There were, however, a handful of myths that challenged this persona. The surnames given to her by the poets refer to her role as queen of the lower world and the dead and to the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. 473474. Cartwright, M. (2016, March 24). Finally, as a compromise, it was decided that Persephone would be released but that she would have to return to Hades for one-third of the year (or in other accounts one-half). Persephone was the greek goddess of spring and the goddess of the Underworld in Greek Mythology. This article was most recently revised and updated by, From Athena to Zeus: Basics of Greek Mythology, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Persephone-Greek-goddess, Perseus Digital Library - A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology - Perse'phone, Persephone - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Persephone - Wikipedia According to some accounts, she had a garden of ever blooming flowers (poppies) in the underworld. "Persephone." These rituals, which were held in the month Pyanepsion, commemorated marriage and fertility, as well as the abduction and return of Persephone. Persephone: Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia. Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany. Lincoln argues that the myth is a description of the loss of Persephone's virginity, where her epithet koure signifies "a girl of initiatory age", and where Hades is the male oppressor forcing himself onto a young girl for the first time. According to several strands of Orphism, Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and his mother, the Titan Rhea (rather than Demeter). One day she was walking in a beautiful meadow and gathering flowers to take . In the Eleusinian Mysteries, her return from the underworld each spring is a symbol of immortality, and she was frequently represented on sarcophagi. In her iconography, Persephone was represented as a young woman, modestly clad in a robe and wearing either a diadem or a cylindrical crown called a polos on her head. The god wears a chlamys cloak and petasos cap and holds a herald's wand ( kerykeion) in his hand. Online version at the Topos Text Project. In ancient Greek mythology, Zagreus is a god closely associated. [40] The Homeric hymn mentions the Nysion (or Mysion) which was probably a mythical place. old engraved illustration of pluto carrying off proserpina (proserpine). Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter in Greek mythology, appears in films, works of literature, and in popular culture, both as a goddess character and through the symbolic use of her name. [57] In Arcadia, Demeter and Persephone were often called Despoinai (, "the mistresses"). In various other myths, Persephone is the mother of Dionysos (with Zeus, who is also her father) - although Semele is the more usual candidate - and squabbles with Aphrodite for the attentions of devilishly handsome Adonis, the two settling to share the famous lover in split shifts. Hades complies with the request, but first he tricks Persephone, giving her some pomegranate seeds to eat. [67][68][69] After he was born, Aphrodite entrusted him to Persephone to raise. Divinities in the Orphic Gold Leaves: Eukls, Eubouleus, Brimo, Kybele, Kore and Persephone. [39], Many of the festivals of Persephone and Demeter were related to the myth of Persephones abduction. Demeters terrible rage was ended only through the intervention of Zeus, who sent the messenger god Hermes to persuade Hades to return Persephone to Demeter. [99][100] The idea of immortality which appears in the syncretistic religions of the Near East did not exist in the Eleusinian mysteries at the very beginning. The Homeric form of her name is Persephoneia (,[11] Persephoneia). 'the maiden'), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. It honored Demeter in her connection with Persephone, the queen of the Underworld. 2023. https://mythopedia.com/topics/persephone. Persephone Facts and Information on the Goddess Persephone [73] In another variation, Persephone met Adonis only after he had been slain by a boar; Aphrodite descended into the Underworld to take him back, but Persephone, smitten with him, would not let him go until they came to an agreement that Adonis would alternate between the land of the living and the land of the dead each year. Persephone: Greek Goddess of Spring & Queen of the Underworld [95] Demeter is united with her, the god Poseidon, and she bears him a daughter, the unnameable Despoina. Persephone was the daughter of the king of the Greek Gods Zeus and the goddess Demeter. . Persephone is a Mount Olympus character in Greek Mythology. Persephone, daughter of Demeter, is the venerable queen of the underworld, Greek goddess of spring, and holder of the Eleusinian Mysteries. [20] In Orphic tradition, Persephone is said to be the daughter of Zeus and his mother Rhea, rather than of Demeter. The so-called Persephone Krater, an Apulian red-figure volute-krater by the Circle of the Darius Painter (ca.