CEREALS 



1256 



CERVANTES SAAVEDRA 



searching for his wife Eurydice, played such 

 melting strains on his lyre that Cerberus was 

 won over and permitted him, though a mortal, 

 to enter the realms of Pluto. 



REPRESENTATIONS OF CERBERUS 



(a) Hercules capturing Cerberus. (From a vase 

 painting.) 



(b) A bronze Cerberus dating . from ancient 

 times, now in the Vatican Museum, Rome. 



The last of the twelve labors of Hercules 

 (which see) was the descent into Hades to 

 secure the savage Cerberus. Hercules speedily 

 accomplished this fearful task, but when he 

 brought the triple-headed monster to Eurys- 

 theus, at whose command the deed was per- 

 formed, the latter fled in terror, and taking 

 refuge in a huge jar would not come out of his 

 hiding place until Hercules had carried the 

 dog back to Hades. 



CEREALS, se'realz. See GRAINS. 



CERES, se'reez, in ancient mythology, a 

 Roman goddess who protected and watched 

 over the fruits of the earth, and especially the 

 grains. She was the daughter of Saturn and 

 Rhea and mother of Proserpina (in Greek, 

 Persephone). According to the interesting 

 myth, when her daughter was stolen and car- 

 ried off to Hades, Ceres neglected the earth 

 during her search for Proserpina, and all vege- 

 tation died. The Romans built temples and 

 celebrated the festival of the Cerealia, in honor 

 of Ceres. The sacrifices made to her consisted 

 of pigs and cows. Ceres was usually repre- 

 sented in full attire, holding ears of corn and 

 a lighted torch, and with poppies, her sacred 

 flower. The Greeks worshiped the goddess 

 under the name Demeter. The earliest plane- 

 toid known was named Ceres, according to the 

 custom of giving stars and constellations names 

 taken from mythology. See PROSERPINA. 



CEREUS, se'reus. See CACTUS. 



CERRO GORDO, ser'ro gor'do, BATTLE OF, in 

 the war between Mexico and the United States, 

 one of the most important battles fought by 

 the Americans on their triumphal march from 

 Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico. Cerro 



Gordo is a mountain pass near Jalapa, sixty 

 miles northwest of Vera Cruz. There a force 

 of 12,000 Mexicans, under Santa Anna, was 

 attacked and totally routed by 8,500 Americans 

 under General Scott, on April 18, 1847. The 

 Mexicans lost about 1,000 in killed and 

 wounded; the Americans sixty-three killed and 

 368 wounded. This victory cleared the way 

 for the Americans nearly to the capital of 

 Mexico, which was captured on September 14. 



CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, thcr vahn ' lays 

 sahah vay'drah, MIGUEL DE (1547-1616), uni- 

 versally acknowledged to be the greatest of 

 Spanish novelists, rich in imagination and keen 

 of wit the author of Don Quixote, a book 

 translated into 

 nearly all the 

 languages of the 

 world. This book 

 (which is de- 

 scribed in detail 

 under its title) 

 was written to 

 ridicule the ex- 

 travagantly sen- 

 timental stories 

 of chivalry that 

 the people of that 

 day were so fond 

 of reading, but in 

 itself it is a masterpiece of satirical writing, con- 

 taining a wealth of humor and revealing sure 

 insight into human nature. The early life of 

 the author is not known in much detail. It is 

 certain that he was born in Alcala de Henares, 

 of pure Castilian stock, but his education is 

 largely a matter of conjecture. Early in his 

 career he joined the army, for there is record of 

 the gallant part he played in the Battle of Le- 

 panto (1570), at which the Turkish power in 

 Europe received its death blow. There is 

 further record of his experiences as a soldier 

 and of his capture in 1575 by a band of Al- 

 gerine pirates. For five years he bore with 

 praiseworthy fortitude the hardships of prison 

 life, being finally ransomed through the efforts 

 of friends and relatives. 



Returning to Spain, Cervantes married and 

 began seriously to devote himself to literature. 

 He published some sonnets in 1583, and two 

 years later a pastoral novel, Galatea, gained 

 for him considerable notice. Following this 

 appeared a long list of plays from twenty to 

 thirty or more but he was not successful as 

 a dramatist, and for a time lived in very 

 straitened circumstances. Only a few verses 



CERVANTES 



