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CERES

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 761 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CERES , an old See also:

Italian goddess of See also:agriculture. The name probably means the " creator " or " created," connected with crescere and creare. But when See also:Greek deities were introduced into See also:Rome on the See also:advice of the Sibylline books (in 495 B.C., on the occasion of a severe drought), See also:Demeter, the Greek goddess of See also:seed and See also:harvest, whose See also:worship was already See also:common in See also:Sicily and See also:Lower See also:Italy, usurped the See also:place of Ceres in Rome, or rather, to Ceres were added the religious See also:rites which the Greeks paid to Demeter, and the mythological incidents which originated with her. At the same See also:time the cult of See also:Dionysus and Persephone (see See also:LIBER AND LIBERA) was introduced. The rites of Ceres were Greek in See also:language and See also:form. Her priestesses were Italian Greeks and her See also:temple was Greek in its See also:architecture and built by Greek artists. She was worshipped almost exclusively by plebeians, and her temple near the See also:Circus See also:Maximus was under the care of the plebeian aediles, one of whose duties was the superintendence of the See also:corn-See also:market. Her See also:chief festivals were the ludi Cereris or Cerealia (more correctly, Cerialia), See also:games held annually from See also:April 12–19 (See also:Ovid, See also:Fasti, iv. 392 ff.) ; a second festival, in See also:August, to celebrate the See also:reunion of Ceres and See also:Proserpine, in which See also:women, dressed in See also:white, after a fast of nine days offered the goddess the first-fruits of the harvest (See also:Livy xxii. 56); and the Jejunium Cereris, a fast also introduced (191 B.C.) by command of the Sibylline books (Livy See also:xxvi. 37), at first held only every four years, then annually on the 4th of See also:October. In later times Ceres was confused with Tellus.

End of Article: CERES

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