TRIPTOLEMOS was a demi-god of the Eleusinian mysteries who presided over the sowing of grain-seed and the milling of wheat. His name means "He who Pounds the Husks."
In myth, Triptolemos was one of the Eleusinian princes who kindly received Demeter when she came mourning the loss of her daughter Persephone. The young goddess was eventually returned to her from the Underworld, and Demeter in her munificence, instructed Triptolemos in the art of agriculture, and gave him a winged chariot drawn by serpents so that he might travel the world spreading her gift. He did so, but when he came to the cold northern land of the Skythians, king Lynkos slew one of the dragons and drove him away. Deventer intervened--transforming the king into a lynx, and denying the Skythians agriculture.
