Isis And Demeter Research Paper

Isis and Demeter: Transcending Expanding Civilization The Hellenistic Mystery cults developed as the Greek world of the late antiquities became interconnected, first by Alexander’s empire and later by the Roman empire. People began to search for their own identities in a world that was becoming less personalized as they struggled to comprehend the vastness of the world. The Hellenistic Mystery cults offered people an individualized religion because of their secret rites. Though these ancient rituals, people connected with mystery cult, giving them a place within the cosmic world, and transcending the seemingly purposeless natures of their lives. Two great goddesses, Demeter and Isis, facilitated this transcendence from “traditional piety… into his full humanity” (Martin, 58). These two goddesses were extremely interconnected, and both of them provided a means for humans to understand their place in the cosmic order. Despite, their many similarities, these two goddesses, these Goddesses accomplished their universal appeal in response to imperial power and the seeming randomness of life in slightly different ways. While Demeter was a localized, agrarian, goddess who appealed to the Greek Homelessness by

Now, in comparison to Isis who transcended a specific locale, the mysteries of Eleusis could be seen as bounded its containment in Eleusis. However, this understanding does not give a comprehensive view of the way Demeter connected Athenians with the new world order. As Athens struggled to feed its growing urban population, it annexed Eleusis from which it imported grain. The Homeric Hym of Eleusis, which depicts the myth of Demeter as well certain rites, is thought to be an Eleusian discourse. Thus, the myth symbolically connects the rural center of Eleusis with the economic and political center of