If the humans are starving, then they also have no food or gifts to offer their gods, which is the reason that Zeus has a messenger order her to make the land fertile once again. Demeter’s ability to destroy crops also serves to give her a certain amount of authority over Zeus. She refuses to obey the king of the gods, and she is not punished for it. Yet Demeter openly defies Zeus’ order for her to make grains and fruits once again grow: “o one was able to persuade her mind and will, so wrath was she in her heart.” This single act of defiance on the part of Demeter demonstrates how powerful and authoritative she is-or at least how powerful maternal anger and grief can be.

Homer repeatedly mentions how hastily the gods obey Zeus’ orders and that disobedience from them is not normal or acceptable to Zeus. According to this hymn, he is obviously in a position to command the other gods and goddesses as well, which means that his position of power among the gods may also have given him the authority to offer Persephone to his brother Hades. Zeus’ involvement in this plot included luring Persephone into the meadow: “athering flowers over a soft meadow…which Earth made to grow at the will of Zeus.” He is Persephone’s father therefore, it may be within his rights to give his daughter away. From the story the reader also sees that Zeus is the god who allowed and facilitated the abduction of Persephone.

The reader does understand from these epithets that Zeus controls storm clouds and thunder. The Homeric “Hymn to Demeter” describes Zeus as “all-seeing,” “loud-thunderer,” “dark-clouded Son of Cronos,” and “cloud-gathering.” It is not entirely clear from these epithets alone how powerful a god he is on Olympus. A Response to the Homeric “Hymn to Demeter,” which is, incidentally, not by Homer

Homeric hymn to demeter