Ceres

Roman grain-and-agriculture goddess; head of the Aventine triad (Ceres, Liber, Libera) — the plebeian counter-cult to the patrician Capitoline triad. The Aventine temple housed the plebeian-aediles' archive per Lex Sacrata 494 BCE. Distinct Italic foundation predates and outlives the Greek Demeter equation. Per Wissowa 1912; Spaeth, The Roman Goddess Ceres (1996).

Children

• Proserpina

Domains

• agriculture grain
• plebeian state counter cult

Powers

• Blight crops / cause famine

Epithets

• Ceres Legifera
• Ceres Mater

Relations

• equated with: Demeter
• interpretatio: Demeter

Sources

• Liv. 3.55, 22.56; Cato Agr. 134; Cic. Nat. D. 2.67, Verr. 2.5.36; Ov. Fast. 4.393-620
• Liv. 3.55 (Lex Sacrata 494 BCE)