PERSEPHONE. Daughter of Demeter (Ceres) and Zeus (Jupiter), Persephone was also known as Kore ("maiden"). While picking flowers in a meadow in Enna in Sicily, she was abducted by Hades (Pluto) and carried off to the Underworld. According to Ovid, the god had been stricken with love for Persephone by an arrow shot by Eros (Cupid) at the command of Aphrodite (Venus). Frantic over the disappearance of her daughter, Demeter searched for her until Zeus ordered that Persephone be returned. However, Persephone could not be entirely released because — as reported by Ascalaphus, son of the Underworld river Acheron — she had eaten pomegranate seeds in the Underworld and was therefore condemned to spend half the year with Hades. Furious at Ascalaphus for his damning revelation, Demeter (or Persephone herself) turned him into an owl.

As queen of the Underworld, Persephone was a powerful figure. It was to her that Orpheus directed his charming music when he descended to Hades to rescue his wife, Eurydice. It was also to her that Aphrodite entrusted the infant Adonis for safekeeping; when Persephone refused to return the child, Zeus decreed that Adonis would spend part of the year with her in the Underworld and the rest with Aphrodite on earth. In another myth, Theseus and his friend Pirithous invaded the Underworld in an attempt to kidnap Persephone; the adventure failed, and Pirithous was forced to remain in Hades forever, while Theseus was eventually rescued by Heracles.

The Roman goddess Proserpine (or Proserpina), whose mythology paralleled that of the Greek Persephone, may have originally been an Italian fertility deity. In cult, she was closely associated with Pluto (also called (Dis), the ruler of the Roman Underworld.

Often invoked together, Persephone and Demeter represented for the Greeks the death and rebirth of vegetation. Demeter was considered the goddess of ripe crops, Persephone the deity of budding shoots whose germination occurs underground for a set period each year. In Greek art, Persephone was often shown with her mother or with her husband, Hades. In postclassical art, Persephone is most often depicted being carried off by Hades or seated on a throne beside him.

Listings are arranged under the following headings:
General List (Persephone)
Demeter's Search for Persephone (PersephoneSearch)
(PersephoneReturn)

See also in OGCMA entries under Adonis; Hades [1]; Orpheus and Eurydice; Pirithous, Psyche. [also DEMETER]