Demeter and Persephone

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a dream-fact vision of a truth'

DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE:

A Mystery Play

"Myth is a true story because it is a sacred story, not only by virtue of its content but also by the concrete sacral forces which it sets to work."

R. PETTAZZONI

Sri Aurobindo:.

Alone, she harbours the Absolute Power and the ineffable Presence;... calling the Truths that have to be manifested she brings them down from the Mystery in which they were hidden into the light of her infinite consciousness and gives them a form... and a body in the universe.

...all is her manifestation of the mysteries of the Eternal, the miracles of the Infinite;

The aspiration of the psychic being... translates the demand... for the opening of the whole lower nature... to the Divine, for the love and union with the Divine, for its presence and power within the heart, for the transformation of the mind, life, body by the descent of the higher consciousness into the instrumental being and nature. * From Sri Aurobindo's Savitri.

A MYSTERY PLAY

Foreword

The Greek myth of "Demeter and Persephone" is one of the most ancient and venerated ones, the well-known Mysteries of Eleusis having been connected with it. These Mysteries, however, were so strictly guarded, complete silence being enjoined on penalty of death, that we know practically nothing about them. Most of the great men of Greece and later many Romans like Cicero, were initiates, and some of them have spoken about the inner peace and realisation they experienced when participating in the rituals of these mysteries. We have stray remarks about them, like Cicero's "Nothing is higher than these mysteries"; another speaks of them as "mysteries which no man may utter, for deep awe checks the tongue. Blessed is he who has seen them." But no one has described the innermost secrets. And, indeed, "the mysteries of the Eternal" are only for the initiate.

The myth, however, is simply told. It is, of course, older than Homer and Hesiod and has been recounted by them: Persephone, daughter of Demeter and Zeus, is carried off by Pluto, God of the Underworld, with Zeus' consent, when she goes to pluck the narcissus-flower, grown specially for the occasion by Gaia, the Earth-Goddess, at Zeus' behest. Pluto makes her his queen and keeps her as his prisoner. Demeter, in deep sorrow searches for her everywhere and, roaming over the earth in her grief, she arrives at Eleusis. Here, the three daughters of Keleos take her to their home where she heals their little brother and is engaged by Metaneira, their mother, to tend him. Wishing to make the child immortal, she rubs him with ambrosia every night and puts him in the fire, and he grows "like unto a god". The mother, suspicious and uneasy, spies on Demeter and destroys her work. Demeter reveals her godhead and leaves the place. The common story tells of how she goes to ask Zeus to send for Persephone, compelling him to do so by stopping all growth of corn and fruit on earth. Zeus sends Hermes to fetch Persephone and Pluto has to release her, but he has given her seven pomegranate seeds to eat, to assure her return to his realm. There is an Orphic Hymn, however, which speaks of Demeter's descent into Hades. I have not been able to find it or know its substance, but have used the idea, for it holds more real meaning than the other superficial ending of the story.

This myth, like all great myths, is archetypal. A modern writer on Mythology says: "Myth is a true story because it is a sacred story, not only by virtue of its content but because of the concrete sacral forces which it sets to work." Another scholar points out that the true myth is inseparably connected with the cult (the "Mysteries"), that "the past is also now, what was is also a living event," and that in "its twofold unity of then and now it fulfils its true essence." The cult re-enacts "the archetypal event, situated in the past but in essence eternal." "The moment when this myth is realised is the festival of the gods... The gods are at hand, supreme realities of the here and now..." The myth of Demeter and Persephone speaks of the separation of the soul from its Divine Mother-Consciousness and its descent into Matter, (the Greek "hyle"), into Hades. Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, called also "the Nether Zeus", is the entire material Nature which imprisons the soul until the Divine Consciousness descends and redeems it, and all Nature with it. The ancients certainly knew these deeper significances. Plotinus, for instance, says, "the soul descends so that the Divine Principle may follow and shine in the dark world of matter and redeem it." Persephone and her Mother are described as in essence for ever one and inseparable. Persephone plucks the narcissus-flower, the symbol of self-love, the attraction to one's "reflection" in water (matter), and of narcotic influences, and so she descends into the world of matter, "the unlit ocean". Pluto is described as "the Ruler of the Many" indicating the whole of Nature in which "the One devised innumerably to be." He is also called "Zeus of the Underworld." Demeter, the Divine Consciousness has to come into the mortal world to redeem the soul and change all material Nature. The ancient seers seem to have had a sufficiently clear intuition of these fundamental primal truths which are true for all time, for they are eternal. The "Mysteries" are both mysterious and revelatory.

Sri Aurobindo's vision and the knowledge given to us by him and the Mother stand behind the substance of this play, and those who know their works well may find several echoes from them here. It is but natural, isn't it? They are not plagiarisms or imitations; some of these echoes are conscious and deliberate (for what better can we do?), others may have floated in semi-consciously or unconsciously. In The Future Poetry Sri Aurobindo visualises the drama using poetry as its form of expression in future (all his own dramas are poetic plays), and so the traditional dramatic blank verse is used here.