232 i Flora Unveiled
Liber and Libera were originally a Roman divine couple representing the fertility of men and
women, respectively, but the two deities also had power over the natural cycle and the growth
of crops. Under Greek influence, Liber became more narrowly identified with Dionysus, the
Greek god of wine, or Bacchus, the Roman equivalent. In 493 bce, in the aftermath of a plague,
a temple was built on the Aventine to honor the triad of Ceres, Libera, and Liber, the Roman
counterparts to the Greek Demeter, Persephone, and Iachhos— an epithet of Dionysus. In
other contexts, Libera was equated with either Ariadne or Venus, as the consort of Liber. Libera
was gradually subsumed by another Roman goddess, Proserpina, the Roman equivalent of
Persephone in the myth of the rape and abduction by Pluto (Hades), the god of the underworld.
Closely allied with Ceres was Tellus (later Terra Mater) the goddess of the earth. Tellus
was equated with the Greek goddess Gaia or Ge. Tellus may have arisen from a Roman spirit
that inhabited farmland and helped to bring forth crops.^4 Subsequently, she was generalized
to an earth mother and identified with Gaia.
(b)Figure 9.1 Continued