more like that of a goddess than of a human woman. When Demeter takes care of Metaniras son, a job that may seem like a human experience, she uses her divine powers to make the experience that of a goddess. For example, Demeter raises the child like a god, without feeding from her breast, without any food at all! (pp. 134). She even anointed him with ambrosia, as if he were born from a god (pp. 134) and held him in a powerful fire, like a torch (pp. 134). Because of Demeters ways as a goddess in childcare, Metaniras son becomes angry when his sisters try to take care of him, since these were inferior nurses who held it now, these nurses were inferior (pp. 140). Eventually, Demeter brings back her true divine form to show her status compared to mortals, and the sturdy house was filled with light like lightning (pp.139). Demeters display of her divinity causes Metanira to feel her knees buckling, after being speechless for a long time, not even remembering to pick up her very special child from the ground (pp. 139). After looking down on the mortals and scolding them for their stupidity and unawareness, Demeter says to Metanira, Have all the people build for me a huge temple and an altar beneath it And I myself will inaugurate the mysteries, so that in doing them piously you will please my heart (pp. 138). By using powers to raise a child, placing herself above mortals, and demanding to be

treated and worshipped as a divine being, Demeter turns her experience into one of a goddess. After settling in her temple, Demeter uses her powers as the goddess of fertility to prevent the harvesting of crops and to create a famine. According to the Hymn, the earth did not take seed that year, for Demeter in her beautiful crown concealed it (pp. 142). Zeus tries to appease her with gifts and honors, but Demeter would not let the fruit of the earth come up until she saw with her eyes her daughters beautiful face (pp. 145). She threatens to eliminate that weak race of men who are born on the earth, concealing their seeds in the ground and thus annihilating the honors of the gods (pp. 147). Thus, Demeter forces Zeus and the other immortals to bring back Persephone, and only then does she allow a large harvest to return throughout Earth (pp. 159). Despite suffering a tragedy reserved for human Greek women, Demeters experience throughout the Hymn relates to a goddess rather than to a human woman. Demeter continuously uses her powers as a goddess, both in raising Metaniras child and in using the famine to manipulate the gods into letting her see Persephone again. And although Demeter temporarily resides among mortals, she places herself above them by making them build a temple and altar for her. By the end, Demeter is able to see her daughter for two-thirds of every year, a feat that most Greek women could not accomplish with their married daughters because of the Greek gender system. Thus, in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Demeters experience is more like that of a goddess than of a human woman as a result of her actions and characteristics as a goddess.