Triptolemus was the mortal son of Celeus and Metanira. He became the god of farming, the immortal lieutenant to Demeter. He was equally associated with the bestowal of hope for the afterlife and with the expansion of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
History[]
While Demeter (in the guise of an old woman named Doso) was searching for her daughter Persephone, who had been abducted by Hades, she received a hospitable welcome from Celeus. He asked her to nurse Demophon and Triptolemus, his sons by Metanira. As a gift to Celeus, in gratitude for his hospitality, Demeter secretly 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 his serpent-pulled chariot while Demeter and Persephone, once restored to her mother, 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 Scythia, 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 one of the original priests of Demeter, one of the first men to learn the secret rites and mysteries of Eleusian 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."
Appearance[]
Triptolemus was depicted as a young man with a branch or diadem placed in his hair, usually sitting on his winged chariot, adorned with serpents.