Demeter
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In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although Demeter is mostly
Ancient marble statue of Demeter with right hand extended. The head is a modern restoration. (National Roman Museum)
Demeter on a Didrachme from Paros island, struck at the Cyclades.
Demeter, enthroned and extending her hand in a benediction toward the kneeling Metaneira, who offers the triune wheat (c. 340 BC)
The Eleusinian trio: Persephone, Triptolemus and Demeter (Roman copy dating to the Early Imperial period and hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of the Great Eleusinian Relief in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, marble bas-relief from Eleusis, 440–430 BC.)
Ceres (mythology)
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In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility, and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad,
Demeter
…c. 1400–1200 BC. Demeter was often considered to be the same figure as the Anatolian goddess Cybele, and she was identified with the Roman goddess Ceres. Demeter may appear in Linear A as da-ma-te on three documents (AR Zf 1 and 2, and KY Za 2), all three dedicated to religious situations and all three…
Seated Ceres from Emerita Augusta, present-day Mérida, Spain (National Museum of Roman Art, 1st century AD)
Funerary statue of an unknown woman, depicted as Ceres holding wheat. Mid 3rd century AD. (Louvre)
During her long, torch-lit search for her daughter, Proserpina, Ceres drinks water given her by Hecuba, and is mocked by the boy, Askalabos, for spilling some of it. She will transform him into a lowly "star-lizard' or newt (Latin; stellio) as punishment. The episode is in Ovid's, Metamorphoses V, lines 449-450. Oil-paint on copper, by Adam Elsheimer and workshop, copy circa 1605, held by the Museo Nacional del Prado. From an original in the collection of Alfred and Isabel Bader
Ceres holding a bundle of cereal grains, a late 18th century work by Dominik Auliczek of the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory