underworld. She was only allowed to leave for a few months, which she spent with her mother every year; therefore, creating the seasons--Proserpina's parting saddened Ceres and caused the plants to go dormant until her next return.
In Roman bridal processions, a young boy carried Ceres' torch (a reminder of the one she carried in search of her daughter) to light the way, and a sow was offered as sacrifice to her and the Roman earth goddess, Tellus. Thereafter, the bride and groom shared a cake made of a wheat-type in honor of Ceres. It is believed that Ceres may have been included in the sacrificial dedication and celebrations because sows were her sacrificial animals and she was, after all, a lawbearer, which laws surely included those of marriage.
Even funeral rites honored her as she maintained the boundaries between the realms of the living and the dead. Given the appropriate rites, she helped the deceased into the afterlife as an underworld shade (Di Manes), else their spirit might remain to haunt the living as a wandering vengeful ghost named Lemur [Wikipedia].
When paired with her daughter Proserpina, it was described as "the Greek Rites of Ceres" by the Romans. As her laws and rites protected all activities of the
Guardian of the Underworld Oder
6 | Ceres Magazine | Oct/Nov 2015
A 3-storey faceless depiction of Ceres rests atop the Chicago Board of Trade Building - By TonyTheTiger; modified by Ceres Magazine.
Ceres' Legacy:
Ceres is the figure on the right on the official seal of New Jersey. She symbolizes the "Prosperity" aspect of the state Motto.
Statues of Ceres on top of the domes of the Missouri State Capitol and the Vermont State House serve as reminders of the importance of agriculture in the states' economies and histories.
There is also a statue of her on top of the Chicago Board of Trade Building, which conducts trading in agricultural commodities.
The dwarf planet Ceres (discovered 1801), is named after this goddess. And in turn, the chemical element cerium (discovered 1803) was named after the dwarf planet.
A poem about Ceres and humanity is featured in Dmitri's confession to his brother Alexei in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Part 1, Book 3, Chapter 3.
Ceres appears as a character in William Shakespeare's play, The Tempest (1611).
An aria in praise of Ceres is sung in Act 4 of the opera The Trojans by Hector Berlioz.
In the U.S., there are eight cities, towns or communities named after the Goddess: Ceres California, Ceres Iowa, Ceres New York, Ceres Oklahoma, Ceres Pennsylvania, Ceres Virginia, Ceres Washington, Ceres West Virginia.
Ceres was depicted on several ten and twenty Confederate States of America dollar notes.
Rites & Priests
agricultural cycle, she had a seven-day April festival Ceriales (Ceres' games). She was also honored in the May lustration of fields at the Ambarvalia festival, at harvest-time, and, in January, Ceres and Tellus were offered spelt
maRRiages