Editing Proserpina (section)

==Cult and myths==
===Origin of Libera===
In early Roman religion, Libera was the female equivalent of [[Liber Pater]], protector of [[plebeian]] rights, god of wine, male fertility and liberty, equivalent to Greek [[Bacchus]] or [[Dionysus]]. Libera was originally an [[Italic peoples|Italic]] goddess, paired with Liber as an "etymological duality" at some time during Rome's Regal or very early Republican eras.<ref>The pairing of Libera and Liber identifies both as aspects of an 'etymological duality' &ndash; cf Roman [[Faunus]] and [[Fauna (goddess)|Fauna]]. See [[Spaeth, Barbette Stanley]], ''The Roman Goddess Ceres'', University of Texas Press, 1996, p. 8</ref> She enters Roman history as part of a so-called [[Aventine Triad|Triadic cult]] alongside [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]] and Liber, in a temple established around 493 BC on the [[Aventine Hill]] at state expense, promised by Rome's governing class to the [[plebs]] (Rome's citizen-commoners), who had threatened secession. Collectively, these three deities were divine patrons and protectors of Rome's commoner-citizens, and guardians of Rome's senatorial records and written laws, housed at the temple soon after its foundation. Libera might have been offered cult on March 17 during Liber's festival, [[Liberalia]], or at some time during the seven days of [[Cerealia]], held in mid-to-late April; in the latter festival, she would have been subordinate to Ceres; the names of both Liber and Libera were a later addition to Ceres's festival. Otherwise, Libera's functional relationship to her Aventine cult partners is uncertain. She has no known native iconography or mythology.<ref>[[T. P. Wiseman]], "Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica", ''The Journal of Roman Studies'', Vol. 78 (1988), p 7, note 52.</ref>

===Libera and Proserpina===
Libera was officially identified as Proserpina from 205 BC, when she and Ceres acquired a Romanised form of Greek mystery rite, the ''[[Ceres (mythology)#Middle Republic|ritus graecia cereris]]''. This was part of Rome's religious recruitment of deities to serve as divine allies against Carthage, towards the end of the [[Second Punic War]]. In the late Republican era, [[Cicero]] described Liber and Libera as Ceres' children. At around the same time, [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] equated Libera with Greek [[Ariadne]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wiseman |first=T. P. |year=1988 |title=Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0075435800014040/type/journal_article |journal=Journal of Roman Studies |language=en |volume=78 |page=7 n54 |doi=10.2307/301447 |jstor=301447 |s2cid=161849654 |issn=0075-4358}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hyginus |url=https://lateinlex.de/?call=Puc&permalink=Hyg_fab_224 |title=Fabulae |at=224 |language=la |quote="Qui facti sunt ex mortalibus immortales ... Ariadnen Liber pater Liberam appellavit, Minois et Pasiphaes filiam;"}}</ref> The older and newer forms of her names, cult, and rites, and their diverse associations, persisted well into the late Imperial era. [[St. Augustine]] (354–430&nbsp;AD) wrote that Libera was a goddess of female fertility, just as Liber was a god of  male fertility.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, p. 131, citing [[Cicero]], ''[[De Natura Deorum]]'' 2.62, and [[Saint Augustine]], [[De Civitate Dei]], 4.11; both of whom most likely used the Late Republican polymath [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]] as their source.</ref>

===Proserpina===
Proserpina was officially introduced to Rome as the daughter of Ceres in the newly Romanised cult of "Mother and Daughter". The cult's origins lay in southern Italy, which was politically allied to Rome but culturally a part of [[Magna Graecia]]. The cult was based on the women-only Greek [[Thesmophoria]], which was a part public and part mystery cult to [[Demeter]] and Persephone as "Mother and Maiden". It arrived in Rome along with its Greek priestesses, who 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".<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 4, 6–13, citing Cicero, ''pro Balbo'', 55. [[Arnobius]] mistakes this introduction as the first Roman cult to Ceres. His belief may reflect its high profile and ubiquity during the later Imperial period, and possibly the fading of older, distinctively Aventine forms of her cult.</ref> In his commentary on [[Virgil]], [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] writes that Proserpina's heavenly name is Luna, and her earthly name is [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]].<ref>Servius, ''Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid'' 6.118.</ref> 

The exclusively female initiates and priestesses of the new "[[Ritus graecus|Greek-style]]" mysteries of Ceres and Proserpina were expected to uphold Rome's traditional, [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]]-dominated social hierarchy and [[mos maiorum|traditional morality]]. Unmarried girls were expected to emulate the chastity of Proserpina, the maiden; married women were expected to seek to emulate Ceres, the devoted and fruitful Mother. Their rites were intended to secure a good harvest, and increase the fertility of those who partook in the mysteries.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 13, 15, 60, 94–97</ref> Each of the Aventine triad's deities continued to receive cult in their own right. Liber's open, gender-mixed cult and festivals continued, though likely caught up in the suppression of the [[Bacchanalia]] some twenty years on.<ref>Wiseman, T. P., ''Remus: a Roman myth'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.133</ref> Proserpina's individual cult, and her joint cult with Ceres became widespread throughout the Republic and Empire. A [[Temple of Proserpina]] was located in a suburb of [[Melite (ancient city)|Melite]], in modern [[Mtarfa]], [[Malta]]. The temple's ruins were quarried away between the 17th and 18th&nbsp;centuries; only a few fragments survive.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cardona |first=David |year=2008–2009 |title=The known unknown: identification, provenancing, and relocation of pieces of decorative architecture from Roman public buildings and other private structures in Malta |journal=Malta Archaeological Review |issue=9 |page=43 |url=https://www.academia.edu/8342123}}</ref>

===Myths===
{{see also|Persephone#Abduction myth}}

[[File:Hans von Aachen - Raub von Proserpina.jpg|thumb|288px|''The Rape of Proserpina'' by [[Hans von Aachen]] (1587)]] 
[[Image:Cliveden-proserpina.jpg|thumb|Copy of ''The Rape of Proserpina'' by [[Vincenzo de' Rossi]], on view near [[Cliveden House]]]]
The best-known myth surrounding Proserpina is of her abduction by the god of the Underworld, her mother Ceres' frantic search for her, and her eventual but temporary restitution to the world above. In Latin literature, several versions are known, all similar in most respects to the myths of Greek Persephone's abduction by the King of the underworld, named variously in Latin sources as [[Dis Pater|Dis]] or [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]], and in Greek sources as Hades or Pluto. "Hades" can mean both the hidden Underworld and its king ('the hidden one'), who in early Greek versions of the myth is a dark, unsympathetic figure; Persephone is "Kore" ('the maiden'), taken against her will;<ref>As in Hesiod's ''Theogony'' and the "[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn to Demeter]]; see {{cite book |first=Diane |last=Rayor |title=The Homeric Hymns |publisher=University of California Press |year=2004 |pages=107–109}}</ref> in the Greek [[Eleusinian Mysteries]], her captor is known as Hades; they form a divine couple who rule the underworld together, and receive Eleusinian initiates into some form of better afterlife. Renamed Pluto, the king of the underworld is distanced from his violent abduction of his consort.<ref>As in the Greek [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)]] and, in Latin, {{cite book |author=[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] |title=Fabulae |at=146}}</ref> In 27 BC [[Vergil]] presented his own version of the myth in his ''[[Georgics]]''. In the early 1st century AD, [[Ovid]] gives two poetic versions: one in Book&nbsp;5 of his ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' and another in Book&nbsp;4 of his ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]''.<ref>For treatment of Ovid's two versions, and comparison with his probable Greek sources, ''see'' {{cite book |first=Stephen |last=Hinds |title=The Metamorphosis of Persephone: Ovid and the self-conscious Muse |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1987}}</ref> An early 5th-century&nbsp;AD Latin version of the same myth is [[Claudian]]'s ''De raptu Proserpinae''; in most cases, these Latin works identify Proserpina's underworld abductor and later consort as [[Dis Pater|Dis]].
[[File:CIL XIII 8177.jpg|thumb|[[Votive pillar]] reading ''Diti Patri et Proserpin[ae] sacrum'', "Holy to [[Dīs Pater]] and Proserpina", identifying Dīs Pater as Proserpina's husband]]
[[File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Proserpine - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood|Pre-Raphaelite]] ''[[Proserpine (Rossetti painting)|Proserpine]]'' (1873–1877) by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] ([[Tate Gallery]], [[London]])]]
In Claudian's version, the unprepossessing Dis yearns for the joys of married love and fatherhood, and threatens to make war on the other gods if he remains alone in [[Erebus]]. The Fates ([[Parcae]]), who determine the destinies of all, arrange a future marriage for Dis, to prevent the outbreak of war. Jupiter orders [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] to bring love to Dis, in fulfillment of the prophecy. Ceres has already sought to conceal the innocent Proserpina by sending her to safety in [[Sicily]], Ceres' earthly home and sanctuary; but Dis comes out from the volcano at [[Mount Etna]] in his chariot, seizes Proserpina at the [[Pergusa Lake]] near [[Enna]], and takes her down into the underworld. The poem ends at this point.<ref>{{cite book <!-- LacusCurtius (?) --> |author=[[Claudian]] |title=The Rape of Proserpine |chapter=Book&nbsp;I |publisher=Penelope.uchicago.edu |chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Claudian/De_Raptu_Proserpinae/1*.html |access-date=2011-09-06}}</ref>

Proserpina's mother, Ceres, seeks her daughter across the world, but in vain. The sun sinks and darkness falls as Ceres walks the earth, stopping the growth of crops and creating a [[desert]] with each step. Jupiter sends [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] to order Dis to free Proserpina; but Proserpina has melted Dis' hard heart, and eats "several" of the [[pomegranate]] seeds he offers her;<ref>"Several" in Spaeth, ''The Roman goddess Ceres'', pp. 130-131; Three in Ovid, ''Fasti'' 526, trans Frazer; seven in Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'', 535-539, trans Humphries</ref> those who have eaten the food of the dead cannot return to the world of the living. Pluto insists that she had willingly eaten his pomegranate seeds and in return she must stay with him for half the year. [[Virgil]] asserts that Proserpina agrees to this, and is reluctant to ascend from the underworld and re-unite with her mother. When Ceres greets her daughter's return to the world of the living, the crops grow, flowers blossom, and in summer all growing crops  flourish, to be harvested in Autumn. During the time that Proserpina resides with Pluto, the world goes through winter, when the earth gives no crops.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Georgics]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0058%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 1.38]</ref> The earth can only be fertile when she is above.<ref>Miles, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BG3tDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 68]</ref>

===Orpheus and Eurydice===
The most extensive myth of Proserpina in Latin is [[Claudian]]'s (4th century&nbsp;AD). It is closely connected with that of [[Orpheus]] and [[Eurydice]]. In Virgil's ''[[Georgics]]'', Orpheus' beloved wife, Eurydice, died from a snake-bite; Proserpina allowed Orpheus into Hades without losing his life; charmed by his music, she allowed him to lead his wife back to the land of the living, as long as he did not look back during the journey. But Orpheus could not resist a backward glance, so Eurydice was forever lost to him.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Virgil]] |title=[[Georgics]] |at=Book&nbsp;4, 453–527 |chapter-url=http://poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilGeorgicsIV.htm#_Toc534524384 |chapter=English translation online |translator=Kline, A.S. |year=2002 |access-date=15 December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=[[Claudius Claudianus]] |title=De Raptu Proserpinae |chapter=online |via= Divus Angelus |chapter-url=http://www.divusangelus.it/claudianus/rapt1.htm}}</ref>