Mythology

Ceres is the Roman name of Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture. She looked after the fields and crops. Ceres is part of an ancient myth that helps explain the cycles of seasonal change.

Pluto -- or Hades -- the god of the underworld, kidnapped Ceres's daughter, Proserpina (Roman counterpart to Persephone), and took her to live with him. A single mother, Ceres felt abandoned by her daughter's absence.

Proserpina ate six pomegranate seeds, an action that could have sealed her fate to live in the underworld forever. But Ceres, being a shrewd mother, was able to negotiate with Pluto for her daughter's custody. Proserpina would spend half of the year with Pluto in the underworld and half of the year living with her mother.

During the time Proserpina was in the underworld, Ceres was so grief-stricken that she refused to allow anything on Earth to be beautiful or fruitful, and these were the winter months. When Ceres had her daughter to look after, she was happy and the earth brought forth crops, giving food, so we have summer and the autumn harvest.