en Pluto, passing in his
chariot through the cave, discovered her whilst busy in gathering
flowers, with her attendants, the daughters of Oceanus. Proserpine he
seized, and having placed her in his chariot, carried her to Syracuse,
where the earth opening, they both descended to the infernal regions.

She had not been long there when the fame of her charms induced Theseus
and Pirithous to combine for the purpose of carrying her thence; but in
this they failed. When Ceres, who was disconsolate for the loss of her
daughter, discovered where she was, Jupiter upon her repeated
solicitations, promised that Proserpine should be restored, provided she
had not yet tasted any thing in hell. Ceres joyfully descended, and
Proserpine, full of triumph, prepared for her return, when lo!
Ascalaphus, son of Acheron and Gorgyra, discovered that he saw
Proserpine, as she walked in the garden of Pluto, eat some grains of a
pomegranate, upon which her departure was stopped. At last, by the
repeated importunity of her mother to Jupiter, she extorted as a favor,
in mitigation of her grief, that Proserpine should live half the year in
heaven, and the other half in hell.

Proserpine is represented under the form of a beautiful woman,
enthroned, having something stern and melancholy in her aspect. Statius
has found out a melancholy employment for her, which is, to keep a sort
of register of the dead, and to mark down all that should be added to
that number. The same poet mentions another of her offices of a more
agreeable nature: he says, when any woman dies who had been a remarkably
good wife in this world, Proserpine prepares the spirits of the best
women in the other to make a procession to welcome her into Elysium with
joy, and to strew all the way with flowers where she is to pass.

Some represent Proserpine, Luna, Hec{)a}te, and Di{=a}na, as one; the
same goddess being called Luna in heaven, Di{=a}na on earth, and
Hec{)a}te in hell: and they explain the fable of the moon, which is
hidden from us in the hemisphere of the countries beneath, just so long
as it shines in our own. As Proserpine was to stay six months with her
mother, and six with her husband, she was the emblem of the seed corn,
which lies in the earth during the winter, but in spring sprouts forth,
and in summer bears fruit.

The mythological sense of the fable is this: the name of Proserpine, or
Persephone, among the Egyptians, was used to denote the change produced
in t