[39], Many of the festivals of Persephone and Demeter were related to the myth of Persephones abduction. Homeric Hymn 2.3, 2.77ff; cf. [57] In Arcadia, Demeter and Persephone were often called Despoinai (, "the mistresses"). The Homeric Hymn then tells of how Demeter, realizing her daughter was missing, began a desperate search. The Orphics, who called Persephone either Despoina[52] or the Chthonian Queen,[53] worshipped her primarily in connection with the Underworld. Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 5.2.3. But Hades wouldn't accept her disapproval. [39] Demeter, when she found her daughter had disappeared, searched for her all over the earth with Hecate's torches. In her iconography, Persephone was represented as a young woman, modestly clad in a robe and wearing either a diadem or a cylindrical crown called a polos on her head. Several scenes from Persephones mythologyespecially her abduction by Hadeswere popular among ancient artists. Ovid, Fasti 4.583ff. The focus of the poem is one of the most renowned narratives from Greek mythology - the rape of Persephone by Hades, the god of the Underworld, and the response of Demeter to her loss. 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. Persephone Mosaic, AmphipolisNot Specified (Public Domain). 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). Help us and translate this definition into another language! Persephone, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, was the wife of Hades and the Queen of the Underworld. Here annual festivities celebrated Persephone's marriage and her picking of flowers. Persephone was conflated with Despoina, "the mistress", a chthonic divinity in West-Arcadia. She was also called Kore, which means "maiden" and grew up to be a lovely girl attracting the attention of many gods. Persephone has continued to captivate the modern imagination as the virginal yet terrifying queen of the Underworld. [c], In mythology and literature she is often called dread(ed) Persephone, and queen of the underworld, within which tradition it was forbidden to speak her name. Greek Gods / Persephone. 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. Persephone - Mythopedia The Kors Katagg (Descent of Kore), for example, commemorated Hades taking Persephone (Kore) down to the Underworld. Martin Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. So lovely was the music he played that it charmed Persephone and even stern Hades. [66], Adonis was an exceedingly beautiful mortal man with whom Persephone fell in love. More than 5,000, mostly fragmentary, pinakes are stored in the National Museum of Magna Grcia in Reggio Calabria and in the museum of Locri. 340 BCE). The fact that Persephone was married did not prevent her from being imagined as a virginal maiden. One day she was walking in a beautiful meadow and gathering flowers to take . [86], When Dionysus, the god of wine, descended into the Underworld accompanied by Demeter to retrieve his dead mother Semele and bring her back to the land of the living, he is said to have offered a myrtle plant to Persephone in exchange for Semele. [43], Another festival, called the Chthonia, was celebrated annually at Hermione, a city in the Argolid. 152154; Linforth, Pausanias 1.14,1: Nilsson (1967), Vol I, pp. 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. Other festivals celebrated Persephone in connection with the institution of marriage (rather than with Demeter and agriculture). Persephone: Greek Goddess of Spring & Queen of the Underworld [16], The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as chthonic and vegetation goddess. We care about our planet! 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. Odysseus sacrifices a ram to the chthonic goddess Persephone and the ghosts of the dead who drink the blood of the sacrificed animal. The Rites of Eleusis, or the Eleusinian Mysteries, were the secret Greek Mythology: Gods and Heroes - Iliad - Odyssey, Persephone's Pathway: Wisdom, Magick & Growth, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. 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. Scholia on Pindars Olympian Ode 6.160; cf. Cartwright, Mark. 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". When Demeter at last located Persephone in the Underworld, she demanded that her daughter be returned. Myth and Cult: The Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Persephone frequently appears in all forms of Greek art and literature. Persephone: Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia. As the wife of Hades, Persephone was the queen of the Underworld. According to several strands of Orphism, Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and his mother, the Titan Rhea (rather than Demeter). Persephone and Demeter were intimately connected with the Thesmophoria, a widely-spread Greek festival of secret women-only rituals. [134] The ideal afterlife destination believers strive for is described on some leaves as the "sacred meadows and groves of Persephone". [61] Zeus then mates with Persephone, who gives birth to Dionysus. In other dialects, she was known under variant names: Persephassa (), Persephatta (), or simply Kor (, "girl, maiden"). [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. [89], Persephone was worshipped along with her mother Demeter and in the same mysteries. 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. Eventually, Demeters wanderings brought her to Eleusis, a town in the region of Attica, just northwest of Athens. 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: The Reluctant Underworld Goddess - History Cooperative She becomes the mother of the Erinyes by Hades. Homeric Hymns: The second Homeric Hymn (seventh/sixth century BCE)one of the longest and most important of the hymnsis dedicated to Demeter and tells the story of the abduction of Persephone. [6] The Orphic version of Persephone, on the other hand, was a daughter of Zeus and Rhea,[7] while an Arcadian version of Persephone called Despoina was the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon.[8]. The World History Encyclopedia logo is a registered trademark. In this guise, she was seen as a protectress in the after-life, although Hesiod repeatedly describes her as 'dread Persephone' in his Theogony. These festivals were almost always celebrated at the autumn sowing, and at full-moon according to the Greek tradition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961. In the hymn, Persephone eventually returns from the underworld and is reunited with her mother near Eleusis. Persephone shared many other temples with Demeter, though she also had several temples of her own; the one at Epizephyrian Locris (a Greek colony in southern Italy) is an important example. Upon learning of the abduction, her mother, Demeter, in her misery, became unconcerned with the harvest or the fruitfulness of the earth, so that widespread famine ensued. 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. Hyginus, Fabulae 147; Ovid, Tristia 3.8.2 (where Triptolemus also has different parents). As a result of his affair with Demeter, Persephone was born. [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. Please support World History Encyclopedia. Were building the worlds most authoritative, online mythology resource, with engaging, accessible content that is both educational and compelling to read. In return, she nursed their sick child, known as Demophon in most versions of the myth,[19] and tried to make him immortal. The Eleusinians built a temple near the spring of Callichorus, and Demeter establishes her mysteries there.[46]. Persephone was usually regarded as the only child born to Zeus and Demeter, but both gods had children with other consorts. [9][b] Persephon (Greek: ) is her name in the Ionic Greek of epic literature. Ovid: The myth of Persephone/Proserpina and her abduction is told differently in two of Ovids poems, the Metamorphoses and the Fasti (both ca. Greek Mythology - Hades and Persephone: The Abduction Goddess of Spring and Queen of the UnderworldArt: Kaji PatoScript: Bruno Viriato Confira nossos novos q. On Persephone in ancient art, see Gudrum Gntner, Persephone, in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (Zurich: Artemis, 1997), 8:95678. She wears a stephane crown and raises her hand in greeting. [91], The location of Persephone's abduction is different in each local cult. [96] A similar representation, where the goddess appears to come down from the sky, is depicted on the Minoan ring of Isopata. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971. 474.13, 475.15, 488490.1 Bernab. This would indicate that Persephones name means something like female corn thresher.[2]. This poem describes how Persephone was picking flowers in a meadow when she was abductedwith Zeus permission[14]by Hades, the god of the Underworld and the brother of Demeter and Zeus (and thus Persephones uncle). 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. [42] Every year in the Sicilian city of Syracuse, Persephone was honored with the sacrifices of smaller animals and the public drowning of bulls. Vol. [38] The Thesmophoria was also celebrated in other parts of Greece, such as the region of Boeotia. Persephone. Mythopedia, March 09, 2023. https://mythopedia.com/topics/persephone. 2 vols. Persephone was born to Zeus, king of the gods, and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. He holds an MA in Political Philosophy and is the WHE Publishing Director. Corrections? The site of Persephones abduction varies considerably in the ancient sources. Hades and Persephone: Discover the Real Story (Updated 2022) As the drought claimed ever more victims, Zeus finally sent Hermes to persuade Hades to release his ill-gotten bride. In Greek mythology, Persephone was the queen of the Underworld. [16] Gnther Zuntz considers "Persephone" and "Kore" as distinct deities and writes that "no farmer prayed for corn to Persephone; no mourner thought of the dead as being with Kore." Explainer: the story of Demeter and Persephone
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