great care and feeding with her own milk the little
Triptolemus, son of Eleusis and Hyona. For the third was seen the same
Triptolemus flying by her advice upon one of the two dragons that had
been presented to him by her, together with the car, to the end that he
might go through the world piously teaching the care and cultivation of
the fields; the other dragon having been killed by the impious King of
the Getae, who sought with every effort likewise to slay Triptolemus. For
the fourth was seen how she hid her beloved daughter Proserpine in
Sicily, foreseeing in a certain sense that which afterwards befell her;
even as in the fifth, likewise, she was seen after that event, as has
been told elsewhere, going to Phrygia to visit her mother Cybele; and in
the sixth, as she was dwelling in that place, the same Proserpine was
seen appearing to her in a dream, and demonstrating to her in what a
plight she found herself from Pluto's rape of her; on which account,
being all distraught, she was seen in the seventh returning in great
haste to Sicily. For the eighth, likewise, was seen how, not finding her
there, in her deep anguish she kindled two great torches, being moved to
the resolution to seek her throughout the whole world; and in the ninth
and last she was seen arriving at the well of Cyane, and there coming by
chance upon the girdle of her stolen daughter, a sure proof of what had
befallen her; whereupon in her great wrath, not having aught else on
which to vent it, she was seen turning to break to pieces the rakes,
hoes, ploughs, and other rustic implements that chanced to have been
left there in the fields by the peasants. At the foot of the car, then,
were seen walking figures signifying her various sacrifices; first, for
those that are called the Eleusinia, two little virgins attired in white
vestments, each with a gracious little basket in the hands, one of which
was seen to be all filled with various flowers, and the other with
various ears of corn. After which, for those sacrifices that were
offered to Ceres as Goddess of Earth, there were seen coming two boys,
two women, and two men, likewise all dressed in white, and all crowned
with hyacinths, who were leading two great oxen, as it were to sacrifice
them; and then, for those others that were offered to Ceres the
Law-giver, called by the Greeks Thesmophoros, were seen coming two
matrons only, very chaste in aspect, likewise dressed in white, and in
like manner c