The Ideal Ancient Greek Mother: Nurturing and Ruthless
Everyone has a list of characteristics in mind of what makes an ideal mother. According to archetypal theory, a ‘good’ mother is nurturing and caring (Jung, 81–85). The archetypal mother, however, also has “her Stygian depths” — there is a dark part of her personality (Jung, 82). The dark part of the mother’s personality is ideally used to protect her child. Jungian archetype theory shows that the Homeric Hymn to Demeter reveals the ideal mother as the ancient Greeks understood it: caring, nurturing and able to be deadly to protect her child.
Demeter is caring and nurturing, traits necessary for an ideal mother. She grieves the loss of her daughter Persephone. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter describes the goddess’s grief, “Sharp grief seized her heart, and she tore the veil on her ambrosial hair with her own hands. She cast a dark cloak on her shoulders and sped like a bird over dry land and sea, searching” (Lines 40–44). “A more terrible and brutal grief seized the heart of Demeter, angry now at the son of Kronos with his dark clouds” (Lines 90–91). Despite losing her daughter, Demeter has the ability to and does nurse the infant, Demophoon. She proclaims, “‘I could nurse well a newborn child, embracing it in my arms…’” and “‘[g]ladly I will embrace the child as you bid me. I will raise him, nor do I expect a spell or the Undercutter to harm him through the negligence of his nurse’” (Hymn to Demeter, Lines 142–143, Lines 227–229). Demeter’s nurturing ways are quite beneficial for the infant. “Thus the splendid son of skillful Keleos, Demophoon… she nursed in the great halls. And he grew like a divinity… Demeter anointed him with ambrosia like one born from a god and breathed sweetly on him, held close to her breast” (Hymn to Demeter, Lines 234–240). The ideal mother, however, is not only a kind, loving creature; she also has a merciless nature.
Demeter has the ability to turn deadly and ruthless when it comes to helping her child, a necessary evil for a mother. When Demeter discovers that Zeus is responsible for Persephone’s kidnapping, she makes the earth barren. “For mortals she ordained a terrible and brutal year on the deeply fertile earth. The ground released no seed, for bright-crowned Demeter kept it buried” (Hymn to Demeter, Lines 307–309). The lack of crops hurts the humans which in turn hurts Zeus, as his worshipers are no longer able to worship him. “She would have destroyed the whole mortal race by cruel famine and stolen the glorious honor of gifts and sacrifices from those having homes on Olympus…” (Lines 312–314). Hermes warns that “‘[Demeter] is devising a great scheme to destroy the helpless race of mortals… burying the seed beneath the ground and obliterating divine honors’” (Hymn to Demeter, Lines 354–357). Demeter does not relent until her daughter is returned to her. “[Zeus] agreed his daughter would spend one-third of the revolving year in the misty dark and two-thirds with her mother and the other immortals” (Hymn to Demeter, Lines 447–449). Upon Zeus’s promise, Demeter “sent forth fruit from the fertile fields” (Hymn to Demeter, Line 473). Demeter’s dark side or “shadow,” to use the Jungian term, is an undeniable but unconscious part of every person. “[T]he mind contains a sinister force that Jung called the shadow, a composite of unacknowledged negative elements — unconscious fear, hatred, envy, unsatisfied desire — within the human personality” (Harris and Platzner, 49–50). Demeter, as the ideal mother, uses her “shadow self” to help her daughter and be reunited with Persephone. According to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the model mother is nurturing and lethal, but she is only deadly when it comes to protecting the well-being of her child.
Jungian archetype theory shows that the Homeric Hymn to Demeter reveals the ancient Greek understanding of the ideal mother. Jung would say that Demeter is the epitome of an archetypal mother, just like Mary in The Bible. “[P]aintings of Mary holding the infant Jesus convey an archetypal image of the mother figure, an ideal model of tenderness” (Harris and Platzner, 47). Many of the characteristics of the ideal Greek mother, being nurturing and caring but also deadly if one’s children are threatened, are exactly what people today believe to be traits of an ideal mother. “A fundamental aspect of human existence, the imprint of a maternal image undoubtedly characterized the human psyche even in prehistory” (Harris and Platzner, 47). Today, ancient Greek beliefs persist and are a part of everyday life.
Bibliography
Harris, Stephen L. and Gloria Platzner. Classical Mythology: Images and Insights, 6th ed., (New York: McGraw Hill, 2011.)
Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Translated by Helene Foley. In Classical Mythology: Images and Insights, 6th ed., by Stephen L. Harris and Gloria Platzner. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2011.) pp. 156–167.
Jung, Carl. “II. Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype.” The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 2nd ed., edited by Herbert Read, M. R. C. P., Fordham, Michael, M. D., and Gerhard Adler, translated by R. F. C. Hull. (England: Routledge & Kegan Paul LTD. 1968.) pp. 73–100.
