Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth

by Natalie Haynes

Ceres begins searching for her stolen daughter and – who could have predicted it? – another nymph, Arethusa, offers help. She saw the frightened Proserpina being taken down to the Underworld to become its queen. With this information, Ceres can approach Jupiter, the king of the gods, and demand the return of her daughter. Jupiter is no help, preferring to define Pluto’s sustained sexual assault on Proserpina as an act of love.23 But Ceres refuses to give up, even when all seems lost. The compromise which Jupiter settles on – that Proserpina can return for only part of the year, which is why we have cold, dark months without her in winter – is the grudging response of male deities having to accommodate a goddess who will not give up.