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TRIPTOLEMUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 292 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TRIPTOLEMUS , in See also:

Greek See also:mythology, the inventor of See also:agriculture, first See also:priest of See also:Demeter, and founder of the Eleusinian mysteries. His name is probably connected with the " triple ploughing " (rpis, 1roXeiv), recommended in See also:Hesiod's See also:Works and Days and celebrated at an See also:annual festival. It may be noted that in some traditions he is called the son of Dysaules (possibly identical with See also:diaulos, the " See also:double furrow " traced by the ox), and that, according to the Latin poets (e.g. See also:Virgil, Georgics, i. 19), he is the inventor of the plough.' Later, as the See also:god of ploughing, he is confounded with See also:Osiris, and on a See also:vase-See also:painting at St See also:Petersburg he is represented leaving See also:Egypt in his See also:dragon-See also:drawn See also:chariot on his See also:journey See also:round the See also:world. According to the best known See also:Attic See also:legend (See also:Apollodorus, i. 5, 2) Triptolemus was the son of Celeus, See also:king of See also:Eleusis, and Metaneira. Demeter, during her See also:search for her daughter Persephone, arrived at Eleusis in the See also:form of an old woman. Here she was hospitably received by Celeus, and out of gratitude would have made his son Demophon immortal by See also:anointing him with See also:ambrosia and destroying his mortal parts by See also:fire; but Metaneira, happening to see what was going on, screamed out and disturbed the goddess. Demophon was burnt to See also:death, and Demeter, to See also:console his parents, took upon herself the care of Triptolemus, instructed him in everything connected with agriculture, and presented him with a wonderful chariot, in which he travelled all over the world, spreading the knowledge of the See also:precious See also:art and the blessings of See also:civilization. In another See also:account (See also:Hyginus, Fab. 147) Triptolemus is the son of Eleusinus, and takes the See also:place of Demophon in the above narrative.

Celeus endeavoured to kill him on his return, but Demeter intervened and forced him to surrender his See also:

country to Triptolemus, who named it Eleusis after his See also:father and instituted the festival of Demeter called Thesmophoria. In the Homeric hymn to Demeter, Triptolemus. is simply one of the nobles of Eleusis, who was instructed by the goddess in her See also:rites and ceremonies. The Attic legend of Eleusis also represented him as one of the See also:judges of the under-world. His adventures on his world-wide See also:mission formed the subject of a See also:play of the same name by Sopliocles. In works of art Triptolemus appears mounted on a chariot (winged or drawn by dragons, symbols of the fruitfulness of the See also:earth), with Demeter and Persephone handing him the implements of agriculture. His attributes were a See also:sceptre of ears of See also:corn, sometimes a drinking-See also:cup, which is being filled by Demeter. His See also:altar and threshing-See also:floor were shown on the Rarian See also:plain near Eleusis; hence he is sometimes called the son of Rarus. See the Homeric hymn to Demeter, 153, 474; See also:Ovid, Melam. v. 642—661; Virgil, Georgics. i. 19, and Servius ad loc. ; Hyginus, Astronom. ii. 14; See also:Dion Halic. i.

12; See also:

Preller, Griechische Mythologie (4th ed., 1894).

End of Article: TRIPTOLEMUS

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