Ceres at The Botanical Gardens, Cluj

myminifactory

In ancient Roman worship, Ceres was a powerful goddess revered for her role in agriculture, grain crops, fertility, and motherly relationships. Originally the central deity of Rome's plebeian or Aventine Triad, she later formed a divine partnership with her daughter Proserpina in rituals influenced by Greek tradition. The seven-day April celebration of Cerealia featured the popular Ludi Ceriales games, while May's lustratio of fields at the Ambarvalia festival and harvest-time honored her as well as Roman marriages and funeral rites. As Rome's only agricultural deity listed among the Dii Consentes - their equivalent to Greece's Twelve Olympians - the Romans saw Ceres as a counterpart to Demeter, whose mythology was reinterpreted in Roman art and literature through Ceres' story.