Proserpina and Ceres
Ceres, daughter of Cronus and Ops, and one of Zeus’ numerous consort, was goddess of agriculture and civilisation. Her manifold cares were shared by her daughter, Proserpina, the goddess of vegetation. Whenever her duties permitted this fair young goddess hastened off to the island of Sicily, her favourite place of resort, where she wandered about all day long, attended by a train of laughing girls, gathering flowers on the green slopes of Mount Ætna, and dancing with the nymphs in the beautiful plain of Enna.
Sacred Goddess, Mother Earth,
Thou from whose immortal bosom,
Gods, and men, and beasts have birth,
Leaf and blade, and bud and blossom,
Breathe thine influence most divine
On thine own child, Proserpine.
If with mists of evening dew
Thou dost nourish these young flowers
Till they grow, in scent and hue,
Fairest children of the hours,
Breathe thine influence most divine
On thine own child, Proserpine.
Shellley
One day, weary of labour, Proserpina called these fair playmates to join her and spend a day gathering flowers. The maidens sang merry lays as they wound their long garlands: and the joyous song of Proserpina, mingled with ripples of silvery laughter, attracted the attention of Pluto, who happened to be driving past in his dark chariot drawn by four fiery coal-black steeds. The god stepped out of his car, and cautiously peeped through the thick foliage.
He saw Proserpina sitting on a mossy bank, almost buried in many-hued blossoms, her laughing companions grouped around her. Pluto could not think how her youth and beauty would relieve the gloom of his dark kingdom
Long ere this he had tried to persuade one after another of the goddesses to share his throne: but one and all had refused the honour, and declined to accompany him to a land where the sun never shone, the birds never sang, and the flowers never bloomed. Hurt and disappointed by these rebuffs, Pluto had finally registered a solemn vow never to go wooing again; and so, instead of gently inviting Proserpina to become his queen, he resolved to carry her away by main force.
He ruptured out of the underworld, direct to the spot where she was seated. The great noise and rush of air made the assembled maidens swiftly turn. One glance sufficed to identify the intruder, for none but he had such a dark, lowering countenance; and all exclaimed in mingled wonder and terror at his unwonted presence in those sunlit regions.
Frightened by his impetuous approach, the trembling nymphs first crowded around Proserpina, who, in her terror, dropped all her pretty flowers and stood motionless among them. Her uncertainty as to his purpose was only momentary, for, catching her in his brawny arms ere she could make an attempt to escape, he bore off to his chariot, in spite of prayers and struggles, and drove away as fast as his fleet steeds could carry him.
O Proserpina,
For the flowers now, that frightened thou let’st fall
From Dis’s wagon! daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes.
Shakespeare
He was soon out of hearing of the wild cries and lamentations of the nymphs, who vainly pursued him, and tried to overtake their beloved mistress. Afraid lest Ceres should come and force him to relinquish his new-won treasure, Pluto drove faster and faster, nor paused for an instant until he reached the banks of the Cyane river. Whose waters, at his approach, began to seethe and roar in a menacing fashion and spread themselves as much as possible, to check him in his flight.
Pluto quickly perceived that to attempt to cross the river in his chariot would be madness, while by retracing his footsteps he ran the risk of meeting Ceres, and being forced to relinquish his prize. He therefore decided to have recourse to other means, and, seizing his terrible two-pronged fork, struck the earth such a mighty blow that a crevice opened under his feet, through which horses and chariot plunged down into the darkness of the Lower World.
Proserpina turned her weeping eyes to catch a parting glimpse of the fair earth she was leaving, and then, with a fond thought of her anxious mother, who when evening came would vainly seek her child in all her favourite haunts, she quickly flung her girdle into the Cyane, and called to the water-nymph to carry it to Ceres.
Meanwhile the sun had sunk below the Sicilian horizon; and Ceres, returning from the fields of the fast-ripening grain to her own dwelling, sought for the missing Proserpina, of whom no trace could be found except the scattered flowers. Hither and thither the mother wandered, calling her daughter, wondering where she could be and why she did not come to meet her. As time passed and still Proserpina did not appear Ceres’ heart beat fast with apprehension, and the tears coursed down her cheeks as she rushed about from place to place, calling her daughter.
Night came, and Ceres, kindling a torch at the Volcanic fires of Mount Ætna, continued her search. Day dawned, and still the mother called, awakening the morning echoes with her longing cries for her child. Her daily duties were all neglected. The rain no longer refreshed the drooping flowers, the grain was parched by the ardent rays of the sun, and the grass all perished, while Ceres roamed over hill and dale in search of Proserpina.
Weary at last of her hopeless quest, the goddess seated herself by the wayside, near the city of Eleusis, and gave way to her overwhelming grief.
Long was thine anxious serach
For lovely Proserpine, nor didst thou break
Thy mournful fast, till the far-fam’d Eleusis
Received thee wandering.
Orphic Hymn
Ceres went through much pain and suffering and after many years finally left the town of Eleusis and went to Sicily. There on the River Cyane she saw the girdle of her daughter Proserpina and saw the glimmer of hope she had been longing for, for many years. In her wandering she passed by a fountain and rested and the water sang its silvery song until it seemed more like voices than trickles of water. Ceres was not mistaken, as the nymph Arethusa revealed herself. She was once not part of the stream but because of the river-god Alpheus she was forced to flee and metamorphose into the fountain.
In her flight from the Alpheus, Arethusa passed underground, through the realms of Hades, and there she had beheld Proserpina, sitting enthroned as the Queen of the Underworld. Coming to the light of day in the form of a fountain, she spoke with rippling murmurs to the sorrowful Ceres, who thus learned for the first time the fate of her lost child.
Night came, and Ceres, kindling a torch at the Volcanic fires of Mount Ætna, continued her search. Day dawned, and still the mother called, awakening the morning echoes with her longing cries for her child. Her daily duties were all neglected. The rain no longer refreshed the drooping flowers, the grain was parched by the ardent rays of the sun, and the grass all perished, while Ceres roamed over hill and dale in search of Proserpina.
Weary at last of her hopeless quest, the goddess seated herself by the wayside, near the city of Eleusis, and gave way to her overwhelming grief.
Long was thine anxious serach
For lovely Proserpine, nor didst thou break
Thy mournful fast, till the far-fam’d Eleusis
Received thee wandering.
Orphic Hymn
Ceres went through much pain and suffering and after many years finally left the town of Eleusis and went to Sicily. There on the River Cyane she saw the girdle of her daughter Proserpina and saw the glimmer of hope she had been longing for, for many years. In her wandering she passed by a fountain and rested and the water sang its silvery song until it seemed more like voices than trickles of water. Ceres was not mistaken, as the nymph Arethusa revealed herself. She was once not part of the stream but because of the river-god Alpheus she was forced to flee and metamorphose into the fountain.
In her flight from the Alpheus, Arethusa passed underground, through the realms of Hades, and there she had beheld Proserpina, sitting enthroned as the Queen of the Underworld. Coming to the light of day in the form of a fountain, she spoke with rippling murmurs to the sorrowful Ceres, who thus learned for the first time the fate of her lost child.
Ceres was not backward in persuading Jupiter, the All-Highest, to intervene, and at last he agreed, provided that Proserpina had eaten nothing during her sojourn in the underworld. The Gods had not been happy with Ceres mourning as with it came immense famine to the humans meaning that they were receiving very few sacrifices. Mercury, accompanied by Spring, was sent to tell Pluto that he must allow Proserpina to return to her mother. Aware that the condition dictate by Pluto had not been fulfilled, the King of the underworld expressed his willingness to obey. But at the critical moment a spirit of darkness declared that the queen had eaten part of a pomegranate containing six seeds. Therefore, it was finally agreed that she should spend six months, one for each seed, in the realm of her husband, and six months on the surface of the Earth.
Tennyson represents the two divine beings, Ceres and Proserpina at the moment of their joyful ‘reunion’ and makes the mother goddess, even as she clasps her daughter in her arms feel a thrill of terror lest the dark horses of Pluto’s chariot-team should ascend from the depths beneath their feet,
And all at once their arch’d necks, midnight-maned,
Jet upward through the mid-day blossom. No!
For, see thry foot has touched it; all the space
Of the blank earth-baldness clothes itself afresh,
And breaks into the crocus-purple hour
That saw thee vanish.
When Proserpina descended to the underworld her Joyful looks changed to pale sadness, and instead of dancing gaily through the flowery meadows she sat in mournful state beside her lord, the King of Hell. As she was a vegetation goddess, associated in men’s minds with the return of spring, Proserpina was an object of intense devotion in Greece and Italy, often sharing her temples and her altars with her mother, the golden-haired Queen of the Cornfields.
By Helen Adeline Geurber in the book “The myths of Greece and Rome”. Edited by Annalise Tran.
Tennyson represents the two divine beings, Ceres and Proserpina at the moment of their joyful ‘reunion’ and makes the mother goddess, even as she clasps her daughter in her arms feel a thrill of terror lest the dark horses of Pluto’s chariot-team should ascend from the depths beneath their feet,
And all at once their arch’d necks, midnight-maned,
Jet upward through the mid-day blossom. No!
For, see thry foot has touched it; all the space
Of the blank earth-baldness clothes itself afresh,
And breaks into the crocus-purple hour
That saw thee vanish.
When Proserpina descended to the underworld her Joyful looks changed to pale sadness, and instead of dancing gaily through the flowery meadows she sat in mournful state beside her lord, the King of Hell. As she was a vegetation goddess, associated in men’s minds with the return of spring, Proserpina was an object of intense devotion in Greece and Italy, often sharing her temples and her altars with her mother, the golden-haired Queen of the Cornfields.
By Helen Adeline Geurber in the book “The myths of Greece and Rome”. Edited by Annalise Tran.