The “Plantheon” of Greek Mythology
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Abstract
“The ‘Plantheon’ of Greek Mythology” examines how—before the emergence of competing scientific paradigms—agricultural paradigms were subsumed into myth and integrated into religious worldviews that associated plants and agricultural abundance with women and goddesses. Hesiod’s Theogony provides valuable insights into Greek ideas about gender that influenced how plants were understood. Philosophers initiated a transition from myth-based to logic-based belief systems, but their proto-scientific views must be viewed against the backdrop of Greek mythology and religion. Women played important roles in religious festivals and rituals, the most enduring of which, the Eleusinian Mysteries, lasted until the end of the Roman Empire. The Eleusinian Mysteries and the Thesmophoria took as their basic text the Homeric “Hymn to Demeter” which recounts the story of Demeter, goddess of grain and the harvest, and her daughter Kore/Persephone. Myths concerning Aphrodite, Artemis, Chloris, Cybele, Adonis, Daphne, Dionysus and others, including the goddess Hermaphrodite, are discussed.