In the Eleusinian mysteries these thoughts seem to have played a rôle. Besides Demeter and Persephone, Iakchos is a chief god of the Eleusinian cult; he was the "puer æternus," the eternal boy, of whom Ovid says the following:
"Tu puer æternus, tu formosissimus alto
Conspiceris cœlo tibi, cum sine cornibus astas,
Virgineum caput est," etc.[1]
In the great Eleusinian festival procession the image of Iakchos was carried. It is not easy to say which god is Iakchos, possibly a boy, or a new-born son, similar to the Etrurian Tages, who bears the surname "the freshly ploughed boy," because, according to the myth, he arose from the furrow of the field behind the peasant, who was ploughing. This idea shows unmistakably the Mondamin motive. The plough is of well-known phallic meaning; the furrow of the field is personified by the Hindoos as woman. The psychology of this idea is that of a coitus, referred back to the presexual stage (stage of nutrition). The son is the edible fruit of the field. Iakchos passes, in part, as son of Demeter or of Persephone, also appropriately as consort of Demeter. (Hero as procreator of himself.) He is also called [Greek: tê~s Dê/mêtros dai/môn] ([Greek: Dai/môn] equals libido, also Mother libido.) He was identified with Dionysus, especially with the Thracian Dionysus-Zagreus, of whom a typical fate of rebirth was related. Hera had goaded the Titans against Zagreus,
- ↑ Thou boy eternal, thou most beautiful one seen in the heavens, without
horns standing, with thy virgin head, etc.
