Metin
Then Metaneira filled a cup with sweet wine and offered it to her; but she refused it, for she said it was not lawful for her to drink red wine, but bade them mix meal and water with soft mint and give her to drink.
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And Metaneira mixed the draught and gave it to the goddess as she bade. So the great queen Deo received it to observe the sacramentAn act of communion —the drinking of the potion (κυκεών) here described— was one of the most important pieces of ritual in the Eleusinian mysteries, as commemorating the sorrows of the goddess. And of them all, well-girded Metaneira first began to speak: “Hail, lady! For I think you are not meanly but nobly born; truly dignity and
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grace are conspicuous upon your eyes as in the eyes of kings that deal justice. Yet we mortals bear perforce what the gods send us, though we be grieved; for a yoke is set upon our necks. But now, since you are come here, you shall have what I can bestow: and nurse me this child whom the gods gave me in my old age and beyond my hope,
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a son much prayed for. If you should bring him up until he reach the full measure of youth, any one of woman-kind that sees you will straightway envy you, so great reward would I give for his upbringing.” Then rich-haired Demeter answered her:
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“And to you, also, lady, all hail, and may the gods give you good! Gladly will I take the boy to my breast, as you bid me, and will nurse him. Never, I ween, through any heedlessness of his nurse shall witchcraft hurt him nor yet the Undercutter:Undercutter and Woodcutter are probably popular names (after the style of Hesiod's “Boneless One”) for the worm thought to be the cause of teething and toothache. for I know a charm far stronger than the Woodcutter,
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