CERDYLIUM, cer-dy'-li-um, a place neat Amphipalis.
CEREALIA,.cir-e-d-/i-a, festivals to Ceres.
CERES (-ens), cer'-is, (or DEMETER, rii-tne ler, among the Greeks), the goddess of corn, was daughter of Saturn (Cn5nus) and Rhea, and sister of Jupiter, to whom she bore Proserpine (PersEphanE). Proserpine was carried away by Pluto when she was gathering flowers in the plain of Enna ; Ceres sought her all over the world, found her veil near the fountain CyanE, and was told by the nymph Arethasa that she had been carried off by Pluto : Ceres immediately demanded of Jupiter the restora tion of her daughter, and refused to allow of her being married to Pluto : Jupiter promised to restore Proserpine if she had not eaten any thing in Pluto's kingdom ; but Ascalaphus (q. v.) proved having seen her eat a pomegranate. To allay the grief of Ceres, Jupiter allowed Proserpme to spend six months with her mother and six with Pluto. During this search the earth had been neglected : Ceres now went to Attica, taught Triptolemus of Eleusis agri culture, and gave him her chariot to travel over the globe to impart his knowledge to the inhabitants, who up till then lived on acorns and roots. The favourite retreat of Ceres was Sicily, where every man made an annual sacri fice to her according to his means, and the fountain Cyane was honoured with an offering of bulls, whose blood was shed in the waters : the festivals Bleu:if:fa (q. v.) at Athens, and
the Thesnthjha , in Greece generally, were in her honour. She had many adventures on the earth : to avoid Neptune she changed herself into a mare, and bore him the horse Arlon (q. v.): to lasion she bore Plutus ; she punished with hunger Erysichthon, who had cut down her grove, and changed Stein() into an eft for deriding her when she was drinking water with avidity. A pregnant sow was offered her, from its destructiveness to the fields, and a ram, thrice led round the field, when the corn was only in blade. Ceres was represented with garland of ears of corn on her head, in the one hand a lighted torch, in the other her sacred poppy ; at times as a couthxy-woman mounted on an ox, carrying a basket on her left arm and holding a hoe ; and at times she rides in a chariot drawn by winged dragons. Her worship was brought from Sicily to Rome. where the Lereie/ia were instituted ; the festival lasted for several days from the ruth of April : women clothed in white ran about with lighted torches to represent Ceres' search, and there were games in the Circus Maximus, at which all the spectators appeared in white robes • the Romans also had rustic festivals to her— Pagan, an and Fir'im Semente vie in seed time, and the Ambarzaelia before harvest.