Abstract
At the Thesmophoria women drew up from chasms the rotten remains of pigs, which, when mixed with seed, were supposed to ensure a good crop. Greeks said this honored the swineherd Eubuleus, swallowed up when Pluto abducted Persephone, but modern scholars seek a better explanation. I offer two: first the pigs symbolize Demeter's genitals. Second, in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, when a man dies, his tribesmen invite women to eat the dead man's flesh along with pork. Demeter herself once ate human flesh, which is metaphorically a kind of pork. I suggest, therefore, that the story about Pelops is a charter-myth for the Thesmophoria pigs.
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