Persephone, Kore. In Brills New Pauly, edited by Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Christine F. Salazar, Manfred Landfester, and Francis G. Gentry. The Sicilians, among whom her worship was probably introduced by the Corinthian and Megarian colonists, believed that Hades found her in the meadows near Enna, and that a well arose on the spot where he descended with her into the lower world. [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. Gantz (1996) pp. "Hermes and the Anodos of Pherephata": Nilsson (1967) p. 509 taf. The Orphics, who called Persephone either Despoina[52] or the Chthonian Queen,[53] worshipped her primarily in connection with the Underworld. [137] In Orphic myth, the Eumenides are attributed as daughters of Persephone and Zeus. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Perseus Digital Library. Persephone (aka Kore) was the Greek goddess of agriculture and vegetation, especially grain, and the wife of Hades, the ruler of the Underworld. Other attributes, such as the rooster, were more localized and tied to the iconography of specific cults. The origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on ancient agrarian cults of agricultural communities. Greek Mythology - Hades and Persephone: The Abduction Goddess of Spring and Queen of the UnderworldArt: Kaji PatoScript: Bruno Viriato Confira nossos novos q. Hades, the son of Cronos, was the brother of Zeus (king of the gods in Greek myth) and Poseidon (god of the sea). According to some authors, Persephone was so moved by this deed that she allowed Alcetis to return to the land of the living (in the more familiar version, though, Alcestis was brought back by Heracles). On an Attic red-figured bell krater of c. 440 BC in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Persephone is rising as if up stairs from a cleft in the earth, while Hermes stands aside; Hecate, holding two torches, looks back as she leads her to the enthroned Demeter. Persephone was an important element of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the Thesmophoria festival and so the goddess was worshipped throughout the Greek world. [25][26] In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus encounters the "dread Persephone" in Tartarus when he visits his dead mother. Persephone was a beautiful young lady, just entering womanhood. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). As all initiates were bound by a sacred oath not to reveal the details of the Mysteries, they have to this day remained just that, a mystery. The god then carried her off in his chariot to live with him in the dark Underworld. After all, mythology is storytelling at its finest. World History Encyclopedia. Upon learning of the abduction . Accompanied by the classic, sensual paintings of Fredric Lord Leighton and William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Santo portrays Persephone not as a victim but as a woman in quest of sexual depth and power, transcending the role of daughter, though ultimately returning to it as an awakened Queen. Persephone (aka Kore) was the Greek goddess of agriculture and vegetation, especially grain, and the wife of Hades, the ruler of the Underworld. The myth of a goddess being abducted and taken to the underworld is probably Pre-Greek in origin. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone.[40]. Apollodorus, Library 3.14.4; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.7. [96] A similar representation, where the goddess appears to come down from the sky, is depicted on the Minoan ring of Isopata. Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 5.2.3. Persephone frequently appears in all forms of Greek art and literature. But Zeus transformed into a snake again and had sex with Persephone, whereupon she conceived the god often called Zagreus or Dionysus Zagreus.[28]. Helios, the Sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened and at length she discovered where her daughter had been taken. In this guise, she was seen as a protectress in the after-life, although Hesiod repeatedly describes her as 'dread Persephone' in his Theogony. Persephone. In A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. A Visual Who's Who of Greek Mythology. [80][81], Once, Hermes chased Persephone (or Hecate) with the aim to rape her; but the goddess snored or roared in anger, frightening him off so that he desisted, hence her earning the name "Brimo" ("angry"). These included epain (awful), which stressed Persephones role as queen of the Underworld, as well as agau (venerable), hagn (holy), and arrtos (she who must not be named). https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Persephone.html. Mythopedia. This poem describes how Persephone was picking flowers in a meadow when she was abductedwith Zeus' permission by Hades, the god of the Underworld and the brother of Demeter and Zeus (and thus . Ammonius Grammaticus, On the Differences of Synonymous Expressions 279. According to several strands of Orphism, Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and his mother, the Titan Rhea (rather than Demeter). The Homeric Hymn places it in Nysa, an ancient city in Asia Minor. 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. Persephone is a Mount Olympus character in Greek Mythology. The cults of Persephone and Demeter in the Eleusinian mysteries and in the Thesmophoria were based on old agrarian cults. When Sisyphus wanted to escape death, he came up with a clever trick. Cite This Work Her name can be translated to variations of "she who destroys the light" (Lindermans). This came about because the three brothers divided up the world between them: Zeus took the heavens, Poseidon the sea, and Hades, the underworld. [92] The locations of this probably mythical place may simply be conventions to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past. Plutarch writes that Persephone was identified with the spring season,[18] and Cicero calls her the seed of the fruits of the fields. World History Encyclopedia. Gantz, Timothy. https://www.worldhistory.org/persephone/. [78] In another version, Persephone's mother Demeter kills Minthe over the insult done to her daughter. A recent spectacular find is the large pebble mosaic, measuring 4.5 by 3 metres from the Hellenistic tomb at Amphipolis, which again depicts the god Hades abducting Persephone in a chariot led by Hermes. As the two of them were led to the altar to be sacrificed, Persephone and Hades took pity on them and turned them into comets instead. Later accounts place the abduction in Attica, near Athens, or near Eleusis. Orphic Hymns: The Orphics were a Greek cult that believed a blissful afterlife could be attained by living an ascetic life. Privacy Policy, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.4880, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DP%3Aentry+group%3D15%3Aentry%3Dpersephone-bio-1, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e914950, https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Persephone.html. However, Pausanias distinguishes this Despoina from the Persephone who was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter (writing that he dared not disclose this goddesss true name). Persephone had temples throughout the Greek world, many of them shared with Demeter. National Archaeological Museum, Reggio di Calabria, Italy. [125], For most Greeks, the marriage of Persephone was a marriage with death, and could not serve as a role for human marriage; the Locrians, not fearing death, painted her destiny in a uniquely positive light. Revisiting the Nature of Persephone in the Gold Leaves of Magna Graecia", "Locri Epizephyrii, The Archaeological Site Persephoneion, the Sanctuary of Persephone", Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. [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. Several scenes from Persephones mythologyespecially her abduction by Hadeswere popular among ancient artists. Cartwright, M. (2016, March 24). In Greek mythology, Persephone was the queen of the Underworld. The Cretans thought that their own island had been the scene of the abduction, and the Eleusinians mentioned the Nysian plain in Boeotia, and said that Persephone had descended with Hades into the lower world at the entrance of the western Oceanus. 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. London: Penguin, 1955. Because Persephone had eaten a single pomegranate seed in the underworld, however, she could not be completely freed but had to remain one-third of the year with Hades, and spent the other two-thirds with her mother. Zeus was filled with desire for his mother, Rhea, intending to marry her. Help our mission to provide free history education to the world! [88], Socrates in Plato's Cratylus previously mentions that Hades consorts with Persephone due to her wisdom. Hades found himself madly in love with her. [131], It was suggested that Persephone's cult at Locri was entirely independent from that of Demeter, who supposedly was not venerated there,[17] but a sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros has been found in a different region of Locri, ruling against the notion that she was completely excluded. [83] So entranced was Persephone by Orpheus' sweet melody that she persuaded her husband to let the unfortunate hero take his wife back. Persephone/Kore. In The Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, and Esther Eidinow. The cult of Persephone in the Greek religion was especially strong in Sicily and southern Italy, and besides the Eleusinian Mysteries at Eleusis there were sanctuaries to the goddess across the Greek world, most notably at Locri Epizephyrii, Mantinea, Megalopolis, and Sparta. [95] In historical times, Demeter and Kore were usually referred to as "the goddesses" or "the mistresses" (Arcadia) in the mysteries . H. G. Evelyn-White. The Kors Katagg (Descent of Kore), for example, commemorated Hades taking Persephone (Kore) down to the Underworld. [87] On a neck amphora from Athens Dionysus is depicted riding on a chariot with his mother, next to a myrtle-holding Persephone who stands with her own mother Demeter; many vases from Athens depict Dionysus in the company of Persephone and Demeter. [39] Demeter, when she found her daughter had disappeared, searched for her all over the earth with Hecate's torches. [49] A festival called the Koreia appears to have also been celebrated in Arcadia[50] and Syracuse[51] (though the Syracusean Koreia was likely simply the equivalent of the Thesmophoria). [13], The etymology of the word 'Persephone' is obscure. On the one hand, she was Persephone, wife of Hades and goddess of the Underworld, and thus a chthonic figure closely associated with the inevitability of death. (2013). Another alternate name, Despoina (Mistress), focused on Persephones role as the wife of Hades and queen of the Underworld. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the story is told of how Persephone was gathering flowers in the Vale of Nysa when she was seized by Hades and removed to the underworld. Her common name as a vegetation goddess is Kore, and in Arcadia she was worshipped under the title Despoina, "the mistress", a very old chthonic divinity. When Persephone was found, the ritual ended with celebration, torch throwing, and probably the sounding of a gong. Ovid, Fasti 4.583ff. Persephone. In some versions, Ascalaphus informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. Theognis, Elegiac Poems 1.70112; cf. Zeus therefore intervened, commanding Hades to release Persephone to her mother. The abduction from Hades. [112][k], Some information can be obtained from the study of the cult of Eileithyia at Crete, and the cult of Despoina. - persephone greek goddess stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images . [114] Poseidon appears as a horse, as usually happens in Northern European folklore. Since Persephone had consumed pomegranate seeds in the underworld, she was forced to spend four months, or in other versions six months for six seeds, with Hades. True to her double nature, Persephone was imagined as having two homes: one on Olympus with her mother, Demeter, and the other in the Underworld with her husband, Hades. A Handbook of Greek Mythology. [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. There is evidence that some practices were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenaean age. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. Zeus agreed but told him that the girl's mother, Demeter, would never approve. [29] At other sites, including Teithras in Attica,[30] Acrae in Sicily,[31] and the island of Thasos,[32] Persephone had a separate sanctuary called a Koreion. Therefore, Persephone's time in Hades would not equate with winter in the agricultural season but, rather, with summer. She was a dual deity, since, in addition to presiding over the dead with intriguing autonomy, as the daughter of Demeter, she was also a goddess of fertility. In Roman mythology, she is identified with Proserpine. This is exactly what the archetype of the beauty and the beast is based upon. By many, she was also known as Kore (the Maiden), the Greek goddess of spring. 306307. Demeter turned into a mare to escape him, but then Poseidon turned into a stallion to pursue her. [g] Hermes is sent to retrieve her 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. They were produced in Locri during the first half of the 5th century BC and offered as votive dedications at the Locrian sanctuary of Persephone. According to Burkert, the figure looks like a vegetable because she has snake lines on other side of her. Homeric Hymn 2.3, 2.77ff; cf. In Eleusis there is evidence of sacred laws and other inscriptions.[90]. In other sources, it was Hades who negotiated the release of Theseus and Pirithous; sometimes, it was said that only Theseus was allowed to return, or, alternatively, that neither Theseus nor Pirithous was allowed to return. Persephone is mentioned frequently in these tablets, along with Demeter and Eukls, which may be another name for Plouton. [65] This was when she was abducted by Hades according to Boeotian legend; a vase shows water birds accompany the goddesses Demeter and Hecate who are in search of the missing Persephone. 30 Apr 2023. After all, mythology is storytelling at its finest. This was the beginning of the celebrated sanctuary of Eleusis. [117], The Romans first heard of her from the Aeolian and Dorian cities of Magna Graecia, who used the dialectal variant Proserpin (). Vulci, c. 440-430 BCE. Persephone was gathering flowers with the Oceanids along with Artemis and Pallas, daughter of Triton, as the Homeric Hymn says, in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. Sure enough, Helios was able to tell Demeter how Hades had abducted her daughter.[17]. In the Arcadian mythos, while Demeter was looking for the kidnapped Persephone, she caught the eye of her younger brother Poseidon. We care about our planet! Accessed on 28 Apr. 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. In Greek mythology, Persephone ("Proserpina," in Latin) is the daughter of Zeus, the god of gods, and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. Corrections? In some local cults the feasts were dedicated to Demeter. [82], The hero Orpheus once descended into the underworld seeking to take back to the land of the living his late wife Eurydice, who died when a snake bit her. Frescoes in the 4th-century BCE royal tomb at Aegae (Vergina) in Pieria, Macedon show Hades abducting the goddess and explain the popular 'Tomb of Persephone' label. She then abandoned her functions as the goddess of agriculture, causing grain to stop growing and nearly starving humanity. Strabo: There are references to Persephone, her myth, and her cult in the Geography, a late first-century BCE geographical treatise and an important source for many local Greek myths, institutions, and religious practices from antiquity. [71] Of them Aelian wrote that Adonis' life was divided between two goddesses, one who loved him beneath the earth, and one above,[72] while the satirical author Lucian of Samosata has Aphrodite complain to the moon goddess Selene that Eros made Persephone fall in love with her own beloved, and now she has to share Adonis with her. Persephone, in her guise as Queen of the Underworld, was often appealed to in curse tablets and on the inscribed gold leaves buried with the dead followers of Orphism which gave instructions on how to conduct themselves in the after-life. There were several alternate forms of the name Persephone itself, including Persophatta or Persephatta (which may have been the original form of the name), Persephonei (the Homeric form), Pherrephatta, and Phersephon. In the Homeric "Hymn to Demeter," the story is told of how Persephone was gathering flowers in the Vale of Nysa when she was seized by Hades and removed to the underworld. Terracotta loutrophoros (ceremonial water jug) attributed to the Darius Painter (ca. However, Demeter had an obsessed love for her only . Odysseus sacrifices a ram to the chthonic goddess Persephone and the ghosts of the dead who drink the blood of the sacrificed animal. [62] Persephone was born so deformed that Rhea ran away from her frightened, and did not breastfeed 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. This is the site of the annual Eleusinian Mysteries and an early temple to Demeter and Persephone, built around the 7th century BCE. The most detailed account of her myth comes from the second Homeric Hymn, also known as the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.. As the wife of Hades, king of the underworld, Persephone is considered a Greek goddess and is often coined the queen of the underworld. The Greek Myths. The second constituent, phatta, preserved in the form Persephatta (), would in this view reflect Proto-Indo European *-gn-t-ih, from the root *gen- "to strike/beat/kill". 2 vols. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DP%3Aentry+group%3D15%3Aentry%3Dpersephone-bio-1. More rarely, she was associated with pomegranates or poppies. Persephon). Zeus approved. 2023. Afterwards, Demeter gave birth to the talking horse Arion and the goddess Despoina ("the mistress"), a goddess of the Arcadian mysteries. In another myth, Hades took a nymph named Minthe as his lover. Hermes, Apollo, Ares, and Hephaestus each presented Persephone with a gift to woo her. Greek Gods / Persephone. Theoi Project. Homeric Hymn 2.9094, trans. Demeter was the Ancient Greek goddess of the harvest. The infant Dionysus was later dismembered by the Titans, before being reborn as the second Dionysus, who wandered the earth spreading his mystery cult before ascending to the heavens with his second mother, Semele. Article. Daughter of Demeter. A tondo from a red-figure kylix depicting Persephone and Hades. [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. [134], In Orphism, Persephone is believed to be the mother of the first Dionysus. [43] With the later writers Ovid and Hyginus, Persephone's time in the underworld becomes half the year. Meanwhile, Demeter searched the earth for her lost divine daughter and though Helios (or Hermes) told her of her daughter's fate, she, nevertheless, continued her wanderings until she finally arrived at Eleusis. As a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically friendly names. The name Kore (Kor, Maiden) was commonly used as an alternative to Persephone and highlighted the goddesss role as the daughter of Demeter, goddess of agriculture. Rose, H. J. [20], Persephone was the queen of the Underworld and so ruled over all mortals who had died. 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. 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]. [21] The Orphic Persephone is said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus, Iacchus, Zagreus,[16] and the little-attested Melino. In most versions, she forbids the earth to produce, or she neglects the earth and, in the depth of her despair, she causes nothing to grow. 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. She was also associated with spring, girlhood, and marriage. In Greek mythology, Persephone, also called Kore or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess Demeter, and is the queen of . Persephone, both individually and together with other gods, was also honored through festival and ritual at numerous other sites, including Mantinea, Argos, Patrae, Smyrna, and Acharaca. She also had a handful of epithets. This aspect of the myth is an etiology for the relation of pigs with the ancient rites in Thesmophoria,[45] and in Eleusis. [48], The 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda introduces a goddess of a blessed afterlife assured to Orphic mystery initiates. According to some accounts, she had a garden of ever blooming flowers (poppies) in the underworld. Persephone was born to Zeus, king of the gods, and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. According to mythology, Hades, god of the Underworld, fell in love with beautiful Persephone when he saw her picking flowers one day in a meadow. Together with Demeter, Persephone is also depicted on the Great Seal of North Carolina, where she is shown in a pastoral setting with the sea in the background. 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. [24], At least one person tried to take advantage of Persephones amenable nature. Ancient authors sometimes sought creative etymologies for the name Persephone (Greek , translit. [5] But there were a handful of rival traditions surrounding Persephones parentage, including one in which she was the daughter of Zeus and Styx, an Oceanid who gave her name to one of the rivers of the Underworld. Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.35.5ff; Aelian, On the Nature of Animals 11.4. 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). Greek Religion. Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised the initiated a happy afterlife. She was identified by the Romans as the Italic goddess Libera, who was conflated with Proserpina. . 1880). When Persephone was born, she had a monstrous form, with numerous eyes, an animals head, and horns. This is an origin story to explain the seasons. [21], Persephone also featured in the myths of a handful of heroes and mortals who descended to and returned from the Underworld. [70] Alternatively Adonis had to spend one half of the year with each goddess, at the suggestion of the Muse Calliope. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter mentions the "plain of Nysa". Plato: There is a brief summary of Persephones involvement in the myth of Alcestis in Platos philosophical dialogue the Symposium (fourth century BCE). Online version at the Topos Text Project. [4], In the standard tradition, Persephone was the daughter of Zeus, the king of the gods, and his sister Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. But Hades wouldn't accept her disapproval. [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. Fossum, "The Myth of the Eternal Rebirth," pp. London: Methuen, 1962. Persephone frequently appears in all forms of . License. The cycle became one of the rituals of the sacred Eleusinian mysteries; indeed, the symbols of the cult were ears of grain and a torch - reminding of Demeter's search for Persephone and that the rituals were carried out at night. As she wasn't one of her father's favorite children, she had no position at Olympus and used to live far away with her mother's . Cartwright, Mark. Updates? The identity of the two divinities addressed as wanassoi, is uncertain". They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [134] In the Orphic religion, gold leaves with verses intended to help the deceased enter into an optimal afterlife were often buried with the dead. Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. [134] The ideal afterlife destination believers strive for is described on some leaves as the "sacred meadows and groves of Persephone". 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. Proserpine is the Latin spelling of Persephone, a goddess married to Hades, god of the underworld. Featured in a variety of novels such as Persephone [152] by Kaitlin Bevis, A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair, Persephone's Orchard[153] by Molly Ringle, The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter, The Goddess Letters by Carol Orlock, Abandon by Meg Cabot, 'Neon Gods' by Katee Robert and Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe, her story has also been treated by Suzanne Banay Santo in Persephone Under the Earth in the light of women's spirituality. In Latin, her name is rendered Proserpina. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Farnell, Lewis R. The Cults of the Greek States. The upper register of the body shows Zeus between Persephone and Aphrodite regarding Adonis. World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization. Just as Persephone shared many of her temples with Demeter, she also shared many of her festivals with her. Books [42] Every year in the Sicilian city of Syracuse, Persephone was honored with the sacrifices of smaller animals and the public drowning of bulls. Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Homer memorializes the dance floor which Daedalus built for Ariadne in the remote past. According to one source, she was the one who allowed Orpheus to bring his dead wife Eurydice back from the Underworld, provided he did not look back while leading her up (a condition that Orpheus failed to meet). [103] A gold ring from a tomb in Isopata depicts four women dancing among flowers, the goddess floating above them. [79], Theophile was a girl who claimed that Hades loved her and that she was better than Persephone. Homer, Odyssey 11.217; Hesiod, Theogony 912; Homeric Hymn 2; Apollodorus, Library 1.5.1; Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.37.9; Ovid, Fasti 4.575, Metamorphoses 5.501; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5.562; etc. This prophecy does not come true, however, as while weaving a dress, Persephone is abducted by Hades to be his bride. Zeus, it is said, permitted Hades, who was in love with the beautiful Persephone, to abduct her as her mother Demeter was not likely to allow her daughter to go down to Hades.
