CEREALIA. - Festivals in honor of Ceres, celebrated on April 19.

It is not known how they were conducted in the primitive indigenous cult, to which the sacred-magical rite of releasing foxes with torches tied to their tails into the Circus Maximus may belong, aimed at intensifying the heat of the sun upon the spirit of the grain incorporated in the foxes (Ovid, Fast., VI, 681-82). But in Ovid's account the festival is already absorbed by the games of the Circus held on this day, which are connected to the assimilation of Ceres with Demeter. The ludi Ceriales, mentioned for the first time by Livy (XXX, 39, 8) in 202 B.C., but certainly more ancient, were connected with the temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera and were prepared by the plebeian aediles who had their seat there from as early as 449 B.C.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: Hunziker, s. v. in Ch. Daremberg et E. Saglio, Dict. d. antiq. gr. et rom., I, II, pp. 1020-21; G. Wissowa, Cerialia, in Pauly-Wissowa, III, II, coll. 1980-81.

Alberto Galietti

@incollection{ec3_cerealia, author = {Galieti, Alberto}, title = {Cerealia}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1314--1315}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cerealia} }

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