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Ancient Greek Coin of ATTICA City of Athens
Bronze 17mm (3.9 grams) Struck 1st
Century B.C.
Helmeted head of Athena right.
Triptolemus in serpent chariot left.
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Triptolemus (Greek:
Τριπτόλεμος, lit. "threefold warrior"; also known as 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
Dysaules may be substituted for Triptolemus as the primordial Eleusinian
recipient of the first gifts of the Mysteries.
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