_In which we find out how it happened that we must have winter time
and summer time._
Ceres, the goddess of the harvests, was very fond of her daughter,
Proserpina, and seldom let her go into the fields alone. One time
when she was very busy looking after the crops all over the earth,
she gave Proserpina permission to go down to the shore and play
with the sea nymphs.
She had not been playing long before she besought the sea nymphs
to go with her into the fields to gather flowers. The nymphs dared
not to go upon the dry land because they had to keep themselves wet
all the time, so Proserpina ran off alone. Never had she seen such
lovely flowers, and the farther she went the more beautiful they
became. She was just on the point of turning back when she saw a
shrub covered with blossoms. The shrub was so full of them that she
decided to pull it up by the roots.
Proserpina pulled and pulled. Finally it came up leaving a hole
that deepened and widened before her. All the while there came a
rumbling noise out of its depths, like the tramp of horses’ hoofs
and the rattling of wheels. She soon saw a team of four horses
snorting smoke out of their nostrils, and tearing their way out of
the earth drawing a splendid chariot of gold.
In the chariot was a man with a crown on his head. He kept rubbing
his eyes and shading them with his hand because he was not fond
of the sunlight. This man was Pluto, god of the lower regions. He
seized Proserpina, placed her in the chariot, shook the reins, and
away galloped the horses. Proserpina screamed for her mother, but
Ceres was thousands of miles away.
Down to his palace they went where Pluto did everything to make
Proserpina happy. Proserpina made a vow not to taste food while
within King Pluto’s dominion, because those who eat there can never
leave.
When Ceres heard what Pluto had done she was so miserable she cared
neither for seed time nor harvest. She came to the resolution
that not a stalk of grain, nor blade of grass should grow until
her daughter was restored. All vegetation was parched brown when
Mercury was sent to Pluto in hopes of persuading him to release
Proserpina.
At last he consented to do so. Proserpina had not eaten food for
months and had just bitten a pomegranate, which a servant had
brought her, when in walked King Pluto and Mercury. Proserpina
quickly withdrew the pomegranate from her mouth, but she swallowed
six of the seeds.
Pluto did not know this, however, and let her accompany Mercury
back to the earth. But for each of the six pomegranate seeds she
has to spend one month in King Pluto’s palace, and only six months
with her mother, Ceres.