Proserpine and Ceres by Unknown
"Proserpine and Ceres" is a mythological story that explores themes of abduction, maternal love, and the cycle of life and death through the relationship between Ceres, the goddess of fertility, and her daughter Proserpine. The narrative begins with Hades, the god of the underworld, who falls in love with Proserpine after being struck by Cupid's arrow. He kidnaps her while she is gathering flowers, prompting Ceres to embark on a desperate search for her daughter. In her grief, Ceres causes the earth to become barren, refusing to allow crops to grow.
The tale unfolds further as Ceres encounters a peasant and his dying son, whom she heals, demonstrating her nurturing powers. Ultimately, after much turmoil, a compromise is reached allowing Proserpine to spend half of the year with her mother and the other half in the underworld with Hades. This cyclical separation and reunion symbolize the changing seasons and agricultural fertility, as Ceres restores the earth's bounty during Proserpine's time above ground. The story also gives rise to the Eleusinian mysteries, significant religious rites in ancient Greece that celebrated these themes of life, death, and rebirth. The myth reflects deep cultural values regarding motherhood, the natural world, and the interconnectedness of human experiences.
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Proserpine and Ceres by Unknown
First published: Unknown
Type of work: Short fiction
Type of plot: Myth
Time of plot: Antiquity
Locale: The Mediterranean
Principal characters
Ceres , the goddess of fertilityProserpine , her daughterHades , the king of the underworldVenus , the goddess of loveCupid , her sonTriptolemus , the builder of a temple to CeresArethusa , a fountain nymphAlpheus , a river godDiana , the goddess of the huntJupiter , the king of the godsMercury , a messenger of the gods
The Story:
One of the Titans, Typhoeus, long imprisoned for his part in the rebellion against Jupiter, lies in agony beneath Mount Aetna on the island of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. When Typhoeus groans and stirs, he shakes the sea and the island of Sicily so much that the god of the underworld, Hades, becomes frightened lest his kingdom be revealed to the light of day.
Rising to the upper world to make entrance to his kingdom, Hades is discovered by Venus, who orders her son Cupid to aim one of his love darts into the breast of Hades and so cause him to fall in love with Proserpine, daughter of Ceres, goddess of fertility. Proserpine went with her companions to gather flowers by the banks of a stream in the beautiful vale of Enna. There Hades, stricken by Cupid’s dart, sees Proserpine, seizes her, and lashes his fiery horses to greater speed as he carries her away. In her fright the girl drops her apron, full of flowers she gathered. At the River Cyane, Hades strikes the earth with his scepter, causing a passageway to appear through which he drives his chariot and takes his captive to the underworld.
Ceres searches for her daughter everywhere. At last, sad and tired, she sits down to rest. A peasant and his daughter find her in her disguise as an old woman; they take pity on her and urge her to go with them to their rude home. When the three arrive at the house, they find that the peasant’s only son, Triptolemus, is dying. Ceres first gathers some poppies. Then, kissing the child, she restores him to health. The happy family bids her to join them in their simple meal of honey, cream, apples, and curds. Ceres puts some of the poppy juice in the boy’s milk. That night when he is sleeping, she places the child in the fire. The mother, awakening, seizes her child from the flames. Ceres assumes her proper form and tells the parents that it was her plan to make the boy immortal. Since the mother hindered that plan, she will instead teach him the use of the plow.
Then the goddess mother continues her search for Proserpine until she returns to Sicily. There, at the very spot Hades entered the underworld, she asks the river nymph if she saw anything of her daughter. Fearful of punishment, the river nymph refuses to tell what she saw but gave to Ceres the belt of Proserpine, which the girl lost in her struggles.
Ceres decides to take revenge upon the land, to deny it further gift of her favors so that herbage and grain will not grow. In an effort to save the land that Ceres is intent upon cursing, the fountain Arethusa tells the following story to Ceres. Arethusa was hunting in the forest, where she was formerly a woodland nymph. Finding a stream, she decided to bathe. As she sported in the water, the river god Alpheus began to call her. Frightened, the nymph ran, the god pursuing.
The goddess Diana, seeing her plight, changed Arethusa into a fountain that ran through the underworld and emerged in Sicily. While passing through the underworld, Arethusa saw Proserpine, now queen of the dead, sad at the separation from her mother but at the same time bearing the dignity and power of the bride of Hades. Ceres immediately demanded help from Jupiter, ruler of the gods. The king of the gods said that Proserpine should be allowed to return to the valley of Enna from which she was abducted only if in the underworld she took no food.
Mercury was sent to demand Proserpine for her mother. Proserpine, however, had eaten of a pomegranate. She had eaten only part of the fruit, however, so a compromise was made. Half of the time she was to pass with her mother and the rest with Hades. Ceres, happy over the return of Proserpine during one half of each year, caused the earth to be fertile again during the time Proserpine lived with her.
Ceres remembers her promise to the peasant boy, Triptolemus. She teaches him to plow and to plant seed, and he gathers with her all the valuable seeds of the earth. In gratitude the peasant’s son builds a temple to Ceres in Eleusis where priests administer rites called the Eleusinian mysteries. Those rites surpass all other Greek religious celebrations. The mysteries involve, as does the story of Proserpine and Ceres, the cycle of death and growth.
Bibliography
Agha-Jaffar, Tamara. Demeter and Persephone: Lessons from a Myth. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002. Agha-Jaffar recounts the myth of Proserpine and Ceres, interpreting it from the perspectives of both mother and daughter. She analyzes the symbolism, subject of rape, the meaning of the underworld, and other aspects of the story to demonstrate its relevance to modern society.
Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. New York: Viking Press, 1964. Campbell discusses the images and symbolism of the myth of Proserpine and Ceres.
Donovan, Josephine. After the Fall: The Demeter-Persephone Myth in Wharton, Cather, and Glasgow. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1989. Analyzes the fictional symbols of Proserpine and Ceres in works by three American women writers. Donovan examines the image of the mother-daughter relationship as it is revealed in these modern treatments.
Downing, Christine, ed. The Long Journey Home: Re-visioning the Myth of Demeter and Persephone for Our Time. Boston: Shambhala, 1994. A collection of essays, prose, and poetry interpreting the myth from numerous perspectives, including twentieth century women’s retellings of the story.
Frazer, James. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1922. Analyzes the Eleusinian mysteries associated with Ceres and Proserpine. Shows their similarities to the Egyptian goddesses Isis and Osiris, the Syrian Ishtar, and other ancient deities. Includes some mention of human sacrifice associated with Proserpine’s death.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989. Places Proserpine and Ceres in the context of their symbolic meaning: life-giving and fertility. Ceres is seen as the earth mother and appears as a pregnant woman in pottery and burial sites.
Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. New York: Penguin Books, 1960. Reprint. Combined ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. A thorough retelling of the story of Ceres and Proserpine as corn goddesses. Proserpine is also connected with images of Aphrodite and Adonis. Graves claims that Proserpine is involved with the Eleusinian mysteries.