Celeus or Keleos (Ancient Greek Κελεός) was king of Eleusis in Greek mythology, husband of Metaneira and father of several daughters and of the princes Demophon and, in many accounts, Triptolemus. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter he is one of the original priests of Demeter — among the first to learn the secret rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries — and the host who welcomes the disguised goddess during her search for Persephone.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Celeus" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Celeus is king of Eleusis and husband of Metaneira. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter names his daughters Callidice, Demo, Cleisidice, and Callithoe; Pausanias instead lists Diogeneia, Pammerope, and Saesara. Sons in the wider tradition include Demophon (the child Demeter nurses) and Triptolemus (often the elder brother who receives agriculture), though Triptolemus' parentage is disputed across authors.
II.Host of Demeter
While Demeter searched for Persephone in the guise of an old woman named Doso, Celeus received her hospitably and asked her to nurse Demophon, his youngest son by Metaneira. In gratitude Demeter planned to make the child immortal by burning away his mortality in the family hearth each night. Metaneira interrupted the rite; Demeter then taught Triptolemus — Celeus' other son in Apollodorus and related accounts — the art of agriculture and sent him abroad in a winged chariot.
In the Homeric Hymn itself Triptolemus is listed among the first priests rather than as the nursed infant; Celeus, Diocles, Eumolpus, Triptolemus, and Polyxeinus are the men Demeter instructs in her sacred rites. Ovid's Fasti and Metamorphoses retell the Eleusinian hospitality and the gift of grain.
III.Later tradition
A tradition reports that Celeus was killed by Erichthonius in a war with Athens, and that Demeter afterward transformed his mourning daughters into doves. As host-king and first priest he anchors the Eleusinian household through which Demeter's mysteries and the gift of cultivated grain enter Attic myth.