Editing Ceres (mythology)

{{Short description|Roman goddess of agriculture}}
{{distinguish|Keres}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Roman
| name = Ceres
| member_of = the ''[[Dii Consentes]]''
| image = File:Ceres of Mérida (cropped).jpg
| caption = Seated Ceres from [[Emerita Augusta]], present-day [[Mérida, Spain]] ([[National Museum of Roman Art]], 1st century AD)
| god_of = Goddess of agriculture, fertility, grains, the harvest, motherhood, the earth, and cultivated crops <!-- Please don't add "planet". No planet was named after her until 1801 or so. She may have been in various constellations relevant to ancient agricultural calendars but those are not fixed to planetary movements -->
| abode = 
| symbol = sickle, torches, wheat-sheaf, crown of wheatstalks, cornucopia with fruits, cereals, poppy
| consort = 
| parents = [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]] and [[Ops]]
| children = [[Liber]]/[[Bacchus]], [[Proserpina|Libera]]/[[Proserpina]]
| temples = 
| festivals = [[Cerealia]], [[Ambarvalia]]
| siblings = [[Jove|Jupiter]], [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]], [[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]], [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]]
| Greek_equivalent = [[Demeter]]
}}
{{Ancient Roman religion}}
In [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman religion]], '''Ceres''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪər|iː|z}} {{respell|SEER|eez}},<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Ceres |encyclopedia=[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]] |year=2014 |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Ceres }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Ceres |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionaries |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/Ceres |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141103044226/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/Ceres |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 3, 2014 }}</ref> {{IPA|la|ˈkɛreːs|lang}}) was a [[goddess]] of [[Roman agriculture|agriculture]], [[cereal|grain crops]], fertility and motherly relationships.<ref name=Whos>Room, Adrian, ''Who's Who in Classical Mythology'', p. 89-90. NTC Publishing 1990. {{ISBN|0-8442-5469-X}}.</ref> She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called [[plebs|plebeian]] or [[Aventine Triad]], then was paired with her daughter [[Proserpina]] in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". Her seven-day April [[Roman festivals|festival]] of [[Cerealia]] included the popular ''[[Ludi]] Ceriales'' (Ceres' games). She was also honoured in the May lustration (''[[lustratio]]'') of the fields at the [[Ambarvalia]] festival: at harvesttime: and during [[Marriage in ancient Rome|Roman marriages]] and [[Roman funerals and burial|funeral rites]]. She is usually depicted as a mature woman.

Ceres is the only one of Rome's many [[List of Roman agricultural deities|agricultural deities]] to be listed among the [[Dii Consentes]], Rome's equivalent to the [[Twelve Olympians]] of Greek mythology. The Romans saw her as the counterpart of the Greek goddess [[Demeter]],<ref name=Lar>''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', [[The Book People]], Haydock, 1995, p. 215.</ref> whose [[Greek mythology|mythology]] was [[interpretatio graeca|reinterpreted]] for Ceres in [[Roman art]] and [[Latin literature|literature]].<ref name=Whos />

==Etymology and origins==
The name ''Cerēs'' stems from [[Proto-Italic language|Proto-Italic]] ''*kerēs'' ('with grain, Ceres'; cf. [[Faliscan language|Faliscan]] ''ceres'', [[Oscan language|Oscan]] ''kerrí'' 'Cererī' < *''ker-s-ēi-'' < *''ker-es-ēi-''), ultimately from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] ''*ḱerh₃-os'' ('nourishment, grain'), a derivative of the [[Proto-Indo-European root|root]] ''*ḱerh₃-'', meaning 'to feed'.{{Sfn|de Vaan|2008|pp=110–111}}

The Proto-Italic adjective *''keresjo''- ('belonging to Ceres') can also be reconstructed from Oscan ''kerríiúí'' (fem. ''kerríiai''), and Umbrian ''śerfi'' (fem. ''śerfie''). A masculine form *''keres-o''- ('with grain, Cerrus') is attested in [[Umbrian]] ''śerfe''. The spelling of Latin ''Cerus'', a masculine form of ''Ceres'' denoting the creator (cf. ''Cerus manus'' 'creator bonus', ''duonus Cerus'' 'good Cerus'), might also reflect ''Cerrus'', which would match the other Italic forms.{{Sfn|de Vaan|2008|pp=110–111}}

Archaic cults to Ceres are well-evidenced among Rome's neighbours in the [[Kingdom of Rome|Regal period]], including the ancient [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]], [[Oscans]] and [[Sabellians]], less certainly among the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscans]] and [[Umbrians]]. An archaic [[Falisci|Faliscan]] inscription of c. 600 BC asks her to provide ''far'' ([[spelt]] wheat),<ref>[[Calvert Watkins|Watkins, Calvert]]. ''[[How to Kill a Dragon]]''. Oxford University Press, 1995. pp. 127-128. {{ISBN|0195085957}}.</ref> which was a dietary staple of the [[History of the Mediterranean region|Mediterranean world]]. Ancient Roman etymologists thought that ''ceres'' derived from the Latin verb ''gerere'', "to bear, bring forth, produce", because the goddess was linked to [[pastoralism|pastoral]], agricultural and human fertility. Throughout the Roman era, Ceres' name was synonymous with grain and, by extension, with bread.<ref>Spaeth, 1990, pp. 1, 33, 182. See also Spaeth, 1996, pp. 1–4, 33–34, 37. Spaeth disputes the identification of Ceres with warlike, protective Umbrian deities named on the [[Iguvine Tablets]], and Gantz' identification of Ceres as one of six figures shown on a terracotta plaque at Etruscan [[Murlo]] ([[Poggio Civitate]])</ref>

==Cults and cult themes==

===Agricultural fertility===
Ceres was credited with the discovery of [[spelt]] wheat (Latin ''far''), the yoking of oxen and ploughing, the sowing, protection and nourishing of the young seed, and the gift of agriculture to humankind; before this, it was said, man had subsisted on acorns, and wandered without settlement or laws. She had the power to fertilize, multiply and fructify plant and animal seed, and her laws and rites protected all activities of the agricultural cycle. In January, Ceres (alongside the earth-goddess [[Terra Mater|Tellus]]) was offered spelt wheat and a pregnant sow, at the movable ''[[Feria]]e [[Sementivae]]''. This was almost certainly held before the annual sowing of grain. The divine portion of sacrifice was the entrails ''([[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#exta|exta]])'' presented in an earthenware pot ''([[Olla (Roman pot)|olla]]).''<ref>[[John Scheid]], in [[Jörg Rüpke|Rüpke, Jörg]] (Editor), ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p 264; and Varro, ''Lingua Latina'', 5.98.</ref> In a rural, agricultural context, [[Cato the Elder]] describes the offer to Ceres of a ''porca praecidanea'' (a pig, offered before harvesting).<ref>Spaeth, 1996, p. 35: "The pregnant victim is a common offering to female fertility divinities and was apparently intended, on the principle of sympathetic magic, to fertilise and multiply the seeds committed to the earth." See also Cato the Elder, ''On Agriculture'', 134, for the ''porca praecidanea''.</ref> Before the harvest, she was offered a propitiary grain sample (''praemetium'').<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 35–39: the offer of ''praemetium'' to Ceres is thought to have been an ancient Italic practice. In Festus, "Praemetium [is] that which was measured out beforehand for the sake of [the goddess] tasting it beforehand".</ref> Ovid tells that Ceres "is content with little, provided that her offerings are [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#castus, castitas|casta]]" (pure).<ref>Linderski, J., in Wolfgang Haase, Hildegard Temporini (eds), ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'', Volume 16, Part 3, de Gruyter, 1986, p. 1947, citing Ovid, Fasti, 4.411 - 416.</ref>

Ceres' main festival, [[Cerealia]], was held from mid to late April. It was organised by her [[plebeian]] [[aedile]]s and included circus games (''[[Ludi|ludi circenses]]''). It opened with a horse-race in the [[Circus Maximus]], whose starting point lay below and opposite to her Aventine Temple;<ref>Wiseman, 1995, p. 137.</ref> the [[Altar of Consus|turning post]] at the far end of the Circus was sacred to [[Consus]], a god of grain-storage. After the race, foxes were released into the Circus, their tails ablaze with lighted torches, perhaps to cleanse the growing crops and protect them from disease and vermin, or to add warmth and vitality to their growth.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 36–37. Ovid offers a myth by way of explanation: long ago, at ancient Carleoli, a farm-boy caught a fox stealing chickens and tried to burn it alive. The fox escaped and fired the fields and their crops, which were sacred to Ceres. Ever since (says Ovid) foxes are punished at her festival.</ref> From c.175 BC, Cerealia included ''[[ludi scaenici]]'' (theatrical religious events) through April 12 to 18.<ref>A plebeian aedile, C. Memmius, claims credit for Ceres' first ludi scaeneci. He celebrated the event with the dole of a new commemorative [[denarius]]; his claim to have given "the first Cerealia" represents this innovation. See Spaeth, 1996, p. 88.</ref>
====Helper gods====
In the ancient ''sacrum cereale'' a priest, probably the [[Flamen|Flamen Cerialis]], invoked Ceres (and probably Tellus) along with twelve specialised, minor assistant-gods to secure divine help and protection at each stage of the grain cycle, beginning shortly before the Feriae Sementivae.<ref>Ceres' 12 assistant deities are listed in [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], ''On Vergil's Georgics'', 1.21. Cited in Spaeth, 1996, p. 36. Servius cites the historian [[Fabius Pictor]] (late 3rd century BC) as his source.</ref> [[Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher|W.H. Roscher]] lists these deities among the ''[[indigitamenta]]'', names used to invoke specific divine functions.<ref>[[Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher]], ''Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie'' (Leipzig: Teubner, 1890–94), vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 187–233.</ref>

* '''Vervactor''', "He who ploughs"<ref name="Price p11">{{cite book |author1=Mary Beard |author-link=Mary Beard (classicist) |author2=John North |author2-link=John A. North (classicist) |author3=Simon Price |author3-link=Simon Price (classicist) |title=Religions of Rome: Volume 1: A History |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0521316828 |page=11}}</ref>
* '''Reparātor''', "He who prepares the earth"
* '''Imporcĭtor''', "He who ploughs with a wide furrow"<ref name="Price p11" />
* '''Insitor''', "He who plants seeds"
* '''Obarātor''', "He who traces the first ploughing"
* '''Occātor''', "He who harrows"
* '''Serritor''', "He who digs"
* '''Subruncinator''', "He who weeds"
* '''Mĕssor''', "He who reaps"
* '''Convector''', "He who carries the grain"
* '''Conditor''', "He who stores the grain"
* '''Promitor''', "He who distributes the grain"

===Marriage, human fertility and nourishment===
In Roman bridal processions, a young boy carried Ceres' torch to light the way; "the most [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#arbor felix|auspicious wood]] for wedding torches came from the ''spina alba'', the [[Crataegus|May-tree]], which bore many fruits and hence symbolised fertility".<ref>Spaeth, 1996, citing [[Pliny the Elder]], ''Historia Naturalis'', 30.75.</ref> The adult males of the wedding party waited at the groom's house. A wedding sacrifice was offered to [[Terra Mater|Tellus]] on the bride's behalf; a sow is the most likely [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#victima|victim]]. Varro describes the sacrifice of a pig as "a worthy mark of weddings" because "our women, and especially nurses" call the female genitalia ''porcus'' (pig). [[Barbette Spaeth]] (1996) believes Ceres may have been included in the sacrificial dedication, because she is closely identified with Tellus and, as ''Ceres legifera'' (law-bearer), she "bears the laws" of marriage. In the most solemn form of marriage, ''confarreatio'', the bride and groom shared a cake made of far, the ancient wheat-type particularly associated with Ceres.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 5, 6, 44–47. ; the relevant passage from Varro is ''Rerum Rusticarum'', 2.4.10. [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], ''On Vergil's Aeneid'', 4.58, "implies that Ceres established the laws for weddings as well as for other aspects of civilized life." For more on Roman attitudes to marriage and sexuality, Ceres' role at marriages and the ideal of a "chaste married life" for Roman matrons, see Staples, 1998, pp. 84–93.</ref><ref>Benko, p. 177.</ref>
[[File:Ceres statue.jpg|thumb|Funerary statue of an unknown woman, depicted as Ceres holding wheat. Mid 3rd century AD. ([[Louvre]])]]
From at least the mid-republican era, an official, joint cult to Ceres and Proserpina reinforced Ceres' connection with Roman ideals of female virtue. The promotion of this cult coincides with the rise of a plebeian nobility, an increased birthrate among plebeian commoners, and a fall in the birthrate among patrician families. The late Republican ''Ceres Mater'' (Mother Ceres) is described as ''genetrix'' (progenitress) and ''alma'' (nourishing); in the early Imperial era she becomes an Imperial deity, and receives joint cult with [[Ops]] [[Augusta (honorific)|Augusta]], Ceres' own mother in Imperial guise and a bountiful genetrix in her own right.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, 103 - 106.</ref> Several of Ceres' ancient Italic precursors are connected to human fertility and motherhood; the Pelignan goddess ''[[Angitia]] Cerealis'' has been identified with the Roman goddess [[Angerona]] (associated with childbirth).<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 42–43, citing Vetter, E., 1953, ''Handbuch der italienischen Dialekte'' 1. Heidelberg, for connections between Ceres, Pelignan ''Angitia Cerealis'', ''Angerona'' and childbirth.</ref>

===Laws===
Ceres was patron and protector of [[Plebeian Council|plebeian laws]], rights and [[Tribune]]s. Her Aventine Temple served the plebeians as cult centre, legal archive, treasury and possibly law-court; its foundation was contemporaneous with the passage of the [[Lex Sacrata]], which established the office and person of plebeian aediles and tribunes as inviolate representatives of the Roman people. Tribunes were legally immune to arrest or threat, and the lives and property of [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#sacer|those who violated this law]] were forfeit to Ceres.<ref>For discussion of the duties, legal status and immunities of plebeian tribunes and aediles, see Andrew Lintott, ''Violence in Republican Rome'', Oxford University Press, 1999,[https://books.google.com/books?id=QIKEpOP4lLIC&q=Ceres&pg=PA92 pp. 92–101]</ref> 

The [[Lex Hortensia]] of 287 BC extended plebeian laws to the city and all its citizens. The official decrees of the Senate (''senatus consulta'') were placed in Ceres' Temple, under the guardianship of the goddess and her aediles. Livy puts the reason bluntly: the consuls could no longer seek advantage for themselves by arbitrarily tampering with the laws of Rome.<ref>Livy's proposal that the ''senatus consulta'' were placed at the Aventine Temple more or less at its foundation (Livy, ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]]'', 3.55.13) is implausible. See Spaeth, 1996, pp. 86–87, 90.</ref> The Temple might also have offered asylum for those threatened with [[arbitrary arrest and detention|arbitrary arrest]] by patrician magistrates.<ref>The evidence for the temple as asylum is inconclusive; discussion is in Spaeth, 1996, p. 84.</ref> Ceres' temple, games and cult were at least part-funded by fines imposed on those who offended the laws placed under her protection; the poet Vergil later calls her ''legifera Ceres'' (Law-bearing Ceres), a translation of Demeter's Greek epithet, ''[[Thesmophoria|thesmophoros]]''.<ref>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, citing Vergil, ''Aeneid'', 4.58.</ref>

As Ceres' first plough-furrow opened the earth (Tellus' realm) to the world of men and created the first field and its boundary, her laws determined the course of settled, lawful, civilised life. Crimes against fields and harvest were crimes against the people and their protective deity. Landowners who allowed their flocks to graze on public land were fined by the plebeian aediles, on behalf of Ceres and the people of Rome. Ancient laws of the [[Twelve Tables]] forbade the magical charming of field crops from a neighbour's field into one's own, and invoked the death penalty for the illicit removal of field boundaries.<ref>Ogden, in Valerie Flint, ''et al.'', ''Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome'', Vol. 2, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 1998, p. 83: citing Pliny, Natural History, 28.17–18; Seneca, Natural Questions, 4.7.2</ref> An adult who damaged or stole field-crops should be hanged "for Ceres".<ref>Cereri necari, literally "killed for Ceres".</ref> Any youth guilty of the same offense was to be whipped or fined double the value of damage.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, p. 70, citing Pliny the elder, Historia naturalis, 18.3.13 on the Twelve Tables and ''cereri necari''; cf the terms of punishment for violation of the sancrosancticity of Tribunes.</ref>

=== Poppies ===
Ceres' signs and iconography, like Demeter's from early Mycenae onwards, include poppies - symbolic of fertility, sleep, death and rebirth.  Poppies readily grow on soil disturbed by ploughing, as in wheatfields, and bear innumerable tiny seeds. They were raised as a crop by Greek and Roman farmers, partly for their fibrous stems and for the food value of their seeds<ref>Stone, S., p. 39, and note 9, citing Pliny the Elder, ''Natural History'', 8.74.195 in Sebesta, Judith Lynn; [[Larissa Bonfante|Bonfante, Larissa]], eds. (1994). The World of Roman Costume: Wisconsin Studies in Classics. The University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299138509.</ref> Where the poppy capsule alone is shown, this probably belongs to the [[opium poppy]] (''papaver somniferum'', the "sleep-bearing poppy"). The Roman poet Vergil, in ''Georgics'', 1.212, describes this as ''Cereale papaver'', or "Ceres' poppy", which eases pain and brings sleep - the deepest sleep of all being death. Poppies are often woven into Ceres' wheat-stalk crown, the ''corona spicea'', worn by her priestesses and devotees.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp.128-129</ref>

=== Funerals ===
{{Main|Roman funerary practices#Sacrifices}}
Ceres maintained the boundaries between the realms of the living and the dead, and was an essential presence at funerals. Given acceptable rites and sacrifice, she helped the deceased into the afterlife as an underworld shade, or deity ([[Di Manes]]). Those whose death was premature, unexpected or untimely were thought to remain in the upper world, and haunt the living as a wandering, [[vengeful ghost]] ([[Lemures|Lemur]]). They could be exorcised, but only when their death was reasonably due. For her service at burials or cremations, well-off families offered Ceres sacrifice of a pig. The poor could offer wheat, flowers, and a libation.<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 55–63.</ref> The expected afterlife for the exclusively female initiates in the ''sacra Cereris'' may have been somewhat different; they were offered "a method of living" and of "dying with better hope".<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 60–61, 66; citing Cicero, ''de Legibus'', 2.36. As initiates of mystery religions were sworn to secrecy, very little is known of their central rites or beliefs.</ref>
[[File:Ovid Met 5 - Star Lizard - Adam Elsheimer.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|During her long, torch-lit search for her daughter, Proserpina, Ceres drinks water given her by Hecuba, and is mocked by the boy, Askalabos, for spilling some of it. She will transform him into a lowly "star-lizard' or [[newt]] (Latin; stellio) as punishment. The episode is in [[Ovid]]'s, Metamorphoses V, lines 449-450. Oil-paint on copper, by [[Adam Elsheimer]] and workshop, copy circa 1605, held by the [https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/ceres-en-casa-de-hecuba/c234310d-d284-4095-b8cf-f21896765fa9 Museo Nacional del Prado]. From an original in the collection of Alfred and Isabel Bader]]

===The ''mundus'' of Ceres===
The ''mundus cerialis'' or ''Caereris mundus'' ("the world of Ceres") was a hemispherical pit or underground vault in Rome, now lost.{{efn|Various candidates for its location include the site of Rome's [[Comitium]] and the [[Palatine Hill]], within the city's ritual boundary ([[pomerium]])}} It was usually sealed by a stone lid known as the ''[[lapis manalis]]''.{{efn|Apparently not the same [[Lapis manalis]] used by the pontifices to alleviate droughts.}} On August 24, October 5 and November 8, it was opened with the official announcement {{lang|la|mundus patet}} ("the ''mundus'' is open") and offerings were made there to agricultural or underworld deities, including Ceres as goddess of the fruitful earth and guardian of its underworld portals. Its opening offered the spirits of the dead temporary leave from the underworld to roam lawfully among the living, in what Warde Fowler describes as 'holidays, so to speak, for the ghosts'.<ref>W. Warde Fowler, "Mundus Patet" in ''Journal of Roman Studies'', 2, 1912, pp. 25–26: Warde Fowler notes the possibility that pigs were offered: also (pp. 35–36) seed-corn, probably ''far'', from the harvest.</ref> The days when the mundus was open were among the very few occasions that Romans made official contact with the collective spirits of the dead, the ''Di Manes'' (the others being [[Parentalia]] and [[Lemuralia]]). This possibly secondary or late function of the ''mundus'' is first attested in the Late Republican Era, by [[Varro]].<ref>Cited in Macrobius, 1.16.18.</ref> The jurist [[Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus|Cato]] understood the shape of the ''mundus'' as a reflection or inversion of the dome of the upper heavens.<ref>Festus p. 261 L2, citing's Cato's commentaries on civil law.</ref> Di Luzio observes that the Roman ''mundus'' shared  functional and conceptual similarities with certain types of underground "pit altar" or [[megaron]], used in Demeter's Thesmophoria.<ref>DiLuzio, M. J., ''A Place at the Altar. Priestesses in Republican Rome''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016, pp. 113-114</ref> 

Roman tradition held that the ''mundus'' had been dug and sealed by [[Romulus]] as part of Rome's foundation; Plutarch compares it to pits dug by Etruscan colonists, containing soil brought from their parent city, used to dedicate the first fruits of the harvest.<ref>Plutarch, ''Romulus'', 11.</ref> Warde Fowler speculates the ''mundus'' as Rome's first storehouse (''penus'') for seed-grain, later becoming the symbolic ''penus'' of the Roman state.<ref>See Spaeth, pp. 63–5: W. Warde Fowler, "Mundus Patet" in ''Journal of Roman Studies'', 2, (1912), pp. 25–33: [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/JRS/2/Mundus*.html available online at Bill Thayer's website]: M. Humm, "Le mundus et le Comitium : représentations symboliques de l'espace de la cité," Histoire urbaine, 2, 10, 2004. [http://www.cairn.info/revue-histoire-urbaine-2004-2-page-43.htm French language, full preview.]</ref> In the oldest known Roman calendar, the days of the ''mundus'' are marked as C(omitiales) (days when the [[Comitia]] met). Later authors mark them as ''dies [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#religiosus|religiosus]]'' (when no official meetings could be held). Some modern scholars seek to explain this as the later introduction and accommodation of Greek elements, grafted onto the original ''mundus'' rites.<ref>M. Humm, "Le mundus et le Comitium : représentations symboliques de l'espace de la cité," Histoire urbaine, 2, 10, 2004. [http://www.cairn.info/revue-histoire-urbaine-2004-2-page-43.htm French language, full preview.]</ref> The rites of August 24 were held between the agricultural festivals of [[Consualia]] and [[Opiconsivia]]; those of October 5 followed the ''[[Ieiunium Cereris]]'', and those of November 8 took place during the [[Ludi Plebeii|Plebeian Games]]. As a whole, the various days of the ''mundus'' suggest rites to Ceres as the guardian deity of seed-corn in the establishment of cities, and as a door-warden of the afterlife, which was co-ruled during the winter months by her daughter Proserpina, queen-companion to [[Dis Pater|Dis]].<ref>In Festus, the ''mundus'' is an entrance to the underworld realm of [[Orcus]], broadly equivalent to Dis Pater and Greek [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]]. For more on Ceres as a [[liminal deity]], her earthly precedence over the underworld and the ''mundus'', see Spaeth, 1996, pp. 5, 18, 31, 63-5. For further connection between the ''mundus'', the penates, and agricultural and underworld deities, see W. Warde Fowler, "Mundus Patet" in ''Journal of Roman Studies'', 2, (1912), pp. 25–33: [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/JRS/2/Mundus*.html available online at Bill Thayer's website]</ref>

===Expiations===
In Roman theology, [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#prodigium|prodigies]] were abnormal phenomena that manifested [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#ira deorum|divine anger]] at human impiety. In Roman histories, prodigies cluster around perceived or actual threats to the Roman state, in particular, famine, war and social disorder, and are expiated as matters of urgency. The establishment of Ceres' Aventine cult has itself been interpreted as an extraordinary expiation after the failure of crops and consequent famine. In Livy's history, Ceres is among the deities placated after a remarkable series of prodigies that accompanied the disasters of the [[Second Punic War]]: during the same conflict, a lightning strike at her temple was expiated. A fast in her honour is recorded for 191 BC, to be repeated at 5-year intervals.<ref>Livy, [[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]], 36.37.4-5. Livy describes the fast as a cyclical ''ieiunium Cereris''; but see also Viet Rosenberger, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p 296; if expiatory, it may have been a once-only event.</ref> After 206, she was offered at least 11 further official expiations. Many of these were connected to famine and manifestations of plebeian unrest, rather than war. From the Middle Republic onwards, expiation was increasingly addressed to her as mother to Proserpina. The last known followed [[Great Fire of Rome|Rome's Great Fire of 64 AD]].<ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 14–15, 65–7(?).</ref> The cause or causes of the fire remained uncertain, but its disastrous extent was taken as a sign of offense against [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]], and Ceres-with-Proserpina, who were all given expiatory cult. Champlin (2003) perceives the expiations to Vulcan and Ceres in particular as attempted populist appeals by the ruling emperor, [[Nero]].<ref>For the circumstances of this expiation, and debate over the site of the Cerean expiation, see Edward Champlin, ''Nero'', Harvard University Press, 2003, pp. 191–4: this expiation is usually said to be at the Aventine Temple. Champlin prefers the mundus (at or very near the [[Comitia]]). [https://books.google.com/books?id=30Wa-l9B5IoC&dq=Ceres+expiation+64&pg=PA192 Google-books preview]</ref>

==Myths and theology==
[[File:Ceres - Dominikus Auliczek um 1770-1.jpg|thumb|Ceres with cereals, a late 18th century work by [[Dominik Auliczek]] of the [[Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory]]]]
The complex and multi-layered origins of the Aventine Triad and Ceres herself allowed multiple interpretations of their relationships, beyond the humanised pattern of relations within the Triad; while Cicero asserts Ceres as mother to both Liber and Libera, consistent with her role as a mothering deity, Varro's more complex theology groups her functionally with Tellus, Terra, Venus (and thus Victoria) and with Libera as a female aspect of Liber.<ref>C.M.C. Green, "Varro's Three Theologies and their influence on the Fasti", in Geraldine Herbert-Brown, (ed)., ''Ovid's Fasti: historical readings at its bimillennium'', Oxford University Press, 2002. pp. 78–80.[https://books.google.com/books?id=CeFErNPdXOMC&dq=Ovid's%20Fasti%3A%20historical%20readings%20at%20its%20bimillennium%20%20By%20Geraldine%20Herbert-Brown&pg=PA78]</ref> No native Roman myths of Ceres are known. According to ''[[Interpretatio graeca#Roman version|interpretatio romana]]'', by which Roman deities were identified with their Greek counterparts, she was an equivalent to Demeter, one of the [[Twelve Olympians]] of Greek religion and mythology; this made Ceres one of Rome's twelve [[Di Consentes]], daughter of [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]] and [[Ops]], sister of [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]], mother of [[Proserpina]] by Jupiter and sister of [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], [[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]], [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]] and [[Dis Pater|Dis]]. Ceres' known mythology is indistinguishable from Demeter's:
{{bquote|When Ceres sought through all the earth with lit torches for Proserpina, who had been seized by Dis Pater, she called her with shouts where three or four roads meet; from this it has endured in her rites that on certain days a lamentation is raised at the crossroads everywhere by the ''matronae''.<ref>Servius on [[Vergil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', 4.609. Cited in Spaeth, 107.</ref>}}

[[Ovid]] likens Ceres' devotion to her own offspring to that of a cow to its calf; but she is also the originator of bloody animal sacrifice, a necessity in the renewal of life. She has a particular enmity towards her own sacrificial animal, the pig. Pigs offend her by their destructive rooting-up of field crops under her protection; and in the myth of Proserpina's abduction on the plains of [[Enna|Henna]] (Enna), her tracks were obscured by their trampling. If not for them, Ceres might have been spared the toils and grief of her lengthy search and separation, and humankind would have been spared the consequent famine. The myth is also a reminder that the gift of agriculture is a contract, and comes at a price. It brings well-being but also mortality. <ref>Dennis Feeney, "Sacrificial Ritual in Roman Poetry", in Barchiesi, Rüpke, Stephens, ''Rituals in Ink: A Conference on Religion and Literary Production in Ancient Rome Held at Stanford University in February 2002'', Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004, pp. 14, 15.</ref> Enna, in [[Sicily]], had strong mythological connections with Ceres and Proserpina, and was the site of Ceres most ancient sanctuary. Flowers were said to bloom throughout the year on its "miraculous plain".<ref>Spaeth, 1996, p. 129.</ref>

==Temples==
[[Vitruvius]] (c.80 – 15 BC) describes the "Temple of Ceres near the Circus Maximus" (her Aventine Temple) as typically [[Araeostyle]], having widely spaced supporting columns, with [[architrave]]s of wood, rather than stone. This species of temple is "clumsy, heavy roofed, low and wide, [its] [[pediment]]s ornamented with statues of clay or brass, gilt in the [[Etruscan civilization#Architecture|Tuscan fashion]]".<ref>Vitruvius, On Architecture, 3.1.5 [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/3*.html#1.5 available at penelope. edu]</ref> He recommends that temples to Ceres be sited in rural areas: "in a solitary spot out of the city, to which the public are not necessarily led but for the purpose of sacrificing to her. This spot is to be reverenced with religious awe and solemnity of demeanour, by those whose affairs lead them to visit it."<ref>Vitruvius, On Architecture, 1.7.2 [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/1*.html#7.2 available at penelope. edu]</ref> During the early Imperial era, soothsayers advised [[Pliny the Younger]] to restore an ancient, "old and narrow" temple to Ceres, at his rural property near [[Como]]. It contained an ancient wooden cult statue of the goddess, which he replaced. Though this was an [[Religion in ancient Rome#Religio and the state|unofficial and privately funded cult]] (''sacra privata''), its annual feast on the [[Roman calendar#Days|Ides]] of September was attended by pilgrims from all over the region; this feast was also the same day as the [[Epulum Jovis]]. Pliny considered this rebuilding a fulfillment of his civic and religious duty.<ref>Pliny the Younger, ''Epistles'', 9.39: cited by Oliver de Cazanove, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p. 56.</ref>

===Images of Ceres===
[[File:Denarius C. Memmius C. F. Romulus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Denarius]] picturing [[Quirinus]] on the [[obverse]], and Ceres enthroned on the reverse, a commemoration by a moneyer in 56 BC of a Cerialia, perhaps her first ''[[ludi]]'', presented by an earlier Gaius [[Memmia gens|Memmius]] as [[aedile]]<ref>Eric Orlin, ''Foreign Cults in Rome: Creating a Roman Empire'' (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 144.</ref>]]

No images of Ceres survive from her pre-Aventine cults; the earliest date to the middle Republic, and show the Hellenising influence of Demeter's iconography. Some late Republican images recall Ceres' search for Proserpina. Ceres bears a torch, sometimes two, and rides in a chariot drawn by snakes; or she sits on the sacred ''kiste'' (chest) that conceals the objects of her mystery rites.<ref>Spaeth, pp. 11, 61.</ref> Sometimes she holds a [[caduceus]], a symbol of [[Pax (goddess)|Pax]] (Roman goddess of Peace).<ref>Spaeth, pp. 28, 68.</ref> Augustan reliefs show her emergence, plant-like from the earth, her arms entwined by snakes, her outstretched hands bearing poppies and wheat, or her head crowned with fruits and vines.<ref>Spaeth, p. 37, illustrated at fig. 7.</ref> In free-standing statuary, she commonly wears a wheat-crown, or holds a wheat spray. [[Moneyer|Moneyers of the Republican era]] use Ceres' image, wheat ears and garlands to advertise their connections with prosperity, the annona and the popular interest. Some Imperial coin images depict important female members of the Imperial family as Ceres, or with some of her attributes.<ref>Spaeth, pp. 97–102.</ref>

==Priesthoods==
Ceres was served by several public priesthoods. Some were male; her senior priest, the ''flamen cerialis'', also served Tellus and was usually plebeian by ancestry or adoption.<ref>Rome's legendary second King, [[Numa Pompilius|Numa]] was thought to have instituted the flamines, so Ceres' service by a ''flamen cerialis'' suggested her oldest Roman cult as one of great antiquity.</ref> Her public cult at the [[Ambarvalia]], or "perambulation of fields" identified her with [[Dea Dia]], and was led by the [[Arval Brethren]] ("The Brothers of the Fields"); rural versions of these rites were led as private cult by the [[Pater familias|heads of households]]. An inscription at [[Capua]] names a male ''sacerdos Cerialis mundalis'', a priest dedicated to Ceres' rites of the ''mundus''.<ref>[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]] X 3926.</ref> The [[Aedile|plebeian aediles]] had minor or occasional priestly functions at Ceres' Aventine Temple and were responsible for its management and financial affairs including collection of fines, the organisation of ''ludi Cerealia'' and probably the Cerealia itself. Their ''cure'' (care and jurisdiction) included, or came to include, the [[Grain supply to the city of Rome#Grain supply made an official responsibility|grain supply]] (''annona'') and later the plebeian grain doles (''frumentationes''), the organisation and management of public [[Ludi|games]] in general, and the maintenance of Rome's streets and public buildings.<ref>Responsibility for the provision of grain and popular games lent the aedileship a high and politically useful public profile. See [[Cursus honorum]].</ref>

Otherwise, in Rome and throughout Italy, as at her ancient sanctuaries of Henna and Catena, Ceres' ''[[ritus graecus]]'' and her joint cult with Proserpina were invariably led by female ''sacerdotes'', drawn from local and Roman elites: Cicero notes that once the new cult had been founded, its earliest priestesses "generally were either from Naples or Velia", cities allied or federated to Rome. Elsewhere, he describes Ceres' Sicilian priestesses as "older women respected for their noble birth and character".<ref>Spaeth, 104-5, citing Cicero, ''Pro Balbus'', 55, and Cicero, ''Contra Verres'', 2.4.99. The translations are Spaeth's.</ref> Celibacy may have been a condition of their office; sexual abstinence was, according to Ovid, required of those attending Ceres' major, nine-day festival.<ref>Most modern scholarship assumes Cerean priestesses celibate during their term of office but the evidence is inconclusive. See Schultz, 2006, pp. 75–78, for full discussion.</ref> Her [[Sacerdos Cereris|public priesthood]] was reserved to respectable matrons, be they married, divorced or widowed.<ref>See Schultz, pp. 75–78: also Schultz, Celia E., Harvey, Paul, (Eds), ''Religion in Republican Italy'', Yale Classical Studies, 2006, pp. 52–53: [https://books.google.com/books?id=paoDK0afIcIC&q=Ceres&pg=PA52 googlebooks preview]</ref> The process of their selection and their relationship to Ceres' older, entirely male priesthood is unknown; but they far outnumbered her few male priests, and would have been highly respected and influential figures in their own communities.<ref>A Roman matron was any mature woman, married or unmarried, usually but not exclusively of the upper class. While females could serve as [[Vestal Virgins]], few were chosen, and those were selected as young maidens from families of the upper class.</ref><ref>Spaeth, 1996, pp. 4–5, 9, 20 (historical overview and Aventine priesthoods), 84–89 (functions of plebeian aediles), 104–106 (women as priestesses): citing among others Cicero, ''In Verres'', 2.4.108; Valerius Maximus, 1.1.1; Plutarch, ''De Mulierum Virtutibus'', 26.</ref><ref>More epigraphic evidence survives for priestesses of Ceres than for any other priesthood; it shows Cerean cults as less exclusively female than contemporary Roman authors would have it; while most Cerean priestesses were assisted by females, two in the Italian province are known to have had male assistants (''Magistri Cereris''). See Schultz, p. 72 and footnote 90 (p. 177).</ref>

==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>

==Legacy==
[[File:Ceres by Eugène-André Oudiné.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Ceres by [[Eugène André Oudiné|Eugène-André Oudiné]] on a French coin of 1873 ([[French Third Republic|3rd Republic]]).]]
The word [[cereal]] derives from Ceres' association with edible grains.<ref>''Oxford Languages'' online [https://www.google.com/search?q=Cereal+etymology&client=safari&channel=mac_bm&sxsrf=ALiCzsZHiUNZ4mKoOvHKvkmCaUCn59oRIg%3A1668420371579&source=hp&ei=ExNyY8byIOeAhbIP7daWsAg&iflsig=AJiK0e8AAAAAY3IhI-P_0aphIsDcA9HfHPrZfGQE3uJW&ved=0ahUKEwiGyNOctq37AhVnQEEAHW2rBYYQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=Cereal+etymology&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQgAEIAEMggIABAWEB4QDzIICAAQFhAeEA8yCAgAEBYQHhAPMggIABAWEB4QDzIFCAAQhgMyBQgAEIYDMgUIABCGAzIFCAAQhgM6BAgjECc6EQguEIAEELEDEIMBEMcBENEDOgsIABCABBCxAxCDAToLCC4QgAQQsQMQgwE6CwguELEDEIMBENQCOggILhCxAxCDAToICAAQsQMQgwE6CwguEIMBELEDEIAEOggIABCABBCxAzoICC4QgAQQ1AI6CwguEIAEELEDENQCOg4ILhDHARCxAxDRAxCABDoGCAAQFhAeUABY-Uhgn3poEHAAeACAAQCIAQCSAQCYAQCgAQE&sclient=gws-wiz]</ref> Whereas Ceres represents food, her son [[Liber]] (later indistinguishable from [[Bacchus]]) represents wine and "good living". The Roman comedian [[Terence]] (c. 195/185 – c. 159 BC) uses the line ''[[sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus]]'' which at its simplest translates as "without food and drink, love freezes" or "love needs food and wine to thrive" - probably proverbial and widespread in his own day. It was adopted variously as a brewer's motto, celebration, warning, and a subject of art in [[Renaissance]] Europe, especially the north and the Dutch Republic. Ceres represented the grains that produced [[beer]] through the brewing process. Imagery that represented the profitable business of commercial brewing showed the grain-goddess as a respectable matron and Liber-Bacchus as a gentleman; a wholesome picture of moral sobriety and restraint.<ref>Santos, R. de Mambro, "The Beer of Bacchus. Visual Strategies and Moral Values in Hendrick Goltzius’ Representations of Sine Cerere et Libero Friget Venus", in ''Emblemi in Olanda e Italia tra XVI e XVII secolo'', ed. E. Canone and L. Spruit, 2012, Olschki Editore, Florence, pp. 21 ff, 26-27, 29</ref>  

Ceres is featured both as a goddess and Queen of Sicilly in ''[[De Mulieribus Claris]]'', a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the [[Florence|Florentine]] author [[Giovanni Boccaccio]], composed in 1361{{endash}}62 and notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.<ref name="Brown_xi">{{cite book |last=Boccaccio |first=Giovanni |author-link=Giovanni Boccaccio |year=2003 |translator=Virginia Brown |title=Famous Women |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |series=I Tatti Renaissance Library |volume=1 |isbn=0-674-01130-9 |page=xi}}</ref>

Ceres appears briefly to bless the wedding of Ferdinand and Miranda, in a [[masque]] at the ending of [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[The Tempest]]'' (1611).

In 1801, a newly discovered [[dwarf planet]] or [[asteroid]] was [[Ceres (dwarf planet)|named after her]]. Two years later, the newly discovered element [[Cerium]] was named after the dwarf planet.<ref>Emsley, John (2011). ''Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements.'' Oxford University Press. pp. 120–125. ISBN 978-0-19-960563-7.</ref> 
{{Css Image Crop|Image = CSA-T46-$10-1861 (1862 in error).jpg |bSize = 500|cWidth = 200|cHeight = 125|oTop = 22|oLeft = 170|Location = left|Description= In the US, Ceres appears on several [[Confederate States dollar|CSA banknotes]]. On this $10 note she reclines on a cotton bale holding a [[caduceus]]. Cropped image from [[National Numismatic Collection]], National Museum of American History.}} 
[[File:20120929 Chicago Board of Trade Building top recrop.jpg|thumb|150px|upright|The 3-storey faceless depiction of Ceres atop the [[Chicago Board of Trade Building]].]]
An aria in praise of Ceres is sung in Act 4 of the opera ''The Trojans'' (first performance 1863) by [[Hector Berlioz]].

A misanthropic poem recited by [[Dmitri]] in Dostoevsky's 1880 novel ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]], (part 1, Book 3, chapter 3)'' reflects on Ceres' heartbroken search for her lost daughter, and her encounter with the worst and most degraded of humanity.

In the US, Ceres is one of the three "goddess offices" held in [[The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry]]. She is depicted on the [[Seal of New Jersey]]. Statues of her top the [[Missouri State Capitol]],  [[Vermont State House]], and the [[Chicago Board of Trade Building]], all of which have historical links with agriculture and agricultural trade.

==See also==
* [[Corn mother]]
* [[Consus]]
* [[Dewi Sri]]
* [[Huminodun]]
* [[Po Sop]]

==Notes== 
{{Notelist}} 
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
*Benko, Stephen, The virgin goddess: studies in the pagan and Christian roots of mariology, BRILL, 2004.
*{{Cite book|last=de Vaan|first=Michiel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ecZ1DwAAQBAJ|title=Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages|date=2008|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004167971|language=en|author-link=Michiel de Vaan}}
*Room, Adrian, ''Who's Who in Classical Mythology'', p.&nbsp;89-90. NTC Publishing 1990. {{ISBN|0-8442-5469-X}}.
*[[John Scheid|Scheid, John]], "Graeco Ritu: A Typically Roman Way of Honoring the Gods," ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', 97, Greece in Rome: Influence, Integration, Resistance, 1995, pp.&nbsp;15–31.
*[[Celia Schultz|Schultz, Celia E.]], ''Women's Religious Activity in the Roman Republic (Studies in the History of Greece and Rome)'', University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
*[[Barbette Spaeth|Spaeth, Barbette Stanley]], "The Goddess Ceres and the Death of Tiberius Gracchus", ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', Vol. 39, No. 2, 1990.
*Spaeth, Barbette Stanley, ''The Roman goddess Ceres'', University of Texas Press, 1996. {{ISBN|0-292-77693-4}}.
*Staples, Ariadne, ''From Good Goddess to vestal virgins: sex and category in Roman religion'', Routledge, 1998.
*Wiseman, T.P., ''Remus: a Roman myth'', Cambridge University Press, 1995

==External links==
{{Commons category|Ceres (mythology)}}
{{EB1911 poster|Ceres}}
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000209 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Ceres)] 

{{Roman religion}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ceres (mythology)| ]]
[[Category:Agricultural goddesses]]
[[Category:Fertility goddesses]]
[[Category:Mother goddesses]]
[[Category:Nature goddesses]]
[[Category:Earth goddesses]]
[[Category:Roman goddesses]]
[[Category:Demeter]]
[[Category:Food deities]]
[[Category:Food goddesses]]
[[Category:Dii Consentes]]

[[ckb:سێریس]]