Ceres Hermes scarf by the fabulously talented Francoise Faconnet doesn’t have anything to do with the dwarf planet nor the city in central California as you might already suspect.
The Hermes Ceres is depicting the Roman Goddess by the same name. Ceres was the goddess of agriculture, fertility, grains, harvest, motherhood, and the earth and the Roman counterpart to the Greek Goddess Demeter. She is believed to have ended the unsettled wandering and lawless lifestyle of our predecessors and was credited to have given mankind agriculture and a new, civilized, way of living. The Romans celebrated and made sacrifices to Ceres throughout the year, from ploughing fields, to planting seeds up to harvest time.
The biggest festival in her honor, the Cerealia, was held from mid to late April and lasted several days. It took place at Circus Maximus, the large Roman stadium typically reserved for chariot racing. This annual festival involved some unusual pagan rituals like foxes running with lit torches tied to their tails or one that represented Ceres’ lost daughter Proserpina symbolized by a maiden running around dressed in white. Loving foxes since I was a little girl, I definitely prefer Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s version below.
Francoise Faconnet’s placed her grain goddess at the center of her design and surrounded her with life’s overflowing bounty and beauty.
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