Demeter is the daughter of the Titans Kronos and Rhea. She, along with her siblings Hera, Hades and Poseidon, was swallowed by Kronos in an attempt to keep one of his children from unseating him from his throne. Her brother Zeus, who escaped being swallowed, led the revolt that overthrew Kronos and placed him in charge of the gods.http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Greekhistory&gods.htm

Demeter is the goddess of grain and the harvest and is associated with both bountiful harvests and famine. She is linked with the cycles of the seasons and is said to mourn the time that her daughter Persephone must spend in the underworld, causing winter to occur.http://www.math.utk.edu/~vasili/va/GREECE/Greek_myth/lessorgod.html#Demeter She is associated with festivals held every five years in Ancient Greece called Eleusinian Mysteries, and the first loaf of bread of the harvest was sacrificed to her as well.http://www.math.utk.edu/~vasili/va/GREECE/Greek_myth/lessorgod.html#Demeter

The most common myth that Demeter plays a part in is the kidnapping of her daughter Persephone by Hades and the resulting creation of the seasons. Hades wanted to marry Persephone and so abducted her by springing forth from an opening in the ground on his chariot and carrying her into the underworld. She did not want to stay, but Hades tricked her into eating a seed from a pomegranate. Anyone who ate food in the underworld had to remain there, and so Persephone could not leave. Demeter was saddened by this, and in mourning refused to allow the crops to grow. The resulting famine threatened to starve all of humanity. In order to stop the famine, a compromise was negotiated that resulted in Persephone spending half of the year with Hades in the underworld, and half of the year above ground with her mother. The result was the seasonal cycle, with no crops growing during the winter when Demeter pines for her daughter.http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Haides.html