Editing Ceres (mythology) (section)

==Cult development==

===Archaic and Regal eras===
Roman tradition credited Ceres' eponymous festival, [[Cerealia]], to Rome's second king, the semi-legendary [[Numa Pompilius|Numa]]. Ceres' senior, male priesthood was a [[Flamen|minor flaminate]] whose establishment and rites were supposedly also innovations of Numa.<ref>Whether or not Numa existed, the antiquity of Ceres' Italic cult is attested by the threefold inscription of her name c.600 BC on a Faliscan jar; the Faliscans were close neighbours of Rome. See Spaeth, 1996, pp. 4, 5, 33–34.</ref> Her affinity and joint cult with Tellus, also known as [[Terra Mater]] (Mother Earth) may have developed at this time. Much later, during the [[Principate|early Imperial era]], [[Ovid]] describes these goddesses as "partners in labour"; Ceres provides the "cause" for the growth of crops, while Tellus provides them a place to grow.<ref>Ovid, ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'', 1.673–684.</ref>

===Republican era===

====Ceres and the Aventine Triad====
In 496 BC, against a background of economic recession and famine in Rome, imminent war against the Latins and a threatened secession by Rome's [[plebs]] (citizen commoners), the [[Roman dictator|dictator]] [[Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis|A. Postumius]] [[Votum|vowed]] a temple to Ceres, [[Liber]] and [[Libera (mythology)|Libera]] on or near the [[Aventine Hill]]. The famine ended and Rome's plebeian citizen-soldiery co-operated in the conquest of the Latins. Postumius' vow was fulfilled in 493 BC: Ceres became the central deity of the new [[Triple deity#List of triple deities|Triad]], housed in a [[Aventine Triad|new-built Aventine temple]].<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp.[https://books.google.com/books?id=5g3YDlPvbeMC&q=lavinium&pg=PA142 8], [https://books.google.com/books?id=5g3YDlPvbeMC&q=Liber%20Cicero&pg=PA44 44.]</ref> She was also &ndash; or became &ndash; the patron goddess of the ''[[plebs]]'', whose enterprise as tenant farmers, estate managers, agricultural factors and importers was a mainstay of Roman agriculture.

Much of Rome's grain was imported from territories of [[Magna Graecia]], particularly from [[Sicily]], which later Roman [[mythographer]]s describe as Ceres' "earthly home". Writers of the [[Roman Republic#Late Republic (147–30 BC)|late Roman Republic]] and early Empire describe Ceres' Aventine temple and rites as conspicuously Greek.<ref>Wiseman, 1995, p. 133 and notes 20, 22.</ref> In modern scholarship, this is taken as further evidence of long-standing connections between the plebeians, Ceres and Magna Graecia. It also raises unanswered questions on the nature, history and character of these associations: the Triad itself may have been a self-consciously Roman cult formulation based on Greco-Italic precedents.<ref>The [[Sibylline Books]] were written in Greek; according to later historians, they had recommended the inauguration of Roman cult to the Greek deities [[Demeter]], [[Dionysus]] and [[Persephone]]. See also Cornell, T., ''The beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c.1000–264 BC)'', Routledge, 1995, p. 264, for Greek models as a likely basis in the development of plebeian political and religious identity from an early date.</ref> When a new form of Cerean cult was officially imported from Magna Graecia, it was known as the ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#ritus graecus|ritus graecus]]'' (Greek rite) of Ceres, and was distinct from her older Roman rites.<ref name="Spaeth 1996, pp. 4, 6">Spaeth, 1996, pp. 4, 6–13. For discussion of ''ritus graecus'' and its relation to Ceres' cult, see Scheid, pp. 15–31.</ref>

The older forms of Aventine rites to Ceres remain uncertain. Most Roman cults were led by men, and the officiant's head was [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#capite velato|covered]] by a fold of his toga. In the Roman ''ritus graecus'', a male celebrant wore Greek-style vestments, and remained bareheaded before the deity, or else wore a wreath. While Ceres' original Aventine cult was led by male priests, her "Greek rites" (''ritus graecus Cereris'') were exclusively female.<ref name="Spaeth 1996, pp. 4, 6"/>

===Middle Republic===
====Ceres and Proserpina====
Towards the end of the [[Second Punic War]], around 205 BC, an officially recognised joint cult to Ceres and her daughter [[Proserpina]] was brought to Rome from [[Southern Italy]] (part of [[Magna Graecia]]) along with Greek priestesses to serve it.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 4, 6–13, citing [[Arnobius]], who mistakes this as the first Roman cult to Ceres. His belief may reflect the high profile and ubiquity of the "reformed" cult during the later Imperial period, and possibly the fading of older, distinctively Aventine forms of her cult.</ref> In Rome, this was known as the ''ritus graecus Cereris''; its priestesses were granted [[Roman citizenship]] so that they could pray to the gods "with a foreign and external knowledge, but with a domestic and civil intention"; the recruitment of respectable matrons seems to acknowledge the civic value of the cult. It was based on ancient, ethnically Greek cults to Demeter, most notably the [[Thesmophoria]] to [[Demeter]] and [[Persephone]], whose cults and myths also provided a basis for the [[Eleusinian mysteries]].

From the end of the 3rd century BC, Demeter's temple at [[Enna]], in [[Sicily]], was acknowledged as Ceres' oldest, most authoritative cult centre, and Libera was recognised as Proserpina, Roman equivalent to Demeter's daughter [[Persephone]].<ref>Scheid, p. 23.</ref> Their joint cult recalls Demeter's search for Persephone, after the latter's abduction into the underworld by [[Hades]]. The new, women-only  cult to "mother and maiden" took its place alongside the old; it made no reference to Liber. Thereafter, Ceres was offered two separate and distinctive forms of official cult at the Aventine. Both might have been supervised by the male [[Flamen#Flamines minores|flamen Cerialis]] but otherwise, their relationship is unclear. The older form of cult included both men and women, and probably remained a focus for plebeian political identity and discontent. The new form identified its exclusively females initiates and priestesses as upholders of Rome's traditional, [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]]-dominated social hierarchy and [[mos maiorum|morality]].<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 13, 15, 60, 94–97.</ref>

====Ceres and Magna Mater====
A year after the import of the ''ritus cereris'', patrician senators imported cult to the Greek goddess [[Cybele]] and established her as [[Magna Mater]] (The Great Mother) within Rome's [[Pomerium|sacred boundary]], facing the Aventine Hill. Like Ceres, Cybele was a form of Graeco-Roman earth goddess. Unlike her, she had mythological ties to [[Troy]], and thus to the Trojan prince [[Aeneas]], mythological ancestor of [[Founding of Rome|Rome's founding father]] and first patrician [[Romulus]]. The establishment of official Roman cult to Magna Mater coincided with the start of a new ''saeculum'' (cycle of years). It was followed by [[Hannibal]]'s defeat, the end of the [[Second Punic War]] and an exceptionally good harvest. Roman victory and recovery could therefore be credited to Magna Mater and patrician piety: so the patricians dined her and each other at her festival banquets. In similar fashion, the plebeian nobility underlined their claims to Ceres. Up to a point, the two cults reflected a social and political divide, but when certain prodigies were interpreted as evidence of Ceres' displeasure, the senate appeased her with a new festival, the ''ieiunium Cereris'' ("[[fasting|fast]] of Ceres").<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 14, 94–97. See also the legend of [[Claudia Quinta]].</ref>

In 133 BC, the [[Nobiles|plebeian noble]] and [[tribune]] [[Tiberius Gracchus]] bypassed the [[Roman senate|Senate]] and appealed directly to the popular assembly to pass his proposed [[agrarian law|land-reforms]]. Civil unrest spilled into violence; Gracchus and many of his supporters were murdered by their conservative opponents. At the behest of the [[Sibylline Books|Sibylline oracle]], the senate sent the [[Quindecimviri sacris faciundis|quindecimviri]] to Ceres' ancient cult centre at [[Enna|Henna]] in [[Sicily]], the goddess' supposed place of origin and earthly home. Some kind of religious consultation or propitiation was given, either to expiate Gracchus' murder &ndash; as later Roman sources would claim &ndash; or to justify it as the lawful killing of a would-be king or [[Demagogy|demagogue]], a ''[[homo sacer]]'' who had offended Ceres' laws against tyranny.<ref>Both interpretations are possible. On the whole, Roman sources infer the expedition as expiatory; for background, see Valerius Maximus, 1.1.1., and Cicero, ''In Verres'', 2.4.108 ''et passim'', cited by Olivier de Cazanove, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p 56. For debate and challenge to Roman descriptions of the motives for this expedition, see Spaeth, 1990, pp. 182–195. Spaeth finds the expedition an attempt to justify the killing of T. Gracchus as official, right and lawful, based on senatorial speeches given soon after the killing; ''contra'' Henri Le Bonniec, ''Le culte de Cérès à Rome. Des origines à la fin de la République'', Paris, Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1958. Le Bonniec interprets the consultation as an attempt to compensate the plebs and their patron goddess for the murder.</ref>

===Late Republic===
The [[Eleusinian mysteries]] became increasingly popular during the late Republic. Early Roman initiates at [[Eleusis]] in Greece included [[Sulla]] and [[Cicero]]; thereafter many [[Roman emperor|Emperors]] were initiated, including [[Hadrian]], who founded an Eleusinian cult centre in Rome itself.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 13, citing Cicero, Balbus, 55.5., and p. 60.</ref> In Late Republican politics, [[Optimates|aristocratic traditionalists]] and [[Populares|popularists]] used coinage to propagate their competing claims to Ceres' favour. A coin of [[Sulla]] shows Ceres on one side, and on the other a ploughman with yoked oxen: the images, accompanied by the legend ''"conditor"'' ("he who stores the grain") claim his rule (a military dictatorship) as regenerative and divinely justified.<ref>Fears, J. Rufus, ''The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology'', in Hildegard Temporini, Wolfgang Haase (eds), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, Part 2, Volume 17, p. 795.[https://books.google.com/books?id=QK1M2VD1tsAC&q=Sulla%20conditor&pg=PA795]</ref> Popularists used her name and attributes to appeal their guardianship of plebeian interests, particularly the ''annona'' and ''frumentarium''; and plebeian nobles and aediles used them to point out their ancestral connections with plebeians as commoners.<ref>The plebeian L. Assius Caeicianus, identifies his plebeian ancestry and duties to Ceres on a denarius issue, c.102 BC. Spaeth, 1996, pp. 97–100.</ref> In the decades of Civil War that ushered in the Empire, such images and dedications proliferate on Rome's coinage: [[Julius Caesar]], his opponents, his assassins and his heirs alike claimed the favour and support of Ceres and her plebeian proteges, with coin issues that celebrate Ceres, ''[[Libertas]]'' (liberty) and [[Victoria (mythology)|Victoria]] (victory).<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 97–100, with further coin images between pp. 32–44.</ref>

===Imperial era===
[[File:Nero Lugdunum sestertius 691535.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Emperors claimed a partnership with Ceres in grain provision, as in this [[sestertius]] of 66 AD. Left: [[Nero]], garlanded. Right: [[Annona (goddess)|Annona]] stands with [[cornucopia]]e (horns of Plenty); enthroned Ceres holds grain-ears and torch; between is a [[Ancient Roman units of measurement#Dry measure|modius]] (grain measure) on a garlanded altar; in the background is a ship's stern.]]
Imperial theology conscripted Rome's traditional cults as the divine upholders of Imperial [[Pax (mythology)|Pax]] (peace) and prosperity, for the benefit of all. The emperor [[Augustus]] began the restoration of Ceres' Aventine Temple; his successor [[Tiberius]] completed it.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 6–8, 86ff.</ref> Of the several figures on the Augustan [[Ara Pacis]], one doubles as a portrait of the Empress [[Livia]], who wears Ceres' ''corona spicea''. Another has been variously identified in modern scholarship as Tellus, Venus, Pax or Ceres, or in Spaeth's analysis, a deliberately broad composite of them all.<ref>Spaeth argues for the identification of the central figure in the Ara Pacis relief as Ceres. It is more usually interpreted as Tellus. See Spaeth, 1996, 127–134.</ref>

The emperor [[Claudius]]' reformed the grain supply and created its embodiment as an Imperial goddess, [[Annona (goddess)|Annona]], a junior partner to Ceres and the Imperial family. The traditional, Cerean virtues of provision and nourishment were symbolically extended to Imperial family members; some coinage shows Claudius' mother [[Antonia Minor|Antonia]] as an [[Augustus (honorific)|Augusta]], wearing the ''corona spicea''.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 26, 30. See also Fears, J. Rufus, ''The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology'', in Hildegard Temporini, Wolfgang Haase (eds), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, Part 2, Volume 17, pp. 894–5.[https://books.google.com/books?id=QK1M2VD1tsAC&dq=The+Cult+of+Virtues+and+Roman+Imperial+Ideology%2C&pg=PA827]: Ceres Augusta can be considered, along with Pax, Libertas ''et al.'', as one of several Imperial Virtues.</ref>
[[File:Villa Carmiano triclinio 2 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Fresco from [[Villa Carmiano]], [[Stabiae]], 1st century. Nude Greco-Roman deity [[Bacchus]] (right), god of wine, freedom and male fertility, identified with Greek [[Dionysus]] and Rome's native [[Liber]]. Ceres (left) is usually identified as his mother]]

The relationship between the reigning emperor, empress and Ceres was formalised in titles such as [[Augusta (honorific)|Augusta]] mater agrorum<ref>[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]Xl, 3196.</ref> ("The august mother of the fields) and ''Ceres Augusta''. On coinage, various emperors and empresses wear her ''corona spicea'', showing that the goddess, the emperor and his spouse are conjointly responsible for agricultural prosperity and the all-important provision of grain. A coin of [[Nerva]] (reigned AD 96–98) acknowledges Rome's dependence on the princeps' gift of ''frumentio'' (corn dole) to the masses.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, p. 101.</ref> Under Nerva's later dynastic successor [[Antoninus Pius]], Imperial theology represents the death and [[apotheosis]] of the Empress [[Faustina the Elder]] as Ceres' return to Olympus by [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter's]] command. Even then, "her care for mankind continues and the world can rejoice in the warmth of her daughter Proserpina: in Imperial flesh, Proserpina is [[Faustina the Younger]]", empress-wife of Pius' successor [[Marcus Aurelius]].<ref>Fears, J. Rufus, ''The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology'', in Hildegard Temporini, Wolfgang Haase (eds), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, Part 2, Volume 17, Walter de Gruyter, 1981, pp. 905–5, footnote 372 1, 1.</ref>

In Britain, a soldier's inscription of the 2nd century AD attests to Ceres' role in the popular syncretism of the times. She is "the bearer of ears of corn", the "Syrian Goddess", identical with the universal heavenly Mother, the Magna Mater and [[Virgo (constellation)#Mythology|Virgo]], virgin mother of the gods. She is peace and virtue, and inventor of justice: she weighs "Life and Right" in her scale.<ref>Benko, pp. 112–114: see also pp. 31, 51, citing Apuleius, Metamorphoses, 11.2, in which Isis reveals to Lucius that she, Ceres and Proserpina, Artemis and Venus are all aspects of the one "Heavenly Queen"; cf [[Juno (mythology)#Epithets|Juno Caelestis]], "Queen of Heaven", the Romanised form of [[Tanit]].</ref>

During the Late Imperial era, Ceres gradually "slips into obscurity"; the last known official association of the Imperial family with her symbols is a coin issue of [[Septimius Severus]] (AD 193–211), showing his empress, [[Julia Domna]], in the ''corona spicea''. After the reign of [[Claudius Gothicus]], no coinage shows Ceres' image. Even so, an initiate of her mysteries is attested in the 5th century AD, after the official abolition of all non-Christian cults.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 30, 62, citing EE 4.866 for the 5th century ''mystes Cereris''.</ref>