MYTHOLOGY 



404.-) 



MYTHOLOGY 



The I iul.-rur.Miml Queen 



Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, was one of 

 the busiest of the deities. In the springtime, she 

 had to go about from field to field all over the 

 earth, attending to the sowing of the seeds; in 

 the summer, she watched the growth of the 

 ns and fruits; and in the autumn, she went 

 :t from place to place blessing the harvests. 

 Her car bore her swiftly, and she so loved the 

 helpful work she did that she never grew tired. 

 Still, she was always glad to come back to her 

 home and to her beautiful daughter, Proserpina, 

 whom she loved very dearly. 



Like her mother, Proserpina had her duties to 

 perform, though they were not as difficult as 

 those of her mother. She had charge of all the 

 flowers, and in the springtime, when she walked 

 ss the meadows, violets and daisies and but- 

 tercups sprang up in her footsteps. Naturally, 

 loved the dowers, and spent much of her time 

 in the fields with her companions tending them 

 gathering them for wreaths. 



One day, as the girls played in the meadows, 

 they heard a strange, rumbling sound and looked 

 up hastily. A huge, dark chariot with dark horses 

 and a handsome, but gloomy-looking, driver was 

 coming toward them. The girls screamed in 

 terror and started to scatter. But the driver 

 stopped his chariot, leaped to the ground, and 

 seizing Proserpina, bore her away with him in 

 his chariot. The frightened girl called to her 

 companions and to her mother, but the black 

 horses carried them on too swiftly for any help 

 to follow her. Meanwhile the stern-looking man 

 explained to Proserpina that he was Pluto, king 

 of all the regions below the earth ; that he loved 

 her and wanted her for his wife. 



Proserpina answered: 



"I must tell my mother ; she will be wild with 

 grief when she finds that I am gone and knows 

 not where to look for me." 



But Pluto shook his head. 



would never let you go with me," he 

 declared. 



While they were talking thus, they had come to 

 the margin of the River Cyane, which opposed 

 their passage. Angrily, Pluto struck the ground 

 with the great trident which he carried, and the 

 earth opened and made him a passage back to his 

 underground kingdom. 



The darkness in which they found themselves 

 after the earth had closed behind them was de- 

 lightful to Pluto, whose eyes were tired with the 

 glare of the sun ; but to Proserpina it was nothing 

 lens than horrible. All her life she had been used 

 to living out-of-doors from daylight to dark ; and 

 now this waa far. far worse than the blackest 

 night she had ever seen. 



"You will like it when you become accustomed 

 to It." said Pluto, noticing that the girl trembled 

 as she sat beside him. 



Gradually the way grew lighter, though the 

 light was white and ghostly not like the beauti- 

 ful golden sunlight of the upper world. 



i they came at length to the huge palace 



into, he expected Proserpina to exclaim with 



delight over Its gorgeouaness ; for Pluto owned all 



the gold and silver and gems that lay hidden in 



earth and had made good use of them in 



docking his palace. But Proserpina was not used 



to gorgeousness. She and her mother had lived 

 simply always, and the rich gems which she saw 

 about her were less to her than a handful of 

 fragrant flowers would have been. And all the 

 jewel-studded lights, which to her seemed to 

 serve only to make the gloom more noticeable, 

 she would have exchanged for one look at the 

 stars. 



It was the same way with the food. All her 

 life she had eaten but the plainest dishes simple 

 grains, fruits, bread and milk. And the rich food 

 which Pluto ordered to be placed before her 

 seemed so strange to her that she would not even 

 taste It. This went on for several days. Pluto, in 

 great distress, urging h-r to eat. and she as 

 steadily refusing. 



Meanwhile her mother had been almost dis- 

 tracted with fear and grief. The girls with whom 

 Proserpina had beea playing could tell her noth- 

 ing except that a man in a black chariot had 

 carried off her daughter. Who the man was. she 

 could have no idea. She sought day and night 

 through one country after another for her daugh- 

 ter. The sun, when he came through the doors 

 of the East In the morning, saw her wandering 

 on, stopping everyone to inquire for her lost girl . 

 and the evening star found her still at her t 

 One day, as she sat for a few minutes resting on 

 a stone, an old man with a little girl passed her. 

 The goddess bore about her no signs of her divin- 

 ity . she looked like a poor, worn-out, old woman. 

 and they took pity on her and begged her to go 

 home with them. At last she consented to do so. 

 and as they walked the old man told her that his 

 little son was very sick of a fever and that In- 

 feared to find him dead. 



When they reached the house they found that 

 the child had grown rapidly worse, that he was. 

 in fact, almost dead. You may imagine the de- 

 light it caused 

 when Ceres, tak- 

 ing the child in 

 her arms, kissed 

 him and thus re- 

 stored him in- 

 stantly to health. 

 Then she asked 

 that she might be 

 allowed to take 

 charge of the boy. 

 Of course the 

 family was on ly 

 too glad to have 

 so excel 1 i, t i 

 n u r s e ; but tho 

 mother, overanx- 

 ious for the son in 

 whose sudden re- 

 covery she couil 

 scarcely yet be- 



CERES 



lieve. determined Here Ceres' gifts In waving 



w h h l d t' h n at^ h A " d BttRS 



what happened ; . ; > i ! 1 1 : < l 



and It was, Indeed, 



a startling sight which she saw. 



Ceres bathed the boy. murmured some magic- 

 sounding words over him. and then, stepping to 



hearth, raked a hollow In the glowing coals 

 and laid the boy within It. The watching m< 



ns forward with a cry and snatched her child 



