Metamorphoses: Proserpina, Ceres, and The Transforming of a Family

Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a very complicated book. It is dated within the text as being written during the reign of Augustus Caesar (15.1095-1098), whose reign began in 27 BC. This would have been post-Roman Republic, which does explain most of the worldview in the text. Historical timing aside, however, Metamorphoses focuses on the consequences of evil actions and the rewarding of good ones. Some stories stand out from the rest. One particularly interesting story is the account of Proserpina, her mother Ceres, and her whole family. Its focus is not evil actions or good actions, although they are both present. The focus is the love between a mother and her daughter, which then creates meaningful change for them, their family, and two very different worlds.

Proserpina’s story begins with Venus speaking to her son, Cupid. “You govern the gods and their ruler; you rule the defeated / gods of the ocean and govern the one who rules them, too” (5.536-537). She then expresses a desire to take over the Underworld as well. Imploring Cupid to fire an arrow into the heart of Dis, the god of Hades, she makes her plans to have control over every part of the world (5.538-546). After being shot with Cupid’s arrow, Dis kidnaps his young niece and takes her back to the Underworld to become his wife (5.552-563; 592-593).

Note that Proserpina cannot be more than twelve years old at this time. The passage states that Proserpina is trying to pick more flowers than her friends, which immediately shows her to be a young child. When her garment tears and her flowers fall out, her greatest grief is that she has dropped them (5.564-568). The passage specifically notes her “tender years and childish simplicity” (5.567). She is described as having a young physical age and an even younger mental age.

Ceres searches the entire earth to find her daughter, refusing to give up while Proserpina is lost (5.608-615). It is not so simple, however. Cyane, a nymph who was an eyewitness to Proserpina’s kidnapping, was destroyed by Dis as she tried to stop him from taking Proserpina (5.580-607). She is only able to give Proserpina’s sash to her searching mother (5.639-641).

The passage describes a very powerful moment in which grief and anger take over. Ceres, now realizing where Proserpina has been taken, begins to tear apart every part of the world that she is meant to protect. As she screams, she throws her hands down and plows shatter. Farmers and cattle die, seeds are killed by rain, droughts, thorns, winds and what may be a meteor shower (5.648-657). All of this is described as happening in only a few minutes. Only Arethusa, another nymph-turned-fountain who saw Proserpina taken, is able to stop Ceres’ destruction of an earth that did not wish to relinquish young Proserpina in the first place (5.658-663). Ceres sees only one option left to her, and, her love for Proserpina being so strong, she takes her chances.

Ceres goes to Jove (5.683-685). He is Proserpina’s father (though Ceres is his sister), and Ceres begs him to help her get Proserpina back. “If you have no regard for her mother, / relent as her father” (5.687-688). Jove, however, does not believe that their daughter is in any danger. Dis is his brother, and therefore is likely the second most powerful god in existence. It would seem, to Jove, that Proserpina is in as good a position as any wife could wish to be (5.699-703). However, he does offer one chance for her to escape—that she has not eaten anything up to this point while in Hades (5.704-706).

But Proserpina has already failed that requirement. She knew nothing of it, and she ate the seeds of a pomegranate in Hades’ gardens (5.707-712). Only one man, Ascalaphus, saw her, but he immediately informed her that she could no longer go back to her mother (5.712-716).

         Even as the child that she is, Proserpina is a powerful goddess. Fueled by grief and anger, just as her mother was, she throws water from a nearby pool into Ascalaphus’ face (5.718-719). Little by little, piece by piece, Ascalaphus is transformed from a man into an owl (5.720-725). He is now forever a night-dwelling creature, a harbinger of bad news and an ill omen the world over. His fate reflects the hopelessness in Proserpina’s—and Ceres’—mind.

         Even Dis feels the power of this ill omen and Proserpina’s grief. She is Queen of the Underworld and Ruler of the Dead, but she is not satisfied. Separated from the woman who has raised her, cared for her, and loved her most, Proserpina has no reason to love anyone else.

         Therein is the climax of our story. The love between a mother and her daughter now becomes the strongest bond in the entirety of Metamorphoses. In the end, nothing can replace it, surpass it, or sever it. Even Fate itself is overcome by this purest form of love. Jove sorrows in seeing his sister Ceres and his brother Dis grieve over Proserpina. Jove allows Proserpina to see her mother for half the year and her husband for the other half, so that she will not be so unhappy in her new life (5.739-746). Once again, the love within a family (albeit a twisted family) triumphs over the dark forces at work in the world. Even Venus and Cupid no longer have the control that they tried to attain.

         The close of the story finds Proserpina happy. Not only is she happy in her continued relationship with her mother, but she finds herself happy in her marriage as well. We now see the completion of a tainted love story, the renewal of the strongest family bonds, and the power that true love can have over the world. The gods and the Romans had their problems, but the story of Proserpina shows that even these problems can be overcome.

SOURCE

Ovid. Metamorphoses. Translated by Charles Martin, W.W. Norton and Company, 2004.