Proserpina (; ) or
Proserpine is an ancient Roman
goddess whose cult, myths and mysteries were based on those of Greek
Persephone and her mother
Demeter, the Greek goddess of grain and agriculture. The Romans identified Proserpina with their native fertility goddess
Libera, daughter of the grain and agriculture goddess
Ceres and wife to
Liber. In 204 BC, a new
"greek-style" cult to Ceres and Proserpina as "Mother and Maiden" was imported from southern Italy, along with Greek priestesses to serve it, and was installed in Ceres' Temple on Rome's Aventine Hill. The new cult and its priesthood were actively promoted by Rome's religious authorities as
morally desirable for respectable Roman women, and may have partly subsumed the temple's older, native cult to
Ceres, Liber and Libera; but the new rites seems to have functioned alongside the old, rather than replaced them.