On either side of this relief are the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. They look down at a nude boy between them, the hero Triptolemos. Demeter, on the left, was the goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone, on the right, was queen of the underworld. Persephone spent part of each year in the underworld with her husband Hades, and the rest with her mother above earth.

Demeter wears a peplos, a woolen garment with thick folds like the flutes of a column. In her left hand she holds a scepter and in her right were the sacred ears of corn, probably made of gold. The goddess is giving them to Triptolemos, so that he can teach mankind the art of cultivating corn. Persephone is wearing a chiton, a fine linen dress and a himation, a cloak. She holds a long torch in one hand and blesses the boy with the other.

This relief is a Roman copy of a Greek work made in the fifth century B.C. Numerous copies of Greek sculpture were made in Roman times but few of the Greek originals survive. This relief is exceptional: it is one of the largest surviving ancient reliefs and reproduces a Greek work that still exists. The original stood at Eleusis, the center of an ancient mystery cult that housed the great sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone. A procession from Athens made its way there every year, bringing people eager to be initiated into the mysteries. All had to promise to keep the details of the cult secret, so we know very little of what happened there. Demeter provided grain for mankind, and the rites at Eleusis must have celebrated her gift.