As time passed, the barley was replaced by wheat, then rice. The custom of scattering rice spread from the temple to the wedding ceremony to guarantee fertility in marriage. This is why we still throw rice at the bride and groom. (Now, however, in an effort to be environmentally sensitive, many people sprinkle birdseed because birds can't digest rice.)
Demeter had a beautiful daughter named Persephone who she kept hidden from the roving eyes of the male gods. One day, the thing Demeter feared the most happened: Persephone let out a scream that shook heaven and earth and vanished. Demeter was devastated. She left Mt. Olympus and wandered the earth disguised as an ordinary human, looking for her daughter. She would not eat or drink the food of the gods, only the little bit of food the reapers ate: barley-water with mint; or water, meal, and pennyroyal.7 Finally, the Sun told her that Hades, the god of the dark kingdom of the dead, had seen Persephone picking flowers and thought she was so beautiful that he opened the earth and captured her.
Demeter grieved when she heard this, and so did the earth. Everything stopped growing. Zeus finally stepped in and negotiated a compromise because all the humans were going to starve. Persephone could be with her mother, but only part of the time. She had eaten a pomegranate seed that Hades had given her, which meant that she had to return to the underworld to be with him. That is how Persephone came to be both the goddess of springtime and of the dead. During Persephone's eight months aboveground, joyous Demeter lets things grow and flourish. But when Persephone is in the world of the dead for four months every year, Demeter mourns and nothing grows. And that is where winter comes from.
