Everything about Triptolemus totally explained
:
Buzyges redirects here. For the
genus of
grass skipper butterflies, see
Buzyges (butterfly).
Triptolemus ("threefold warrior"; also
Buzyges), in
Greek mythology always connected with
Demeter of the
Eleusinian Mysteries, might be accounted the son of King
Celeus of
Eleusis in
Attica, or, according to the Pseudo-Apollodorus (
Bibliotheca I.V.2), the son of
Gaia and
Okeanos—another way of saying he was "primordial man".
While
Demeter was searching for her daughter, having taken the form of an old woman called
Doso, she received a hospitable welcome from Celeus. He asked her to nurse
Demophon—"killer of men", a counterpart to Triptolemus— and Triptolemus, his sons by
Metanira. As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make Demophon immortal by burning away his mortal spirit in the family hearth every night. She was unable to complete the ritual because Metanira walked in on her one night. Instead, Demeter chose to teach Triptolemus the art of agriculture and, from him, the rest of Greece learned to plant and reap crops. He flew across the land on a winged chariot while Demeter and
Persephone cared for him, and helped him complete his mission of educating the whole of Greece in the art of agriculture.
When Triptolemus taught
Lyncus, King of the
Scythians, the arts of agriculture, Lyncus refused to teach it to his people and then tried to kill Triptolemus. Demeter turned him into a
lynx. Triptolemus was equally associated with the bestowal of hope for the afterlife associated with the expansion of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Kerenyi 1967 p 123).
In the archaic
Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Triptolemus was briefly mentioned as one of the original priests of Demeter, one of the first men to learn the secret rites and mysteries of
Eleusinian Mysteries:
Diocles,
Eumolpos,
Celeus and
Polyxeinus were the others mentioned of the first priests. The role of Triptolemus in the Eleusinian mysteries was exactly defined: "he had a cult of his own, apart from the Mysteries. One entered his temple on the way to the closed-off sacred precinct, before coming to the former
Hekataion, the temple of
Artemis outside the great Propylaia." (Kerenyi). In the 5th-century bas-relief in the National Museum, Athens, which probably came from his temple, the boy Triptolemus stands between the Two Goddesses Demeter and the
Kore, and receives from Demeter the ear of grain (of gold, now lost).
Porphyry (
On Abstinence IV.22) ascribes to Triptolemus three commandments for a simple, pious life: "Honor your parents", "Honor the gods with fruits"—for the Greeks, "fruits" would include the grain—and "Spare the animals" (Kerenyi, p128).
Triptolemus is also depicted as a young man with a branch or diadem placed in his hair, usually sitting on his winged chariot, adorned with
serpents. His attributes include a plate of grain, a pair of wheat or barley ears and a
scepter.
Celeus or the peasant may be substituted for Triptolemus as the primordial Eleusinian recipient of the first gifts of the Mysteries.
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