Ceres

Family: Olympian gods · Role: goddess · First appears: Fable 48

Ceres, a goddess among the Olympian gods, is associated with Ampycus, who is her priest. In fable 51, she searches everywhere for her daughter Proserpina, whose marriage to Pluto is against her will; during this journey, she transforms Stellio into a small spotted creature. At Trinacria, her anger leads her to destroy the ploughs, husbandmen, and oxen, and to make the land yield corrupted seed.

Arethusa reveals that Proserpina is in the Underworld as Pluto’s queen, and Ceres appeals to her brother Jupiter for her return. Jupiter permits it only if Proserpina has eaten no food, and then divides her year between Ceres and the Infernal Regions. Relieved by her daughter’s recovery, Ceres questions Arethusa about her wanderings and preserves her spring; she also visits Cyane, who would have told her everything had she not been transformed. “Lo! my daughter, so long sought for, has been found by me at last”

Ceres later becomes the mother of Arion by Neptune, and Proserpine is also called Deois after her. She entrusts Triptolemus with seeds and her chariot, ordering him to cultivate the earth; when Lyncus attempts to kill him, she turns him into a lynx. Œneus offers her the first fruits of a plentiful year. When Erisicthon cuts down her sacred oak, Ceres assents to the request for his punishment and orders Oreas to send Famine to him, though Famine is said to oppose Ceres’s operations even while carrying out her orders.