724 



PROSERPINE PROSODY. 



building I lie temple, ami were descended from the 

 Canaaiiites (2 Chron. ii. 17, 18). The proselytes of 

 righteousness were persons who had been fully con- 

 verted from paganism to Judaism, had been circum- 

 cised, and bound themselves to observe the Mosaic 

 law. Before their circumcision, they were exa- 

 mined respecting the grounds of their conversion ; 

 after their circumcision they received baptism, be- 

 ins immersed, with their whole body, in a cistern 

 full of water, on a festival, in the presence of three 

 judges. This baptism, known under the name of 

 proselyte baptism, was repeated in the case of those 

 children of a proselyte, who had a heathen mother. 

 Boys under twelve, and girls under thirteen, could 

 not become proselytes without the consent of their 

 parents, or, in case of their refusal, the aid of the 

 magistrates. By the baptism, every one was con- 

 sidered as born anew, so that his parents were no 

 longer regarded as such, and slaves thus baptized 

 were set free. Respecting the antiquity of Jewish 

 proselyte baptism, there has been much controversy. 

 The rabbins taught that the proselytes of righteous- 

 ness received from heaven a new soul and a new 

 essential form. The Mosaic laws, moreover, ex- 

 cluded some persons from the -privileges of prose- 

 lytes, sometimes forever, sometimes for a certain 

 period. (Deut. xxiii., 1 5). That there were 

 proselytes of the first kind, in the time of Jesus, 

 seems to be intimated by the fact that Jesus 

 objected to the Pharisees that they compassed sea 

 and land to make one proselyte, and made him a 

 greater sinner than before (Matt, xxiii. 15). 



PROSERPINE (Greek, Persephone, Persepho- 

 neia) ; according to some, the daughter of Jupiter 

 and Styx; or, according to the more usual tradition, 

 the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. Pluto carried her 

 oil , with the consent of Jupiter, and made her his 

 wife. This fable has been treated by several poets, 

 and adorned in different ways. According to the 

 Homeric hymn to Ceres, Proserpine was once danc- 

 ing in the choir of nymphs, led by Minerva and 

 Diana, in a grassy meadow. Leaving the dancers, 

 she went with some of her companions to gather 

 flowers. At the prayer of Pluto, and with the con- 

 sent of Jupiter, the earth produced a hundred 

 blooming narcissuses, from one root, and gods and 

 men were astonished at their beauty, and delighted 

 by their odour. The maid eagerly gathered them, 

 and, beguiled by their magic power, she wandered 

 from her companions. Suddenly the earth opened, 

 and Pluto rose from the chasm, with his immortal 

 steeds, seized Proserpine, and carried her, in a 

 golden chariot, to the lower world. She called 

 loudly on her father for protection, but in vain ; no 

 one heard her cries except Hecate and the Sun. 

 Claudian is still more circumstantial in his account. 

 He sings that the beauty of Proserpine had inflamed 

 all the gods with love, particularly Mars and Apollo. 

 In order to deliver her daughter from the impor- 

 tunities of her lovers, Ceres concealed her in a 

 cavern in Sicily, where, with her nurse Calligena, 

 she was watched by dragons. Pluto begged her of 

 Jupiter for a wife ; he consented, and ordered 

 Venus to entice the maid out of the cavern by arti- 

 fice. Venus went to Sicily in company with Mi- 

 nerva and Diana, and not finding the watchful 

 mother at home, they easily persuaded the girl to 

 go to walk. She went out", therefore, in company 

 with the nymphs and zephyrs, to pluck flowers in 

 the blooming fields. Suddenly the earth opened, 

 and Pluto bore the astonished maiden to the lower 

 world, while Jupiter signified his approbation by 

 his thunder. In vain did Jupiter attempt to obtain 

 her mother's consent to her marriage with Pluto, 

 and he at length granted her permission to return 



to the nppfr world, provided she hail not tasted any 

 of the food of the gods. But while walking thn>iih 

 the lovely fields of Elysium, she had eaten a pome- 

 granate, and all that Jupiter could grant to the 

 prayers of her afflicted mother was, that she should 

 spend the spring and summer of each year in the 

 upper world. See Ceres. 



The Orphic hymns call her the mother of the 

 Eumpnides and Ebuleus (Bacchus), the only begot- 

 ten, the venerable wife of Pluto, the queen of the. 

 shades, the avenger of perjury, the companion of 

 the Hours, the all-ruling maid, the fruitful, tii 

 nourishing, the goddess of spring. She brings all 

 things to light, amuses herself in the fragrant 

 meads, and adorns her sacred bosom with green 

 herbs ; she is the resplendent and horned goddess ; 

 she is also celebrated, under the name Mise, as the 

 mother of Bacchus, the chaste, holy, the ineffable 

 queen, having the form both of man and woman. 

 In the mysteries, Proserpine was also the symbol 

 of the soul confined in the body. She had no 

 children by Pluto ; but by Jupiter, who had inter- 

 course with her in the form of a serpent, she had 

 Zagreus. Jupiter gave her the island of Sicily; and 

 the city of Agrigentum, in this island, was peculiarly 

 sacred to her. She is represented sitting on a 

 throne, by the side of her husband, with narcissuses 

 or a pomegranate in her hand, or alone, holding the 

 two-forked trident of her husband. She was also 

 worshipped in Locris and at Megalopolis, and she 

 had a celebrated grove near the lake of Avenuis ; 

 in Rome, as at Megalopolis, she had a temple in 

 common with Ceres, which men were permitted to 

 enter only once a year. As goddess of the infernal 

 regions, a black, sterile cow was offered to her ; 

 the pomegranate, the bat, and the winter, were 

 sacred to her. She was worshipped, together with 

 Ceres, in the Eleusinian mysteries. Pirithous and 

 Theseus, who attempted to carry her off, were 

 obliged, according to some, to remain in the infernal 

 regions. To Proserpine is ascribed the office of 

 cutting off the lock of hair by which the dead were 

 devoted to the lower world. At funerals, of the 

 dead, it was usual to smite the breast, as a mark of 

 honour to her. The friends and servants of the 

 deceased cut off their hair and threw it on the pile, 

 to appease Proserpine. She is often confounded 

 with Hecate. Gerhard has collected the ancient 

 representations of Venus Proserpine, in his J'enus 

 Proserpina illustrata (Fiesole, 1826). 



PROSODY (from cr^aj, to, and fin, song) treats 

 of quantity, accent, and the laws of versification, 

 and of all that affects the harmony of verse or prose. 

 If we consider the elements of language (the vowels 

 and consonants), we find that the sound dwells upon 

 the vowel, and longer if several vowels stand to- 

 gether and combine to form one sound. Double 

 vowels, therefore, and diphthongs, render syllables 

 long. Further, as to consonants ; if several follow 

 each other, they also require the voice to dwell on 

 them, and, therefore, likewise render the syllable 

 long. Consonants following each other, without 

 intermediate vowels, affect the length of the 

 syllables by position, as it is called. The proportion 

 of vowels and consonants is very different in differ- 

 ent languages. (See Consonants.) Idioms, the 

 principle of which is euphony (e. g. the Italian and 

 Spanish), give a preponderance to the vowels, and 

 avoid successive consonants. In the northern lan- 

 guages, on the other hand, the consonants prevail, 

 and too often follow each other ; but three in suc- 

 cession are less frequent, and prolong the sound 

 still more. Three consonants, in German, would 

 render a syllable long by position. Such a deter- 

 mination of the time, according to the proportionate 





