Cereal is named after Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain.1 The breakfast got the name in 1899.
Cereal is named after Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain.1 The breakfast got the name in 1899.
Ceres was the Roman name for Demeter, the goddess of grain and the harvest. Anything of hers was cerealis, and in 1818 English took the word for whatever had to do with edible grain. The breakfast came later: Americans were calling it cereal by 1899.
In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, when her daughter Persephone is taken, Demeter keeps the seed hidden in the ground for a year, and the oxen pull the ploughs for no crop. Then Persephone comes back up and the fields fill with leaves and flowers. So a bowl of cereal is, technically, a small offering.
Homeric Hymn to Demeter 305–309, 471–473. Online Etymology Dictionary, cereal.
Ceres comes from an old root for “to grow”. Create, crescent and increase grew out of the same one.At breakfast tomorrow, count how many things on the table started as a seed.
1 Online Etymology Dictionary, cereal
