There are several misconceptions about Demeter. Today, I’m going to be discussing the most common one. Demeter is thought by many to just being a goddess of growing things, specifically agricultural activity.  This diminishes her role in the governance of the Cosmos — similarly to the way that misconceptions about Hera and Hestia diminish their roles. Although I personally feel that this is because many modern people do not understand the importance of those roles in the ancient world.

While Haides, Poseidon, and Zeus rule over the various regions of the Cosmos with the land split between them, the Goddesses Hestia, Demeter, and Hera are the ones that rule over humanity more directly as they govern human endeavors. Demeter, along with her sisters, are the supports that raise humanity from the ranks shared by most of the other animal and allow us to be civilized.

Demeter’s role is one of sustaining humanity so that the home and the polis can be strong. She is also the only one of the three who has her own Mysteries according to the records that have survived since ancient times.