CERES AND HER DAUGHTER
In which we find out how it happened that we must have winter time and summer time.
Ceres, the goddess of the harvests, was very fond of her daughter, Proserpina, and seldom let her go into the fields alone. One time when she was very busy looking after the crops all over the earth, she gave Proserpina permission to go down to the shore and play with the sea nymphs.
She had not been playing long before she besought the sea nymphs to go with her into the fields to gather flowers. The nymphs dared not to go upon the dry land because they had to keep themselves wet all the time, so Proserpina ran off alone. Never had she seen such lovely flowers, and the farther she went the more beautiful they became. She was just on the point of turning back when she saw a shrub covered with blossoms. The shrub was so full of them that she decided to pull it up by the roots.
Proserpina pulled and pulled. Finally it came up leaving a hole that deepened and widened before her. All the while there came a rumbling noise out of its depths, like the tramp of horses’ hoofs and the rattling of wheels. She soon saw a team of four horses snorting smoke out of their nostrils, and tearing their way out of the earth drawing a splendid chariot of gold.
In the chariot was a man with a crown on his head. He kept rubbing his eyes and shading them with his hand because he was not fond of the sunlight. This man was Pluto, god of the lower regions. He seized Proserpina, placed her in the chariot, shook the reins, and away galloped the horses. Proserpina screamed for her mother, but Ceres was thousands of miles away.
Down to his palace they went where Pluto did everything to make Proserpina happy. Proserpina made a vow not to taste food while within King Pluto’s dominion, because those who eat there can never leave.
When Ceres heard what Pluto had done she was so miserable she cared neither for seed time nor harvest. She came to the resolution that not a stalk of grain, nor blade of grass should grow until her daughter was restored. All vegetation was parched brown when Mercury was sent to Pluto in hopes of persuading him to release Proserpina.