Editing Proserpina

{{short description|Ancient Roman goddess}}
{{Other uses|Proserpina (disambiguation)|Proserpine (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Roman
| name = Proserpina
| image = Marble_Statue_of_Persephone,_2nd_Century_AD_(41410710410).jpg
| caption = Marble statue of Proserpina, 2nd century AD. She is depicted holding a torch lighting her way and a sheaf of grain symbolizing abundance.
| god_of = Queen of the Underworld, goddess of female and agricultural fertility, and springtime growth
| abode = [[Orcus]], in winter (Roman name for underworld, and for its ruling deity, equivalent to Greek Hades)
| symbol = torch, sheaf, [[pomegranate]]
| consort = [[Liber]], [[Dis Pater]] or [[Orcus]] (various traditions)
| parents = [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]]
| temples = [[Aventine Triad|Aventine Hill]] (with Liber and Ceres)
| festivals = [[Liberalia]] (uncertain)
| siblings = [[Liber]] (various traditions)
| Greek_equivalent = [[Persephone]]

}}
'''Proserpina''' ({{IPAc-en|p|r|oʊ|ˈ|s|ɜr|p|ɪ|n|ə}} {{respell|proh|SUR|pih|nə}};<ref name="collins_american">{{cite dictionary |dictionary=American English Dictionary |title=Proserpina |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/american/proserpina |access-date=15 July 2013}}</ref> {{IPA|la|proːˈsɛrpɪna|lang}}) or '''Proserpine''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|r|ɒ|s|ər|p|aɪ|n}} {{respell|PROSS|ər|pyne}}<ref name="collins_american" />) is an ancient Roman [[goddess]] whose iconography, functions and myths are virtually identical to those of Greek [[Persephone]]. Proserpina replaced or was combined with the ancient Roman fertility goddess '''Libera''', whose principal cult was housed in the Aventine temple of the grain-goddess [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]], along with the wine god [[Liber]].

Each of these three deities occupied their own ''[[cella]]'' at the temple. Their cults were served or supervised by a male [[Religion in ancient Rome#Public priesthoods and religious law|public priesthood]]. Ceres was by far the senior of the three, one of the ''[[Dii Consentes]]'', Rome's approximate equivalent to the Greek [[Twelve Olympians]]. She was identified with Greek [[Demeter]] and Liber was identified with [[Bacchus]] and [[Dionysus]]. Libera is sometimes described as a female version of Liber Pater, concerned with female fertility. Otherwise she is given no clear identity or mythology by Roman sources, and no Greek equivalent. Nothing is known of her native  iconography: her name translates as a feminine form of Liber, "the free one". Proserpina's name is a Latinisation of "Persephone", perhaps influenced by the Latin ''proserpere'' ("to emerge, to creep forth"), with reference to the growing of grain.

Proserpina was imported from southern Italy as part of an official religious strategy, towards the end of the [[second Punic war]], when antagonism between Rome's lower and upper social classes, crop failures and intermittent famine were thought to be signs of divine wrath, provoked by Roman impiety. The new cult was installed around 205 BC at Ceres' Aventine temple. Ethnically Greek priestesses were recruited to serve Ceres and Proserpina as "Mother and Maiden". This innovation might represent an attempt by Rome's ruling class to please the gods and the plebs; the latter shared strong cultural ties with Italian ''[[Magna Graecia]]''. The reformed cult was based on the Greek, women-only [[Thesmophoria]], and was promoted as [[Mos maiorum|morally desirable]] for respectable Roman women, both as followers and priestesses. It was almost certainly supervised by Rome's ''[[Flamen]] Cerealis'', a male priesthood usually reserved to plebeians. The new cult might have partly subsumed the Aventine temple's older, native cults to Ceres, Liber and Libera, but it also functioned alongside them. Liber played no part in the reformed cult. Ceres, Proserpina/Libera and Liber are known to have received cult in their own right, at their Aventine temple and elsewhere, though details are lacking.

The Roman cult of Mother and Maiden named Proserpina as queen of the underworld, spouse to Rome's king of the underworld, [[Dis Pater]], and daughter to Ceres. The cult's functions, framework of myths and roles involved the agricultural cycle, seasonal death and rebirth, dutiful daughterhood and motherly care. They included secret initiations and nocturnal torchlit processions, and cult objects concealed from non-initiates. Proserpina's [[Persephone#Abduction myth|forcible abduction]] by the [[Pluto (mythology)|god of the underworld]], her mother's search for her, and her eventual but temporary restoration to the world above are the subject of works in [[Roman art|Roman]] and later art and literature. In particular, her seizure by the god of the Underworld – usually described as the Rape of Proserpina, or of Persephone – has offered dramatic subject matter for [[Renaissance]] and later sculptors and painters.

==Etymology==
Proserpina ({{langx|grc|Προσερπίνα}} or {{lang|grc|Προσερπίνη}}) is an Italic modification of ''Persephone'' (through metathesis of the form {{lang|grc|Πορσεφόνη}}, ''Porsephónē''),<ref>{{cite web | website = logeion.uchicago.edu | access-date = February 10, 2025 | url = https://logeion.uchicago.edu/Proserpina | title = Proserpina}}</ref> perhaps influced by the Latin word ''proserpere'' meaning "to creep forth".<ref>{{OEtymD|Proserpina|accessdate=2025-02-10}}</ref>

==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>

==In artwork==
Proserpina's figure inspired many [[art]]istic compositions, eminently in [[sculpture]] ([[Gian Lorenzo Bernini|Bernini]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thais.it/scultura/image/ALTE/SB_460.htm |title=Bernini – Plutone e Proserpina |publisher=Thais.it |access-date=2013-03-27}}</ref> see ''[[The Rape of Proserpina]]'') in painting (D.G.Rossetti,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/picture.aspx?id=6195&name=proserpine |title=Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti |publisher=artmagick.com |date=2008-07-31 |access-date=2013-03-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511104513/http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/picture.aspx?id=6195&name=proserpine |archive-date=2013-05-11 }}</ref> a fresco by [[Niccolò Circignani|Pomarancio]], J. Heintz,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ocaiw.com/galenug288.jpg |title=galenug288 |publisher=OCAIW |access-date=2013-03-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020822005357/http://ocaiw.com/galenug288.jpg |archive-date=2002-08-22 }}</ref> [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.artehistoria.com/genios/cuadros/1186.htm |title= Genios de la Pintura – Ficha Rapto de Proserpina |publisher=Artehistoria |access-date=2013-03-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204164736/http://www.artehistoria.com/genios/cuadros/1186.htm |archive-date=2008-12-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Albrecht Dürer|A. Dürer]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.artehistoria.com/genios/cuadros/4016.htm |title=Genios de la Pintura – Ficha Rapto de Proserpina |publisher=Artehistoria |access-date=2011-09-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310133433/http://www.artehistoria.com/genios/cuadros/4016.htm |archive-date=2007-03-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Niccolò dell'Abbate|Dell'Abbate]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://webpages.ursinus.edu/classics/Myth/rape_of_proserpina.htm |title=Rape of Proserpina |publisher=Webpages.ursinus.edu |access-date=2011-09-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927154755/http://webpages.ursinus.edu/classics/Myth/rape_of_proserpina.htm |archive-date=2011-09-27 }}</ref> [[Maxfield Parrish|Parrish]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://maxfieldparrish.info/maxfieldparrishworks1890to1909/proserpina-aka-sea-nymphs |title=Proserpina, aka Sea Nymphs – Maxfield Parrish Gallery |publisher=Maxfieldparrish.info |access-date=2013-03-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017091428/http://maxfieldparrish.info/maxfieldparrishworks1890to1909/proserpina-aka-sea-nymphs |archive-date=2013-10-17 }}</ref>) and in literature ([[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe's]]<ref>{{cite web |author=Johann Wolfgang Goethe |title=Projekt Gutenberg-DE – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Nachrichten – Kultur |publisher=Gutenberg.spiegel.de |date=2006-04-26 |url=http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/goethe/proserpi/proserpi.xml |access-date=2011-09-05}}</ref> ''Proserpina'' and [[Algernon Charles Swinburne|Swinburne's]] ''[[Hymn to Proserpine]]'' and ''[[The Garden of Proserpine]]''). The statue of the Rape of Prosepina by Pluto that stands in the [[Großer Garten|Great Garden]] of [[Dresden]], Germany is also referred to as "Time Ravages Beauty". [[Kate McGarrigle]]'s song about the legend was one of the last things she wrote prior to her death, and received its only performance at her last concert at [[Royal Albert Hall]] in December 2009.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Proserpine |volume=22 |pages=456–457 |short=1 |first=James George |last=Frazer|author-link=James George Frazer}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Marcus Tullius Cicero]] |title=[[De natura deorum]] |at=II, 66 |lang=Latin}}
{{quote|... ''Diti patri dedicata est, qui dives ut apud Graecos Plouton, quia et recidunt omnia in terras et oriuntur e terris, Cui Proserpinam (quod Graecorum nomen est, ea enim est quae Persefone Graece nominatur) — quam frugum semen esse volunt absconditamque quaeri a matre fingunt''.<br/>
{{grey|[{{small|&nbsp;}}With{{sup|{{big|{{sup|{{big|&nbsp;}} }} }} }} [[Dis Pater]] is connected Proserpina (whose name is of Greek origin, being that goddess the Greeks call Persephone) who symbolises the wheat seed and whose mother looked for her after her disappearance&nbsp;...{{small|&nbsp;}}]}} | [[Marcus Tullius Cicero]], ''[[De natura deorum]]'' II, 66}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Valerius Maximus]] |title=Factorum et dictorum memorabilium |chapter=libri&nbsp;IX |at=II 4, 5 |lang=Latin}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Saint Augustine]] of Hippo |title=[[City of God (book)|De Civitate Dei]] |trans-title=[[City of God (book)|The City of God]] |at=IV, 8 |lang=Latin}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Claudian|Claudius Claudianus]]  |title=De Raptu Proserpinae |chapter=full text online |chapter-url=http://www.divusangelus.it/claudianus/rapt1.htm |via=DivusAngelus.it |lang=Latin}}
* {{cite book |translator=de Angelis, Milo |author=Claudiano, Claudio |author-link=Claudian |title=Il rapimento di Proserpina |publisher=Enrico Casaccia Pub. |year=2010 |lang=Italian}}
* {{cite book |author=[[John Ruskin]] |year=1886 |title=Proserpina |quote=Studies of wayside flowers while the air was yet pure among the alps and in the Scotland and England which my father knew}}
* Miles, Gary B. (1980), ''Virgil's Georgics: A New Interpretation'', [[University of California Press]], {{ISBN|0-520-03789-8}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BG3tDwAAQBAJ Google books].

==External links==
{{wiktionary|Proserpina}}
{{Commons category|Proserpina (Roman goddess)}}
*[[Claudian]], ''De raptu Proserpinae'' ("The Rape of Proserpine"), three books in [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Claudian/De_Raptu_Proserpinae/1*.html Latin] and [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Claudian/De_Raptu_Proserpinae/1*.html English], Bill Thayer's edition of the [[Loeb Classical Library]] text at [[LacusCurtius]]
*[http://www.online-mythology.com/pluto_prosperine/ "Proserpina" on the Mythology Guide]
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120622113947/http://prozerpina.net/ Proserpina]'', Proserpina.net. <small>Accessed 27 January 2012</small>
*''[http://www.dragonisland.it/downloads/varie/proserpina.pdf Il Ratto di Proserpina]'' {{in lang|it}}
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000143 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Proserpina)]
{{Roman religion}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Greek underworld]]
[[Category:Proserpina| ]]
[[Category:Death goddesses]]
[[Category:Life-death-rebirth goddesses]]
[[Category:Roman goddesses]]
[[Category:Roman underworld]]
[[Category:Spring (season)]]
[[Category:Underworld goddesses]]
[[Category:Agricultural goddesses]]
[[Category:Fertility goddesses]]
[[Category:Food goddesses]]
[[Category:Rape of Persephone]]
[[Category:Mythological rape victims]]