Charles Simmons, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books XIII and XIV

Baccho, ‘wine,’ as in VI. 488, Bacchus in auro ponitur. So Ceres is used for the standing corn, Amor. I. xv. 12, “cadet incurva falce resecta Ceres”, for the grain, Fast.II. 539, “inque mero mollita Ceres”, for bread, Virg. Aen.I. 701, Cereremque canistris expediunt, Vulcanus for fire, VII. 104, “adamanteis Vulcanum naribus efflant aeripedes tauri”, and so Mulciber, IX. 263, Vesta, Fast. VI. 291, “nec tu aliud Vestam quam vivam intellege flammam”. Sometimes an epithet is transferred to the god from that which is under his protection; thus in VIII. 664, “sincerae baca Minervae”, and in Virg. Aen.VIII. 409, “tenui Minerva”, the epithets possibly belong to the fruit (as contrasted with the pickled cornels of the next line) and to the thread, and in IV. 33, “intempestiva Minerva” is the ill-timed spinning which detains the Minyeides from the festival of Bacchus. Cf. Liv. III. lxii. 8 (of cavalry serving as infantry), “suo alienoque Marte pugnare”, and 653, 707 n., 875 n. Ovid plays upon this use in a curious way in XI. 125, “miscuerat puris auctorem muneris” (sc. Bacchum) undis, XII. 614 (of Achilles armed by Vulcan and burned on the funeral pyre), “armarat deus idem, idemque cremarat”. Lucretius, who himself adopts the usage, remarks upon it in II. 652-4, where see Munro.