Abstract

Numerous written, iconographic and archaeological sources suggest the importance of sound in the mythical and ritual context of Demeter. In Sicily, the discovery of statuettes of female players, who are single or in groups, in the sacred areas dedicated to the deity, seems related to the Demeter festivals and with the music and dance performed also during the Thesmophoria. We may now add, to these testimonies, those of auloi and of tympana and miniature bronze kymbala identified in contexts sacred to the goddess. The presence of percussion instruments in the Demeter sphere is reflected in the written sources: the use of kymbala and tympana may have taken place during the ritual repetition of Demeter is running in search of Kore to the sound of the sacred instruments.