In ancient Egyptian culture and mythology Harpocrates, Harpa-Khruti (Horus the Child), was the son of the goddess Isis and her husband Osiris. The deity was often depicted as a small boy, with a sidelock of youth and the index finger held to the lips or the chin. This was a typical Egyptian gesture symbolising childhood and also the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for “child”. The deity was later adopted by the Greeks and the misinterpretation of the gesture of the finger to the lips led to the association of Harpocrates with silence. Hence he became the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in Ancient Greek and Roman mythology. This amulet is one of the beautiful examples of the cultural and aesthetic syncretism which was common in antiquity across the Mediterranean regions. It was perfectly accepted in the ancient world that other deities could exist and that they had no less legitimacy than those in one’s territory.
Demeter, the second child of Cronus and Rhea, was the Greek goddess of the harvest and agriculture. Though namely an agricultural god, she was also associated with marriage, childbirth, health, the cycle of life and death, as well as fertility. Her Roman counterpart, Ceres, was one of many agricultural gods listed in the Dii Consentes, the Roman response to the Olympians of Greek religion. Ceres, like Demeter, was the goddess of agriculture, grains, and fertility, honoured during marriage and funeral rites, and at harvest time.
Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, was also adopted into Roman religion as Proserpina. Her iconography, functions, and mythology were nearly identical to Persephone. She was eventually replaced or combined with the Roman goddess of fertility, Libera, who shared a temple with the goddess Ceres and Liber, the wine god. The myth of Persephone’s abduction by her uncle and god of the Underworld, Hades, explains the cyclical nature of the seasons. Wishing to make her his wife, Hades kidnapped Persephone down to the Underworld. Her disappearance caused her mother, Demeter, to wander the earth, searching for her lost daughter. In her distress, the goddess neglected her duties, causing nothing to grow and creating a deadly famine. Forced by Zeus, Hades returns Persephone, but not before tricking her into eating pomegranate seeds. As she had tasted the food of the Underworld, Persephone must return every year. Having eaten 6 seeds, Persephone was forced to stay 6 months underground and 6 months above ground, correlating to the winter and summer seasons.
Triptolemos was a Greek hero, worshipped as the inventor and patron of agriculture. The goddess Demeter, while on her search for her daughter Persephone, was welcomed by the King of Eleusis, Celeus. In return, Demeter nursed and cared for his sons, Triptolemos and Demophon. In every version of the myth, Demeter attempts and fails to make Triptolemos immortal. She teaches him the art of agriculture, shows him her rites, and teachers him her mysteries, making him a central figure in the Eleusian Mysteries. Triptolemos teaches the rest of Greece how to plant, sow, reap, and farm.
