Incredibile lecture, thanks for making it available for free. There is only one thing that I strongly disagree with at 42:54 : Demeter adopting a boy makes total sense and it's exactly what a mother would do. Demeter had just learned that Persephone was taken to Hades and even though Gods are immortal, from Demeter's point of view, Persephone was as good as dead. She had to stop searching for Persephone because she found her. However, her grief only increased. As a response to the space her daughter left in her life and to the grief she was feeling, she went to the human cities, symbols of fertility and livelihood. There she adopted a male child and tried to make it immortal. Why would a mother do this? A male child would never be taken away in marriage like her daughter was. And an immortal boy would never die and thus, she was cheating Hades by denying him the soul of the boy. When the Queen of Eleusis interrupted Demeter she got furious. Why? Because she was forced to relive the loss of another child, the boy she used to replace immortal Persephone. I Don't think that this makes his next statement invalid, tho.
