ABSTRACT
According to Attic tradition, Demeter’s gift of grain was spread through the world by a young Eleusinian called TRIPTOLEMOS, an interesting figure who probably originated as a local deity, but is first mentioned in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter as one of the Eleusinian princes who received instruction from Demeter in her rites and mysteries.161 Although many different accounts are offered of his birth, he is perhaps most frequently described as a son of the king who was reigning at Eleusis at the time of Demeter’s visit (whether that king is named as Keleos, Eleusis or Eleusinos), and he is sometimes identified with the nursling who was tended by Demeter. Or else he was a son of Okeanos, or of Raros, whose meadow outside Eleusis was the first site to have been sown or harvested, or of Dysaules, another local hero with agricultural connections.162 Vase-painters liked to show him as he might be pictured when setting off on his mission, seated in a two-wheeled chariot (which is apparently self-propelled and may be winged) with ears of corn in his hands. Or in literary accounts, he travels through the air in a chariot drawn by winged dragons as he sows the inhabited earth with grain and spreads knowledge of its cultivation. He was sent off on his mission by Demeter herself, who provided him with the necessary transport.163
