Compendium, 28; Geoponica, i. 12. 36; Paroemiographi Graeci, ed. Leutsch et Schneidewin, Appendix iv. 20 (vol. i. p. 439).
152
Cerealia in Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxiii. 1; Cerealia munera and Cerealia dona in Ovid, Metamorphoses, xi. 121 sq.
153
Libanius, ed. J. J. Reiske, vol. iv. p. 367, Corinth. Oratio: Οὐκ αὖθις ἡμῶν ακαρποσ ἡ γῆ δοκεῖ γεγονέναι? οὐ πάλιν ὁ πρὸ Δήμητρος εἶναι βίος? καί τοι καὶ πρὸ Δήμητρος αἱ γεωργίαι μὲν οὐκ ἦσαν; οὐδὲ ἄροτοι, αὐτόφυτοι δὲ βοτάναι καὶ πόαι; καὶ πολλὰ εἶχεν εἰς σωτηρίαν ἀνθρώπων αὐτοσχέδια ἄνθη ἡ γῆ ὠδίνουσα καὶ κύουσα πρὸ τῶν ἡμέρων τὰ ἄγρια. Ἐπλανῶντο μὲν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐπ᾽ ἀλλήλους; ἄλση καὶ ὄρη περιῄσαν, ζητοῦντες αὐτόματον τροφήν. In this passage, which no doubt represents the common Greek view on the subject, the earth is plainly personified (ὠδίνουσα καὶ κύουσα), which points the antithesis between her and the goddess of the corn. Diodorus Siculus also says (v. 68) that corn grew wild with the other plants before Demeter taught men to cultivate it and to sow the seed.
154
Ovid, Fasti, iv. 616; Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii, iii. 11. 5; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28; Anthologia Palatina, vi. 104. 8; W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, p. 235; J. Overbeck, Griechische Kunstmythologie, iii. (Leipsic, 1873-1878) pp. 420, 421, 453, 479, 480, 502, 505, 507, 514, 522, 523, 524, 525 sq.; L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, iii. 217 sqq., 220 sq., 222, 226, 232, 233, 237, 260, 265, 268, 269 sq., 271.
155
Theocritus, Idyl. vii. 155 sqq. That the sheaves which the goddess grasped were of barley is proved by verses 31-34 of the poem.
156
Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii, iii. 11. 5; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28, p. 56, ed. C. Lang; Virgil, Georg. i. 212, with the comment of Servius.
157
See the references to the works of Overbeck and Farnell above. For example, a fine statue at Copenhagen, in the style of the age of Phidias, represents Demeter holding poppies and ears of corn in her left hand. See Farnell, op. cit. iii. 268, with plate xxviii.
158
Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28, p. 56 ed. C. Lang.
159
Percy Gardner, Types of Greek Coins (Cambridge, 1883), p. 174, with plate x. No. 25.
160
Diodorus Siculus, v. 68. 1.
161
Hesiod, Works and Days, 448-474; Epictetus, Dissertationes, iii. 21. 12. For the autumnal migration and clangour of the cranes as the signal for sowing, see Aristophanes, Birds, 711; compare Theognis, 1197 sqq. But the Greeks also ploughed in spring (Hesiod, op. cit. 462; Xenophon, Oeconom. 16); indeed they ploughed thrice in the year (Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, vii. 13. 6). At the approach of autumn the cranes of northern Europe collect about rivers and lakes, and after much trumpeting set out in enormous bands on their southward journey to the tropical regions of Africa and India. In early spring they return northward, and their flocks may be descried passing at a marvellous height overhead or halting to rest in the meadows beside some broad river. The bird emits its trumpet-like note both on the ground and on the wing. See Alfred Newton, Dictionary of Birds (London, 1893-1896), pp. 110 sq.
162
Hesiod, Works and Days, 383 sq., 615-617; Aratus, Phaenomena, 254-267; L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie (Berlin, 1825-1826), i. 241 sq. According to Pliny (Nat. Hist. xviii. 49) wheat, barley, and all other cereals were sown in Greece and Asia from the time of the autumn setting of the Pleiades. This date for ploughing and sowing is confirmed by Hippocrates and other medical writers. See W. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,3 i. 234. Latin writers prescribe the same date for the sowing of wheat. See Virgil, Georg. i. 219-226; Columella, De re rustica, ii. 8; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii. 223-226. In Columella's time the Pleiades, he tells us (l. c.), set in the morning of October 24th of the Julian calendar, which would correspond to the October 16th of our reckoning.
163
Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 69.
164
Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 70. Similarly Cornutus says that “Hades is fabled to have carried off Demeter's daughter because the seed vanishes for a time under the earth,” and he mentions that a festival of Demeter was celebrated at the time of sowing (Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28, pp. 54, 55 ed. C. Lang). In a fragment of a Greek calendar which is preserved in the Louvre “the ascent (ἀναβάσις) of the goddess” is dated the seventh day of the month Dius, and “the descent or setting (δύσις) of the goddess” is dated the fourth day of the month Hephaestius, a month which seems to be otherwise unknown. See W. Froehner, Musée Nationale du Louvre, Les Inscriptions Grecques (Paris, 1880), pp. 50 sq. Greek inscriptions found at Mantinea refer to a worship of Demeter and Persephone, who are known to have had a sanctuary there (Pausanias, viii. 9. 2). The people of Mantinea celebrated “mysteries of the goddess” and a festival called the koragia, which seems to have represented the return of Persephone from the lower world. See W. Immerwahr, Die Kulte und Mythen Arkadiens (Leipsic, 1891), pp. 100 sq.; S. Reinach, Traité d'Epigraphie Grecque (Paris, 1885), pp. 141 sqq.; Hesychius, s. v. κοράγειν.
165
Theocritus, Idyl. vii.
166
In ancient Greece the vintage seems to have fallen somewhat earlier; for Hesiod bids the husbandman gather the ripe clusters at the time when Arcturus is a morning star, which in the poet's age was on the 18th of September. See Hesiod, Works and Days, 609 sqq.; L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie, i. 247.
167
See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 190 note 2.
168
See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 190 note 2.
169
Hesiod, Works and Days, 383 sq.
170
L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie, i. 242.
