194 This legend, which is mentioned also by Cicero (_In C. Verrem_, act. ii. bk. iv. ch. 48), was no doubt told to explain the use of torches in the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone. The author of the Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_ tells us (verses 47 _sq._) that Demeter searched for her lost daughter for nine days with burning torches in her hands, but he does not say that the torches were kindled at the flames of Etna. In art Demeter and Persephone and their attendants were often represented with torches in their hands. See L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, iii. (Oxford, 1907) plates xiii., xv. _a_, xvi., xvii., xviii., xix., xx., xxi. _a_, xxv., xxvii. _b_. Perhaps the legend of the torchlight search for Persephone and the use of the torches in the mysteries may have originated in a custom of carrying fire about the fields as a charm to secure sunshine for the corn. See _The Golden Bough_,2 iii. 313. 195 The words which I have translated “the bringing home of the Maiden” (τῆς Κόρης τὴν καταγωγήν) are explained with great probability by Professor M. P. Nilsson as referring to the bringing of the ripe corn to the barn or the threshing-floor (_Griechische Feste_, Leipsic, 1906, pp. 356 _sq._). This interpretation accords perfectly with a well-attested sense of καταγωγή and its cognate verb κατάγειν, and is preferable to the other possible interpretation “the bringing down,” which would refer to the descent of Persephone into the nether world; for such a descent is hardly appropriate to a harvest festival. 196 Cicero, _Pro L. Flacco_, 26. 197 Himerius, _Orat._ ii. 5. 198 Μητρόπολις τῶν καρπῶν, Aristides, _Panathen._ vol. i. p. 168 ed. G. Dindorf (Leipzig, 1829). M44 The Sicilians seem to have associated Demeter with the seed-corn and Persephone with the ripe ears. Difficulty of distinguishing between Demeter and Persephone as personifications of different aspects of the corn. M45 The time of the year when the first-fruits of the corn were offered to Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis is not known.