Crossword clues for proserpina
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Despoina \Despoina\ prop. n. (Classical Mythology) the daughter of Zeus and Demeter; made queen of the underworld by Pluto in ancient mythology; identified with Roman Proserpina.
Syn: Persephone, Kore, Cora.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
daughter of Ceres and wife of Pluto, Latin (or Etruscan) modification of Greek Persephone, perhaps influenced by Latin proserpere "to creep forth" on notion of the germination of plants.
Wikipedia
Proserpina (; ) or Proserpine is an ancient Roman goddess whose cult, myths and mysteries were based on those of Greek Persephone and her mother Demeter, the Greek goddess of grain and agriculture. The Romans identified Proserpina with their native fertility goddess Libera, daughter of the grain and agriculture goddess Ceres and wife to Liber. In 204 BC, a new "greek-style" cult to Ceres and Proserpina as "Mother and Maiden" was imported from southern Italy, along with Greek priestesses to serve it, and was installed in Ceres' Temple on Rome's Aventine Hill. The new cult and its priesthood were actively promoted by Rome's religious authorities as morally desirable for respectable Roman women, and may have partly subsumed the temple's older, native cult to Ceres, Liber and Libera; but the new rites seems to have functioned alongside the old, rather than replaced them.
Just as Persephone was thought to be a daughter of Demeter, Romans made Proserpina a daughter of Demeter's Roman equivalent, Ceres. Like Persephone, Proserpina is associated with the underworld realm and its ruler; and along with her mother Ceres, with the springtime growth of crops and the cycle of life, death and rebirth or renewal. Her name is a Latinisation of "Persephone", perhaps influenced by the Latin proserpere ("to emerge, to creep forth"), with respect to the growing of grain. Her core myths – her forcible abduction by the god of the Underworld, her mother's search for her and her eventual but temporary restoration to the world above – are the subject of works in Roman and later art and literature. In particular, Proserpina's seizure by the god of the Underworld – usually described as the Rape of Proserpina, or of Persephone – has offered dramatic subject matter for Renaissance and later sculptors and painters.
Proserpina or Proserpine is the Roman goddess of springtime and wife of Pluto.
It may also refer to:
- Proserpina Dam, Mérida
- Proserpina (gastropod), genus of land snails in the family Proserpinidae
- Proserpine (Lully), an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully
- Proserpine (play), an 1820 play by Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Proserpine (Rossetti painting), a painting by artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1874)
- Proserpine, Queensland, a town in Queensland, Australia
- French frigate Proserpine (1785)
- HMS Proserpine, any one of several ships of the Royal Navy
- USS Proserpine (ARL-21), a United States Navy Achelous-class landing craft repair ship commissioned in 1945
- 26 Proserpina, an asteroid discovered in 1853
- Proserpina, an 1879 book by John Ruskin about wayside flowers
- Prosperpina, a character in Larry Niven's Ringworld's Children
Proserpina is a genus of small land snails, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the family Proserpinidae. Proserpina is the type genus of the family Proserpinidae.
Usage examples of "proserpina".
Then shalt thou see a great and marvailous dogge, with three heads, barking continually at the soules of such as enter in, but he can do them no other harme, he lieth day and night before the gate of Proserpina, and keepeth the house of Pluto with great diligence, to whom if thou cast one of thy sops, thou maist have accesse to Proserpina without all danger : shee will make thee good cheere, and entertaine thee with delicate meate and drinke, but sit thou upon the ground, and desire browne bread, and then declare thy message unto her, and when thou hast received such beauty as she giveth, in thy returne appease the rage of the dogge with thy other sop, and give thy other halfe penny to covetous Charon, and come the same way againe into the world as thou wentest : but above all things have a regard that thou looke not in the boxe, neither be not too curious about the treasure of the divine beauty.
After that Psyches had passed by the lame Asse, paid her halfe pennie for passage, neglected the old man in the river, denyed to helpe the woman spinning, and filled the ravenous month of the dogge with a sop, shee came to the chamber of Proserpina.
There Psyches would not sit in any royall seate, nor eate any delicate meates, but kneeled at the feete of Proserpina, onely contented with course bread, declared her message, and after she had received a mysticall secret in a boxe, she departed, and stopped the mouth of the dogge with the other sop, and paied the boatman the other halfe penny.
Take this box and to Hell to Proserpina, and desire her to send me a little of her beauty, as much as will serve me the space of one day, and say that such as I had is consumed away since my sonne fell sicke, but returne againe quickly, for I must dresse my selfe therewithall, and goe to the Theatre of the Gods : then poore Psyches perceived the end of all fortune, thinking verely that she should never returne, and not without cause, when as she was compelled to go to the gulfe and furies of hell.
I would tell you if it were lawfull for me to tell, you should know if it were convenient for you to heare, but both thy eares, and my tongue shall incur the like paine of rash curiositie: Howbeit, I will content thy mind for this present time, which peradventure is somewhat religious and given to some devotion, listen therefore and beleeve it to be true: Thou shalt understand that I approached neere unto Hell, even to the gates of Proserpina, and after that, I was ravished throughout all the Element, I returned to my proper place: About midnight I saw the Sun shine, I saw likewise the gods celestiall and gods infernall, before whom I presented my selfe, and worshipped them: Behold now have I told thee, which although thou hast heard, yet it is necessarie thou conceale it.
Libitina was an ancient Roman divinity, originally perhaps an agricultural divinity, who became the goddess of funerals and was identified by, some with Proserpina.
The highest achievement of this phase was the construction of a research and observation station upon Proserpina II, the second satellite of the most remote of all the planets from Sol.
The pressure suit Proserpina had worked up for him was a quick fix.