Talk:Ceres (mythology)

message: I've redirected the existing pages on the minor gods who assisted Ceres (now mentioned in the article (although the text needs to be rephrased by someone knowlageable about the gods in question)), as I don't think there is anything that can be said about them apart from their relationship to Ceres, which should be addressed here.  If anyone disagrees, please respond here, and then feel free to revert. JesseW 07:50, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Redirecting minor gods here 

message: Since Ceres may soon be added as a planet to our solar system, I think it may be best to redirect "Ceres" to the disambiguation page after all, and not to the mythological reference. In the near future, many people will be looking up on information about the new planet (or ex-candidate planet) Mansize 23:10, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed. Previous move debate is now obsolete. --Planetary 20:19, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reviewing the archived debate 

message: :A statue of Ceres caps the dome at the Vermont State House. Ceres is also a village in Fife, Scotland, near the county town of Cupar. Ceres is also a small town in Northern California.
I removed these "me too" references—it's pure cruft. The list isn't complete, and no thank you, we don't want a complete list of everything called Ceres here. Anyway, the Ceres (disambiguation) page already covers this, as mentioned near the top of the article.
—Herbee 21:32, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Me too!

message: The picture in this article misleads you into thinking it is a statue of Ceres. In fact, I have found many sites that discuss the goddess Ceres that use this picture, referencing wikipedia as its source. However, this is not a statue of Ceres. From the Louvre's website, translated from French, this is what it is:
"Unknown woman in Cérès About 235 - 250 A.D.
The calm face is not, as one had believed it, the one of an empress, but of an unknown Roman lady.  This funerary picture borrows from the faces of Venus a clothing discovering the shoulder and the left breast, echo of certain representations of the Greek Aphrodite created at the end of the View century before Jesus Christ."''
So, you see. It is a sculpture of an unknowmn woman from a PLACE called Ceres. I may be being a little nitpicky. I know. I study art history, however, and really had wanted to learn the history of this particular piece. I spent a solid two hour period searching for this statue's history, always using "Statue of Ceres" as my keywords. I couldn't find anything, of course, because that was not the title of the piece. So, I think it would be best to replace this picture with another picture of Ceres, since there are plenty.
:A reply to this regrettably unsigned comment. Good work. You weren't being nitpicky, you were being facty, and that's all to the good. I can't agree that we've plenty to chose from - at least not works of this calibre - but will regretfully remove and replace it as soon as I find an adequately attractive and (hopefully) equally ancient substitute. The many links to the image show how easy it is to propagate error across the internet. The image is mislabeled "Ceres" in many wikis and websites, and in many languages. Haploidavey (talk) 17:39, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I just cross-checked; Ceres exists as a placename or several, but this is an unknown  woman as Ceres, not from Ceres. It's almost certainly a funerary statue; she may have been a priestess of Ceres - I think that with a little relabeling we can keep it. Apart from anything else, it's far and away the best we have. Haploidavey (talk) 21:12, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Picture of Statue 

message: This article has not been tagged for attention but I need a place to link from the overloaded Religion in ancient Rome. I'll be rewriting and substantially re-organising here in categorical and chronological order, using modern scholarship and inline citation; we should expect both as a basic standard in wikipedia. As usual, critiques, contributions, polite counterblasts and strong cups of coffee (cream but no sugar please) are welcome. Haploidavey (talk) 14:11, 6 July 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Am getting Spaeth's volume delivered (see new refs and notes section in article). S'not perfick - what is? - but its price has plummeted and Spaeth deals with most of what's needed for an reasonably informative article. So unless I'm struck down by thunderbolts, measles or RSI I'll edit this one more intensively some time next week. Promise. Haploidavey (talk) 00:46, 7 July 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Some of the rewritten content might be placed elsewhere - I'm thinking of the Aventine Triad article in particular. Thoughts? Haploidavey (talk) 15:19, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Rewrite

message: This section needs further review. The inaccuracy of its first statement is easily remedied. Neopagan Ceres should probably get a look-in. As for the rest, it seems rather a random grab-bag. Thoughts? Deeds? Haploidavey (talk) 15:19, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Legacy

message: Or rather, source. Really, for modern scholarship on Ceres there seems to be only Le Bonniec (I've no access to that) or Spaeth (which I have). Spaeth's very methodical in outline, but oddly frustrating in detail, and not too hot on critical historiography. She has a few more-or-less controversial hobby-horses - like her insistence that the so-called Tellus figure on the Ara Pacis is really Ceres. OK, it sure looks very, very Cerean. Well, maybe. And she squeezes in an awful lot of modern sociological constructs; she gets very precise about those, but the things she's being precise about - I mean those things that make a cult a cult, rather than a sociological phenomenon - are sweeping and frustratingly sketchy. So if anyone passing this page has a copy of Henri Le Bonniec's reputedly meticulous and authoritative work on Ceres, their input here would, I'm sure, help improve, round off and balance this article. Haploidavey (talk) 02:44, 22 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Sources

message: Isn't she the equivalent of Greek Demeter?--94.65.73.173 (talk) 21:33, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: She is, and the article is clear on this point. Haploidavey (talk) 21:38, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Demeter

message: I did some things here that may or may not be useful. First, I made a separate section for Ceres' assistant gods, so that it can be linked to more directly. Second, I changed the numerical list to a bullet list; come to think of it, this is probably in error, since there is definite sequence. Each of these should probably get an etymology. Cynwolfe (talk) 17:07, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: And then you went through the article like a particularly fast-acting and accurately targeted silver bullet. Much better. I'll renumber the list, and provide etymologies where I can. Haploidavey (talk) 17:43, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Assistant deities 

message: I didn't tag this, but if I may be frank, I was just looking through this for links and such and started to nod off around the section on Tiberius Gracchus. I felt that I had (hypothetically) come to this article to learn about the goddess Ceres, and now I was getting a lesson in Roman politics. To me, Cult and cult themes, Priesthoods, and Mythology all come before Ceres as a political football. We have to understand her significance before we understand what role she played in politics, maybe. Or, the college freshman who looks up Ceres because Ben Jonson alluded to her (in my fairyland, college freshmen still read Ben Jonson) needs an summary overview of the goddess as goddess first. And then Gracchus comes up again later, under "Laws and liminality," two concepts that to me don't go together, since laws are all about setting definite boundaries. "Expiations" also covers some of the material already discussed pertaining to the Punic Wars. Grouping some of this material together differently might tighten up the article. (Having made similar comments elsewhere, let me also say in advance: now, Davey, don't overreact to this.) Cynwolfe (talk) 17:50, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Frank is fine. I soooo trust your judgment, y'know? and I hereby promise not to overreact. Quite honestly, I'd rather have based this rewrite on Le Bonniec (see above, vs Spaeth, for why). So any suggestions for shuffling, reconstruction and downright amputations would be welcome. Truly. Haploidavey (talk) 18:05, 2 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I've rearranged it. Might need some corrections and transpositions, to elucidate as we go, but you were right about the basics of presentation. Haploidavey (talk) 15:14, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Organization 

message: I'm going to copy the paragraph on the Cerealia to that article and integrate it there, since Cerealia isn't nearly as informative. Cynwolfe (talk) 01:32, 6 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cerealia 

message: In the A. the honoured deity is Dea Dia, whether she is Ceres is not supported by evidence. The fratres were the 12 sons of Acca Larentia including Romulus as adoptive son. The cult of the arvals seems to point to an archaic propitiary and apotropaic rite. Sources agree it was founded by Romulus. It could mean a military protection of the harvest. The location at the lucus at limit of the territory conquered by Romulus is significant. But of course the agricultural cults bear a general earthly symbology anyway and cannot be seen as exclusively centred on this. It is certainly not Roman (i.e. preroman) since it is very archaic in the prohibition of the use of iron, the earth clods on the siver burner, the earthen olla.
Liber and Libera while comparable to Dionysos look to be a typically Italic agrarian folk couple. Their name etymologically means the fertile ones.Aldrasto11 (talk) 15:10, 31 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ambarvalia, Dea Dia, plebeian triad etc. 

message: The primary topic of "Ceres" is under discussion, see talk:Ceres (dwarf planet) -- 70.51.200.101 (talk) 06:35, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: "{{noredirect|Ceres}}"

message: The usage and primary topic of  is under discussion, see talk:Ceres (dwarf planet) -- 67.70.32.190 (talk) 05:40, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: "Ceres"

message: Just FYI: I am in the process of creating the Umbilicus (reference point). Since in a ROman city umbilicus is collocated with mundus, it might make sense to have a section on mundus there. To avoid duplication, I have opened a space for discussion at Talk:Umbilicus (reference point). Викидим (talk) 02:36, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Umbilicus 

message: The redirect Lactanus has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached.  TNstingray (talk) 20:50, 12 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  "[[:Lactanus]]" listed at [[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion|Redirects for discussion]] 

message: The redirect Ceres Iasion has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached.  TNstingray (talk) 20:54, 12 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  "[[:Ceres Iasion]]" listed at [[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion|Redirects for discussion]]