Ceres - Mythology in brief

Ceres - Life giving godess of agriculture, grain and harvest.

In Roman mythology, Ceres provided mortals with plants, food and vegetables. She gave them the ability to cultivate wheat, as well as showing them how to plants seed, nurture and harvest them. She is even attributed to teaching humans how to grind grain into flour which they could turn into bread.
One day, while Ceres was attending her duties her daughter Proserpina wandered off to admire a beautiful narcissus flower. As she bent down to pick it the ground opened and Pluto emerged in a chariot pulled with black horses. Proserpina was grabbed and whisked into the underworld.  

Ceres searched endlessly for her daughter, neglecting her duties on earth. Plants whithered, animals died and famine ravished the earth.
In mythology freedom from the underworld can only be achieved if nothing has been eaten in it. As the world could not continue in the state it was, the gods agreed that as Proserpina had eaten 6 pomegranate seeds, she could be freed for half a year and spend half a year in the underworld.
And so....it was believed that the story explained the seasons of the year. The time spent away is Autumn and Winter. The daughters arrival brings signs of hope, fertility and fruitfullness for Sprin and Summer