CE'RES (probably eoilliveled with Lat.. Crl'a , to create. CrCtiCerf , to grow. t:k. sLpnc, Morose, youth, Guth. hairdo, tier. Ilerde. Engl. herd. Engl. burs(, (own. (1. lr. (lint, heap. Ann. ser, species, skis .4«rdho, host. Ar, sarmla, speit-A). The name given by the Romans to the Greek Dminetcr (..17piivip), goddess of the grain. which is re garded as her gift to mankind. In the systema tized Greek mythology. Demeter is daughter of (Tomas, and sister of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. By her brother Zeus she beeame the mother of Persephone or Proserpina (9.v.). In Greek worship Demeter and Persephone (or ('ora) are regularly united, forming a pair of divinities. Whose essentbd nature has become clear through the studies of Mannhardt, Wald- (Ind Fehlkulte (Danzig, 1S75-77) and .11ythologisehe Fors•hnn. yen (Strassburg. ISQ)), also of Frazer, (;olden Bough (2d ed.. New York, HMO). At bottom, they are a dual impersonation of the 'corn spirit.' of whose worship many traces are still observ able in the harvest customs of European peas. ants. The great legend connected with Demeter is that told in the Homeric Hymn, which pre serves the sacred version of Eleusis. Aecording to the common version. Hades (Pluto) surprised Persephone as she was gathering flowers in meadow, and bore her away to the lower world. Demeter long sought her daughter sorrowing, un til at length she learned her fate front the all seeing Helios (the sun). In her grief she hid herself. and the earth ceased to yield her fruit. loved at last. Zeus sent Hermes to fetch Perse phone. but Hades had persuaded her to eat a pomegranate. and thus hound her to stay with him. At last, the agreement was made that she should spend two-thirds of the year with her mother and one-third with her husband. In the course of her wanderings, Demeter was kindly entertained alit Eleusis, and in requital extended her special blessing to the spot, and from then.
sent nut Triptol s (q.v.) to bear the knowl• edge of agriculture to the world. The worship of Demeter was nearly universal in the ancient world, but probably the most important eult was at in Attka, where were cekbrated the Elensinian Mysteries (q.v.). There was also a very important cult at Athens, where the The• mophoria (sec thu:m: FEs'r At.s ) were cele brated. In Arcadia the goddesses were distinct ly chthonic. and regarded as awful deities of the lower world. sivine and horses were especially connected with thee deities. and they are often in works of art by a bunch of or a torch. or somewhat rarely by the mystic box. Denleter also appears as a Conro trophos, that is. a guardian of children, repre sented as a seated figure bolding a child. On vases reprcsentat bms of the Eleusinian story are not infrequent, and the nine of Persephone is irequent on sarcophagi, but statues Of the goddesses are nut common. The most striking is the beautiful seated figure from Cnidlls, 1101,V in the British Museum. Fragments of the colos sal cult statues at Lycosura. the work of De nophon. are now at Athens. The 1Zomans adopt ed the worship of the Greek Demeter about B.C. 49:3. and identified her with their own goddess of the growth of the harvest. Ceres, who along with 'relit's, the earth, was honored with special sacrifices, both after seed-time and just before the harvest. Her great festival was the Ccrealia, on \pril 19, which was celebrated with games in the circus. In addition to Mannhardt and Frazer, cited above, consult Preller, Demeter -and I837), and a long article by Lenormant in Daremberg. and Saglio. Dietionnaire des untiquiD's grecques et romaines (Paris. 1892).