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118-783: Ceres is the only one of Rome's many agricultural deities to be listed among the Dii Consentes , Rome's equivalent to the Twelve Olympians of Greek mythology. The Romans saw her as the counterpart of the Greek goddess Demeter , whose mythology was reinterpreted for Ceres in Roman art and literature . The name Cerēs stems from Proto-Italic *kerēs ('with grain, Ceres'; cf. Faliscan ceres , Oscan kerrí 'Cererī' < * ker-s-ēi- < * ker-es-ēi- ), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₃-os ('nourishment, grain'),

236-638: A homo sacer who had offended Ceres' laws against tyranny. The Eleusinian mysteries became increasingly popular during the late Republic. Early Roman initiates at Eleusis in Greece included Sulla and Cicero ; thereafter many Emperors were initiated, including Hadrian , who founded an Eleusinian cult centre in Rome itself. In Late Republican politics, aristocratic traditionalists and popularists used coinage to propagate their competing claims to Ceres' favour. A coin of Sulla shows Ceres on one side, and on

354-582: A basis for the Eleusinian mysteries . From the end of the 3rd century BC, Demeter's temple at Enna , in Sicily , was acknowledged as Ceres' oldest, most authoritative cult centre, and Libera was recognised as Proserpina, Roman equivalent to Demeter's daughter Persephone . Their joint cult recalls Demeter's search for Persephone, after the latter's abduction into the underworld by Hades . The new, women-only cult to "mother and maiden" took its place alongside

472-406: A character in the tragedy Octavia , the only extant example of fabula praetexta (tragedies based on Roman subjects, first created by Naevius ), and as a result, the play was mistakenly attributed as having been authored by Seneca himself. However, though historians have since confirmed that the play was not one of Seneca's works, the true author remains unknown. Senecan tragedy put forth

590-437: A combination of private benefactors, public subscription, and proceeds from the summae honorariae or payments for office positions made by magistrates. To demonstrate their benefactions, statues or inscriptions (sometimes in sums of money) were erected or inscribed for all to see in front of the tribunalia, in the proscaenium or scaenae frons , parts of the building meant to be in the public eye. Building theatres required both

708-451: A declamatory style, or a style of tragedy that emphasized rhetoric structures. It was a style characterized through paradox , discontinuity , antithesis , and the adoption of declamatory structures and techniques that involved aspects of compression, elaboration, epigram , and of course, hyperbole, as most of his plays seemed to emphasize such exaggerations in order to make points more persuasive. Seneca wrote tragedies that reflected

826-608: A derivative of the root *ḱerh₃- , meaning 'to feed'. The Proto-Italic adjective * keresjo - ('belonging to Ceres') can also be reconstructed from Oscan kerríiúí (fem. kerríiai ), and Umbrian śerfi (fem. śerfie ). A masculine form * keres-o - ('with grain, Cerrus') is attested in Umbrian śerfe . The spelling of Latin Cerus , a masculine form of Ceres denoting the creator (cf. Cerus manus 'creator bonus', duonus Cerus 'good Cerus'), might also reflect Cerrus , which would match

944-488: A female aspect of Liber. No native Roman myths of Ceres are known. According to interpretatio romana , by which Roman deities were identified with their Greek counterparts, she was an equivalent to Demeter, one of the Twelve Olympians of Greek religion and mythology; this made Ceres one of Rome's twelve Di Consentes , daughter of Saturn and Ops , sister of Jupiter , mother of Proserpina by Jupiter and sister of Juno , Vesta , Neptune and Dis . Ceres' known mythology

1062-535: A guild exclusively for female stage performers, the Sociae Mimae . The public opinion of actors was very low, placing them within the same social status as criminals and prostitutes, and acting as a profession was considered illegitimate and repulsive. Many Roman actors were slaves, and it was not unusual for a performer to be beaten by his master as punishment for an unsatisfactory performance. These actions and opinions differ greatly from those demonstrated during

1180-596: A large area of the Italian Peninsula , circa 364 BC. Following the devastation of widespread plague in 364 BC, Roman citizens began including theatrical games as a supplement to the Lectisternium ceremonies already being performed, in a stronger effort to pacify the gods. In the years following the establishment of these practices, actors began adapting these dances and games into performances by acting out texts set to music and simultaneous movement. As

1298-412: A large number of the many Roman deities known by name either supported farming or were devoted solely to a specific agricultural function. From 272 to 264 BC, four temples were dedicated separately to the agricultural deities Consus , Tellus , Pales , and Vortumnus . The establishment of four such temples within a period of eight years indicates a high degree of concern for stabilizing and developing

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1416-442: A massive undertaking and a significant amount of time, often lasting generations. Roman theatres, particularly ones constructed in western-Roman , were mainly modeled on Greek ones. They were often arranged in a semicircle around an orchestra, but both the stage and scene building were joined together with the auditorium and were elevated to the same height, creating an enclosure very similar in structure and appearance to that of

1534-413: A modern theatre. This was furthered by odea or smaller theatres having roofs or larger theatres having vela, allowing for the audience to have some shade. During the time of these temporary structures, theatrical performances featured a very minimalist atmosphere. This included space for spectators to stand or sit to watch the play, known as a cavea , and a stage, or scaena . The setting for each play

1652-493: A more prominent component in Roman festivals of the time, claiming their place in events that had previously only featured races, athletic competitions, and gladiatorial battles. All six of the comedies that Terence composed between 166 and 160 BC have survived. The complexity of his plots, in which he routinely combined several Greek originals into one production, brought about heavy criticism, including claims that in doing so, he

1770-440: A new form of Cerean cult was officially imported from Magna Graecia, it was known as the ritus graecus (Greek rite) of Ceres, and was distinct from her older Roman rites. The older forms of Aventine rites to Ceres remain uncertain. Most Roman cults were led by men, and the officiant's head was covered by a fold of his toga. In the Roman ritus graecus , a male celebrant wore Greek-style vestments, and remained bareheaded before

1888-463: A new form of expression, philosophy. The development that occurred was first initiated by playwrights that were Greeks or half-Greeks living in Rome. While Greek literary tradition in drama influenced the Romans, the Romans chose to not fully adopt these traditions, and instead the dominant local language of Latin was used. These Roman plays that were beginning to be performed were heavily influenced by

2006-457: A particular style of architecture and stage play, and conveyed to an audience purely as a form of entertainment and control. When it came to the audience, Romans favored entertainment and performance over tragedy and drama, displaying a more modern form of theatre that is still used in contemporary times. 'Spectacle' became an essential part of an everyday Romans expectations when it came to theatre. Some works by Plautus , Terence , and Seneca

2124-507: A solitary spot out of the city, to which the public are not necessarily led but for the purpose of sacrificing to her. This spot is to be reverenced with religious awe and solemnity of demeanour, by those whose affairs lead them to visit it." During the early Imperial era, soothsayers advised Pliny the Younger to restore an ancient, "old and narrow" temple to Ceres, at his rural property near Como . It contained an ancient wooden cult statue of

2242-424: A translation of Demeter's Greek epithet, thesmophoros . As Ceres' first plough-furrow opened the earth (Tellus' realm) to the world of men and created the first field and its boundary, her laws determined the course of settled, lawful, civilised life. Crimes against fields and harvest were crimes against the people and their protective deity. Landowners who allowed their flocks to graze on public land were fined by

2360-523: Is Faustina the Younger ", empress-wife of Pius' successor Marcus Aurelius . In Britain, a soldier's inscription of the 2nd century AD attests to Ceres' role in the popular syncretism of the times. She is "the bearer of ears of corn", the "Syrian Goddess", identical with the universal heavenly Mother, the Magna Mater and Virgo , virgin mother of the gods. She is peace and virtue, and inventor of justice: she weighs "Life and Right" in her scale. During

2478-410: Is also the originator of bloody animal sacrifice, a necessity in the renewal of life. She has a particular enmity towards her own sacrificial animal, the pig. Pigs offend her by their destructive rooting-up of field crops under her protection; and in the myth of Proserpina's abduction on the plains of Henna (Enna), her tracks were obscured by their trampling. If not for them, Ceres might have been spared

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2596-460: Is closely identified with Tellus and, as Ceres legifera (law-bearer), she "bears the laws" of marriage. In the most solemn form of marriage, confarreatio , the bride and groom shared a cake made of far, the ancient wheat-type particularly associated with Ceres. From at least the mid-republican era, an official, joint cult to Ceres and Proserpina reinforced Ceres' connection with Roman ideals of female virtue. The promotion of this cult coincides with

2714-587: Is featured both as a goddess and Queen of Sicilly in De Mulieribus Claris , a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio , composed in 1361–62 and notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature. Ceres appears briefly to bless the wedding of Ferdinand and Miranda, in a masque at

2832-425: Is indistinguishable from Demeter's: When Ceres sought through all the earth with lit torches for Proserpina, who had been seized by Dis Pater, she called her with shouts where three or four roads meet; from this it has endured in her rites that on certain days a lamentation is raised at the crossroads everywhere by the matronae . Ovid likens Ceres' devotion to her own offspring to that of a cow to its calf; but she

2950-467: Is shown, this probably belongs to the opium poppy ( papaver somniferum , the "sleep-bearing poppy"). The Roman poet Vergil, in Georgics , 1.212, describes this as Cereale papaver , or "Ceres' poppy", which eases pain and brings sleep - the deepest sleep of all being death. Poppies are often woven into Ceres' wheat-stalk crown, the corona spicea , worn by her priestesses and devotees. Ceres maintained

3068-452: The divus Julius Caesar be added as a thirteenth. Twelve specialized gods known only by name are invoked for the "cereal rite" (sacrum cereale) in honor of Ceres and Tellus. The twelve are all male, with names formed from the agent suffix -tor . Although their gender indicates that they are not aspects of the two goddesses who were the main recipients of the sacrum, their names are "mere appellatives" for verbal functions. The rite

3186-462: The grain supply ( annona ) and later the plebeian grain doles ( frumentationes ), the organisation and management of public games in general, and the maintenance of Rome's streets and public buildings. Otherwise, in Rome and throughout Italy, as at her ancient sanctuaries of Henna and Catena, Ceres' ritus graecus and her joint cult with Proserpina were invariably led by female sacerdotes , drawn from local and Roman elites: Cicero notes that once

3304-525: The heads of households . An inscription at Capua names a male sacerdos Cerialis mundalis , a priest dedicated to Ceres' rites of the mundus . The plebeian aediles had minor or occasional priestly functions at Ceres' Aventine Temple and were responsible for its management and financial affairs including collection of fines, the organisation of ludi Cerealia and probably the Cerealia itself. Their cure (care and jurisdiction) included, or came to include,

3422-502: The late Roman Republic and early Empire describe Ceres' Aventine temple and rites as conspicuously Greek. In modern scholarship, this is taken as further evidence of long-standing connections between the plebeians, Ceres and Magna Graecia. It also raises unanswered questions on the nature, history and character of these associations: the Triad itself may have been a self-consciously Roman cult formulation based on Greco-Italic precedents. When

3540-725: The mundus is first attested in the Late Republican Era, by Varro . The jurist Cato understood the shape of the mundus as a reflection or inversion of the dome of the upper heavens. Di Luzio observes that the Roman mundus shared functional and conceptual similarities with certain types of underground "pit altar" or megaron , used in Demeter's Thesmophoria. Roman tradition held that the mundus had been dug and sealed by Romulus as part of Rome's foundation; Plutarch compares it to pits dug by Etruscan colonists, containing soil brought from their parent city, used to dedicate

3658-413: The 1st century BC to the 3rd Century AD. The theatre of ancient Rome referred to a period of time in which theatrical practice and performance took place in Rome. The tradition has been linked back even further to the 4th century BC, following the state’s transition from monarchy to republic . Theatre during this era is generally separated into genres of tragedy and comedy , which are represented by

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3776-484: The 4th century. This is supported by the fact that Latin was an essential component to Roman Theatre. From 240 BC to 100 BC, Roman theatre had been introduced to a period of literary drama, within which classical and post-classical Greek plays had been adapted to Roman theatre. From 100 BC till 476 AD, Roman entertainment began to be captured by circus-like performances, spectacles, and miming while remaining allured by theatrical performances. The early drama that emerged

3894-464: The Etruscan traditions, particularly regarding the importance of music and performance. The first important works of Roman literature were the tragedies and comedies written by Livius Andronicus beginning in 240 BC. Five years later, Gnaeus Naevius , a younger contemporary of Andronicus, also began to write drama, composing in both genres as well. No plays from either writer have survived. By

4012-691: The Imperial family as Ceres, or with some of her attributes. Ceres was served by several public priesthoods. Some were male; her senior priest, the flamen cerialis , also served Tellus and was usually plebeian by ancestry or adoption. Her public cult at the Ambarvalia , or "perambulation of fields" identified her with Dea Dia , and was led by the Arval Brethren ("The Brothers of the Fields"); rural versions of these rites were led as private cult by

4130-464: The Late Imperial era, Ceres gradually "slips into obscurity"; the last known official association of the Imperial family with her symbols is a coin issue of Septimius Severus (AD 193–211), showing his empress, Julia Domna , in the corona spicea . After the reign of Claudius Gothicus , no coinage shows Ceres' image. Even so, an initiate of her mysteries is attested in the 5th century AD, after

4248-451: The Latin verb gerere , "to bear, bring forth, produce", because the goddess was linked to pastoral , agricultural and human fertility. Throughout the Roman era, Ceres' name was synonymous with grain and, by extension, with bread. Ceres was credited with the discovery of spelt wheat (Latin far ), the yoking of oxen and ploughing, the sowing, protection and nourishing of the young seed, and

4366-521: The Middle Republic onwards, expiation was increasingly addressed to her as mother to Proserpina. The last known followed Rome's Great Fire of 64 AD . The cause or causes of the fire remained uncertain, but its disastrous extent was taken as a sign of offense against Juno , Vulcan , and Ceres-with-Proserpina, who were all given expiatory cult. Champlin (2003) perceives the expiations to Vulcan and Ceres in particular as attempted populist appeals by

4484-600: The Pelignan goddess Angitia Cerealis has been identified with the Roman goddess Angerona (associated with childbirth). Ceres was patron and protector of plebeian laws , rights and Tribunes . Her Aventine Temple served the plebeians as cult centre, legal archive, treasury and possibly law-court; its foundation was contemporaneous with the passage of the Lex Sacrata , which established the office and person of plebeian aediles and tribunes as inviolate representatives of

4602-407: The Roman comic dramatists made several changes to the structure of the productions. Most notable is the removal of the previously prominent role of the chorus as a means of separating the action into distinct episodes. Additionally, musical accompaniment was added as a simultaneous supplement to the plays' dialogue . The action of all scenes typically took place in the streets outside the dwelling of

4720-516: The Roman people. Tribunes were legally immune to arrest or threat, and the lives and property of those who violated this law were forfeit to Ceres. The Lex Hortensia of 287 BC extended plebeian laws to the city and all its citizens. The official decrees of the Senate ( senatus consulta ) were placed in Ceres' Temple, under the guardianship of the goddess and her aediles. Livy puts the reason bluntly:

4838-465: The Younger that survive to this day, highlight the different aspects of Roman society and culture at the time, including advancements in Roman literature and theatre. Theatre during this period of time would come to represent an important aspect of Roman society during the Republican and Imperial periods of Rome. Rome was founded as a monarchy under Etruscan rule, and remained as such throughout

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4956-454: The action on the stage during the performances of many tragedies. From the time of the empire, however, the work of two tragedians survives—one is an unknown author, while the other is the Stoic philosopher Seneca . Nine of Seneca's tragedies survive, all of which are fabulae crepidatae ; a fabula crepidata or fabula cothurnata is a Latin tragedy with Greek subjects. Seneca appears as

5074-400: The actors in the troupe would have speaking roles in a performance, while the other actors in the troupe would be present on stage as attendants to the speaking actors. For the most part, actors specialized in one genre of drama and did not alternate between other genres of drama. The most famous actor to develop a career in the late Roman Republic was Quintus Roscius Gallus (125BC-62BC). He

5192-400: The auditorium was divided, typically by broad corridors or praecinctiones, into one of three zones, the ima, media, and summa cavea. These zones served to section off certain groups within the population. Of these three divisions, the summa cavea or 'the gallery' was where men (without togas or pullati (poor)), women, and sometimes slaves (by admission) were seated. The seating arrangements of

5310-428: The beginning of the 2nd century BC, drama had become firmly established in Rome and a guild of writers ( collegium poetarum ) had been formed. No early Roman tragedy survives, though it was highly regarded in its day; historians know of three early tragedians— Ennius , Pacuvius and Lucius Accius . One important aspect of tragedy that differed from other genres was the implementation of choruses that were included in

5428-462: The behest of the Sibylline oracle , the senate sent the quindecimviri to Ceres' ancient cult centre at Henna in Sicily , the goddess' supposed place of origin and earthly home. Some kind of religious consultation or propitiation was given, either to expiate Gracchus' murder – as later Roman sources would claim – or to justify it as the lawful killing of a would-be king or demagogue ,

5546-647: The benefit of all. The emperor Augustus began the restoration of Ceres' Aventine Temple; his successor Tiberius completed it. Of the several figures on the Augustan Ara Pacis , one doubles as a portrait of the Empress Livia , who wears Ceres' corona spicea . Another has been variously identified in modern scholarship as Tellus, Venus, Pax or Ceres, or in Spaeth's analysis, a deliberately broad composite of them all. The emperor Claudius ' reformed

5664-447: The boundaries between the realms of the living and the dead, and was an essential presence at funerals. Given acceptable rites and sacrifice, she helped the deceased into the afterlife as an underworld shade, or deity ( Di Manes ). Those whose death was premature, unexpected or untimely were thought to remain in the upper world, and haunt the living as a wandering, vengeful ghost ( Lemur ). They could be exorcised, but only when their death

5782-505: The citizens desire for theatrical performance. Theatres were constructed almost always through the interests of those who held the highest ranks and positions in the Roman Republic. In order to maintain segregation of power, those of high rank were often seated near the front or in the public eye (tribunalia). Individuals who made benefactions to the construction of theatres would often do so for propaganda reasons. Whether it be at

5900-594: The conquest of the Latins. Postumius' vow was fulfilled in 493 BC: Ceres became the central deity of the new Triad , housed in a new-built Aventine temple . She was also – or became – the patron goddess of the plebs , whose enterprise as tenant farmers, estate managers, agricultural factors and importers was a mainstay of Roman agriculture. Much of Rome's grain was imported from territories of Magna Graecia , particularly from Sicily , which later Roman mythographers describe as Ceres' "earthly home". Writers of

6018-421: The consuls could no longer seek advantage for themselves by arbitrarily tampering with the laws of Rome. The Temple might also have offered asylum for those threatened with arbitrary arrest by patrician magistrates. Ceres' temple, games and cult were at least part-funded by fines imposed on those who offended the laws placed under her protection; the poet Vergil later calls her legifera Ceres (Law-bearing Ceres),

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6136-422: The craft of becoming successful in the art. He would further distinguished himself through his financial success as an actor and a teacher of acting in a field that was not highly respected. Ultimately, he chose to conclude his career as an actor without being paid for his performances because he wanted to offer his performances as a service to the Roman people. Until recently it was commonly believed that although

6254-512: The decades of Civil War that ushered in the Empire, such images and dedications proliferate on Rome's coinage: Julius Caesar , his opponents, his assassins and his heirs alike claimed the favour and support of Ceres and her plebeian proteges, with coin issues that celebrate Ceres, Libertas (liberty) and Victoria (victory). Imperial theology conscripted Rome's traditional cults as the divine upholders of Imperial Pax (peace) and prosperity, for

6372-488: The deity, or else wore a wreath. While Ceres' original Aventine cult was led by male priests, her "Greek rites" ( ritus graecus Cereris ) were exclusively female. Towards the end of the Second Punic War , around 205 BC, an officially recognised joint cult to Ceres and her daughter Proserpina was brought to Rome from Southern Italy (part of Magna Graecia ) along with Greek priestesses to serve it. In Rome, this

6490-438: The earth, her arms entwined by snakes, her outstretched hands bearing poppies and wheat, or her head crowned with fruits and vines. In free-standing statuary, she commonly wears a wheat-crown, or holds a wheat spray. Moneyers of the Republican era use Ceres' image, wheat ears and garlands to advertise their connections with prosperity, the annona and the popular interest. Some Imperial coin images depict important female members of

6608-674: The ending of William Shakespeare 's play The Tempest (1611). In 1801, a newly discovered dwarf planet or asteroid was named after her . Two years later, the newly discovered element Cerium was named after the dwarf planet. An aria in praise of Ceres is sung in Act 4 of the opera The Trojans (first performance 1863) by Hector Berlioz . A misanthropic poem recited by Dmitri in Dostoevsky's 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov , (part 1, Book 3, chapter 3) reflects on Ceres' heartbroken search for her lost daughter, and her encounter with

6726-528: The era of the Roman Republic progressed, citizens began including professionally performed drama in the eclectic offerings of the ludi (celebrations of public holidays) held throughout each year—the largest of these festivals being the Ludi Romani , held each September in honor of the Roman god Jupiter . It was as a part of the Ludi Romani in 240 BC that author and playwright Livius Andronicus became

6844-558: The establishment of cities, and as a door-warden of the afterlife, which was co-ruled during the winter months by her daughter Proserpina, queen-companion to Dis . In Roman theology, prodigies were abnormal phenomena that manifested divine anger at human impiety. In Roman histories, prodigies cluster around perceived or actual threats to the Roman state, in particular, famine, war and social disorder, and are expiated as matters of urgency. The establishment of Ceres' Aventine cult has itself been interpreted as an extraordinary expiation after

6962-517: The failure of crops and consequent famine. In Livy's history, Ceres is among the deities placated after a remarkable series of prodigies that accompanied the disasters of the Second Punic War : during the same conflict, a lightning strike at her temple was expiated. A fast in her honour is recorded for 191 BC, to be repeated at 5-year intervals. After 206, she was offered at least 11 further official expiations. Many of these were connected to famine and manifestations of plebeian unrest, rather than war. From

7080-472: The first developing European cultures to shape their own culture after another. With the end of the Third Macedonian War (168 BC), Rome had gained greater access to a wealth of Greek art and literature, and an influx of Greek migrants, particularly Stoic philosophers such as Crates of Mallus (168 BC) and even Athenian philosophers (155 BC).This allowed the Romans to develop an interest in

7198-486: The first fruits of the harvest. Warde Fowler speculates the mundus as Rome's first storehouse ( penus ) for seed-grain, later becoming the symbolic penus of the Roman state. In the oldest known Roman calendar, the days of the mundus are marked as C(omitiales) (days when the Comitia met). Later authors mark them as dies religiosus (when no official meetings could be held). Some modern scholars seek to explain this as

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7316-464: The first to produce translations of Greek plays to be performed on the Roman stage. Prior to 240 BC, Roman contact with northern and southern Italian cultures began to influence Roman concepts of entertainment. The early Roman stage was dominated by: Phylakes (a form of tragic parody that arose in Italy during the Roman Republic from 500 to 250 BC), Atellan farces (or a type of comedy that depicted

7434-520: The first two and a half centuries of its existence. Following the expulsion of Rome's last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus , or "Tarquin the Proud," circa 509 BC, Rome became a republic and was henceforth led by a group of magistrates elected by the Roman people. It is believed that Roman theatre was born during the first two centuries of the Roman Republic , following the spread of Roman rule into

7552-431: The gift of agriculture to humankind; before this, it was said, man had subsisted on acorns, and wandered without settlement or laws. She had the power to fertilize, multiply and fructify plant and animal seed, and her laws and rites protected all activities of the agricultural cycle. In January, Ceres (alongside the earth-goddess Tellus ) was offered spelt wheat and a pregnant sow, at the movable Feriae Sementivae . This

7670-528: The goddess, which he replaced. Though this was an unofficial and privately funded cult ( sacra privata ), its annual feast on the Ides of September was attended by pilgrims from all over the region; this feast was also the same day as the Epulum Jovis . Pliny considered this rebuilding a fulfillment of his civic and religious duty. No images of Ceres survive from her pre-Aventine cults; the earliest date to

7788-548: The grain cycle, beginning shortly before the Feriae Sementivae. W.H. Roscher lists these deities among the indigitamenta , names used to invoke specific divine functions. In Roman bridal processions, a young boy carried Ceres' torch to light the way; "the most auspicious wood for wedding torches came from the spina alba , the May-tree , which bore many fruits and hence symbolised fertility". The adult males of

7906-403: The grain supply and created its embodiment as an Imperial goddess, Annona , a junior partner to Ceres and the Imperial family. The traditional, Cerean virtues of provision and nourishment were symbolically extended to Imperial family members; some coinage shows Claudius' mother Antonia as an Augusta , wearing the corona spicea . The relationship between the reigning emperor, empress and Ceres

8024-493: The growing crops and protect them from disease and vermin, or to add warmth and vitality to their growth. From c.175 BC, Cerealia included ludi scaenici (theatrical religious events) through April 12 to 18. In the ancient sacrum cereale a priest, probably the Flamen Cerialis , invoked Ceres (and probably Tellus) along with twelve specialised, minor assistant-gods to secure divine help and protection at each stage of

8142-479: The growth of crops, while Tellus provides them a place to grow. In 496 BC, against a background of economic recession and famine in Rome, imminent war against the Latins and a threatened secession by Rome's plebs (citizen commoners), the dictator A. Postumius vowed a temple to Ceres, Liber and Libera on or near the Aventine Hill . The famine ended and Rome's plebeian citizen-soldiery co-operated in

8260-462: The hand of an imperial benefactor or a wealthy individual, the high cost of building a theatre usually required more than a single individual’s donations. In 55 B.C., the first permanent theatre was constructed. Built by Pompey the Great, the main purpose of this structure was actually not for the performance of drama, but rather, to allow current and future rulers a venue with which they could assemble

8378-630: The import of the ritus cereris , patrician senators imported cult to the Greek goddess Cybele and established her as Magna Mater (The Great Mother) within Rome's sacred boundary , facing the Aventine Hill. Like Ceres, Cybele was a form of Graeco-Roman earth goddess. Unlike her, she had mythological ties to Troy , and thus to the Trojan prince Aeneas , mythological ancestor of Rome's founding father and first patrician Romulus . The establishment of official Roman cult to Magna Mater coincided with

8496-555: The later introduction and accommodation of Greek elements, grafted onto the original mundus rites. The rites of August 24 were held between the agricultural festivals of Consualia and Opiconsivia ; those of October 5 followed the Ieiunium Cereris , and those of November 8 took place during the Plebeian Games . As a whole, the various days of the mundus suggest rites to Ceres as the guardian deity of seed-corn in

8614-445: The main characters, and plot complications were often a result of eavesdropping by a minor character. Plautus wrote between 205 and 184 B.C. and twenty of his comedies survive to present day, of which his farces are best known. He was admired for the wit of his dialogue and for his varied use of poetic meters . As a result of the growing popularity of Plautus' plays, as well as this new form of written comedy, scenic plays became

8732-399: The mental states of many individual's. All Roman comedies that have survived can be categorized as fabula palliata (comedies based on Greek subjects) and were written by two dramatists: Titus Maccius Plautus (Plautus) and Publius Terentius Afer (Terence). No fabula togata (Roman comedy in a Roman setting) has survived. In adapting Greek plays to be performed for Roman audiences,

8850-503: The middle Republic, and show the Hellenising influence of Demeter's iconography. Some late Republican images recall Ceres' search for Proserpina. Ceres bears a torch, sometimes two, and rides in a chariot drawn by snakes; or she sits on the sacred kiste (chest) that conceals the objects of her mystery rites. Sometimes she holds a caduceus , a symbol of Pax (Roman goddess of Peace). Augustan reliefs show her emergence, plant-like from

8968-431: The new cult had been founded, its earliest priestesses "generally were either from Naples or Velia", cities allied or federated to Rome. Elsewhere, he describes Ceres' Sicilian priestesses as "older women respected for their noble birth and character". Celibacy may have been a condition of their office; sexual abstinence was, according to Ovid, required of those attending Ceres' major, nine-day festival. Her public priesthood

9086-523: The official abolition of all non-Christian cults. The word cereal derives from Ceres' association with edible grains. Whereas Ceres represents food, her son Liber (later indistinguishable from Bacchus ) represents wine and "good living". The Roman comedian Terence (c. 195/185 – c. 159 BC) uses the line sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus which at its simplest translates as "without food and drink, love freezes" or "love needs food and wine to thrive" - probably proverbial and widespread in his own day. It

9204-612: The old; it made no reference to Liber. Thereafter, Ceres was offered two separate and distinctive forms of official cult at the Aventine. Both might have been supervised by the male flamen Cerialis but otherwise, their relationship is unclear. The older form of cult included both men and women, and probably remained a focus for plebeian political identity and discontent. The new form identified its exclusively females initiates and priestesses as upholders of Rome's traditional, patrician -dominated social hierarchy and morality . A year after

9322-484: The opportunity to win their freedom if they were able to prove themselves as successful actors. The open-air declaiming, gesturing, singing, and dancing of Roman stage acting required stamina and agility. The spread of dramatic performance throughout Rome occurred with the growth of acting companies that are believed to have eventually begun to travel throughout all of Italy. These acting troupes were usually composed of four to six trained actors. Usually, two to three of

9440-603: The other Italic forms. Archaic cults to Ceres are well-evidenced among Rome's neighbours in the Regal period , including the ancient Latins , Oscans and Sabellians , less certainly among the Etruscans and Umbrians . An archaic Faliscan inscription of c. 600 BC asks her to provide far ( spelt wheat), which was a dietary staple of the Mediterranean world . Ancient Roman etymologists thought that ceres derived from

9558-452: The other a ploughman with yoked oxen: the images, accompanied by the legend "conditor" ("he who stores the grain") claim his rule (a military dictatorship) as regenerative and divinely justified. Popularists used her name and attributes to appeal their guardianship of plebeian interests, particularly the annona and frumentarium ; and plebeian nobles and aediles used them to point out their ancestral connections with plebeians as commoners. In

9676-465: The plebeian aediles, on behalf of Ceres and the people of Rome. Ancient laws of the Twelve Tables forbade the magical charming of field crops from a neighbour's field into one's own, and invoked the death penalty for the illicit removal of field boundaries. An adult who damaged or stole field-crops should be hanged "for Ceres". Any youth guilty of the same offense was to be whipped or fined double

9794-571: The possibility exists that women may have performed non-speaking roles in Roman theatrical performances, historical evidence dictated that male actors portrayed all speaking roles. Later research has shown that, although likely rare, there were women who performed speaking roles. Bassilla and Fabia Arete were, for example, two actresses known for their role of Charition in a popular folk comedy. There were certainly successful women stage performers within dance and singing in theatrical performances, many of whom apparently enjoyed widespread fame, and even

9912-521: The princeps' gift of frumentio (corn dole) to the masses. Under Nerva's later dynastic successor Antoninus Pius , Imperial theology represents the death and apotheosis of the Empress Faustina the Elder as Ceres' return to Olympus by Jupiter's command. Even then, "her care for mankind continues and the world can rejoice in the warmth of her daughter Proserpina: in Imperial flesh, Proserpina

10030-527: The productivity of Italy following the Pyrrhic War . At the beginning of his treatise on farming , Varro gives a list of twelve deities who are vital to agriculture. These make up a conceptual or theological grouping, and are not known to have received cult collectively. They are: In his Georgics , a collection of poetry on agrarian themes, Vergil gives a list influenced by literary Hellenization and Augustan ideology: The poet proposes that

10148-618: The psychology of the mind through 'self-representational soliloquies or monologues,' which focused on one's inner thoughts, the central causes of their emotional conflicts, their self-deception, as well as other varieties of psychological turmoil that served to dramatize emotion in a way that became central to Roman tragedy , distinguishing itself from the prior used forms of Greek tragedy . Those that witnessed Seneca's use of rhetoric; pupils, readers, and audience, were noted to have been taught Seneca's use of verbal strategy, psychic mobility, and public role-play, which for many, substantially altered

10266-712: The public and demonstrate their pomp and authority over the masses. With seating for 20,000 audience members, the grandiose structure held a 300-foot-wide stage and boasted a three-story scaenae frons flanked with elaborate statues. The Theatre of Pompey remained in use through the early 6th century but was dismantled for its stone in the Middle Ages. Virtually nothing of the vast structure is visible above ground today. The first actors that appeared in Roman performances were originally from Etruria . This tradition of foreign actors would continue in Roman dramatic performances. Beginning with early performances, actors were denied

10384-526: The rise of a plebeian nobility, an increased birthrate among plebeian commoners, and a fall in the birthrate among patrician families. The late Republican Ceres Mater (Mother Ceres) is described as genetrix (progenitress) and alma (nourishing); in the early Imperial era she becomes an Imperial deity, and receives joint cult with Ops Augusta , Ceres' own mother in Imperial guise and a bountiful genetrix in her own right. Several of Ceres' ancient Italic precursors are connected to human fertility and motherhood;

10502-517: The ruling emperor, Nero . The complex and multi-layered origins of the Aventine Triad and Ceres herself allowed multiple interpretations of their relationships, beyond the humanised pattern of relations within the Triad; while Cicero asserts Ceres as mother to both Liber and Libera, consistent with her role as a mothering deity, Varro's more complex theology groups her functionally with Tellus, Terra, Venus (and thus Victoria) and with Libera as

10620-412: The same political and civic rights that were afforded to ordinary Roman citizens because of the low social status of actors. In addition, actors were exempt from military service, which further inhibited their rights in Roman society because it was impossible for an individual to hold a political career without having some form of military experience. While actors did not possess many rights, slaves did have

10738-404: The semi-legendary Numa . Ceres' senior, male priesthood was a minor flaminate whose establishment and rites were supposedly also innovations of Numa. Her affinity and joint cult with Tellus, also known as Terra Mater (Mother Earth) may have developed at this time. Much later, during the early Imperial era , Ovid describes these goddesses as "partners in labour"; Ceres provides the "cause" for

10856-418: The several other types of events (gladiatorial matches, circus events, etc.) held within the same space, theatrical events were performed using temporary wooden structures, which had to be displaced and dismantled for days at a time, whenever other spectacle events were scheduled to take place. The slow process of creating a permanent performance space was due to the staunch objection of high-ranking officials: it

10974-460: The soul, through which rhetoric would be used within that process of creating a tragic character and reveal something about the state of one's mind. One of the most notable ways that Seneca developed a tragedy, was through the use of an aside, or a common theatre device found within Hellenistic drama, which at the time was foreign to the world of Attic tragedy . Seneca explored the interior of

11092-475: The spirits of the dead temporary leave from the underworld to roam lawfully among the living, in what Warde Fowler describes as 'holidays, so to speak, for the ghosts'. The days when the mundus was open were among the very few occasions that Romans made official contact with the collective spirits of the dead, the Di Manes (the others being Parentalia and Lemuralia ). This possibly secondary or late function of

11210-407: The start of a new saeculum (cycle of years). It was followed by Hannibal 's defeat, the end of the Second Punic War and an exceptionally good harvest. Roman victory and recovery could therefore be credited to Magna Mater and patrician piety: so the patricians dined her and each other at her festival banquets. In similar fashion, the plebeian nobility underlined their claims to Ceres. Up to a point,

11328-458: The supposed backwards thinking of the southeastern Oscan town of Atella; a form of ethnic humor that arose around 300 BC), and Fescennine verses (originating in southern Etruria). Furthermore, Phylakes scholars have discovered vases depicting productions of Old Comedy (e.g. by Aristophanes , a Greek playwright), leading many to ascertain that such Comedic plays were presented at one point to an Italian, if not "Latin-Speaking" audience as early as

11446-404: The theatre highlight the gender disparities in Roman society, as women were seated among the slaves. Sur notes that it wasn’t until Augustus that segregation in the theatre was enforced, to which women had to either sit at or near the back. Theatres were paid for by certain benefactors and were seen as targets for benefaction, mainly out of the need to maintain civil order and as a consequence of

11564-423: The toils and grief of her lengthy search and separation, and humankind would have been spared the consequent famine. The myth is also a reminder that the gift of agriculture is a contract, and comes at a price. It brings well-being but also mortality. Enna, in Sicily , had strong mythological connections with Ceres and Proserpina, and was the site of Ceres most ancient sanctuary. Flowers were said to bloom throughout

11682-569: The two cults reflected a social and political divide, but when certain prodigies were interpreted as evidence of Ceres' displeasure, the senate appeased her with a new festival, the ieiunium Cereris (" fast of Ceres"). In 133 BC, the plebeian noble and tribune Tiberius Gracchus bypassed the Senate and appealed directly to the popular assembly to pass his proposed land-reforms . Civil unrest spilled into violence; Gracchus and many of his supporters were murdered by their conservative opponents. At

11800-422: The value of damage. Ceres' signs and iconography, like Demeter's from early Mycenae onwards, include poppies - symbolic of fertility, sleep, death and rebirth. Poppies readily grow on soil disturbed by ploughing, as in wheatfields, and bear innumerable tiny seeds. They were raised as a crop by Greek and Roman farmers, partly for their fibrous stems and for the food value of their seeds Where the poppy capsule alone

11918-409: The wedding party waited at the groom's house. A wedding sacrifice was offered to Tellus on the bride's behalf; a sow is the most likely victim . Varro describes the sacrifice of a pig as "a worthy mark of weddings" because "our women, and especially nurses" call the female genitalia porcus (pig). Barbette Spaeth (1996) believes Ceres may have been included in the sacrificial dedication, because she

12036-1016: The worst and most degraded of humanity. In the US, Ceres is one of the three "goddess offices" held in The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry . She is depicted on the Seal of New Jersey . Statues of her top the Missouri State Capitol , Vermont State House , and the Chicago Board of Trade Building , all of which have historical links with agriculture and agricultural trade. List of Roman agricultural deities In ancient Roman religion , agricultural deities were thought to care for every aspect of growing, harvesting, and storing crops. Preeminent among these are such major deities as Ceres and Saturn , but

12154-592: The year on its "miraculous plain". Vitruvius (c.80 – 15 BC) describes the "Temple of Ceres near the Circus Maximus" (her Aventine Temple) as typically Araeostyle , having widely spaced supporting columns, with architraves of wood, rather than stone. This species of temple is "clumsy, heavy roofed, low and wide, [its] pediments ornamented with statues of clay or brass, gilt in the Tuscan fashion ". He recommends that temples to Ceres be sited in rural areas: "in

12272-438: Was a hemispherical pit or underground vault in Rome, now lost. It was usually sealed by a stone lid known as the lapis manalis . On August 24, October 5 and November 8, it was opened with the official announcement mundus patet ("the mundus is open") and offerings were made there to agricultural or underworld deities, including Ceres as goddess of the fruitful earth and guardian of its underworld portals. Its opening offered

12390-425: Was a stark difference from the written prologues of other known playwrights of the period, who routinely utilized their prologues as a way of prefacing the plot of the play being performed. The following are examples of stock characters in Roman comedy: Beginning with the first presentation of theatre in Rome in 240 B.C., plays were often presented during public festivals. Since these plays were less popular than

12508-583: Was adopted variously as a brewer's motto, celebration, warning, and a subject of art in Renaissance Europe, especially the north and the Dutch Republic. Ceres represented the grains that produced beer through the brewing process. Imagery that represented the profitable business of commercial brewing showed the grain-goddess as a respectable matron and Liber-Bacchus as a gentleman; a wholesome picture of moral sobriety and restraint. Ceres

12626-515: Was almost certainly held before the annual sowing of grain. The divine portion of sacrifice was the entrails ( exta ) presented in an earthenware pot ( olla ). In a rural, agricultural context, Cato the Elder describes the offer to Ceres of a porca praecidanea (a pig, offered before harvesting). Before the harvest, she was offered a propitiary grain sample ( praemetium ). Ovid tells that Ceres "is content with little, provided that her offerings are casta " (pure). Ceres' main festival, Cerealia ,

12744-455: Was depicted using an elaborate backdrop ( scaenae frons ), and the actors performed on the stage, in the playing space in front of the scaenae frons , called the proscaenium . These structures were erected in several different places, including temples, arenas, and at times, plays were held in Rome’s central square (the forum ). Societal divisions within the theatre were made apparent in how

12862-402: Was formalised in titles such as Augusta mater agrorum ("The august mother of the fields) and Ceres Augusta . On coinage, various emperors and empresses wear her corona spicea , showing that the goddess, the emperor and his spouse are conjointly responsible for agricultural prosperity and the all-important provision of grain. A coin of Nerva (reigned AD 96–98) acknowledges Rome's dependence on

12980-571: Was held from mid to late April. It was organised by her plebeian aediles and included circus games ( ludi circenses ). It opened with a horse-race in the Circus Maximus , whose starting point lay below and opposite to her Aventine Temple; the turning post at the far end of the Circus was sacred to Consus , a god of grain-storage. After the race, foxes were released into the Circus, their tails ablaze with lighted torches, perhaps to cleanse

13098-466: Was held just before the Feriae Sementivae . W.H. Roscher lists these deities among the indigitamenta , lists of names kept by the pontiffs for invoking specific divine functions. The names of other specialized agricultural gods are preserved in scattered sources. Ludi scaenici The architectural form of theatre in Rome has been linked to later, more well-known examples from

13216-516: Was known as the ritus graecus Cereris ; its priestesses were granted Roman citizenship so that they could pray to the gods "with a foreign and external knowledge, but with a domestic and civil intention"; the recruitment of respectable matrons seems to acknowledge the civic value of the cult. It was based on ancient, ethnically Greek cults to Demeter, most notably the Thesmophoria to Demeter and Persephone , whose cults and myths also provided

13334-428: Was primarily known for his performances in the genre of comedy and became renowned for his performances among the elite circles of Roman society. Through these connections he became intimate with Lucius Licinius Crassus , the great orator and member of the Senate, and Lucius Cornelius Sulla . In addition to the acting career Gallus would build, he also would take his acting abilities and use them to teach amateur actors

13452-423: Was reasonably due. For her service at burials or cremations, well-off families offered Ceres sacrifice of a pig. The poor could offer wheat, flowers, and a libation. The expected afterlife for the exclusively female initiates in the sacra Cereris may have been somewhat different; they were offered "a method of living" and of "dying with better hope". The mundus cerialis or Caereris mundus ("the world of Ceres")

13570-405: Was reserved to respectable matrons, be they married, divorced or widowed. The process of their selection and their relationship to Ceres' older, entirely male priesthood is unknown; but they far outnumbered her few male priests, and would have been highly respected and influential figures in their own communities. Roman tradition credited Ceres' eponymous festival, Cerealia , to Rome's second king,

13688-399: Was ruining the original Greek plays, as well as rumors that he had received assistance from high-ranking men in composing his material. In fact, these rumors prompted Terence to use the prologues in several of his plays as an opportunity to plead with audiences, asking that they lend an objective eye and ear to his material, and not be swayed by what they may have heard about his practices. This

13806-401: Was the opinion of the members of the senate that citizens were spending too much time at theatrical events, and that condoning this behavior would lead to corruption of the Roman public. As a result, no permanent stone structure was constructed for the purpose of theatrical performance until 55 B.C.E. Sometimes theatre building projects could last generations before being completed, and would take

13924-842: Was very similar to the drama in Greece. Rome had engaged in a number of wars, some of which had taken place in areas of Italy, in which Greek culture had been a great influence. Examples of this include the First Punic War (264-241 BC) in Sicily. Through this came relations between Greece and Rome, starting with the emergence of a Hellenistic world, one in which Hellenistic culture was more widely spread and through political developments via Roman conquests of Mediterranean colonies. Acculturation had become specific to Greco-Roman relations, with Rome mainly adopting aspects of Greek culture, their achievements, and developing those aspects into Roman literature, art, and science. Rome had become one of

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