Other festivals celebrated Persephone in connection with the institution of marriage (rather than with Demeter and agriculture). In Athens, the Thesmophoria lasted three days and involved several rituals, including one in which the rotten remains of a slaughtered pig were dug up and placed on the altars of the goddesses. This prophecy does not come true, however, as while weaving a dress, Persephone is abducted by Hades to be his bride. Persephone - World History Encyclopedia In the Arcadian mythos, while Demeter was looking for the kidnapped Persephone, she caught the eye of her younger brother Poseidon. https://mythopedia.com/topics/persephone, Avi Kapach is a writer, scholar, and educator who received his PhD in Classics from Brown University. [56], According to the Greek tradition a hunt-goddess preceded the harvest goddess. To reward the family for their kindness, Demeter set about making Demophon immortal by placing him on a fire every night. [114] Poseidon appears as a horse, as usually happens in Northern European folklore. She was a very important goddess to Ancient Greek people, who farmed a lot of their food. "To what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and Mycenaean religion is a question which has not yet found a conclusive answer" . The most important festival of Persephone and Demeter, the Thesmophoria, was celebrated by married women throughout the ancient Greek world. In the Roman world the goddess was known as Proserpina. The Story of Hades and Persephone: Rape and Romance Persephone's story actually focuses more on her mother, Demeter, and what happens when Persephone disappears.The young goddess is also the daughter and niece of Zeus, and the wife and niece of Hades when she becomes the queen of the Underworld.. Greek Religion. Achilles The hero of the Trojan War, leader of the . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971. But Zeus transformed into a snake again and had sex with Persephone, whereupon she conceived the god often called Zagreus or Dionysus Zagreus.[28]. On Attic red-figure pottery throughout the Classical period, Persephone is often shown seated on her throne in Hades. Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. It honored Demeter in her connection with Persephone, the queen of the Underworld. When Sisyphus wanted to escape death, he came up with a clever trick. According to Greek Mythology, Persephone, the queen of the underworld, was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of harvest and fertility. Terracotta loutrophoros (ceremonial water jug) attributed to the Darius Painter (ca. Several scenes from Persephones mythologyespecially her abduction by Hadeswere popular among ancient artists. [97] The beliefs of these cults were closely-guarded secrets, kept hidden because they were believed to offer believers a better place in the afterlife than in miserable Hades. The myth of a goddess being abducted and taken to the underworld is probably Pre-Greek in origin. They represent darkness and light as, if one were to oversimplify their roles, Hades is the god of death and Persephone is the goddess of life. There were, however, a handful of myths that challenged this persona. Persephone was the daughter to Zeus and Demeter, both of whom are Olympian gods . Gantz, Timothy. In Roman mythology, she is identified with Proserpine. Kernyi, Kroly. Pausanias: There are references to Persephones mythology and cult in the Description of Greece, a second-century CE travelogue and, like Strabos Geography, an important source for local myths and customs. After all, mythology is storytelling at its finest. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Demeter, distraught, wandered the entire world in search of her daughter. Smith, William. Zeus, however, did not care for Persephone, and left them both. In other versions of the myth, Persephone could have been released if she had not eaten anything in the underworld during her captivity, but at the last moment, Hades gave her a pomegranate seed. There is evidence of a cult in Eleusis from the Mycenean period;[110] however, there are not sacral finds from this period. [50][51] When Persephone would return to the underworld, Demeter's despair at losing her daughter would cause the vegetation and flora of the world to wither, signifying the Autumn and Winter seasons. Proserpine, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1821-1882, Tate Modern Art Gallery, London. 39,1, George Mylonas (1966) Mycenae and the Mycenean age" p. 159: Princeton University Press, Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, "Persephone", sfn error: no target: CITEREFEdmonds2004 (, sfn error: no target: CITEREFEdmonds2013 (. Homer memorializes the dance floor which Daedalus built for Ariadne in the remote past. Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 4.26.1. [49], The abduction of Persephone is an etiological myth providing an explanation for the changing of the seasons. Persephone Facts and Information on the Goddess Persephone Persephone was the greek goddess of spring and the goddess of the Underworld in Greek Mythology. Vulci, c. 440-430 BCE. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The location of this mythical place may simply be a convention to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past.[35]. A view of the excavation of Eleusis, Greece. Nowadays, Persephones name is often thought to have Indo-European origins. As soon as . The site of Persephones abduction varies considerably in the ancient sources. Zuntz, Gnther. The identity of the two divinities addressed as wanassoi, is uncertain". [32] However, it is possible that some of them were the names of original goddesses: As a vegetation goddess, she was called:[33][35], Demeter and her daughter Persephone were usually called:[35][36], Persephone's abduction by Hades[f] is mentioned briefly in Hesiod's Theogony,[38] and is told in considerable detail in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. . 2023. https://mythopedia.com/topics/persephone. On the Dresden vase, Persephone is growing out of the ground, and she is surrounded by the animal-tailed agricultural gods Silenoi.[105]. Diodorus of Sicily: The Library of History, a work of universal history covering events from the creation of the cosmos to Diodorus own time (mid-first century BCE), contains references to the myths of Persephone. Hermes, Apollo, Ares, and Hephaestus each presented Persephone with a gift to woo her. World History Encyclopedia. In the religions of the Orphics and the Platonists, Kore is described as the all-pervading goddess of nature[19] who both produces and destroys everything, and she is therefore mentioned along with or identified as other such divinities including Isis, Rhea, Ge, Hestia, Pandora, Artemis, and Hecate. She has appeared in a handful of modern adaptations of Greek mythology, including Rick Riordans Percy Jackson and the Olympians franchise, the 1990s TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and even the video game Assassins Creed: Odyssey. Once the temple was completed, Demeter withdrew from the world and lived inside it; at the same time, she created a great drought to convince the other gods to release Persephone from Hades. 2022 Wasai LLC. [21], Persephone also featured in the myths of a handful of heroes and mortals who descended to and returned from the Underworld. [126] While the return of Persephone to the world above was crucial in Panhellenic tradition, in southern Italy Persephone apparently accepted her new role as queen of the underworld, of which she held extreme power, and perhaps did not return above;[127] Virgil for example in Georgics writes that "Proserpina cares not to follow her mother",[128]though it is to be noted that references to Proserpina serve as a warning, since the earth is only fertile when she is above. [44] 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. This also explains why Persephone is associated with Spring: her re-emergence from the underworld signifies the onset of Spring. Hesiod: There is a brief reference to Persephones genealogy and the myth of her abduction in the seventh-century BCE epic the Theogony. Upon discovering that Hades had Persephoneand that Zeus himself had helped him kidnap herDemeter was justifiably furious: But grief yet more terrible and savage came into the heart of Demeter, and thereafter she was so angered with the dark-clouded Son of Cronos that she avoided the gathering of the gods and high Olympus, and went to the towns and rich fields of men, disfiguring her form a long while.[18]. This is an origin story to explain the seasons. Sure enough, Helios was able to tell Demeter how Hades had abducted her daughter.[17]. [125] Representations of myth and cult on the clay tablets (pinakes) dedicated to this goddess reveal not only a 'Chthonian Queen,' but also a deity concerned with the spheres of marriage and childbirth. In an earlier version, Hecate rescued Persephone. Hades complies with the request, but first he tricks Persephone, giving her some pomegranate seeds to eat. London: Spottiswoode and Company, 1873. The Greek popular religion, THE RAPE OF PERSEPHONE from The Theoi Project, The Princeton Encyclopedia of classical sites:Despoina, Flickr users' photos tagged with Persephone, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Persephone&oldid=1152093316, Pomegranate, seeds of grain, torch, flowers, and deer, Athanassakis, Apostolos N.; Wolkow, Benjamin M. (29 May 2013), This page was last edited on 28 April 2023, at 04:35. As a result of his affair with Demeter, Persephone was born. 473474. [57] In Arcadia, Demeter and Persephone were often called Despoinai (, "the mistresses"). In Greek mythology, the goddess, as wife of Hades, is the Queen of the Underworld and takes her other name, Persephone.
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