I.C. RADICE-PAPPALARDO

                  di Castelvetrano (TP)

Once upon a time, in the time of gods, there was a goddess named Ceres. She was the Goddess of corn and harvest and on earth there was an eternal spring.

Her daughter, named Proserpine, was her only child from her union with Jupiter (Zeus), king of gods.    

In those days reigned a very powerful god, he was called Pluto. He was the god of the underworld but suffered from extreme loneliness. "How nice it would be to have a girlfriend" sighed the god.

One day, as Proserpine picked flowers with her friends in the valley of Enna in Sicily, Pluto, king of the underworld and ruler of the dead, saw her and fell madly in love with her. 

Riding a chariot pulled by four black horses, Pluto grabbed Proserpine and dragged her down into the underworld with him.

Hearing her daughter’s scream, Ceres rushed to help her, but she was too late. Ceres searched the entire earth for her daughter.  

 Once she realized that Pluto had abducted Proserpine, she became angry and caused the earth to dry up, and the harvests to fail. 

Finally, Ceres appealed to Jupiter, who told her that her daughter was now Pluto's queen. 

So Ceres lost all interest in life, disguised herself as an old woman and hid at the bottom of a cave without taking care of what was happening on earth anymore.