WHEAT. ^81 



her before harvest, either swine, as being 

 great destroyers of the productions of the 

 earth, or a cow-calf; and garlands of ears of 

 corn were offered to her before they began 

 to reap. 



To Ceres bland, her annual rites be paid, 



On the green turf, beneath the fragrant shade ; 



When winter ends and spring serenely shines, 



Then fat the lambs, then mellow are the wines : 



Then sweet are slumbers on the flowery ground ; 



Then with thick shades are lofty mountains crown'd. 



Let all the hinds bend low at Ceres' shrine ; 



Mix honey sweet, for her, with milk and mellow wine. 



Thrice lead the victim the new fruits around, 



And Ceres call, and choral hymns resound. 



Presume not, swains, the ripen'd grain to reap, 



Till crown'd with oak in antic dance you leap, 



Invoking Ceres; and in solemn lays 



Exalt your rural queen's immortal praise. 



Pitt's Virgil, 



The poet informs us, that the art was 

 carried from Sicily to Athens by Ceres. 



She halts at Athens, dropping like a star, 

 And to Triptolemus resigns her car. 

 Parent of seed, she gave him fruitful grain, 

 And bade him teach to till and plough the plain ; 

 The seed to sow, as well in fallow fields 

 As where the soil manured a richer harvest yields. 



Ovid. 



