The goddess Ceres is in the cereals we eat. Lady of the harvest, Ceres is in Latin mythology the transposition of the Greek goddess Demeter.

Grain is the primordial food that marks the transition in human history from the nomadic condition associated with hunting and farming to a more settled state.

The start of cereal cultivation teaches a new way of life, an attitude, a different and complementary way of thinking compared to the one prevailing until then.

In order to bear fruit, the grain requires a series of steps that require time and care: staying in a place to allow what has been sown to grow and nourish it.

The soil, in fact, must first be tilled and made fit to receive the seed in its womb.

Then you have to be willing to wait for a time where apparently nothing happens: what has been laid in the ground seems to be in a state of apparent lethargy.

Silently, however, something is happening down there.

Something that the eyes cannot see: an intimate working, a secret staying that cannot yet be revealed.

After a period of waiting, tender sprouts emerge from the earth, a sign of life and hope.

As they grow, the tiny seeds turn into stems and ears of corn. These ears, kissed by the summer sun, turned blonde until they reach such an intense colour that they are fully ripe.

The moment of harvest has therefore arrived: what had been buried months before – as if apparently dead – must now really die to become food for other creatures.

The life-death-life cycle of cereals has strong analogies with the Greek myth behind it: the story of the harvest goddess Demeter and her bond with her daughter Kore. A myth that develops reflections on the experience of a time spent underground – in the realm of Hades – of a return to life as a way out of the Underworld, of a daughter’s reunion with her mother. The ears of corn swaying in the wind are the dance that the two goddesses weave to celebrate the transformative mystery of existence.

The myth goes on to narrate that Demeter taught the art of agriculture to Triptolemus, son of the king of Eleusis, as a sign of gratitude to the man who had offered her hospitality while she was desperately searching for Kore. With a winged chariot, given to him by the goddess, Triptolemus spreads a new knowledge of food made up of Gratitude, Expectation, and Care in the world: the sowing of cereals.

Could it be because of this symbolic abundance… that cereals – and the many foods derived from them – attract us so much and warm our hearts?

Dr Debora Molli, psychotherapist