Proserpine

Also known as: ravished wife · Family: Infernal gods · Role: daughter of Ceres and queen of Erebus · First appears: Fable 52

Life events

Arethusa reveals that Proserpine is in the Underworld as Pluto’s queen.(Fable52 · 📍 Stygian stream)
- With: Arethusa Ceres
- “While, then, I was running under the earth, along the Stygian stream, thy Proserpine was there beheld by my eyes.”
Jupiter conditionally permits Proserpine’s return if she has eaten no food.(Fable52)
- With: Ceres Jupiter
- “But if thy eagerness is so great for their separation, let Proserpine return to heaven; still upon this fixed condition, if she has touched no food there with her lips; for thus has it been provided by the law of the Destinies.”
Ascalaphus discovers Proserpine’s eating and prevents her return.(Fable52)
- With: Ascalaphus
- “He beheld {this}, and cruelly prevented her return by his discovery.”
Jupiter divides Proserpine’s yearly residence between Ceres and the Infernal Regions.(Fable52 · 📍 Infernal Regions)
- With: Jupiter Ceres Pluto
- “Jupiter, to console Ceres for her loss, decides that her daughter shall remain six months each year with her mother upon earth, and the other six with her husband, in the Infernal Regions.”

parent: Ceres (Ceres refers to Proserpine as her daughter.) “Lo! my daughter, so long sought for, has been found by me at last”
parent: Jupiter (Jupiter identifies Proserpine as his daughter jointly connected to Ceres.) “Thy daughter is a pledge and charge, in common to me and thee”
married with Pluto (The Infernal King is Pluto.) “still, too, is she the powerful spouse of the Infernal King”
with Arethusa (Arethusa saw Proserpine in the Underworld.) “While, then, I was running under the earth, along the Stygian stream, thy Proserpine was there beheld by my eyes.”
with Ascalaphus (Proserpine, the Queen of Erebus, punishes Ascalaphus by transforming him.) “The Queen of Erebus grieved, and changed the informer into an accursed bird”

married with Pluto “[Footnote 33: King of the shades.--Ver. 249. Pluto and Proserpine. Clarke translates this line and the next, ‘And prays to the king of shades with his kidnapped wife, that they would not be too forward to deprive the limbs of the old gentleman of life.’]”

Extracted from the original text of The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Made with Rho MD.