The story is obviously a forced and awkward attempt
to bridge over the gulf between the old conception of the
corn-spirit as a pig and the new conception of her as an
anthropomorphic goddess. A trace of the older conception survived in
the legend that when the sad mother was searching for traces of the
vanished Persephone, the footprints of the lost one were obliterated
by the footprints of a pig; originally, we may conjecture, the
footprints of the pig were the footprints of Persephone and of
Demeter herself. A consciousness of the intimate connexion of the
pig with the corn lurks in the legend that the swineherd Eubuleus
was a brother of Triptolemus, to whom Demeter first imparted the
secret of the corn. Indeed, according to one version of the story,
Eubuleus himself received, jointly with his brother Triptolemus, the
gift of the corn from Demeter as a reward for revealing to her the
fate of Persephone. Further, it is to be noted that at the
Thesmophoria the women appear to have eaten swine's flesh. The meal,
if I am right, must have been a solemn sacrament or communion, the
worshippers partaking of the body of the god.
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