Not only the king of the Scythians, Linkh, was punished by Demeter; she also punished the king of Thessaly, Erysichthon. Erysichthon was arrogant and wicked; he never honored the gods with sacrifices. In his wickedness, he dared to boldly insult the great goddess Demeter. He decided to cut down a hundred-year-old oak tree in the sacred grove of Demeter, which was the home of a dryad, the favorite of Demeter herself. Nothing stopped Erysichthon.
“Even if it were not Demeter’s favorite, but the goddess herself,” exclaimed the wicked man, “I will still cut down this oak tree!”
Erysichthon snatched the ax from the servant's hands and plunged it deep into the tree. A heavy groan was heard inside the oak tree, and blood gushed from its bark. The king's servants stood amazed in front of the oak tree. One of them dared to stop him, but the angry Erysichthon killed the servant, exclaiming:
- Here is your reward for your submission to the gods!
Erysichthon cut down a hundred-year-old oak tree. With a noise like a groan, the oak tree fell to the ground, and the dryad who lived in it died.
Wearing dark clothes, the dryads of the sacred grove came to the goddess Demeter and begged her to punish Erysichthon, who had killed their dear friend. Demeter was angry. She sent for the goddess of hunger. The dryad she sent quickly rushed on Demeter's chariot, harnessed by winged snakes, to Scythia, to the Caucasus mountains, and there she found on a barren mountain the goddess of hunger, with sunken eyes, pale, with disheveled hair, with rough skin that covered only bones. The messenger conveyed the will of Demeter to the goddess of hunger, and she obeyed Demeter’s command.
The goddess of hunger appeared in the house of Erysichthon and instilled in him an insatiable hunger that burned all his insides. The more Erysichthon ate, the stronger the hunger pangs became. He spent all his fortune on all kinds of dishes, which only aroused an insatiable, painful hunger in Erysichthon. Finally, Erysichthon had nothing left - only one daughter. To get money and get enough, he sold his daughter into slavery. But his daughter received from the god Poseidon the gift of taking on any image and each time she was freed from those who bought her, either under the guise of a bird, or a horse, or a cow. Erysichthon sold his daughter many times, but the money he received from this sale was not enough for him. Hunger tormented him more and more, his suffering became more and more unbearable. Finally, Erysichthon began to tear his body with his teeth and died in terrible agony.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru