by Barbara Stockton

Created on: September 06, 2008

Persephone: Goddess of the Harvest

Persephone in Greek mythology was the goddess of the harvest and the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, from an affair that happened before Zeus married Hera. She was such a beautiful and loving young woman that everyone loved her, including Hades the god of the Underworld. Though he did ask to court the young maid, her mother thought that her daughter was too good for the god of the underworld. But Hades was so enamored with her, that one day while she was picking flowers in a field with some friends,as she bent to pluck the beautiful buds,the Earth opened and Hades grabbed the young girl, thus abducting her and taking her to the underworld to reign by his side as his queen. Although the young Queen grew to love Hades, she missed her mother and her life on the surface.

When Demeter found that her daughter was missing she roamed the Earth looking for her. Zeus being the god of the sky had seen Hates abduct Persephone, but did not reveal this to Demeter. Demeter upon learning that her daughter was taken by Hates and that Zeus had known about the abduction but had kept it from her, made the land grow cold and a famine to spread across the country side. In her anger she vowed that the earth would suffer until her daughter was returned to her. Zeus feeling compassion for man, who was suffering from his wife's anger, sent Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back to her mother. Though Zeus wanted her returned, Hades had a different idea. When Persephone was leaving he gave her a pomegranate to take with her. Persephone knew that if she ate the fruit that she would become a part of the underworld, though she missed her mother, she also liked being a queen even if it was Queen of the underworld, so she ate several seeds from the fruit. Upon returning to her mother, her mother inquired as to whether she had eaten anything in the underworld. When she was told about the fruit her mother knew that now her daughter belonged to Hades and would have to return to him for one third of the year.

Because of her ties to the underworld and her love of her mother it was decreed that Persephone would spend two thirds of the year with her mother and one third of the year as the Queen of the underworld. When her daughter is gone Demeter misses her so much that the Earth is again covered with snow and ice and when she is again returned to her the Spring begins. Though she spent two thirds of the year with her mother it is said that she enjoyed being Queen, even if it was Queen of the underworld and she took her duties very seriously. It is said that when any important guests were to pass over to her realm she would be there to welcome them.

The legend of Persephone is used to explain the changing seasons, because when it is warm in Spring and Summer than Persephone is in the upper world with her mother Demeter but when the land is cold in Autumn and Winter she is in the underworld with her husband Hades. She later became know of as the Goddess of the Spring.

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