Roman goddess of agriculture and grain
Ceres
Ceres is the Roman goddess of agriculture, crops and food, and the counterpart of the Greek Demeter. Her name gave rise to the word 'cereal', and she was a central figure of the Aventine Triad and one of the Dii Consentes.
The myth
According to Roman tradition, Ceres was a daughter of Saturn and Ops, and sister of Juno, Vesta, Neptune, Pluto and Jupiter. She was credited with discovering wheat, before which people had lived on acorns; Pliny places the discovery in Attica or, according to others, in Sicily, which is why she was honoured as a goddess. Some accounts equate her with the Earth itself, angered by Saturn's contempt.
The best-known episode is the abduction of her daughter Proserpina by Pluto, who carried her off to the underworld in a chariot. Ceres searched for the girl with torches until the nymph Arethusa revealed where she was. Jupiter arranged that Proserpina spend six months with Pluto and six with her mother, a traditional explanation of the seasons and of the alternation between harvest and scarcity.
Other stories present Ceres as a teacher of farming: she taught Triptolemus to yoke oxen and sow seed, and punished figures such as Lynceus, turned into a lynx, or Triopas, condemned to perpetual hunger. Ovid portrays her as content with little, provided the offerings are pure.
Worship and religion
Her worship dates back to the early Republic and had both public and private forms. Her main festival, the Cerealia, was instituted in the 3rd century BC and celebrated from 12 to 19 April, with sacrifices of pigs and rams and garlands of myrtle or narcissus; the poppy was allowed because of its link to fertility. In May the Ambarvalia purified the fields in processions in which only women took part. Her chief temple stood on the Aventine and was also dedicated to Liber and Libera. The sources also tie her to the plebeians and their laws. No surviving practice of her cult is documented in these sources.
Legacy
The English word 'cereal' comes from her name, and the word 'cereal' and related terms for grain follow from it. Her figure inspired later literature and art about the myth of Demeter and Proserpina, and Boccaccio retold her story. The constellation Virgo has been linked to her because of the ear of grain she is said to carry.
Ancient sources: Pliny, Ovid, Hyginus, Servius and Boccaccio, who recount her myths, and the Sibylline Books and Cato the Elder, who describe her rites.
In art
Literature and theatre
- The Tempest · William Shakespeare, 1611