Persephone

Alexis SampereMay 9, 2013

6th hour

Persephone was titled the Maiden (Kore) as the goddess of spring's bounty. When she was playing in a flowery meadow with her Nymph companions, Kore was seized by Haides and carried off to the underworld as his bride. Her mother Demeter despaired at her disappearance and searched for her the throughout the world accompanied by the goddess Hekake bearing torches. When she learned that Zeus had conspired in her daughter's abduction she was furious, and refused to let the earth fruit until Persephone was returned.

Story of Origin

Zeus consented, but because the girl had tasted of the food of Haides—a handful of pomegranate seeds—she was forced to forever spend a part of the year with her husband in the underworld. Her annual return to the earth in spring was marked by the flowering of the meadows and the sudden growth of the new grain. Her return to the underworld in winter, conversely, saw the dying down of plants and the halting of growth.

GODDESS OF SPRINGTIME

These were the things sacred to

Persephone.

MINT POMEGRANATE

Persephone & Demeter (Her mother) Demeter

Worshipped alongside her mother

Facts about Persephone

The rape of

Persephone Other names

Persephone in Art

Hades Takes a WifeQueen of the Underworld

The Rape of Persephone

The story of Persephone's abduction is also known as the rape of Persephone. The Homeric Hymns tell how Hades kidnapped Persephone when she was gathering flowers in the Vale of Nysa. According to the legend, her mother Demeter became deeply concerned and did not protect the fields, thus causing famine among mortals. Persephone had eaten a pomegranate seed in the underworld, linking her forever with Hades. Thus she was obliged to live in the underworld for one-third of the year, being able to return to her mother's company for the rest of the time.

The first living visitor to the Underworld, though an unwilling one, was the goddess Persephone. The only daughter of Zeus and Demeter (the goddess of grain, agriculture, and fertility), Persephone was an innocent maiden, a virgin who loved to play in the fields where eternal springtime reigned.

But Hades had other plans for Persephone: He would steal her innocence and virginity and turn her into the dreaded goddess of the Underworld.

Hades Takes a Wife

Many artists have used Persephone as inspiration for their work down the centuries. From the Italians Giovanni Bellini and Titian (who completed the deceased Bellini's work) came "The Feast of the Gods" in the 16th century. American Thomas Hart Benton painted "Persephone" in 1939. Perhaps the most famous artwork with Persephone as subject is Bernini's 17th-century "The Rape of Proserpina," a baroque marble sculpture located in the Galleria Borghese, in Rome.

Persephone in Art

Other Names

Persephone is called Proserpina, but the family tree and legends are the same. In southern Italian town of Locri, the goddess was worshiped as the protector of marriage. In Greece, she was also called Persephoneia, Persephassa, Persephatta, Pherepapha, Perifona and Kore, which simply means "maiden." Those names reflected different local dialects used in the ancient world.

Queen of the Underworld

In Roman mythology, Persephone is called Proserpina, but the family tree and legends are the same. In southern Italian town of Locri, the goddess was worshiped as the protector of marriage. In Greece, she was also called Persephoneia, Persephassa, Persephatta, Pherepapha, Perifona and Kore, which simply means "maiden." Those names reflected different local dialects used in the ancient world.

THE END