10.07.2010

The RUNWAY ~ Demetra


When I saw the show of Alexander McQueen SS 2011 yesterday, first thing came to my mind was the myth of Demetra. 
Demetra was the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, the seasons (personified by the Hours), and the harvest. One of her surnames is Sito (σίτος: wheat) as the giver of food or corn. Though Demetra is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sanctity of marriage, the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the Olympian pantheon. Her Roman cognate is Cerere.



A.Watteau, Cerere, 1717, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington
Raffaello Sanzio, Venere a colloquio con Cerere e Giunone, 1517, affresco, volta, Loggia di Psiche, Villa Farnesina, Roma

Johann Carl Loth, Venere, Bacco e Cerere (Sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus)
 


Image source: vogue

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