This
happened to Dionysus, and it may have happened to Demeter also. And
in fact the rites of one of her festivals, the Thesmophoria, bear
out the view that originally the pig was an embodiment of the
corn-goddess herself, either Demeter or her daughter and double
Persephone. The Attic Thesmophoria was an autumn festival,
celebrated by women alone in October, and appears to have
represented with mourning rites the descent of Persephone (or
Demeter) into the lower world, and with joy her return from the
dead. Hence the name Descent or Ascent variously applied to the
first, and the name _Kalligeneia_ (fair-born) applied to the third
day of the festival. Now it was customary at the Thesmophoria to
throw pigs, cakes of dough, and branches of pine-trees into "the
chasms of Demeter and Persephone," which appear to have been sacred
caverns or vaults. In these caverns or vaults there were said to be
serpents, which guarded the caverns and consumed most of the flesh
of the pigs and dough-cakes which were thrown in.
Afterwards--apparently at the next annual festival--the decayed
remains of the pigs, the cakes, and the pine-branches were fetched
by women called "drawers," who, after observing rules of ceremonial
purity for three days, descended into the caverns, and, frightening
away the serpents by clapping their hands, brought up the remains
and placed them on the altar.
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