| Persephone | |
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Other Names |
Kore, Cora, Proserpina |
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First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
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Created by |
Greek Myth |
Origin[]
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone also called Kore or Cora and in Latin her name is rendered Proserpina, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after her abduction by her uncle Hades, the king of the underworld, who would later also take her into marriage.
The myth of her abduction, her sojourn in the underworld, and her cyclical return to the surface represent her functions as the embodiment of spring and the personification of vegetation, especially grain crops, which disappear into the earth when sown, sprout from the earth in spring, and are harvested when fully grown. In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades.
In Homer's epics, she appears always together with Hades in the underworld, apparently sharing with Hades control over the dead. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus encounters the "dread Persephone" in Tartarus when he visits his dead mother. Odysseus sacrifices a ram to the chthonic goddess Persephone and the ghosts of the dead who drink the blood of the sacrificed animal.
One version of the myth said that when Persephone was first brought to the underworld, she was not happy with Hades abducting and marrying her, but eventually came to love him when he treated her as his equal. When Hades was informed of Zeus' command to return Persephone, he complied with the request, but he first tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds. Hermes was sent to retrieve Persephone but, because she had tasted the food of the underworld, she was obliged to spend a third of each year (the winter months) there, and the remaining part of the year with the gods above. With the later writers Ovid and Hyginus, Persephone's time in the underworld becomes half the year. It was explained to Demeter, her mother, that she would be released, so long as she did not taste the food of the underworld, as that was an Ancient Greek example of a taboo.
In Nonnus's Dionysiaca, the gods of Olympus were bewitched by Persephone's beauty and desired her. Hermes, Apollo, Ares, and Hephaestus each presented Persephone with a gift to woo her. Demeter, worried that Persephone might end up marrying Hephaestus, consults the astrological god Astraeus. Astraeus warns her that Persephone will be ravished and impregnated by a serpent. Demeter then hides Persephone in a cave; but Zeus, in the form of a serpent, enters the cave and rapes Persephone. Persephone becomes pregnant and gives birth to Zagreus while in another myth Zeus mates with her and she gives birth to Dionysus. Zagreus is also the son of Hades and Persephone in some versions.
According to Ovid, the sirens were the companions of young Persephone. Her mother, Demeter, gave them wings to search for Persephone when she was abducted by Hades. However, the Fabulae of Hyginus has Demeter cursing the sirens for failing to intervene in the abduction of Persephone.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
All literary works featuring Persephone published before January 1, 1929 are in the public domain in the US.
A list of notable works can be found below:
- The Odyssey
- The Theogony
- Homeric Hymn to Demeter
- Rhapsodic Theogony
- The Dionysiaca
- Proserpine (1832)