The Story of Proserpina

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The Story of Proserpina
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Whats in a Name?

• Roman Name Proserpina
• Greek Name Persephone
• From proserpere meaning to emerge
• Proserpina is a type of pomegranate
• Moth Carcinopyga Proserpina
• Father Jove
• Mother Ceres (the goddess of good harvest)

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How it began

• TYPHOEUS was a monstrous, serpentine giant that
  battled Jove for possession of the heavens.
• He fell from the sky and on his body was piled
  the island of Sicily. He struggled causing
  earthquakes, and spewed ashes and flame.
• PLUTO, god of the underworld came to make sure
  that the ground would not open up and shed light
  on the underworld after all the pounding from
  Typhoeus.

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• Venus sees Pluto and tells her son Cupid to shoot
  him with an arrow so that she (love) can be the
  ruler of all the universe.
• You rule the others, even great Jove, you rule
  the great sea-godsWhy should Hell alone hold out
  against us?
• She tells Cupid to join Proserpina and Pluto who
  is Joves brother, and thus, Proserpinas uncle.
• Cupid shoots the arrow and pierces Plutos heart.

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A De-flowering occurs

• Virginal Proserpina was picking flowers with her
  friends by the pool, Pergus. Her basket was full
  because she was eager to not let her friends beat
  her.
• Pluto saw her and rushed toward her and raped
  her.
• The flowers fell from the basket and Prosperina
  was just as concerned with losing the flowers as
  she was with being raped.

Prosperina gets de-flowered?
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The Rape of Prosperina by Luca Giordano
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Vincenzo de'Rossi's "The Rape of Proserpina"
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• Pluto took Prosperina and began his journey back
  to the underworld.
• Through the deep lakes
• Through the boiling Palician pools
• Beyond the city of the Corinthian men
• There was a bay between the waters of Arethusa
  and Cyane.
• Cyane, the most famous of all Sicilian nymphs,
  rose from the water and tried to stop Pluto, but
  Pluto opened the pool to its deepest depths and
  plunged down to Hell.
• No further shall you go! Proserpina should have
  been asked, not taken.
• Cyane mourned for both Prosperina and the new
  crater formed by Pluto. She mourned until she
  turned into water.

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Ceres Looks for Her Daughter

• Ceres looked everywhere for her daughter.
• She stopped at a cottage where she was given
  water with barley by an old woman. A country boy
  mocked her while she drank. Ceres became angry
  and threw the drink on the boy. And his face was
  spotted, the, and his arms were legs, and he grew
  a tail and shrank, a harmless creature, like a
  lizard, only smaller. The old womantried to
  touch him, but he was gone through a chink in the
  rocks. His names suits his performance, Stellio,
  The Spot-marked Some people call him NEWT.
• Ceres continued to search and came back to Sicily
  where she went to the pool of Cyane but Cyane
  could not speak. She could only offer
  evidenceProserpinas girdle.

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• Ceres began to realize the fate of Proserpina and
  blamed Sicily because that is where she found
  evidence of her loss. She cursed the land,
  making everything dry and barren.
• Ceres refused to go back to Mount Olympus and
  started walking on the Earth, making a desert at
  every step.
• Arethusa rose from the Elean pool to beg for
  Ceres mercy.
• O mother of the girl sought over the whole wide
  world, O mother of fruit and harvest, cease the
  endless labor. Do not be angry at the loyal
  earth. It has kept the faith, it is innocent, it
  opened unwillingly to that ravishment.
• Arethusa told Ceres that she saw Proserpina in
  the underworld and that she was the queen.
• Arethusa was a nymph that took no pleasure in her
  beauty. After hunting one day, she bathes in a
  pool. She hears the murmuring of Alpheus who
  calls Where are you going in such a hurry
  Arethusa? She tried to run away and begged
  Diana to help her. Diana cast a cloud of mist
  around her. Alpheus would not leave and
  Arethusa, being nervous began to sweat, leaving
  pools wherever she stood. She was changed into a
  pool and Alpheus became a river again to join
  her. Diana broke the earth and let Arethusa sink
  to the depths to find a new home. On her
  journey, she sees Proserpina.

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• Ceres begs Jove to bring Proserpina back.
• Jove said that Pluto did it out of love but he
  will bring Proserpina back on one condition.
• SHE MUST, IN THE WORLD BELOW, HAVE EATEN NOTHING,
  TASTED NO FOODSO HAVE THE FATES ENACTED.
• BUT, Prosperina ate seven (six) seeds from the
  pomegranate and Ascalaphus tattled so that
  Proserpina could not return.
• Proserpina, in her anger, turned him into a
  screech owl.

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A Story for the Birds?

• Speaking of birds, the girls who were with
  Proserpina when Pluto kidnapped her were turned
  into beautiful golden birds with human voices.
  They chose to be birds so they could search the
  sea for their dear friend.

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A Deal

• Jove allows for Proserpina to come back to the
  upper-world for part of the year.
• Ceres is happy with the deal.
• This is the reason for Springtime when
  Proserpina comes back to her mother, Ceres
  decorates the Earth with welcoming flowers, but
  when in autumn she has to go back to Hades,
  nature loses any color.

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Others say

• Pluto obeyed, but before letting her go, he made
  her eat six pomegranate seeds (a symbol of
  fidelity in marriage) so she would have to live
  six months of each year with him, and stay the
  rest with her mother.
• In another version of the story, some people
  believe that upon her abduction, Proserpina ate
  only four pomegranate seeds, and she did so of
  her own accord. When Jove ordered her return,
  Pluto struck a deal with Jove, saying that since
  she had stolen his pomegranate seeds, she must
  stay with him four months of the year in return.

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The Abduction of Proserpina by Rembrandt.
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Ruling the Underworld
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Thomas Hart BentonMissouri Artist