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athens was sacred to athena, goddess of the olive, of handcrafts, and of wisdom, but Athenians were of course polytheistic, and for many generations they had also worshipped Demeter, the goddess whose power was manifest in abundant sheaves of wheat. The plains of Attica could provide only a limited supply of wheat, barley, and rye—certainly not enough to feed all the citizens and residents of the polis; over time Athens became dependent on imported grain to feed the population in the main city and the Piraeus. The Athenian navy ensured the empire’s continuing access to foreign markets by protecting merchant ships and trade routes. The devastation of the plague that hit Athens at the start of the Peloponnesian War only served to remind Athenians of the importance of a reliable and safe food supply. After 428, Athens needed the blessings of Demeter more than ever to maintain its empire. It was Demeter’s great power over the fertility of the land that connected her to the cultivation of crops. She was worshipped all over the Greek world, and indeed throughout much of the Mediterranean basin. Demeter had important cult centers in Attica, Asia Minor, and Sicily; later on, the Romans in Italy called her Ceres, the goddess of cereal crops. The worship of another agricultural god was likewise ancient and deeply rooted throughout the wider Greek world. Dionysus, too, held a position of power in ancient Hellenic societies. Greeks considered Dionysus the god of the grapevine and 1 0 0 four Demeter Civic Worship, Women’s Rites, and the Eleusinian Mysteries its cultivation, and therefore also the god of wine. With bread and wine at the very heart of the most rudimentary Mediterranean diet, Demeter and Dionysus were present in the daily lives of all Hellenic peoples in antiquity. Both Dionysus and Demeter occupied prominent places in the civic calendars and mythologies of Greek poleis. Many cities had their own particular story of how Demeter once visited and taught their ancestors to cultivate grain. In Attica Demeter was said to have given the gift of agriculture to all humankind when she once lived near Athens in the town of Eleusis; likewise Dionysus chose to give his unique gifts to Athenians in the longago mythological past. To commemorate these divine gifts Athenians celebrated Demeter festivals such as the Eleusinian Mysteries and the Thesmophoria in the late summer and fall, and Dionysian festivals such as the Lenaea, the Anthesteria, and the Dionysia in the winter and spring. These civic festivals with their sacrifices and feasts were publicly financed and widely attended by both citizens and other residents of Attica. The Thesmophoria was open only to citizen wives; other festivals attracted foreigners as well as citizens and residents. In ancient Athens, social activities not recognized today as religious were deeply connected to the gods and to the state: publicly funded worship of the gods provided the demos with opportunities for feasting and drinking, and these civic rites linked humans and the gods as collaborators in the Athenian polis. In fundamental ways the worship of Demeter and Dionysus was no different than the customs of war as it was waged in Greece. Warfare too involved the gods at every step, from battlefield sacrifices performed before fighting commenced to peace treaties as it ended. The gods were invoked when Persian invaded Attica in 490 and 480, and when an alliance was forged at Apollo’s sanctuary on Delos. Whenever any alliance or treaty was negotiated, spondai sealed the agreement: libations of wine dedicated to the gods were poured directly onto the ground. The terms of treaties required Olympian gods such as Zeus, Athena, or Apollo to witness their annual renewal at local festivals where prayers, civic sacrifices and communal feasting would follow the libations that soaked into the soil. While the earth and soil were not considered holy per se, traditional customs did link certain immortals to the earth and its powers that supported life and protected the dead. Public libations were made to Zeus, who oversaw oaths and protected the stranger who traveled far from his homeland; to Hades the Lord of the Dead, who lived under the earth with his queen; and to the ancient female deities Gaia and Demeter, whose influence extended over the fertility of the land. But not all offerings to these gods w o m e n a n d t h e e l e u s i n i a...

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