a Pagan deity, the inventor or goddefs of corn; in like manner as Bacchus was of wine.

According to the poets, she was the daughter of Saturn and Ops, and the mother of Proserpine, whom she had by Jupiter. Pluto having stolen away Proserpine, Ceres travelled all over the world in quest of her daughter, by the help of a torch, which she had lighted in Mount Aetna.

As Ceres was thus travelling in search of her daughter, she came to Celeus king of Eleusis, and undertook to bring up his infant son Triptolemus. Being desirous to render her charge immortal, she fed him in the day-time with divine milk, and in the night covered him with fire. Celeus observing an unusual improvement in his son, resolved to watch his nurse, to which end he hid himself in that part of the house where she used to cover the child with fire; but when he saw her put the infant under the embers, he cried out and discovered himself. Ceres punished the curiosity and indiscretion of the father with death. Afterwards she taught the youth the art of sowing corn and other fruits, and mounted him in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, that he might traverse the world, and teach mankind the use of corn and fruits. After this, having discovered, by means of the nymph Arethusa, that Proserpine was in the infernal regions, she applied to Jupiter, and obtained of him that Proserpine should be restored, on condition that she had tasted nothing during her stay in that place; but it being

Vol. IV. Part I.

discovered, by the information of Ascalaphus, that, as she was walking in Pluto's orchard, she had gathered an apple, and had tasted of some of the seeds, she was for ever forbidden to return. Ceres, out of revenge, turned Ascalaphus into an owl. At length, Jupiter, to mitigate her grief, permitted that Proserpine should pass one half of the year in the infernal regions with Pluto, and the other half with her mother on earth.

Cicero speaks of a temple of Ceres at Catanea in Sicily, where was a very ancient statue of that goddess, but entirely concealed from the sight of men, every thing being performed by matrons and virgins.