Goddess news: Roman goddess unearthed at South Shields

 
From the article:

"The dramatic discovery is a beautifully crafted miniature bronze figure of the Roman goddess Ceres which is thought to be a mount from a larger piece of furniture. Ceres was the goddess of agriculture, grain and fertility which is a highly appropriate goddess for Arbeia because it was a supply base where thousands of tons of grain were stored in granaries to feed the army stationed along Hadrian’s Wall. This is the second goddess that the WallQuest project has found at Arbeia in two years. In 2014, a local volunteer found a carved stone head of a protective goddess, or tutela.

 

Read the article in full

 

 

 

 

(photo copyright The Shields Gazette.)
 

Goddess Ceres

 

In honor of the 7-day Cerealia this month:  "Next come the games of Ceres. There is no need to declare the reason; the bounty and the services of the goddess are manifest. The bread of the first mortals consisted of the green herbs which the earth yielded without solicitation; and now they plucked the living grass from the turf, and now the tender leaves of tree-tops furnished a feast. . . Ceres delights in peace; and you, ye husbandmen, pray for perpetual peace . .  You may give the goddess spelt, and the compliment of spurting salt, and grains of incense on old hearths; and if there is no incense, kindle resinous torches. Good Ceres is content with little, if that little be but pure."  (From Ovid, Fasti Book 4, trans. JG Frazer)

 

 

(photo from the Museum of Roman Art of Merida, Spain by O.M. Repoller)

Opening of the Mundus Cerialis

The Mundus Cerialis (the world of Ceres) is an underground vault in Rome that was sealed by a stone lid the majority of the year.  On August 24th, October 5th and November 8th, it was opened for offerings to be made to various Deities, including Ceres, and to allow the spirits to rise and wander in the world of the living for the day.  The rites held during the Mundus Cerialis acknowledged the Goddess Ceres as Her role as the fruitful earth, guardian of seed-corn and guardian of underworld portals.

(Photo by Lylum of the entrance to the Umbilicus Urbis (navel of the city).  This may have been part of the underground Mundus structure. It is the symbolic center of Rome.)

Other sites sacred to the Goddess may be found on our website:  In Her Name

The Cerealia

In mid-to-late April, the Roman festival of the Cerealia was held for one week, honoring the Goddess Ceres (Greek: Demeter).

To the Ceralian Mother

"Ceralian Queen, of celebrated name,
From whom both men, and Gods immortal came;
Who widely wandering once, oppressed with grief,
In Eleusina's valley found relief,
Discovering Proserpine thy daughter pure
In dread Avernus, dismal and obscure;
A sacred youth while through the world you stray
Bacchus, attending leader of the way;
The holy marriage of terrestrial Jove
Relating, while oppressed with grief you rove;
Come, much invoked, and to these rites inclined,
Thy mystic suppliant bless, with favoring mind."

The Fumigation from Aromatics
(Hymns of Orpheus, trans. Taylor)



(Painting of the Roman Cerealia entitled "Spring", 1894 by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.)