Ceres (mythology)
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- For the dwarf planet, see Ceres (dwarf planet). For other uses, see Ceres
- This article refers to the Roman goddess of agriculture. If you are looking for the Greek deity, see Demeter
In Roman mythology, Ceres was the goddess of growing plants (particularly cereals) and of motherly love. Her name derives from the Proto-Indo-European root "ker", meaning "to grow", which is also the root for the words "create" and "increase".
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[edit] Myth
Ceres was the daughter of Saturn and Ops, wife-sister of Jupiter, mother of Proserpina by Jupiter and sister of Juno, Vesta, Neptune and Pluto. Works of art depicted Ceres conventionally with a scepter, a basket of flowers and fruit, and a garland made of corn ears (note that "corn" in this instance refers to wheat, barley, or some other old world food grain, not to the new world food grain maize, which is called "corn" in the United States and some other areas of the Western hemisphere).
Ceres was also patron of Enna, Sicily. According to legend, she begged Jupiter that Sicily be placed in the heavens. The result, because the island is triangular in shape, was the constellation Triangulum, an early name of which was Sicilia.
The Romans adopted Ceres in 496 BC during a devastating famine, when the Sibylline books advised the adoption of her Greek equivalent Demeter, along with Kore (Persephone) and Iacchus (possibly Dionysus). Ceres was personified and celebrated by women in secret rituals at the festival of Ambarvalia, held during May. There was a temple to Ceres on the Aventine Hill in Rome and her official priest was called a flamen. Her primary festival was the Cerealia or Ludi Ceriales ("games of Ceres"), instituted in the 3rd century BC and held annually on April 12 to April 19. The worship of Ceres became particularly associated with the plebeian classes, who dominated the grain trade. Little is known about the rituals of Cerelean worship; one of the few customs which has been recorded was the peculiar practice of tying lighted brands to the tails of foxes which were then let loose in the Circus Maximus. There was also an October festival dedicated to her when women fasted and offered her the first grain of the harvest.
Ceres made up a trinity with Liber and Libera, who were two other agricultural gods. She also had twelve minor gods who assisted her, and were in charge of specific aspects of farming: "Vervactor who turns fallow land, Reparator who prepares fallow land, Imporcitor who plows with wide furrows" (whose name comes from the Latin imporcare, to put into furrows), "Insitor who sowed, Obarator who plowed the surface, Occator who harrowed, Sarritor who weeded, Subruncinator who thinned out, Messor who harvested, Conuector who carted, Conditor who stored, and Promitor who distributed".[1]
[edit] Legacy
The word cereals derives from Ceres, commemorating her association with edible grains. Statues of Ceres top the domes of the Missouri State Capitol and the Vermont State House serving as a reminder of the importance of agriculture in the states' economies and histories. There is also a statue of her on top of the Chicago Board of Trade Building, which conducts trading in agricultural commodities.
The dwarf planet Ceres (discovered 1801), is named after this goddess. And in turn, the chemical element cerium (discovered 1803) was named after the dwarf planet.
A poem about Ceres and humanity features in Dmitri's confession to his brother Alexei in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Part 1, Book 3, Chapter 3.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Ancient sources
- Virgil, Georgica iv.58
- Eusebius, Chronicon 49.19-26
- Augustine, De civitate dei vii.20
- Lactantius Placidus, Commentarii in Statii Thebaida ii.382
- Ovid, Fasti iv.401-404, vi.285-286 and Metamorphoses v.341-343, 385
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