CÁCERES: CERES-by Ethel Sainz de Vicuña

Cáceres: ceres.

Ceres is known as the goddess of agriculture and fertility in the Roman mythology (in Greek mythology is known as Demeter).

MYTH:

Ceres was Ops and Saturn’s daughter and had a lot of brothers

and sisters: Juno, Vesta, Pluto, Neptune and Jupiter. These last ones, Neptune and Jupiter fell in love with her. Jupiter had a baby with her called Proserpina. At the same time, Ceres didn’t want to be with Neptune, so she transformed herself into a mare to run away from him, but Neptune knew about her plans, so he transformed himself into a horse and as a result of this union they conceived the mythological horse called Arion. 

Even though Ceres is known as the goddess of agriculture, she didn’t work by her own; she had 12 gods (such as Obarator or Messor) who helped her with each aspect of agriculture.

HOW DID PEOPLE WORSHIP HER? : 

Some people commemorated her presence by running around the streets at night, shouting and carrying with them some torches. 

HOW DOES SHE LOOK? :

When people represent Ceres, they usually do it as a beautiful woman with blond messy hair and wearing a crown. She also has big breasts (because of her representing fertility).  Talking about clothes, she usually wears a large tunic that goes all along until her feet,and a veil. Finally, she usually carries an agriculture tool.

CERES IN CÁCERES:

A statue of Ceres can be found in Cáceres in ‘El Foro de los Balbos’, even though it hasn’t been there all the time. It was found in the XV century in the Salor river but the one that we can see it’s a copy of the real one.  In the photo we can see that she is missing an arm and the nose.  

Ethel