143 See, for example, Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 17. 3: “_Frugum substantiam volunt Proserpinam dicere, quia fruges hominibus cum seri coeperint prosunt. Terram ipsam Cererem nominant, nomen hoc a gerendis fructibus mutuati_”; L. Preller, _Demeter und Persephone_, p. 128, “_Der Erdboden wird Demeter, die Vegetation Persephone_.” François Lenormant, again, held that Demeter was originally a personification of the earth regarded as divine, but he admitted that from the time of the Homeric poems downwards she was sharply distinguished from Ge, the earth-goddess proper. See Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, _s.v._ “Ceres,” ii. 1022 _sq._ Some light might be thrown on the question whether Demeter was an Earth Goddess or a Corn Goddess, if we could be sure of the etymology of her name, which has been variously explained as “Earth Mother” (Δῆ μήτηρ equivalent to Γῆ μήτηρ) and as “Barley Mother” (from an alleged Cretan word δηαί “barley”: see _Etymologicum Magnum_, _s.v._ Δηώ, pp. 263 _sq._). The former etymology has been the most popular; the latter is maintained by W. Mannhardt. See L. Preller, _Demeter und Persephone_, pp. 317, 366 _sqq._; F. G. Welcker, _Griechische Götterlehre_, i. 385 _sqq._; Preller-Robert, _Griechische Mythologie_, i. 747 note 6; Kern, in Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, iv. 2713; W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, pp. 281 _sqq._ But my learned friend the Rev. Professor J. H. Moulton informs me that both etymologies are open to serious philological objections, and that no satisfactory derivation of the first syllable of Demeter’s name has yet been proposed. Accordingly I prefer to base no argument on an analysis of the name, and to rest my interpretation of the goddess entirely on her myth, ritual, and representations in art. Etymology is at the best a very slippery ground on which to rear mythological theories. _ 144 Hymn to Demeter_, 8 _sqq._ M31 The Yellow Demeter, the goddess who sifts the ripe grain from the chaff at the threshing-floor. The Green Demeter the goddess of the green corn. _ 145 Hymn to Demeter_, 279, 302. 146 Homer, _Iliad_, v. 499-504. _ 147 Iliad_, xiii. 322, xxi. 76. 148 Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 31 _sq._ 149 Quoted by Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 66. 150 Pausanias, i. 22. 3 with my note; Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 615; J. de Prott et L. Ziehen, _Leges Graecorum Sacrae_, Fasciculus I. (Leipsic, 1896) p. 49; Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 28; Scholiast on Sophocles, _Oedipus Colon._ 1600; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, iii. 312 _sq._ M32 The cereals called “Demeter’s fruits.”