Proserpine quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which genre best describes "Proserpine"?

   • Correct answer: Classical myth retold
   • Satirical animal fable
   • Gothic horror tale
   • Realist local-color story

   Right. Bulfinch retells a Greek and Roman myth about Ceres, Pluto and Proserpine, and ends by explaining it as an allegory and tracing how later poets used it.

   Read the passage
2. 2

   Question 2. Why does Venus tell Cupid to shoot Pluto with one of his arrows?

   • To make Pluto free the Titans he holds prisoner in Tartarus
   • To make Pluto fall in love with Venus and take her as queen
   • Correct answer: To extend her and Cupid's power into a realm it has not yet won
   • To punish Pluto for letting the buried giants shake the earth

   Venus asks, "Why should he alone escape?" and urges Cupid to "extend your empire and mine." She is stung that Minerva, Diana and Ceres's daughter defy love, so she wants Pluto and Proserpine joined.

   Read the passage
3. 3

   Question 3. What is Proserpine doing when Pluto sees her?

   • Bathing in the River Cyane with nymphs
   • Correct answer: Gathering lilies and violets in Enna
   • Hunting deer in the woods beside Diana
   • Weaving a wreath for her mother's altar

   In the vale of Enna, by a lake in the woods, Proserpine is "gathering lilies and violets, and filling her basket and her apron with them, when Pluto saw her, loved her, and carried her off."

   Read the passage
4. 4

   Question 4. The River Cyane blocks Pluto's path. How does he get past it?

   • He drives his black horses straight across the water
   • He orders the nymph of the river to hold back her waters
   • He calls on his brother Jupiter to dry up the river
   • Correct answer: He strikes the bank with his trident and the earth opens

   When the river "opposed his passage, he struck the river-bank with his trident, and the earth opened and gave him a passage to Tartarus." The hole he opens there is why Ceres later blames the land.

   Read the passage
5. 5

   Question 5. In the line "Under this apprehension, he mounted his chariot, drawn by black horses", what does apprehension mean?

   • A clear understanding of an idea
   • The arrest of someone wanted by law
   • Correct answer: Fear of what might happen
   • Calm trust that all will be well

   Apprehension here is anxious fear about the future. Pluto 'was alarmed, and feared that his kingdom would be laid open to the light of day', so he rides out to inspect the damage.

   Read the passage
6. 6

   Question 6. Why does Ceres finally agree to go into Celeus's cottage?

   • His little girl begs her to come heal her brother
   • Correct answer: He wishes that her own daughter may be restored
   • She is too weak from her fasting to refuse a meal
   • She hopes this family has news of her child

   Celeus says, "Come with us, and despise not our humble roof; so may your daughter be restored to you in safety." Ceres answers that she cannot resist that appeal. She learns of the sick boy only as they walk.

   Read the passage
7. 7

   Question 7. Why does Ceres lay Celeus's sleeping son in the ashes of the fire?

   • Correct answer: To make him immortal, as she tells his mother
   • To punish his parents for doubting her
   • To burn away the fever that is killing him
   • To test whether the family will obey her

   Ceres had already healed the boy with a kiss. She tells Metanira, "I would have made him immortal, but you have frustrated my attempt," and promises instead that he will teach men the use of the plough.

   Read the passage
8. 8

   Question 8. What fruit did Proserpine taste in the underworld?

   • A golden apple
   • A grape
   • A ripe fig
   • Correct answer: A pomegranate

   The maiden had taken a pomegranate that Pluto offered her and 'had sucked the sweet pulp from a few of the seeds', which was enough to prevent her complete release.

   Read the passage
9. 9

   Question 9. Why doesn't the nymph of the River Cyane tell Ceres what she saw?

   • She blames Ceres for leaving her child alone
   • She has promised Proserpine to keep it secret
   • She did not see which of the gods took the girl
   • Correct answer: She is afraid of Pluto, so she only sends the girdle

   The nymph 'would have told the goddess all she had witnessed, but dared not, for fear of Pluto'. She only wafts Proserpine's dropped girdle to Ceres's feet, which tells Ceres her daughter is lost.

   Read the passage
10. 10

    Question 10. When Ceres blames the land of Sicily for her loss, what happens to it?

    • The sea rises and swallows the coast
    • Every flower in Enna withers to black
    • Correct answer: The cattle die and the seed fails
    • Mount Aetna erupts and buries the fields

    Ceres tells the 'Ungrateful soil' it will no more enjoy her favors. Then 'the cattle died, the plough broke in the furrow, the seed failed to come up', and thistles and brambles were the only growth.

    Read the passage
11. 11

    Question 11. How did the fountain Arethusa come to see Proserpine?

    • She went to Pluto's palace to plead for the girl
    • Correct answer: She passed beneath the earth, fleeing Alpheus
    • She was carried below in Pluto's chariot as well
    • She was sent down by Diana to guard the girl

    Fleeing the river god Alpheus, Arethusa plunged into a cavern and came up in Sicily. She says, "While I passed through the lower parts of the earth, I saw your Proserpine."

    Read the passage
12. 12

    Question 12. In the line "implored Jupiter to interfere to procure the restitution of her daughter", what does restitution mean?

    • Correct answer: The return of something taken away
    • A lasting separation from someone loved
    • A punishment handed down for a crime
    • A solemn ceremony of marriage

    Restitution is the giving back of something to the one it was taken from. Ceres asks Jupiter to have Proserpine returned to her.

    Read the passage
13. 13

    Question 13. What condition does Jupiter set for Proserpine's release?

    • Pluto must set her free of his own will
    • Ceres must give the earth back its fruitfulness
    • Correct answer: She must not have eaten any food down below
    • She must not look back on the way up

    Jupiter consents 'on one condition, namely, that Proserpine should not during her stay in the lower world have taken any food; otherwise, the Fates forbade her release.'

    Read the passage
14. 14

    Question 14. Who goes with Mercury to demand Proserpine from Pluto?

    • Arethusa
    • Hesperus
    • Minerva
    • Correct answer: Spring

    Mercury was sent, accompanied by Spring, to demand Proserpine of Pluto. Bulfinch later adds that Spring leads her back to the light of day.

    Read the passage
15. 15

    Question 15. What compromise settles where Proserpine will live?

    • She lives on earth but visits Pluto every spring
    • Correct answer: Half the time with her mother, the rest with Pluto
    • One month underground for every seed she swallowed
    • She stays below until Triptolemus becomes a man

    Because she had eaten from the pomegranate, she could not be fully released, so 'a compromise was made, by which she was to pass half the time with her mother, and the rest with her husband Pluto.'

    Read the passage
16. 16

    Question 16. Bulfinch calls the story an allegory. What does he say Proserpine stands for?

    • Correct answer: The seed-corn hidden in the ground until it reappears
    • The human soul as it passes through death
    • The river that runs beneath the earth to Sicily
    • The moon, which hides and returns every month

    Bulfinch writes that Proserpine signifies the seed-corn, which lies concealed in the ground and reappears, just as she is carried below and restored to her mother. This is why the myth is read as an explanation of the yearly cycle of growth.

    Read the passage
17. 17

    Question 17. Which of these happen in the story?

    • Proserpine let her gathered flowers fall as Pluto carried her off.

      Happened

      In her fright she dropped the corners of her apron and let the flowers fall, and childlike she felt their loss as an addition to her grief.

    • Proserpine swallowed exactly six seeds from Pluto's pomegranate.

      Didn't happen

      Bulfinch gives no number. She 'had sucked the sweet pulp from a few of the seeds', and that was enough to prevent her complete release.

    • Ceres sat upon a stone near Eleusis for nine days and nights.

      Happened

      Weary and sad, she sat down upon a stone and stayed there nine days and nights, where the city of Eleusis now stands.

    • Ceres wept real tears as she told Celeus she had lost her child.

      Didn't happen

      The text says 'tears—or something like tears, for the gods never weep' fell down her cheeks.

    • Celeus's little girl called the disguised goddess 'Mother.'

      Happened

      Passing the goddess, who looked like an old woman, the girl said 'Mother,' and the name was sweet to the ears of Ceres.

    • The river nymph told Ceres outright that Pluto had taken her child.

      Didn't happen

      The nymph dared not speak, for fear of Pluto. She only wafted Proserpine's girdle to Ceres's feet.

    • Metanira snatched her son from the fire where Ceres had laid him.

      Happened

      The boy's mother had been watching, and she sprang forward with a cry and snatched the child from the fire.

    • Ceres went down into the underworld to bring her daughter home.

      Didn't happen

      Ceres went up to Jove's throne instead. Jupiter sent Mercury, with Spring, to demand Proserpine of Pluto.

    • Arethusa reached Sicily by flowing through the depths of the earth.

      Happened

      Diana cleft the ground, and Arethusa plunged into the cavern and came out in Sicily, seeing Proserpine on the way.

    • Pluto refused to give Proserpine up when Mercury came for her.

      Didn't happen

      'The wily monarch consented.' Pluto agreed, knowing that the pomegranate she had eaten would keep her from complete release.

    • Triptolemus built a magnificent temple to Ceres in Eleusis.

      Happened

      After traveling with Ceres to teach agriculture, Triptolemus built the temple and established the Eleusinian mysteries.

    Read the passage