From Bulfinch's Mythology: Proserpine - anthology.

« the furrow, the seed failed to come up; there was too much sun, there was too much rain; the birds stole the seeds—thistles and brambles were the only growth.Seeing this, the fountain Arethusa interceded for the land.

'Goddess,' said she, 'blame not the land; it opened unwillingly to yield a passage to your daughter.

I can tellyou of her fate, for I have seen her.

This is not my native country; I came hither from Elis.

I was a woodland nymph, and delighted in the chase.

They praised mybeauty, but I cared nothing for it, and rather boasted of my hunting exploits.

One day I was returning from the wood, heated with exercise, when I came to a streamsilently flowing, so clear that you might count the pebbles on the bottom.

The willows shaded it, and the grassy bank sloped down to the water's edge.

I approached, Itouched the water with my foot.

I stepped in kneedeep, and not content with that, I laid my garments on the willows and went in.

While I sported in the water, I heardan indistinct murmur coming up as out of the depths of the stream; and made haste to escape to the nearest bank.

The voice said, 'Why do you fly, Arethusa? I amAlpheus, the god of this stream.' I ran, he pursued; he was not more swift than I, but he was stronger, and gained upon me, as my strength failed.

At last, exhausted, Icried for help to Diana.

'Help me, goddess! help your votary!' The goddess heard, and wrapped me suddenly in a thick cloud.

The river god looked now this way andnow that, and twice came close to me, but could not find me.

'Arethusa! Arethusa!' he cried.

Oh, how I trembled,—like a lamb that hears the wolf growling outsidethe fold.

A cold sweat came over me, my hair flowed down in streams; where my foot stood there was a pool.

In short, in less time than it takes to tell it, I became afountain.

But in this form Alpheus knew me and attempted to mingle his stream with mine.

Diana cleft the ground, and I, endeavouring to escape him, plunged intothe cavern, and through the bowels of the earth came out here in Sicily.

While I passed through the lower parts of the earth, I saw your Proserpine.

She was sad, butno longer showing alarm in her countenance.

Her look was such as became a queen—the queen of Erebus [a region of the underworld into which the dead passimmediately after they die]; the powerful bride of the monarch of the realms of the dead.' When Ceres heard this, she stood for a while like one stupefied; then turned her chariot towards heaven, and hastened to present herself before the throne of Jove.

Shetold the story of her bereavement, and implored Jupiter to interfere to procure the restitution of her daughter.

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

Accordingly, Mercury was sent, accompaniedby Spring, to demand Proserpine of Pluto.

The wily monarch consented; but, alas! the maiden had taken a pomegranate which Pluto offered her, and had sucked thesweet pulp from a few of the seeds.

This was enough to prevent her complete release; but a compromise was made, by which she was to pass half the time with hermother, and the rest with her husband Pluto. Ceres allowed herself to be pacified with this arrangement, and restored the earth to her favour.

Now she remembered Celeus and his family, and her promise to hisinfant son Triptolemus.

When the boy grew up, she taught him the use of the plough, and how to sow the seed.

She took him in her chariot, drawn by wingeddragons, through all the countries of the earth, imparting to mankind valuable grains, and the knowledge of agriculture.

After his return, Triptolemus built amagnificent temple to Ceres in Eleusis, and established the worship of the goddess, under the name of the Eleusinian mysteries, which, in the splendour and solemnityof their observance, surpassed all other religious celebrations among the Greeks. There can be little doubt of this story of Ceres and Proserpine being an allegory.

Proserpine signifies the seed-corn which when cast into the ground lies thereconcealed—that is, she is carried off by the god of the underworld.

It reappears—that is, Proserpine is restored to her mother.

Spring leads her back to the light ofday. Milton alludes to the story of Proserpine in 'Paradise Lost,' Book IV.: '…Not that fair field Of Enna where Proserpine gathering flowers,Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy DisWas gathered, which cost Ceres all that painTo seek her through the world,—… might with this ParadiseOf Eden strive.' Hood, in his 'Ode to Melancholy,' uses the same allusion very beautifully: 'Forgive, if somewhile I forget, In woe to come the present bliss;As frighted Proserpine let fallHer flowers at the sight of Dis.' The River Alpheus does in fact disappear underground, in part of its course, finding its way through subterranean channels till it again appears on the surface.

It wassaid that the Sicilian fountain Arethusa was the same stream, which, after passing under the sea, came up again in Sicily.

Hence the story ran that a cup thrown intothe Alpheus appeared again in Arethusa.

It is this fable of the underground course of Alpheus that Coleridge alludes to in his poem of 'Kubla Khan': 'In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree,Where Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to man,. »