Ceres

Ceres, the Roman name of the great Greek goddess Dēmētēr, the protectress of agriculture and the fruits of the earth. Her worship was borrowed by the Romans from Sicily. Her first temple in Rome was vowed by the dictator A. Postumius Albinus (496 B.C.), to avert a famine with which the city was threatened. A great festival, with games, the Cerealia, was instituted in her honour, and her worship acquired great importance in the city. The decrees of the senate were deposited in her temple for the inspection of the tribunes of the people. See DEMETER.