Ukraine has had a long and complicated history. Its name means “borderland,” and for centuries its people have been subject to attack by its neigh-bors.

 

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Eight years earlier, it annexed Crimea. Both were in direct violation of a 1994 agreement in which Russia promised to respect existing borders.

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The ongoing destruction and loss of life continue to be unimaginable. Both cities and farmland are being destroyed, with wheat fields becoming uncultivable.

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Zhyttya in Ukranian means life. Wheat is the basic foodstuff synonymous with life. Ukraine and Russia together supply between a quarter and a third of the world's wheat. The war is having an enormous impact on food insecurity especially in Africa and the Middle East.

 

In ancient times, in the most climactic moment of the Eleusinian mysteries, a single grain of wheat was displayed for contemplation in complete silence before it was planted/ buried. Referencing Demeter and Persephone, the eternal cycle of the seasons, similar imagery undergirds the Christian Eucharist.

 

In this sculpture, stalks of golden wheat sprout from a white nesting column, decorated with carvings of acanthus leaves, which Vitruvius posited as having grown up around a basket placed on Persephone's grave. Much like kudzu in our area, acanthus refuses to die. It returns every spring with a vengeance.

 

Can we hope that Demeter will be reunited with her daughter in the breadbasket of Europe?