Ancient Greek goddess Persephone. Persephone, goddess of the underworld of the dead. Social significance of the myth
Persephone and Hades, goddess of spring and lord of the dead, are a divine couple whose relationship is shrouded in mystery. However, like the archetypes of the deities themselves. ..
The Mysteries of Persephone constituted one of the three parts of the Eleusinian Mysteries and were of a sacred nature. They were called "The Last Test". Information about what happened on them has not reached our days. Participants were forbidden to disclose what was happening. It is known that the goal of these mysteries was to achieve fertility.
Persephone spends autumn and winter with Hades underground - in the kingdom of the dead, and spring and summer - on the surface, in the kingdom of the living, with her mother Demeter. Demeter is the goddess of fertility and motherhood, the goddess of the fruit-bearing earth.
Every year, Hades rises to the surface, only to take Persephone, who became his legal wife, to his home.
Thus, Persephone's life is an endless journey from mother to husband - from husband to mother, and back. This is an endless cycle, a vicious circle that cannot turn into a spiral.
The kingdom of Hades is a gray, barren land; dead swamps; withered trees, gloomy fogs. Appearing in the underworld, Persephone managed to bring spring even there. “...all this rot of the ever-dying autumn was replaced by lush vegetation and hugeour roots, the tops of which blossomed on the surface of the earth and went into the sky.
Such was the transformation accomplished by Proserpina (Persephone)” (E. Golovin “Proserpina”).
Persephone herself has changed, now she has a territory where she has become a full-fledged mistress. The meeting with Hades, despite the halo of “criminality,” was an event that contributed to the growing up of Cora-Persephone and her separation from her mother.
However, her mother, who is sad in separation, forces Persephone to constantly return to outdated patterns of behavior. Eternally lost, helpless, kidnapped child; eternal mother's daughter...
If you look at Hades through the eyes of mother Demeter, he is quite capable of inspiring horror: a gloomy lord of shadows, a kidnapper and seducer of a young maiden.
(However, Demeter and other contenders for her daughter’s hand did not like her; even the handsome Apollo did not please her. Demeter preferred to consider Cora too young for marriage).
Hades does not even visit Olympus - the archetypal center of social laws, the creators of which are Zeus and his beloved children Apollo and Athena. These laws are for mortals, but not for Hades. This means that he is outside the laws, outside social values. Or he lives according to the laws that he alone knows...
The secret is that Persebackground undoubtedly loves Aida. Everyone tells their love story possible options fairy tales "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Scarlet Flower".
Doesn't it seem strange that Demeter, instead of having other children and letting her daughter go into adulthood, desperately clings to her? After all, this is contrary to nature itself. After the cubs grow up, the female of any species of animal releases them and gives birth to new offspring! Where does the goddess of fertility herself have such... infertility?
Why is Demeter unable to bring spring to earth without the help of Persephone?
Demeter is the goddess of agriculture, she is the goddess of cultivated nature, and therefore of artificial fertility. Her cult appeared quite late, having gone through the stages of ancient goddesses, uncontrollable like the elements themselves - Gaia, Rhea Cybele. And as a result, Mother Earth turned from the Great and Terrible Mother into a caring Mother Demeter, who is completely focused on her child (and apparently has no other interests).
The fertility of Demeter is like the fertility of a vegetable garden, native and plowed with one’s own hands. However, no matter what miracles of agronomy we perform, the harvest will always depend on the vagaries of nature.
The Greeks of that time learned to cultivate the land, but were still dependent on natural conditions. And this is another fertility, the one that is outside of human laws! And he is symbolized by Hades, who is not only the god of the dead, but also the god of the underground depths - underground wealth.
Persephone found herself at a crossroads between wild and cultivated nature. Her mission is extremely important.
She brings love to the heart of Hades, which is why spring comes in the underworld, and the underground part of the plants begins to grow. This is how the goddess influences wildlife!
And then Persephone rises to the surface and brings spring to vegetable gardens and plowed fields, brings harvest and essentially saves human civilization from hunger))) Without Persephone, Demeter, alas, does not bear fruit, just as a plant cannot live if its root part is damaged .
Persephone is an extremely ancient deity. It appears to be older than her mother Demeter, a form that crystallized with the advent of agriculture.
The translation of the name "Persephone" is lost, which may indicate that it is of ancient, non-Greek origin. “The inability to explain the name of Persephone based on the Greek language suggests that Persephone is an ancient local goddess, whose cult was widespread before the Greek invasion of the Balkan Peninsula.”http://mythology.org.ua/Persephone
Oddly enough, Persephone herself is also barren. Persephone and Hades had no children. Persephone became the adoptive mother of the baby Adonis, who soon turned into the most handsome man among mortals. At the insistence of Persephone, Adonis spends a third of the year with his adoptive mother, two thirds with his beloved, the goddess Aphrodite. As we see, Persephone exactly repeats the behavior pattern of her mother...
However, Persephone turns out to be barren only in later myths. According to more ancient myths, in which the deities still retained a zoomorphic appearance, Persephone had a son named Zagreus.
Zagreus was called the Wild Hunter. He was an extremely important deity in those ancient times when hunting was the main source of food.
It was no coincidence that I turned to the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast”. Persephone conceived Zagreus by entering into an alliance with a certain deity who took on the image of a Dragon (Snake), in a word, a terrifying, bestial appearance.
In some myths, this Serpent is none other than Zeus himself, the father of Persephone. In other myths, this is Hades. Researcher A.F. Losev writes: “On coins of the 4th century. BC e. from Pras we find an image of a woman caressing Zeus the serpent; it is not difficult to recognize Persephone in her.”
http://www.sno.pro1.ru/lib/losev2/15.htm 
Losev also writes about the combination of xtonic (zoomorphic) myths with heroic ones. The Chthonic principle is, of course, represented by Hades, while the Heroic principle is represented by Zeus - the fundamental archetype of patriarchal civilization.
If at first it seems that Zagreus was the fruit of an incestuous relationship, then with a more detailed study of the images of Hades and Zeus it becomes clear that incest hardly took place.
The creature from whom Zagreus was conceived was chthonic, a representative of natural chaos, and not of Zeus's civilization.
When we enter the space of nature, social prejudices cease to dominate us. There is no indecent, no sinful, conventions are erased.
Hades represents the shadow side of the Zeus archetype. Zeus is the king of civilization, Hades is the king of the world of death, which is as beyond the control of people as nature.
There were times when there was no civilization yet.
But nature has always existed. In those distant times, Hades and Zeus were one deity, symbolizing the Masculine principle. It was from him that Persephone conceived. Zagreus is the son of Hades, or the son of the animalistic, “bestial” hypostasis of Zeus - and this is Hades.
Whether Zagreus was the product of incest is not so important in the natural world. In some myths, the archetype of Zargay merged with the archetype of Hades and Zeus, which adds an additional "incestuous" connotation:
“Zagreus is as much a son of Hades as he is Hades himself; and, besides, he is as much the son of Zeus as he is Zeus himself...” (A.F. Losev).
From the point of view of social norms, the union of Hades and Persephone is incestuous in any case (Hades is Persephone's uncle), it is just not as blatant as in the case of Zeus.
...When a girl starts dating a man much older than herself, a bashful thought may occur to her: “He’s old enough to be my father!” (or with a much younger man, and then the woman complains that she is old enough to be his mother). A thought that references incest...
Instead of enjoying the beauty of the fusion of eternity and renewal - two most important life-giving energies, we indulge in social prejudices. This is how our inner Persephone becomes barren...
P.S. Zagreus was also not allowed to live for his own pleasure. Hera, a champion of social order, directed the wrath of the titans at him. The Titans tore Zagreus into pieces, Zeus incinerated them with lightning for this. Athena managed to save Zagreus's heart and bring it safely to Zeus. Zeus ate his heart and conceived a second incarnation of Zagreus from the mortal woman Semele. And the born baby was named Dionysus. He became the god of agriculture and festivals, as well as altered states of consciousness. Dionysus managed to unite chaos wildlife and orderliness of agriculture. The mysteries of Dionysus gained no less wide popularity than the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone.
“Dionysus is the god of the last cosmic era, reigning over the world, or, as one source says, “our ruler” (A.F. Losev)
“...The Titans, who tasted his flesh, were incinerated by the lightning of Zeus, and from these ashes, mixed with the blood of the god, the human race arose, which is distinguished by the daring of the Titans and the suffering of Dionysus”...
Posted on Feb. 10th, 2015 at 08:55 pm |
Patron goddesses of agriculture. In the Roman pantheon, Persephone corresponds to the goddess Proserpina.
History of appearance
The meaning of the name Persephone cannot be deduced based on Greek language. Scientists suggest that the cult of the goddess of the kingdom of the dead spread across the Balkan Peninsula long before the Greeks invaded there. Greek Persephone "grew" from an ancient local deity.
The image of the goddess of the underworld merged among the Greeks with the image of the local virgin goddess Kore, who was worshiped as the goddess of fertility. Perhaps, initially, Kore and the mother goddess Demeter were perceived as the same mythological image. Later Persephone-Kore turned into the daughter of Demeter, but the connection between these two characters is ancient Greek mythology and the community of worship remained indissoluble.
Persephone personifies vegetation - grains that are hidden in the ground, and then make their way to the surface in the form of shoots, which happens cyclically year after year. In Greek literature, the image of Persephone also symbolizes the immortality of the soul. Persephone's attribute is the narcissus flower.
Image and character
Persephone, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, was nursed in a cave by her mother and nymphs. The growing Persephone was accompanied by other young goddesses - the huntress, the goddess of war and wisdom, the goddess of love and beauty. When the heroine grew up and entered marriageable age, the patron of the arts, the golden-haired healer god and the god of war began to woo her.
The legend claims that in the end the girl did not go to either one or the other, but was kidnapped by Hades, who took Persephone to the kingdom of the dead.
The mother of the young goddess, Demeter, wandered around the world in great sadness and looked for her daughter. Since Demeter is the goddess of fertility and agriculture, the earth "fell into depression" along with her. The sown fields stood bare, nothing sprang up or grew.
When Demeter found out that Hades was to blame for everything, she demanded from the supreme god Zeus that he tell Hades to return Persephone. Hades let Persephone go, but at the same time played a cunning trick.
Hades' attribute is the pomegranate fruit, and the god of the underworld gave Persephone some pomegranate seeds to eat before the young goddess left. Before this episode, the kidnapped Persephone refused to touch food in the kingdom of Hades. After eating pomegranate seeds, the goddess gained a connection with the underworld and was doomed to return there. Zeus decided the dispute between Demeter and Hades in such a way that Persephone had to spend six months on Olympus with her mother, and the other six months in the underworld with her husband (option: two-thirds of the year on Olympus and one-third in the underworld).
In Roman mythology, the image of Persephone corresponds to the goddess Proserpine, the daughter of the grain goddess Ceres, whom she gave birth to from the supreme god of the sky, Jupiter.
According to the Roman version, Proserpina and her friends were picking flowers in a meadow when the heroine’s own uncle, the ruler of the underworld Pluto, looked at Proserpina and was inflamed with love. Pluto carried Proserpina away in a chariot, which fell into the gaping abyss and was carried away into the underworld.
In Greek mythology, there are several options for how Hades kidnaps Persephone. The most common one corresponds to the Roman one - Hades kidnapped the heroine in a meadow by a lake, and this happened on the island of Sicily. There is also an option in which the god of the underworld was helped by Zeus himself. There are several places in Greece where the abduction of Persephone allegedly took place. This is either Olympia, or Argolis, where Persephone was noticed by Hades on the banks of the Himarr River, or the town of Erineon near the city of Eleusis, or a source in Syracuse.
The image of Persephone-Kore has been depicted in art many times since ancient times. In the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg you can see a Roman copy of an ancient Greek statue depicting God and Kore. The motif of the abduction of Persephone by Hades has been used more than once in painting and sculpture, starting with an engraving of this plot created in 1516.
Giovanni Bernini, an Italian sculptor and architect of the Baroque era, sculpted a marble sculpture depicting the abduction of Proserpina by Pluto. This statue can be seen in Rome, in the Borghese Gallery.
The image of Proserpina inspired Pre-Raphaelite artists. Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted a portrait of the heroine holding a pomegranate fruit, using his own late wife Elizabeth and new mistress Jane Burden as models.
Asteroids were named after Persephone twice. One was named Greek name goddess (Persephone), and the other - Roman (Proserpina).
Film adaptations
Persephone first appears on screens in the 9-minute cartoon “Goddess of Spring” released in 1934. The cartoon was shot at the studio and is part of the Silly Symphonies series. Pluto, the ruler of the underworld, is depicted here as looking like a caricature of Satan.
The plot is classic: Persephone - the goddess of spring - walks through the forest. Suddenly Pluto appears, grabs Persephone and takes her to the underworld. There, the villain declares Persephone queen, but the goddess of spring plunges into despondency and the whole earth along with her. Pluto, tired of this depressing sight, lets Persephone go, but every six months she must return to him underground. After the goddess of spring returns to earth, the world returns to a state of harmony.
Animator Hamilton Luske, who created the design for Persephone, later used it to develop early sketches for the design from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
In 2002, Russian animation director Sergei Olifirenko released a 13-minute cartoon “Persephone”, which became part of the “Animated Tales of the World” series.
In 2010, the image of Persephone appears in cinema for the first time. In the film Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, the role of Persephone is played by an American actress. In this film, the god of the underworld, Hades, is presented as the main villain. Hades gets the rod of Zeus, and Persephone takes this terrible weapon from the villain and strikes him with lightning. And then he gives the rod to the main character - .
The heroine's appearance changes depending on where she is. In the underworld, Persephone has pale skin and her dress appears to be made of mist. On the ground, the heroine's dress blooms with flowers, and her eyes become different colors.
In 2003, the films “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix: Revolution” were released, where there is no goddess Persephone as such, but there is a character named after her. This is the wife of the Merovingian - the embodiment of the oldest program in the Matrix, which regulates the behavior of people in the system. At the time of the film, Merovingen has not been updated for a long time, is obsolete and has become a marginal boss who patronizes other obsolete programs that must be removed and trades information.
Monica Bellucci in the movie "The Matrix" At Persephone's difficult relationships with her husband, and in exchange for a kiss to spite the Merovingen, she helps the heroes free a certain Key Master, whom her husband is holding captive. The role of Persephone in both films is played by an Italian actress.
PERSEFO ON(Περσεφόνη); TO O ra (Κόρα, “girl”, “maiden”), in Greek mythology the goddess of the kingdom of the dead. Daughter of Zeus and Demeter, wife of Hades, who, with the permission of Zeus, kidnapped her (Hes. Theog. 912-914). The Homeric hymn “To Demeter” tells how Persephone and her friends played in the meadow, collecting irises, roses, violets, hyacinths and daffodils. Hades appeared from a cleft in the earth and whisked Persephone away on a golden chariot to the kingdom of the dead (Hymn. Hom. V 1-20, 414-433). The grieving Demeter sent drought and crop failure to the earth, and Zeus was forced to send Hermes with the order to Hades to bring Persephone into the light. Hades sent Persephone to her mother, but forced her to eat a pomegranate seed so that Persephone would not forget the kingdom of death and return to him again. Demeter, having learned about the treachery of Hades, realized that from now on her daughter would spend a third of the year among the dead, and two thirds with her mother, whose joy would return abundance to the earth (360-413). Persephone wisely rules the kingdom of the dead, where heroes penetrate from time to time. King of the Lapiths Pirithous tried to kidnap Persephone with Theseus. For this he was chained to a rock, and Persephone allowed Hercules to return Theseus to earth. At the request of Persephone, Hercules left the cow shepherd Hades alive (Apollod. II 5, 12). Persephone was moved by Orpheus' music and returned Eurydice to him (however, through the fault of Orpheus, she remained in the kingdom of the dead; Ovid. Met. X 46-57). At the request of Aphrodite, Persephone hid the baby Adonis with her and did not want to return him to Aphrodite; according to the decision of Zeus, Adonis had to spend a third of the year in the kingdom of the dead (Apollod. III 14, 4). Persephone plays a special role in the Orphic cult of Dionysus-Zagreus. From Zeus, who turned into a serpent, she gives birth to Zagreus (Hymn. Orph. XXXXVI; Nonn. Dion. V 562-570; VI 155-165), who was subsequently torn to pieces by the Titans. Persephone is also associated with the Eleusinian cult of Demeter. Persephone has closely intertwined features of the chthonic ancient deity and classical Olympics. She reigns in the form against her own will, but at the same time she feels like a completely legitimate and wise ruler there. She destroyed, literally trampling, her rivals - the beloved Hades: the nymph Kokitida and the nymph Minta. At the same time, Persephone helps the heroes and cannot forget the earth with its parents. Persephone, as the wife of the chthonic Zeus the serpent, dates back to the deep archaic, when Zeus himself was still the “Underground” king of the kingdom of the dead. The vestige of this connection between Zeus Chthonius and Persephone is the desire of Zeus for Hades to kidnap Persephone against the will of Persephone herself and her mother. In Roman mythology, she corresponds to Proserpina - the daughter of Ceres (Greek Demeter).
Lit.: Losev A.F., Ancient mythology in its historical development, M., 1957; Rose H.J., The bride of Hades, “Classical Philology”, 1925, p. 238-243; see also lit. at Art. Demeter.
A.F. Losev
On antique vases, coins, mosaics, reliefs there are scenes of “the abduction of Persephone”, less often - “return from the underworld”. In European art, the theme of “the abduction of Persephone” was addressed by P.P. Rubens, Rembrandt, sculptors L. Bernini and F. Girardon and others. The theme of Persephone is present in the poetry of J. Milton, developed by Goethe (drama “Proserpina”), Shelley (“The Song of Proserpina”), A.Ch. Swinburne (“Hymn to Persephone”), O. Mandelstam and others. A ballet by I. Stravinsky was staged based on A. Gide’s trilogy about Persephone. The most significant musical developments of the plot of Persephone are the operas of C. Monteverdi, J.B. Lully and C. Saint-Saens.
Myths of the peoples of the world. Encyclopedia. (In 2 volumes). Ch. ed. S.A. Tokarev.- M.: “Soviet Encyclopedia”, 1982. T. II, p. 305-306.
As you know, the pagan Greek pantheon included 12 gods. Persephone is the goddess of the kingdom of the dead. According to legend, she is forced to spend a third of the year underground, with her husband Hades, and two-thirds on earth, with her mother Demeter. Further in the article we will look in detail at who Persephone is and what myths exist about her.
Birth of Persephone
Abduction by Hades
Persephone was a very beautiful and cheerful girl. One day she was noticed by her dear, half-crazed uncle - the god of the underworld Hades. One day, the unsuspecting Persephone was walking through the meadow with her friends, having fun and picking flowers. Suddenly, a chariot drawn by four horses emerged from a cleft in the ground. Hades himself ruled it. Of course, the weak girl could not do anything and was taken to the kingdom of darkness and death, where she was supposed to become the wife of an underground god. As the myth tells, her grief knew no bounds. The abduction of Persephone (who was previously called Kore) was approved by Zeus himself.
Scientists have found many ancient Greek artifacts with drawings in which the abduction of Persephone by Hades is presented in detail. This story is also described in Homer’s “Hymn to Demeter.” And even in our time, this interesting myth often attracts the attention of artists, musicians and poets.
Demeter's appeal to Zeus
Persephone's mother, of course, could not come to terms with her daughter's disappearance. Inconsolable, she turned to Zeus himself with a request to return Persephone. The Supreme God was touched by the tears of Demeter, and he ordered Hermes to go down to the kingdom of Hades and pick up the young goddess. However, the cunning god of the dead, before releasing Persephone, invited her to eat a few pomegranate seeds. Apparently, the young goddess was not that upset, because she did not refuse. So the old god of the underworld received a guarantee that the Persephone he liked would return to him herself. This is what happened later.
Return of the Goddess
Finally, Demeter and Persephone met. Suspecting Hades of deceit, the mother asked her daughter if she had eaten anything in the underworld. The young goddess had to admit that she was seduced by pomegranate seeds. However, Persephone lied, saying that Hades forced her to eat them. Let us add that pomegranate seeds in Greece are considered a symbol of marital fidelity. According to legend, Aphrodite first planted pomegranates on Crete.
Demeter realized that her daughter had not returned to her forever. So, having eaten pomegranate seeds, Persephone is forced to spend two thirds of the year with her mother, and one third with Hades. However, Greek legends, describing the exploits of heroes and the deeds of gods associated with the underworld, never describe its goddess as mourning or sad. Rather, she is presented in them as the sovereign mistress of this dark place. Becoming the wife of Hades, Persephone no longer appears as a young girl, but as a young, strict and at the same time loyal to the living female goddess.
Goddess in the starry sky
Some sources say that, returning from the kingdom of Hades, Persephone - the goddess of the underworld - sometimes rises to heaven in the form of the constellation Virgo. She does this so that her bored mother can see her from everywhere. There are also legends according to which the constellation Virgo is associated with Demeter herself.
Symbolism of myth
Of course, Persephone ( Greek goddess), or rather the myth about it, symbolizes nothing more than the change of seasons. Summer reigns in warm Greece for two thirds of the year, and winter for one third. When Hades kidnapped Persephone, her mother stopped fulfilling her duties in grief. As a result, grass and trees stopped growing, animals had nothing to eat, and a terrible famine occurred on the earth. When Zeus returned her young daughter to Demeter, to celebrate, the goddess taught agricultural crafts to a whole troop of various kinds of heroes. After which she turned from a hypothetical goddess of fertility into the goddess of a specific stratum of Greek society engaged in cultivating fields.
If we talk about archetypes, the pair of Demeter and Persephone represents a single “mother-daughter” scheme, in which the latter is too close to the former and is in a dependent position on it. Persephone herself acts as both a symbol of the woman-child (Kore), spring (the return from the kingdom of Hades) and a guide to the world of the dead.
Persephone in the works of the ancient Greeks
Persephone is a goddess who is mentioned in many myths of this ancient country. For example, it was Persephone, who was touched by the grief of Orpheus and his beautiful music, who released Eurydice from the kingdom of the dead. However, the latter never saw the light of the sun, and it was precisely through the fault of her lover. According to legend, Orpheus was given a condition not to look back when leaving the kingdom of death. However, he could not resist the temptation.
It is also told about Persephone in Homer's Odyssey. Main character This epic also once descended into the underworld, where his mistress showed him the souls of dead righteous women.
Another myth tells how Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, competed with Aphrodite for the love of Adonis. The latter was an ordinary mortal, but a very handsome young man. The most beautiful goddess in the pantheon placed it in a basket and sent it to Persephone so that she could hide it. Seeing Adonis and falling in love, the goddess of the underworld flatly refused to give him back to Aphrodite. This dispute lasted a long time. It was allowed by Zeus. By his decree, Adonis was forced to spend a third of the year with Persephone, a third with Aphrodite, and the rest of the time was left to himself.
In one of the myths, Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, also appears as a formidable, jealous wife. She turns Hades' mistress, the nymph Minta, into a plant (mint). The nymph of the Kokid (Kokitida) river was trampled to death by her for the same reason. Meanwhile, according to mythology, Persephone herself had two official lovers - Dionysus and Adonis.
The roots of the myth
Persephone is a goddess (judging even by her name) who was not originally Greek. The myth about her was not invented in this country. It is believed that it was borrowed from the settlers of the Balkans, where it was popular during the Mycenaean era.
Correspondences in Roman mythology
The ancient Romans also have a myth similar to the abduction of Persephone by Hades. In it, this goddess corresponds to Proserpina. She was also the daughter of the fertility goddess, whose name was Ceres. The god of the earthly kingdom, Pluto, stole it. Like Persephone, Proserpina is forced to spend a third of the year in his kingdom because of the pomegranate seeds she once ate.
So you now know who Persephone is. This is a young goddess who was kidnapped by Hades and became his wife. The myths telling about her are eventful and very interesting.
Persephone picks a flower
Boris Vallejo
Alexander Isachev
Persephone, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Zeus and the goddess Demeter. The goddess of fertility and agriculture, Demeter, loved her only daughter, the beautiful Persephone. For her, she grew beautiful fragrant flowers in the meadows of Hellas, allowed dragonflies and butterflies to flutter among them, and songbirds to fill the meadows and groves with melodious singing. Young Persephone adored the bright world of Uncle Helios, the god of the Sun, and her mother’s green meadows, lush trees, bright flowers and streams babbling everywhere, on the surface of which the glare of the sun played. Neither she nor her mother knew that Zeus had promised her as a wife to his gloomy brother Hades, the god of the underworld.
One day, Demeter and Persephone were walking through a green meadow. Persephone frolicked with her friends, rejoicing in the light and warmth, reveling in the aromas of meadow flowers. Suddenly, in the grass, she found a flower of unknown beauty that emitted an intoxicating smell. It was Gaia, at the request of Hades, who raised him to attract the attention of Persephone. As soon as the girl touched the strange flower, the earth opened up and a golden carriage pulled by four black horses appeared. Hades ruled it. He picked up Persephone and carried her to his palace in the underworld. Heartbroken, Demeter dressed in black clothes and went in search of her daughter.
Proserpine,
Dante Gabriel Rosetti
Frederic Leighton
Dark times have come for everything living on earth. The trees lost their lush foliage, the flowers withered, the grains did not produce grain. Neither the fields nor the gardens bore fruit. Hunger has set in. All life froze. The human race was in danger of destruction. The gods, who from time to time came down to people from Olympus and took care of them, began to ask Zeus to tell Demeter the truth about Persephone.
But after learning the truth, the mother missed her daughter even more. Then Zeus sent Hermes to Hades with a request to release his wife to earth from time to time so that Persephone could see her mother. Hades did not dare to disobey Zeus. Seeing her daughter, Demeter rejoiced, tears of joy sparkled in her eyes. The earth was filled with this moisture, the meadows were covered with tender grass, and flowers bloomed on recently drooping stems. Soon the grain fields began to sprout. Nature has awakened to a new life. From then on, by order of Zeus, Persephone was obliged to spend two thirds of the year with her mother and one third with her husband.
This is how the alternation of seasons arose. When Persephone is in the kingdom of her husband, despondency attacks Demeter, and winter comes on Earth. But every return of the daughter to her mother in the world of Uncle Helios is alive with new juices and brings with her spring in all its triumphant beauty. That is why Persephone is always depicted as a beautiful girl with a bouquet of flowers and a sheaf of ears of corn and is considered the goddess of the coming spring, the sister of the goddess of the kingdom of flowers and plants, Flora. And she lives in the sky as the wonderful constellation Virgo. The brightest star in the constellation Virgo is called Spica, which means ear of corn. In Roman mythology, the goddess corresponds to Proserpina.
