Keleos

Keleos ( Greek Κελεός ), also Celeus , was a mythical king of Eleusis , in whose house Demeter stopped in search of Persephone . He was the husband of Metaneira and father of Demophon and Triptolemos .

When Demeter was walking among the people in search of the daughter Persephone, who had been stolen by Hades, in the form of an old woman, she came to Eleusis and rested under an olive tree at the virgin fountain , where Kallidike , Kleisidike , Demo and Kallithoe , the four daughters of Keleos, encountered. They ask the supposed old woman where she comes from and why she is so far from home. Demeter replied that her name was Doso, she came from Crete and had been robbed by pirates, who eventually escaped.

Thereupon the daughters of Keleos invited Demeter to their father's house, where she was warmly received by Metaneira. But the goddess was silent and full of sadness, didn't want to eat or drink anything until the servant Iambe made her smile with loose jokes. She refused the offered wine, but instead asked for Kykeon as a drink. The goddess then took care of the newborn Demophon. She anointed the boy with ambrosia , which made him thrive and looked more like a god than a man, but when she held him in the fire one night to make him so immortal, she was surprised by Metaneira, who uttered a great shout, because she said a crazy old nurse was going to burn her son.

As a result, the goddess was very angry and tore the boy out of the fire, causing him to die. Then she showed herself in her true form and demanded that a temple be built for her in Eleusis, which was done.

When Demeter finally founded the Mysteries of Eleusis , Keleos became the first of the high priests.

In the Homeric hymn, Triptolemus is not a son of Keleos, but one of the princes of Eleusis. According to Pamphos , the names of the daughters are said to be Diogeneia , Pammerope and Saisara . Pausanias claims that Homer agrees with Pamphos on this.

swell

• Homeric Hymn 2 To Demeter 99-305
• Libraries of Apollodor 1.5.1-2, 3.14.7
• Pausania's description of Greece 1.39.1

literature

• Fritz Graf : Keleos. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 , Sp. 384.
• Otto Kern : Keleos 1). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XI, 1, Stuttgart 1921, Col. 138-142.
• NJ Richardson: The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. 1974, pp. 177-179
• Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Keleos 1) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, Col. 1026-1028 ( digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 1.38.3