Demeter Monologue

Shh Do you hear that? The slow, soft sway of the wheat is so calming so serene. I
gave them gift of the harvest, and the reward for cultivation of the soil. At the end of each
harvest, the mortals would even give me offerings for the abundance that I provide. I am the
protector of the land and its products, the nurturer of mankind: I am Demeter, the goddess of
harvest, fertility, and agriculture.
Years ago, I bore a child with Zeus and I named her Persephone. She was such a beautiful
thingcarefree and spirited. One day, I let her play along the fields but moments later,
Persephones cries echoed loudly and reached my ears. I rushed immediately to the meadow;
she was not there. With my torch, I traveled the world day and night, never eating or resting. I
searched the seas, the mountains, but I still couldnt find her! Every cry, every scream that I
heard from her broke my heart, but it made me even more determined to try and save her.
I decided to approach the sun and he was the one who finally told me that my dear
Persephone was found beneath the earth, kidnapped by Hades, and it turns out that the one who
helped him do it was Zeus. Zeus! The king of all gods, my brother, Persephone's own father no
less! Betrayed, and angry for what he had done, I left Olympus, and I decided to live here on
Earth to wreak my vengeance. In the temple that the people of Eleusis built for me, I grew more
and more devastated with each passing day. Refusing to function, the land around me started to
reflect my mood: the land grew barren and the harvests cease . . . the earth saw a winter that
did not end.
Honestly, Im just a mother who wants her daughter back, and no matter what Zeus did to
try and appease me, it did not work because I only wanted Persephone, my daughter, my life,
back in my arms again. Zeus finally gave in and sent Hermes to command Hades to release her.
Soon enough, I saw her. My daughter. You could never imagine just how happy I was to
see her again! We exchanged stories about everything during the time we werent together.
Then I discovered what that that DEVIL, Hades, had done to her! He forcibly made her his
queen and made her eat the pomegranate seeds! Now, she will always have to come back to
him, and I could not do anything to about it. The cycle has started, and it will continue: I will
only give back my earthly gifts to the humans if Persephone is with me. But I was still happy to
see her, so I put an end to the calamities and returned nature to its full bloom.
I am proud to say that I was worshipped in Eleusis, where I taught my initiates how to
live joyfully and how to die without fear. It mainly revolved about my and my daughters life and
about the symbolic changing of the seasons and the perennial change from life to death, to life
once more. This was called the Eleusinian Mysteries, which was held every five years. All my
initiates were bound by a sacred oath not to reveal the details of the ritual, and they have to this
day made it remain like that, just a mystery that no one will ever fully know and understand.