Demeter (Ceres) is the goddess of the harvest, the grain, and the fertility of the earth [S1][S4][S5]. One of the first-born children of Cronus and Rhea (swallowed and later disgorged by Zeus), she is the mother of Persephone [S4][S5]. Her defining myth is the abduction of Persephone by Hades: in her grief, Demeter withdrew the fertility of the earth, and the world went cold and barren until a compromise was reached — Persephone would spend part of the year with her mother (spring/summer) and part in the underworld (autumn/winter), giving rise to the cycle of the seasons [S4][S5]. Her great sanctuary was at Eleusis, where the Eleusinian Mysteries (a secret initiation cult) were held in her and Persephone's honor [S6].