Aug 27, 2018
Roman Mythology: Proserpina (Prōserpina / Persephone)
Queen of the underworld realm and wife of Pluto. Proserpina is also associated by the Romans with the springtime growth of crops and the cycle of life, death and rebirth or renewal. Her name is a Latinisation of "Persephone", perhaps influenced by the Latin proserpere "to emerge, to creep forth" with respect to the growing of grain. Anthesphoria, in antiquity, was a flower-festival celebrated in Sicily, and to a lesser extent Peloponnesus, in honor of Proserpine. The word is derived from the Greek ἅνθος "flower" and φέρὰ "I carry", in regard the goddess was forced away by Pluto when she was gathering flowers in the fields.