Demeter θεσμοφόρος, “She who produces the stores of grain”

The etymological senses of θεσμός are “deposit”, “location”, and “act of placing” (cf. “location” in Homer and “deposit” in Anacreon). Drawing on cognates θημών/θημωνιαί and θωμός, ancient lexicographical and antiquarian evidence (Hesychius, Eustathius, Cornutus), Indo-European comparison, and Hesiodic passages, one can reconstruct an old agricultural use of θεσμός as “deposit of grain”, directly linked to Demeter (Cornutus). Thus, interpreting -φόρος as “producing”, Demeter θεσμο-φόρος would be “she who produces the stores of grain”, a reading supported by archaic poetic parallels (cf. Demeter who “fills the granary”, Hes. Op. 300–301) and onomastic parallels (πολύσωρος “rich in heaps of grain”; σωρῖτις “giver of heaps of grain”). Consequently, θεσμο-φόρος would be a near-synonym of καρπο-φόρος, shifting the emphasis from harvested produce (καρποί) to stored grain (θεσμοί) brought out at the time of Thesmophoria to begin sowing. Archaeological evidence of temple storage (Eleusis, Sicily), together with women’s household management of grain stores (Hesiod, Xenophon), points the same way.