Whoever got a piece of the decayed
flesh and cakes, and sowed it with the seed-corn in his field, was
believed to be sure of a good crop.
To explain the rude and ancient ritual of the Thesmophoria the
following legend was told. At the moment when Pluto carried off
Persephone, a swineherd called Eubuleus chanced to be herding his
swine on the spot, and his herd was engulfed in the chasm down which
Pluto vanished with Persephone. Accordingly at the Thesmophoria pigs
were annually thrown into caverns to commemorate the disappearance
of the swine of Eubuleus. It follows from this that the casting of
the pigs into the vaults at the Thesmophoria formed part of the
dramatic representation of Persephone's descent into the lower
world; and as no image of Persephone appears to have been thrown in,
we may infer that the descent of the pigs was not so much an
accompaniment of her descent as the descent itself, in short, that
the pigs were Persephone. Afterwards when Persephone or Demeter (for
the two are equivalent) took on human form, a reason had to be found
for the custom of throwing pigs into caverns at her festival; and
this was done by saying that when Pluto carried off Persephone there
happened to be some swine browsing near, which were swallowed up
along with her.
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