Postscript to Halloween: 

The Return of the Child

In Greek myth Kore the maid (aka the Virgin; Persephone; Inanna;) journeys to the Netherworld. It is an allegorical representation of the sowing of the cereals; corn and barley. In the earlier myth from Mesopotamia from where it originates, Sumerian Kore is made to stay in the underworld as surety, so her brother Dumuzi is released to fertilise the Earth. Dumuzi (later Thracian Dionysos; Egytian Osiris;) represents the virility of Nature, and particularly the Corn(wheat) plant. The return of Kore to the netherworld brings the release of Dumuzi/Dionysos. Meaning that the sowing of the grain results in the sprouting of the corn/wheat or barley.

In myth, the return of Dionysos is represented by the young Dionysos as a child emerging from underground with his mother Semele (see Wiki: Thracian Zemele, "mother earth").

In metaphor Kore is the grain seed, represented as 'ears of corn' in a winnowing basket. The return of Dionysos is represented as a Child in same winnowing basket. Dionysos the Child represents the sprouted grain. The child represents the renewed virility of nature. Time: late November to early December.

Jane Ellen Harrison says "In discussing the worship of Dionysos Liknites at Delphi, ---- we have seen the liknon( a winnowing basket) in use as a cradle for the infant god. It will further be noted that Dionysos Liknites is, like the infant Ploutos in the cornucopia, only an anthropomorphic presentation of the new-born fruits of the earth, of the fruits whether of spring or autumn; he is a male form of Kore the earth-daughter. The ceremony of 'waking' him was primarily but a mimetic summons to the earth to bring forth her fruits in due season."


 

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