Inktober 12: Iambe/Baubo.
And without laughing or tasting food or drink
she (Demeter) sat pining with longing for her deep-girded daughter
until Iambe, knowing her duties, with her jokes
and many jests induced the pure and mighty one
to smile and laugh and have a gracious temper.
At later times, too, Iambe was able to please her moods.
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, translated by Apostolos N. Athanassakis.
In the Orphic version of the story the woman is called Baubo, and she makes Demeter laugh by lifting her robe and exposing her genitals. Frivolity in the form of obscene gestures and jests are often part of the festivals of Demeter and Kore. The most widespread and popular one was the women’s festival known as the Thesmophoria. The Attic Thesmophoria was a three-day festival held a few weeks before the ploughing and sowing of the fields, and just like the Eleusinian Mysteries, the story of the abduction of Kore/Persephone was its mythic foundation.
“Women gathered in the sanctuaries, bringing supplies of food and setting up tents as temporary accommodations. As part of the proceedings, the women engaged in sex-talk (aischrologia) and ritual mockery. This seems to have been a mainstay of the goddesses’ segregated worship; its mythic explanation is that when Demeter was grieving for Kore, scurrilous jokes and gestures caused her to smile. The sex-talk was the verbal equivalent of the piglets, pine branches and phallic shapes handled by the participants; the women’s heightened awareness of their own sexuality and reproductive ability was powerful (therefore it could be deployed to aid the growth of crops) yet dangerous to male prerogatives (therefore its unfettered expression was limited to the festival context).”
Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide by Jennifer Larson.
(Iambe/Baubo’s pose is taken from this illustration by Charles Eisen.)
