VIII Part of His Work Le Tibre, Fleuve De Rome Dans L'antiquite, 1953)

VIII THE GODDESS CERES AND HER ROMAN MYSTERIES France continues to enrich us with books, doctos, Jupiter, et laboriosos, on the history of Roman religion and dealing with individual gods and goddesses. We have had in succession A. Bruhl on Liber Pater (1953), J. le Gall on Tiberinus Pater (in the second part of his work Le Tibre, fleuve de Rome dans l'Antiquite, 1953), R. Schilling on Venus (1954), J. Gage on Roman Apollo (1955), and now H. le Bonniec has joined them with a book of nearly five hundred pages on the goddess Ceres.1 And it is no wonder that with such men as Jean Bayet and Georges Dumezilleading the way, to name only those to whom this particular author owes so much, many young French classicists should have been stirred to study the history of Roman religion. It is a phenomenon of which we outsiders gratefully reap the fruits. Now I had good reason indeed to read this book with special interest. Twelve years ago I investigated the real meaning of the expression Initia Cereris and devoted eighteen pages to what I thought was the answer. 2 Le Bonniec repeatedly refers to this short article,3 with the purpose it seems of refuting it, as it befits a disciple of Dumezil, of course because I had dared in this 'etude tres suggestive' (p. 28) to attribute the origin of the goddess Ceres to some numen of fertility. '11 n'est pas de these plus fausse', so we read at the conclusion of the first part,' 'que celle qui pretend rendre compte, a partir de numina specialises, de la genese des grandes divinites romaines.' Here I must point out, or rather repeat, that I have nowhere maintained that all the Roman gods 1 Henri Le Bonniec, Le Culte de Ceres a Rome (Etudes et Commentait'es XXVII), Paris, Klincksieck, 1958. 8 Meded. Kon. Vlaamse Akad. v. Wet., Lett. en Schone Kunsten v. Belgie, Kl. der Lett. 10 No.4 (1948); English version in Studies in Roman Litet'atut'e, Cultut'e, and Religion, 1956, pp. 15off. 3 pp. 28-33; 182£.; 209; 251; 392; 395; 425-430. ' p. 209; cf. p. 30. THE GODDESS CERES AND HER ROMAN MYSTERIES II5 derived from such numina. I have denied this again and again.5 But how far this author has really proved what he set out to prove we shall see later. I should be failing in a pleasant duty if I did not make it quite clear not only that several parts of this work seem to me worthy of everyone's attention but also that here and there it offers what I find decisive solutions of difficult questions. First I should like to observe that Le Bonniec (pp. 6off.) against Wissowa and others seems to me to have effectively made the point that the festival of the feriae Sementivae lasted only one day. Thus Lydus was wrong, Varro and Ovid right. He has hit the mark, if I am not mistaken, with his interpretation of Vergil's lines Georg. I, 338-350 (pp. I34ff.), where Ceres plays such a large part. He is very probably right in thinking that the poet in this passage after a brief mention of the Cerialia, passes on to a description of the Ambarvalia. Though perhaps the arguments he adduces on pp. 2r8ff. in defence of Dionysius of Halicarnassus' account (Ant. Rom. 6, I], 2-4, cf. 6, 94, 3) of the temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera are not such as to convince everybody, they are important and not easy to reject. Rather easier to accept is his discussion (pp. 266ff.) of the site of the temple. Against Huelsen and most of the archaeologists he proves by valid arguments that the site of the temple was the same as what is today that of the Church of St. Maria in Cosmedin, a view which was put forward some decades ago by R. Lanciani and G. B. Giovenale. Very clear too is his account (pp. 3r2ff.) of the actual games of the Cerealia except indeed in those pages (328-330) where he discusses the religious significance of these games. There he gets into difficulties, uncertain what to make of the interpretation proposed by Piganiol, who had written: 8 Le grand probleme est de savoir comment s' exerce l' ejjicacite religieuse des jeux. Dirons-nous que les dieux y prennent plaisir comme les hommes? ou biens' agit-il d'une operation magique agissant directement, pour les ranimer, sur les energies naturelles ou divines? Cette derniere solution est celle vers laquelle nous orientent ces recherches.' Even according toLe Bonniec (p. 330) it may be that this interpretation, 6 E.g. Mnemos. 4a Ser. 5, 1952, pp. 305f.; Historia Mundi 3, 1954, pp. 488ff. Which of us can be accused of 'generalisations' (p. 30) ? 8 A. Piganiol, Recherches sur les jeux romains, 1923, avant-propos p. V. .

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