representative

Question

I don’t know what word is best to be used in such situations:
In a Homeric hymn, the goddess Demeter is named lady of glorious fruits; besides, it is she who renders nature barren by her sadness, and makes it fruitful by her joy.
Therefore I would say that Demeter stands for nature. Or she is the representative, or epitome of nature. Is it right?
Or I could mention other gods, goddesses who are the representatives(?) of the moon, or that of fertility, etc.
Or other mythical beings are the representatives(?) of months.
Or in a myth, there are two persons, one of them represents the world of spirits, the other terrestrial life. Are they the representatives/epitomes/representant of this and that?

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

KaaJeeIn a Homeric hymn, the goddess Demeter is named lady of glorious fruits; besides, it is she who renders nature barren by her sadness, and makes it fruitful by her joy.

Demeter causes the seasons.
Usually the gods and goddesses represented the forces or vagaries of nature, not nature itself.
People appealed to these forces, in an attempt to make nature do what was favorable to their enterprises.
They also consulted oracles, who supposedly could foretell what was going to happen in the future.

Enoon · Answer

We normally just say that they are the *** or goddess of whatever. Demeter is the goddess of nature. Selene is the goddess of the moon. Ares is the *** of war. If you want to go deeper into analysis of it all, you are free to use whatever words convey what you want to say about it.

The months are named after mythical beings after the fact, so they have little to do with the months. You might say that Janus is the eponym of January. January is named after Janus. Friday takes its name from Frigg.

You can say a *** represents something if you want, but he would have to. Venus is the goddess of love, but she only represents love when her image or the idea of her is used to represent it, like in a painting or poem, or when considering the psychology of myth, maybe.

KaaJee · Answer

Well, it's the form in which we know these gods. The *** or goddess of this or that. But I'm talking about original mythical forms, when Demeter IS nature itself, in some way, beside being a human being. And I am looking for the word through which this very thing can be clear. I don't know if the word representative is used in such a case, or I should use something else.

Enoon · Answer

Maybe Demeter is nature personified, the incarnation of nature or nature incarnate, the essence of nature, the embodiment of nature. To say that she is nature itself works, too. To say that she represents nature won't get you there, I don't think.

KaaJee · Answer

I think differently. See, I could have written many other name, too, in google special search, but now I typed only “Demeter represents.” See the results:
Demeter represents summer
Demeter represents the powerful bond between mother and daughter.
Demeter represents the grain and soil of the earth.
Demeter represents the world of the mothers
Demeter represents fertility, agriculture, and motherhood.
Demeter represents the cosmic cycle of birth, death and renewal.
Demeter represents the Earth.
Demeter represents what happens to the earth after it has been fertilized
Demeter represents grains, plants, etc.
Demeter represents the life-giving power of earth's soil.
Demeter represents birth
Demeter represents the body, Athena the mind,…
Demeter represents both hunger and abundance.
Demeter represents the fertile Earth and the ripened grain of harvest.
These sentences are written by various people, and though their viewpoints are different, all of them seem to use “Demeter represent” as I think. At least this usage doesn’t seem to be different, but I can be mistaken. But if I can’t, then my question was that how should I say this differently, in this structure of sentence: Demeter is the … of nature. But it may be that it doesn’t work, really. Than maybe is “Demeter stands for nature” correct?

Enoon · Answer

You asked me, I told you. You should use whatever word says what you are trying to convey. I thought "represent" was too weak for what you said you were doing, probing the origins of myth. Good luck. Myth is a meaty topic. Myths are the dreams of a culture.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Demeter is the spirit of nature, manifested in a human female form.

KaaJee · Answer

Hello! I hope I don’t disturb you but I still having been thinking about a right word. “Symbol” or “personification,” or similar words are far from what I would like to express because these about the work of mythographers. But myths was once believed, and those people couldn’t say that we symbolize or personificate this or that as Demeter or anybody else. But they may had been talk about somebody as the embodiment of this or that, I think. So it seems to me that “embodiment,” which was suggested by you, is the best possible one. Or maybe “incarnation,” as you’ve similarly suggested. However, I have some doubts even concerning the usage of “embodiment.” It is clear that we can say that somebody is the embodiment of kindness or that of wisdom or I could mention any concept. However, nature is (mostly) the entirety of living beings and other palpable things, or to be more understandable, let me say (not about Demeter but somebody else): “this goddess is the embodiment of vegetation/flora.” Plants are palpable. Or I could mention Mother Earth, who appears in different myths in a body of a woman, besides being Earth itself. In real life, one can’t have two different shapes at the same time, but it isn’t so in the world of myths. So when somebody, so to say, bears a second body, could he/she is the embodiment of this or that? Or maybe incarnation? Well, I don’t really know what is “incarnation,” not “reincarnation.” The mentioned case it would be fit into is not changing a shape for another one but, but having two ones at the same time.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

It is quite difficult to get into the heads of ancient Greeks and Romans to exactly capture their religious feelings.
Their gods and goddesses were worshiped in rituals, pilgrimages and worship services. Each deity had their powers and attributes and could influence the future, or explain natural phenomena. Poisidon, the *** of the sea, could calm the waves or raise a storm. He was not the embodiment of the sea, or the incarnation of the sea, or the representative of the sea, but he controlled the sea.

KaaJee · Answer

Sorry, you're really kind but it's a grammatical question. Maybe my point of view is incorrect. But I think I am allowed to express my point of view, if that is what I think. I don't want to talk about Greek religion. Nor about Romans or other nations. I, KaaJee, suppose that Poseidon, originally represented male procreative power. Everybody can't debate that it's correct, but nobody can debate that that is what I think. So I would like to know if I can say that I, KaaJee, suppose Posidion was originally the embodiment, incarnation, or something else of general procreative power.

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