Editing Proserpina (section)

===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>