Ceres

The Seba library treats Ceres in 9 passages, across 7 authors (including Jung, Carl Gustav, Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Hillman, James).

In the library

Queen of heaven, whether thou be named Ceres, bountiful mother of earthly fruits, or heavenly Venus, or Phoebus' sister, or Proserpina, who strikest terror with midnight ululations

Jung cites Apuleius's prayer to demonstrate that Ceres is one of the interchangeable names for the unified feminine archetype, illustrating polytheism's proliferation of a single archetypal ground.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Symbols of Transformation, 1952thesis

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Materautem est a gerendis frugibus Ceres (tamquam Geres, casuque prima littera itidem immutata ut a Graecis

Cicero derives the name Ceres etymologically from gerere frugibus, establishing her as the divine personification of bearing or carrying forth earthly fruits — the foundational Latin theological definition.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods), -45thesis

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the support of the acorn precedes the practical civilizing effects of your natural mother, the mother world of Demeter-Ceres, the nourishing civilizing goddess after whom cereal is named

Hillman distinguishes a primordial, virginal Artemisian nature (the acorn) from the later civilizing maternal principle embodied by Demeter-Ceres, who represents nourishment through cultivated grain.

Hillman, James, Senex & Puer, 2015thesis

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Ceres, sel! Demeter

In the index to the Kerenyi-Jung Eleusinian essays, Ceres is explicitly cross-referenced to Demeter, confirming their functional identity within the depth-psychological reading of the mysteries.

Jung, C. G. and Kerényi, C., Essays on a Science of Mythology: The Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis, 1949supporting

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Liber whom our ancestors solemnly and devoutly consecrated with Ceres and Libera, the import of which joint consecration may be gathered from the mysteries; but Liber and Libera were so named as Ceres' offspring

Cicero identifies Ceres as the divine mother of Liber and Libera in the Roman mystery tradition, associating her with initiatory rites and the generative source of her divine offspring.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods), -45supporting

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Ceres ( =earth), i. 40; il. 67; iii. 52, 62 ; ( = corn), ii. 60 ; iii. 41, 52

The De Natura Deorum index equates Ceres with both earth and corn, confirming the two registers — cosmic material ground and specific agricultural gift — under which she was theologically classified.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods), -45supporting

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For Ceres as the nurse of Iakchos see Lucr. 4.1168, Arnob. 3.10

Burkert documents the ancient sources that cast Ceres as nurse of Iakchos in the Eleusinian cultic complex, placing her at the heart of the mystery initiation cycle.

Burkert, Walter, Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth, 1972supporting

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Ceres, 125-6, 153 n. 4, 471 n. 3

Onians indexes Ceres across multiple discussions of Roman numinous and generative concepts, situating her within the broader investigation of seed, fertility, and bodily life-force in European thought.

Onians, R B, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988aside

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Ceres; se

Greene's index entry for Ceres refers the reader elsewhere, indicating the term's presence in her astrological-mythological framework without developed argument in this passage.

Liz Greene, The Astrology of Fate, 1984aside

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