e produced on the spot by the
miraculous power of Jupiter, who caused them to spring up in wonderful
luxuriance and splendor, the more effectually to charm the senses of
the maiden whom they were enticing away. At length, suddenly the
earth opened, and Pluto appeared, coming up from below in a golden
chariot drawn by immortal steeds, and, seizing Proserpina, he carried
her down to his own abodes.

Ceres, the mother of Proserpina, was greatly distressed when she
learned the fate of her daughter. She immediately went to Jupiter, and
implored him to restore Proserpina to the upper world. Jupiter, on the
other hand, urged Ceres to consent to her remaining as the wife of
Pluto. The mother, however, would not yield, and finally her tears and
entreaties so far prevailed over Jupiter as to induce him to give
permission to Ceres to bring Proserpina back, provided that she had
not tasted of any food that grew in the regions below. Ceres
accordingly went in search of her daughter. She found, unfortunately,
that Proserpina, in walking through the Elysian fields with Pluto, had
incautiously eaten a pomegranate which she had taken from a tree that
was growing there. She was consequently precluded from availing
herself of Jupiter's permission to return to Olympus. Finally,
however, Jupiter consented that she should divide her time between the
inferior and the superior regions, spending six months with Pluto
below, and six months with her mother above; and she did so.

Proserpina was looked upon by all mankind with feelings of great
veneration and awe as the goddess and queen of death, and she was
worshiped in many places with solemn and imposing ceremonies. There
was, moreover, in the minds of men, a certain mystical significancy in
the mode of life which she led, in thus dividing her time by regular
alternations between the lower and upper worlds, that seemed to them
to denote and typify the principle of _vegetation_, which may be
regarded as, in a certain sense, alternately a principle of life and
death, inasmuch as, for six months in the year, it appears in the form
of living and growing plants, rising above the ground, and covering
the earth with verdure and beauty, and then, for the six months that
remain, it withdraws from the view, and exists only in the form of
inert and apparently lifeless roots and seeds, concealed in hidden
recesses beneath the ground. Proserpina was thus considered the type
and emblem of vegetation, and