In 1898, a group of German archaeologists working in the Demeter sanctuary at Priene unearthed a peculiar set of Hellenistic female figurines. The head of each of these figurines sits directly on her legs. Each figure also has long hair that drapes around her back resembling a lifted veil. These figures represent Baubo, sometimes referred to as Iambe. Homeric legends identify her as a daughter of Pan and Echo.
Terracotta Baubo figurine from Priene. (Public Domain)
Baubo in the Eleusinian Mysteries
The few lines in the 7th century BC Homeric Hymn to Demeter relating to Baubo provides the background story of the greatest mystery of the ancient world - the Eleusinian Mysteries. Celebrations of these mysteries began at Eleusis (bordering present-day Athens) in about 1450 BC and continued for some 2,000 years until the sanctuary was completely obliterated by the 5th century AD.
Unfortunately, Baubo’s history is somewhat obscured by strict prohibitions against revealing the ancient mysteries of Demeter, in which she plays an integral part. Due to this secrecy, what is known of her is revealed by theologians who railed against the ritual of the pagan religions. In time, these assumptions were somewhat amplified by more contemporary scholars to fill in the gaps that have been purposely left unfilled by the silence surrounding the Eleusinian mysteries.
Demeter was wandering the earth mourning the loss of her daughter, Kore, who had been violently abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld. Disguising herself as an old woman, Demeter took refuge in the city of Eleusis and was soon welcomed into the home of the king.
Copy of a votive relief found in Eleusis representing the Eleusinian deities in a scene of mysterious ritual, circa 440-430 BC (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Everyone in the king's household tried unsuccessfully to console the depressed old woman until Baubo appeared. Baubo made a number of humorous and risqué remarks causing Demeter to smile. Then, Baubo suddenly lifted her skirt in front of Demeter, who responded with a long and hearty belly laugh. Although different versions of this story provide different images of what Demeter saw under Baubo's skirt, whatever she saw lifted her out of her depression. With her spirits and confidence restored, Demeter then persuaded Zeus to command Hades to release her daughter.
Is Baubo’s Crown a Clue to Her Lost Origin?
The origin of Baubo goes back to very ancient times in the Mediterranean region, particularly western Syria. Her identity eventually became blended with those of earlier goddesses such as Atargatis from northern Syria and Cybele from Asia Minor. As it was very likely that Baubo originated as a goddess of vegetation, her later appearance as a servant in the myths of Demeter may have marked the transition to an agrarian culture where power shifted to Demeter, the Greek goddess of grains and the harvest.
This statue comes from the Nabatean temple at Khirbet Tannur. Atargatis, the ‘Syrian Goddess’ (Lucian, De Syria Dea) was a vegetation goddess, responsible for the fertility of the land ( CC BY-SA 2.0)
Baubo’s crown gives us an important clue to who she truly is. Baubo wears a very prominent headdress of oversized double acorns. If the crown announces the function of the wearer, as is the case with all other crowns worn by deities, then it can confidently be accepted that Baubo is an archaic idol of a pre-agricultural culture.
For thousands of years, before the knowledge of planting and harvesting introduced more plentiful variety of foods, acorns were a primary food source. Acorns continued to play a major role in the lives of the inhabitants of the early lake dwelling settlements in Central Europe, the northern Scandinavian countries, and the British Isles even long after the development of agriculture.
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In the Mediterranean region, acorns continued to be eaten as a fall-back in hard times by some, and as a delicacy by others. The tree itself had roots so deep that they were thought to pierce the earth all the way into the underworld. A dark and primordial connection was therefore established between the acorns that littered the forest floor and the earth-bound creatures who loitered there in the autumn, eating the fruits which fell to the ground.
The Goddess Ceres and the Symbols of Fertility by Abraham Janssens (–1632) (Public Domain)
Celeus (Keleos) is the name for the green woodpecker (Picus viridis). Ovid’s Fasti, book 4, tells us that the aged ruler: “carried home acorns and blackberries, knocked from bramble bushes, and dry wood to feed the blazing hearth.” It is in this version of the story that the woodpecker-king: “halted, despite the load he bore,” to greet the grieving old woman at the well.
The arboreal green woodpecker is best known as a weather prophet, and a rain-bird, because its loud cry is said to warn of impending rain. The Greek name Keleos literally means ‘to cry’, or ‘call’, sometimes with specific reference to one who calls out orders or commands, such as a god. Classicist Robert Graves described this aged king as a sorcerer. However, Celeus never become a god. His role became eclipsed by a powerful invading god of thunder and lightning, the patriarchal sky-god Zeus. Zeus also adopts Demeter’s sacred oak as his own tree, thus obliterating Demeter’s role as the goddess of the oak and queen of the ancient woodlands. However, Demeter’s earlier role is preserved in Ovid’s telling of the sacrilege of Erysichthon in his Metamorphoses, book 8:
“It is said he violated with an impious axe
the sacred grove of Ceres, and he cut
her trees with iron. Long-standing in her grove
there grew an ancient oak tree, spread so wide,
alone it seemed a standing forest; and
its trunk and branches held memorials,
as, fillets, tablets, garlands, witnessing
how many prayers the goddess Ceres granted.”
The sacrilege caused the most ancient oak in Ceres’s sacred grove to tremble and groan, turning its leaves and acorns white, and its long branches to lose their color. It also exemplifies the violent behavior which is typical of Zeus. Long before the Eleusinian story begins, Zeus had already raped Demeter, which resulted in none other than Kore, who later became the subject of Demeter’s sorrowful wanderings.
The Rape of Persephone / L’enlèvement de Proserpine by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) (Public Domain)
Zeus’ interference did not stop there. In the Homeric Hymn, he was the one who arranged for Kore to become the unwitting bride of her uncle Hades, the ruler of the underworld and for her to later become Persephone. This succession of incestuous relationships gives an indication to the rule of matrilineal descent, which required a marriage into the female line in order to secure the male god’s power. The marriage of Kore and Hades, therefore, marked the transfer of power from the matriarchy to the patriarchy led by Zeus. However, violently taking this power is a serious affront to the matriarchal status-quo. In the end, Demeter was not only a grieving mother to her daughter, she was also a traumatized great goddess - she had lost her daughter, her power and the world as she had known it, was changed forever.
Wearing a dark cloak, Demeter entered the home of King Celeus. The moment Demeter crossed the threshold, her light shone out of the darkness, illuminating all in her presence. Demeter remained wrapped in her silence until Baubo’s foolery made her smile. This interaction marks another transfer of power from the Acorn Mother (Baubo) to the Goddess of the Grain (Demeter). Unfortunately, it is also as at this very moment that wise Iambe becomes Demeter’s Fool.
Much has been written about the words and actions of Baubo. However, her all too brief appearance in these lines of the Homeric Hymn, does not reveal anything helpful about the content of her performance for the goddess. It is only known that it was effective. As the Homeric poet has named her Iambe, he describes her function as court jester and later as Demeter’s fool, or jester, in the Mysteries at Eleusis. She is, in fact, the first female fool in literature, and perhaps as old in oral tradition as the first court jester on record. She is older even than Danga (2325 - 2150 BC), the Egyptian fool of Pepi II, who could: “dance the God, divert the court and rejoice the heart of the King”.
Maiden, mother and crone: The Three Fates by Paul Thumann (19th century) (Public Domain)
Maiden, Mother and Crone
The mysteries of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis were originally exclusive to women. They were rites of passage that reflected upon the phases of the moon in the life of the woman as maiden, mother, and crone. The nine days of initiatory rites at Eleusis began in the last trimester of the month, presumably lasting until the new moon showed its crescent in the sky. From the moment of Kore’s disappearance (maiden), when Demeter began her mournful wanderings (mother) and arrived at Keleai as an old woman (crone), this has been a story about the disappearing and wandering moon.
Mosaic detail from the House of the Faun depicting a mask with fruits and acorns. (Public Domain)
As the initiates made their way from Athens to Eleusis, they arrived at a bridge where the procession halted for a rest. On the bridge, the procession was entertained by mockery and strange games called the gephyrismoi (bridge jests). Reports varied on who performed these entertainments. It may have been a woman, a hetaera (an ancient Greek courtesan or mistress) or it may have been a man, a gallus (castrated priest) masked and dressed as a woman. The performer, playing the role of Baubo, encouraged the initiates to join her in making lewd comments and gestures which included lifting their skirts to the assembled crowd. This gesture echoes the sacred gesture of the numerous goddesses of antiquity who revealed their mysteries only to the initiated, that is to quite literally draw back the veil to reveal a secret. This episode served to relieve the mourning of the mystai (the initiates).
Contrary to scholarly musings connecting Baubo’s unusual depiction, that is the juxtaposition of her mouth and belly, to her inferred sexually lewd behavior, Baubo’s appearance is more likely a reference to her rule over the food supply. Due to the sanctity of Demeter’s rites, there is no record of the actual remarks or gestures of this priestess who unveils herself. This leads to an all too easy misinterpretation of it as simple vulgarity in our modern society.
The fact that Christian influences seem to favor the interpretation of Baubo’s sexual behavior denigrates her sacred function by reducing her to a crippled old crone with a repertory of foul jokes and lewd gestures. This would have shifted the focus below her belly to produce translations of Baubo such as a pronouncement made in 1893 which says: “that which the woman exhibited to Demeter, that is, the female pudenda.” This pronouncement has become the prevailing mantra of modern scholars. In Protrepticus, Clement writes: “I will quote you the very lines of Orpheus, in order that you may have the originator of the mysteries as witness of their shamelessness”:
”… she drew aside her robes, and showed
A sight of shame; child Iacchos was there,
And laughing, plunged his hand below her breasts
Then smiled the Goddess, in her heart she smiled,
And drank the draught from out the glancing cup.”
Unfortunately, influential scholars have relied on the words of church fathers such as Clement of Alexandria (150 - 211 AD) and Arnobius (255 - 330 AD) for nearly 20 centuries. Thus is the sacred Fool of Demeter transformed in the written record, losing sight of her original status. The first fool, Baubo became the butt of many jokes. That is the fate of fools even thousands of years later.
Martini Fisher is a Mythographer and author of many books, including "Time Maps: Matriarchy and the Goddess Culture” | Check out MartiniFisher.com
Top Image: Fry in Eleusis, painting by Henryk Siemiradzki (1889). (Public Domain)
References
Boyd, T. 2004. I am Baubo, the acorn fool. Available at: http://www.sacredthreads.net/www.sacredthreads.net/iambe_baubo.html
Clement of Alexandria. Demeter and Baubo. Available at:
http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/nietzsche1313/files/2017/03/Demeter-and-Baubo.pdf
Ovid. Erysichthon And Mestra. Available at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D8%3Acard%3D728
Pearson, A. 1997. Reclaiming the Sheela-na-gigs: Goddess Imagery in Medieval Sculptures of lreland. Canadian Woman Studies.
Smith, W. 1848. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Spottiswoode and Co., London
Smythe, A. C. Baubo Greek Goddess of Mirth. Available at: http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/greek_goddess_baubo.htm
Tevebring, F. 2018. Baubo and the Question of the Obscene. Society for Classical Studies. Available at: https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/147/abstract/baubo-and-question-obscene
