DAMATER, or CERES.
Reading edition
I shall now proceed to the rites of Ceres: and the general character of this Goddess is so innocent, and rural, that one would imagine nothing cruel could proceed from her shrine. But there was a time, when some of her temples were as much dreaded, as those of Scylla, and the Cyclops. They were courts of justice; whence she is often spoken of as a lawgiver.
Prima dedit leges.
Many of these temples were dedicated to the Deity under the name of Persephone, or Proserpine, the supposed daughter of Ceres. They were in reality the same personage. Persephone was styled Κορα, Cora; which the Greeks misinterpreted Παρθενος, the virgin, or damsel. How could a person, who according to the received accounts had been ravished by Pluto, and been his consort for ages; who was the reputed queen of hell, be styled by way of eminence Παρθενος? Κορα, Cora, which they understood was the same as Cura, a feminine title of the sun: by which Ceres also was called at Cnidos. However mild and gentle Proserpine may have been represented in her virgin state by the Poets; yet her tribunal seems in many places to have been very formidable. In consequence of this we find her with Minos, and Rhadamanthus, condemned to the shades below, as an infernal inquisitor. Nonnus says,
Proserpine armed the furies. The notion of which Furies arose from the cruelties practised in these Prutaneia. They were called by the Latines, Furiæ; and were originally only priests of fire: but were at last ranked among the hellish tormentors. Ceres the benefactress, and lawgiver, was sometimes enrolled in the list of these dæmons. This is manifest from a passage in Antimachus, quoted by Pausanias, where her temple is spoken of as the shrine of a Fury.
I imagine, that the story of the Harpies relates to priests of the Sun. They were denominated from their seat of residence, which was an oracular temple called Harpi, and Hirpi, analogous to Orphi, and Urphi in other places. I have shewn, that the antient name of a priest was Cahen, rendered mistakenly κυν, and canis. Hence the Harpies, who were priests of Ur, are styled by Apollonius, the Dogs of Jove. His accosting Calais, and Zethus, tells them, that it would be a profanation to offer any injury to those personages.
Ἁρπυιας, μεγαλοιο Διος ΚYΝΑΣ.
Corpora Theseâ Cercyonea manu.
Παλης κονιστρας.
Εις Εχετον βασιληα, βροτων δηλημονα παντων.
Ὁς κ' απο ῥινα ταμῃσι, και ουατα νηλεϊ χαλκῳ,
Μηδεα τ' εξερυσας δωῃ κυσιν ωμα δασασθαι.
I'll send thee, caitiff, far beyond the seas, To the grim tyrant Echetus, who mars All he encounters; bane of human kind. Thine ears he'll lop, and pare the nose away From thy pale ghastly visage: dire to tell! The very parts, which modesty conceals, He'll tear relentless from the seat of life, To feed his hungry hounds.
Ενθα τοι ἑλκεχιτωνες Ιαονες ηγερεθονται,
Αυτοις συν παιδεσσι, και αιδοιῃς αλοχοισι.
Ὁιδε σε ΠYΓΜΑΧΙΗι τε, και ορχηθμῳ, και αοιδῃ
Μνησαμενοι τερπουσιν, ὁταν στησωνται αγωνα.
These contentions had always in them something cruel, and savage: but in later times they were conducted with an appearance of equity. Of old the whole ceremony was a most unfair and barbarous process.