The Greek Goddess Of The Underworld: Persephone

In the myth “Persephone”, as retold by Anne Terry White, Hades falls instantly in love with the Goddess of harvest and takes her to the underworld with him. Have is all the sudden alarmed by the heaven, fire breathing beasts that had been buried underground, so he comes up to the land. Anthradite, Goddess of love, spots Hades and commands her son, Eros, to shoot with an arrow of love, hoping it would make Hades release the beasts kindly. Hades suddenly gets shot and his heart slowly begins to soften. Suddenly, in the distance, Hades sees Persephone, goddess of harvest, gracefully working in the meadows and he instantly falls in love with her. As a result, he decides to practically kidnap he and takes her down to the underworld with him.

(AGG)The greek goddess Demeter had a daughter, Persephone, who was kidnapped by Hades, she was brought to the underworld, “Persephone was kidnapped by Hades and brought down to the underworld. Demeter searched desperately everywhere for the maiden but could not find her”(Cartwright), Demeter’s loss of her daughter gave her a goal, but she was impacted and she became sad because she did not have her daughter by her side every day.

The Rape of Persephone began as a simple story of peace and unchanging atmosphere. Demeter, goddess of the earth, agriculture and fertility in general, withheld her gifts from the earth in an act of isolation and depression once she lost Persephone. Before tragedy struck, she was loved by all for providing a climate for crops to flourish year round.Persephone held the sweetest disposition and was admired by all who knew her- including the God of the dead, Hades. However, unbenounced to her and her mother, her father Zeus had agreed to the turmoil that would soon ensue. As Persephone quested for the most enchanting flower, Hades, “the lord of the dark underworld, the king of the multitudinous dead, carried her off underneath the earth, driving a

Persephone’s mother, Demeter, was very unhappy to have her daughter taken away. Persephone’s father, Zeus, decided that Persephone was to spend one quarter, or three months, of the year in the underworld. Persephone would spend the rest of the year on land. While in the underworld, Hades was feeding Persephone the forbidden fruit, the pomegranate. This made sure that she returned to the underworld for the three months that she was expected to be there every

Pluto being Hades saw Persephone and fell in love with her, and carried her off back to the Underworld.

The story goes something like this Kore the young Persephone was kidnapped by her uncle Hades on the word of his brother Zeus which gave him the permission to, anyway took her down to the underworld raped her and made her his bride.

Hades manipulates Persephone before he lets her go by forcing her to eat a seed of the pomegranate, which causes an eternal bond with her and the underworld. Due to this she is only able to leave the underworld for a short period of time and then must come back. The portrayal of male dominance within this narrative gives us insight into the way of life found in ancient Greece. Although Demeter gained her daughter back in part, she does not fully reverse the arrangement by Zeus and Hades. The myth continues even in its conclusion to illustrate the battle of the sexes which is a theme of this hymn.

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter addresses the fate of Persephone is in the hands of others and is removed from freedom of choice as she is portrayed as a minor. In effect, it is symbolic of the power family holds as the actions of her mother, her father Zeus and her husband Hades determine her path. The text accustoms nickname Persephone throughout the passage as the ‘Core’, the ‘Girl’, or ‘Virgin’. These nicknames assume her role as an underage girl not responsible for her life decisions. The Hymn begins with highlighting the role of the patriarch in a family Zeus as both the head of the family and the other gods who must defer to him as he arranges Hades to take Persephone against her will. As Demeter struggles with the mourn and loss of her child she begins to abandon her reproduction responsibilities and Persephone is ordered to go to the side of your dark robed mother. However, Hades persuades Persephone to eat pomegranate seeds, representing the loss of her innocence as it spiritually bounds her to Hades. Zeus accustomed to be acknowledges as the father of justice and good government rectifies the issue with the arrangement that Persephone remains with Hades however returns to her mother and the Gods for 2 thirds of the year. The Fate of Persephone portrays the common marriage cycle that pertained in Ancient Greece whereby it held the connotation of death for the maiden and submission and adaptation into their Fathers orders.

Now that you know the myth of Persephone, you can understand why it’s a conflict of interest. Some will view Hades kidnapping her and taking her away from her mother as horrible. Others justify it as okay since she learned to love him after a period of time and her mother had refused to let her leave her side. It’s all a very questioning topic, however the main idea of the myth is that the love between a mother and daughter will conquer all challenges they face. This concludes the myth of Persephone, and how she became the queen of the

This compromise was set to please Aphrodite by allowing her to see her dead crush while Persephone was away seeing her mother. When Aphrodite began falling for the Greek god Adonis. However, he soon dies. Aphrodite asks Persephone is she’d be willing to hold the body for her, as a favor. Persephone agrees, and soon falls in love with Adonis herself (even though he’s dead.) When Aphrodite asks to have him back, Persephone is reluctant, as she now loves him as well. They decide to resolve the conflict as a similar solution as with Persephone’s mother and husband. They agree to share him, and each of their time with him. Persephone is allowed to have him while she is staying in the underworld, and Aphrodite gets him while she is away, visiting her mother. Instead of just keeping him all to herself, Persephone, being the pleasing person she is, is willing to let Aphrodite see Adonis, in order to ensure she’s happy as well (“Persephone • Facts and Information on

Together, the two patriarchal figures conspire to kidnap and force Persephone to marry Hades. This is done behind Demeter’s back, intentionally removing her from her role as mother. Their actions directly diminish or outright remove the will of Demeter, a symbol of women in Greek culture (The Homeric Hymn to Demeter 29-30). This theme of a removal of female autonomy is mirrored later in the text when Hades tricks Persephone into eating pomegranate seeds. This action is a deliberate attempt to remove Persephone’s ability to choose for herself, condemning her to spend the winter months in the underworld with him. Not only does this subjugate Persephone to Hades’ will, but it also lends justification to the subjugation of women by men (372-400). By removing the sovereignty of the female mind, the myth promotes male authority.

In the Demeter and Persephone myth, Demeter is represented as a quite powerful goddess of nature, she possess the ability to bring down her full wrath and vengeance among mankind when she threats Zeus to get her daughter back. The Greeks recognized women’s ultimate connection to the earth and the power that arose from it however they also display significant amounts of an inferiority complex towards women. While the Greeks exemplify their fear towards the powerful Demeter they turn the tables and force their controlling views onto Persephone and she then becomes a rag doll and taken against her will. Persephone represents the beauty of nature and how the Greeks saw nature as two sided, both good and bad. Hades represented death and decay while Persephone represented vitality and life. However, they were threatened by woman’s connection nature and the power to create new life, similarly to Demeter’s connection with growing new crops both represent birth and regeneration. Even though Demeter did have control over whether or not mankind would starve it would not make a difference since Persephone still ate that pomegranate seed and was forced to go back to the underworld. This poses the idea that men had to control women as men had to control nature, similarly to the Norse Mythology. However the Greeks unlike the Norse recognized women’s power but are

     Hades is one of the brothers of Zeus. He is the unlucky one who got to rule the underworld. He is cruel and unforgiving. Only two have ever gone to Hades domain and returned, Hercules and Odysseus. Hades fell in love with Zeus’s daughter and devised a plan to abduct her. With Zeus’s help they succeeded in the capture of Persephone. Her mother Demeter was so enraged she cursed the Earth. She continued the curse even after she was released. It was only after her mother Rhea was allowed to see her that she let the Earth prosper (message).

The fact that she’s described as “picking flowers in a field” when Hades comes to abduct her, sets the tone for the rest of the story as to how active her role will be. Her abduction is, by definition, non-consensual and robs her of any agency in her own story. Not just that, but in some versions of the myth Hades even rapes her, defiling her body and mind in the name of claiming her as “his.” Hannan refers to this type of journey as “a descent through trauma and victimization,” and casts Persephone as a pawn to be moved by more powerful figures. To the Greek audience hearing this, they would see Persephone as an “unwilling bride” which, as Madeline Nold outlines in The Persephone Paradigm, “was an unwitting repetition of the earlier experience of Demeter… in modern psychological terms, it could be said that the unhealthy family pattern reiterated itself, from mother to daughter.”

The myth about Persephone was about how she became the rightful queen of the underworld and the wife of Hades. During the six months that Persephone was not with her mother that she spent in the underworld her mother was sad and depressed and did not want to deal with harvesting for others, therefore, she would leave the world to decline(Greeka). According to the Ancient Greeks, these were the months of autumn and winter, for when the land is not fertile and crops will not grow(Greeka).But when Persephone was living with her mother at Olympus she would be happy and the land would be fertile and fruitful again. During that time, that is considered to be known as spring and summer. So, in conclusion, the myth about Persephone was created to better explain and understand the seasons and the cycle of the death and rebirth of nature. Persephone is a great example of how stories can be used to share life lessons for many