Editing Ceres (mythology) (section)

===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"/>