Ceres (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres (/ˈsɪəriːz/ SEER-eez,[1][2] Latin: [ˈkɛreːs]) was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships.[3] She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called 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 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 harvest-time: and during Roman marriages and funeral rites. She is usually depicted as a mature woman.
Not to be confused with Keres.Ceres is the only one of Rome's many 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,[4] whose mythology was reinterpreted for Ceres in Roman art and literature.[3]
Etymology and origins[edit]
The name Cerēs stems from Proto-Italic *kerēs ('with grain, Ceres'; cf. Faliscan ceres, Oscan kerrí 'Cererī' < *ker-s-ēi- < *ker-es-ēi-), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₃-os ('nourishment, grain'), a derivative of the root *ḱerh₃-, meaning 'to feed'.[5]
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.[5]
Archaic cults to Ceres are well-evidenced among Rome's neighbours in the Regal period, including the ancient Latins, Oscans and Sabellians, less certainly among the Etruscans and Umbrians. An archaic Faliscan inscription of c. 600 BC asks her to provide far (spelt wheat),[6] which was a dietary staple of the 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 pastoral, agricultural and human fertility. Throughout the Roman era, Ceres' name was synonymous with grain and, by extension, with bread.[7]
Cults and cult themes[edit]
Agricultural fertility[edit]
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 Tellus) was offered spelt wheat and a pregnant sow, at the movable Feriae Sementivae. This was almost certainly held before the annual sowing of grain. The divine portion of sacrifice was the entrails (exta) presented in an earthenware pot (olla).[8] In a rural, agricultural context, Cato the Elder describes the offer to Ceres of a porca praecidanea (a pig, offered before harvesting).[9] Before the harvest, she was offered a propitiary grain sample (praemetium).[10] Ovid tells that Ceres "is content with little, provided that her offerings are casta" (pure).[11]
Ceres' main festival, Cerealia, was held from mid to late April. It was organised by her plebeian aediles and included circus games (ludi circenses). It opened with a horse-race in the Circus Maximus, whose starting point lay below and opposite to her Aventine Temple;[12] the 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.[13] From c.175 BC, Cerealia included ludi scaenici (theatrical religious events) through April 12 to 18.[14]
Priesthoods[edit]
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.[57] 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 heads of households. An inscription at Capua names a male sacerdos Cerialis mundalis, a priest dedicated to Ceres' rites of the mundus.[58] The 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 (annona) and later the plebeian grain doles (frumentationes), the organisation and management of public games in general, and the maintenance of Rome's streets and public buildings.[59]
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".[60] Celibacy may have been a condition of their office; sexual abstinence was, according to Ovid, required of those attending Ceres' major, nine-day festival.[61] Her public priesthood was reserved to respectable matrons, be they married, divorced or widowed.[62] 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.[63][64][65]
Cult development[edit]
Archaic and Regal eras[edit]
Roman tradition credited Ceres' eponymous festival, Cerealia, to Rome's second king, the semi-legendary Numa. Ceres' senior, male priesthood was a minor flaminate whose establishment and rites were supposedly also innovations of Numa.[66] Her affinity and joint cult with Tellus, also known as Terra Mater (Mother Earth) may have developed at this time. Much later, during the 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.[67]