Triptolemus

• 1. Introduction

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  Triptolemus, a hero of Eleusis in Greek mythology, stands as a boy between two goddesses in a 5th-century relief now in the National Museum in Athens. The goddesses are Demeter and her daughter, the Kore. Demeter is handing him a golden ear of grain. The grain itself has been lost, and the relief probably came from his own temple. Why would a goddess give a boy a single ear of wheat? What did the kings who met him make of that gift, and why did some of them try to kill him? Why do ancient writers disagree so sharply about who his parents were? Greeks also called him Buzyges, and he was honored as the inventor and patron of farming.

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• 2. Fire and Milk

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  A woman calling herself Doso arrived at the court of Celeus, King of Eleusis, in the guise of an old woman. She was really Demeter, searching for her daughter Persephone, who had been abducted by Hades. Celeus welcomed the stranger kindly and asked her to nurse two sons born to his wife Metanira. One was Demophon, whose name means "killer of men." The other was Triptolemus. Finding Triptolemus sick, Demeter fed him from her own breast and laid him under hot coals. He recovered and grew instantly into a man. Her gift to Celeus was meant to be larger. She secretly planned to make Demophon immortal by burning away his mortal flesh in the hearth. Demophon grew a little each day, but she was caught burying the infant in the fire, and the ritual was never finished. To make amends, Demeter gave Triptolemus wheat and a chariot drawn by winged dragons or serpents. She taught him farming, her rites and her mysteries. Once Persephone was restored to her mother, both goddesses helped him with his mission. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter tells it differently. There, Triptolemus is a just king of Eleusis, and Demophon is the couple's only son. Demeter anoints that child with ambrosia, the food of the gods, and breathes on him as she holds him close. At night she sets him in the flames, and again she is foiled. Triptolemus, now carrying the gift of grain, was about to leave the hearth of Eleusis and cross the known world.

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• 3. The Flying Plough

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  Xenophon and Pausanias could not agree where the first seed was sown. Xenophon named the Peloponnesus. Pausanias pointed instead to the Rharium plain, close to Eleusis. Both agreed that Triptolemus was the first to sow for cultivation, and that he also introduced oxen and the plough. In the myths of his travels, he flew across the land in his chariot, wafting wheat through the air so the inhabited earth could be planted and reaped. In Scythia, he scattered seed for King Lyncus and the Scythians. Lyncus grew envious and planned to murder his guest in his sleep, hoping to take the praise for the harvest. Demeter stopped him by turning him into a lynx, then sent Triptolemus back into the sky in her chariot. Among the Getae, King Charnabon, also spelled Carnabon, went further. He seized the visitor and had one of the chariot dragons killed to keep him from escaping. Demeter returned the chariot and supplied a replacement dragon. At Patrae, near the rivers Peirus and Glaucus, Triptolemus found Eumelus, a king said to be native to the land with few subjects. Triptolemus gave him cultivated corn and showed him how to found a city. Eumelus named it Aroe, after the tilling of fertile ground. Eumelus's son Antheias then tried to sow seed himself by taking the dragon chariot while Triptolemus slept. He fell from it and died. The two kings founded a second city nearby and named it Antheia in his memory. One more pupil is named. Arcas, son of Callisto, ruled Pelasgia, later called Arcadia, after the death of Nyctimus. Triptolemus taught the Pelasgians, later known as the Arcadians, to cultivate crops.

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• 4. Priest and Patron

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  The Homeric Hymn to Demeter lists four early priests of the goddess: Diocles, driver of horses, the mighty Eumolpos, Celeus, leader of peoples, and Polyxeinus. Triptolemus is mentioned only briefly as another of the first men to learn her secret rites. These rites were the Eleusinian Mysteries, yearly initiations for the cult of Demeter and Persephone at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Eleusis. They are called the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece." Xenophon gives Triptolemus a different role. He says Triptolemus first shared the rites of the two goddesses with Heracles, the traditional ancestor of the Spartan kings, and with the Dioscuri, the twin deities Castor and Pollux. Other accounts substitute Celeus or a peasant named Dysaules as the first recipient of the Mysteries. Apart from the Mysteries, Triptolemus seems to have had a cult of his own, with temples in Athens and Eleusis. Worshippers raised temples and altars because he gave them food through cultivation and showed them how to live well, not merely how to live. Artists drew him as a young man with a branch or diadem in his hair, usually seated in his chariot, which was adorned with serpents. His attributes were a plate of grain, ears of wheat or barley, and a scepter. He was also credited with three commandments for a simple and pious life: "Honor your parents," "Honor the gods with fruits," and "Spare the animals." For the Greeks, fruits included grains. The same figure who taught the living to farm would later be given authority over the dead.

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• 5. Judge of the Dead

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  In a passage naming the judges of the afterlife, Socrates places Triptolemus beside three sons of Zeus: Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus. Each judge had a different duty. Aeacus was the doorkeeper and judged the dead of Europe. Rhadamanthus was lord of Elysium and judged the dead of Asia. Minos was the tiebreaker whenever the others could not decide. Triptolemus ruled over the dead who had been initiated into the mysteries. This fits another strand of his story. As the Eleusinian Mysteries expanded, he was linked with a hope for the afterlife. Those who had learned the secret rites of Demeter and Persephone in life were the ones he presided over after death. Who his own family was, though, remained far less certain.

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• 6. Many Fathers, Many Mothers

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  Pseudo-Apollodorus records that Panyasis thought Triptolemus was the son of Eleusis himself, while Pherecydes made him a child of Ocean and Earth. The most familiar version is the one told at the hearth, where he is the eldest son of the mortal King Celeus and Metanira. A comparative table in the source lists many more combinations. Dysaules appears as a father, and so do Eleusis with Hyona, Eleusis with Cothonea, and Eleusis with Cyntinea. Celeus is paired once with Polymnia, and another pairing names Trochilus and an Eleusinian woman. His siblings change with the source too. Eubuleus is listed, along with Diogeneia, Pammerope and Saesara. Cercyon appears as a half-brother. Whatever his parents were, Triptolemus was said to be the ancestor of a royal priestly caste of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Its members called themselves Buzygae, a name that echoes his own second name, Buzyges. They taught agriculture and performed secret rites. Their most famous descendant was Pericles.

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