Greek Mythology · deity
Persephone
Περσεφόνη
also: Proserpina (Roman)
deitythe underworldspringvegetationthe dead
Queen of the underworld, wife of Hades, daughter of Demeter; her annual return to earth gives spring.
The account
Who they are
Persephone (Proserpina) is the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, and the queen of the underworld as wife of Hades [S4]S4 · Homeric Hymnsc. 700–300 BCEtext[S5]S5 · Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library (Bibliotheca)c. 1st–2nd c. CE (transmits earlier)text. Her story is the founding myth of the seasons: Hades abducts her (in some accounts she is plucking flowers in a meadow) to be his queen; Demeter's grief withholds the earth's fertility; a compromise is reached whereby Persephone spends part of the year (the warmer months) on earth with her mother and part (the colder months) in the underworld with Hades [S4]S4 · Homeric Hymnsc. 700–300 BCEtext[S5]S5 · Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library (Bibliotheca)c. 1st–2nd c. CE (transmits earlier)text. The detail that made the arrangement binding: while in the underworld she ate six pomegranate seeds, and so was bound to return to the dead for a portion of each year [S4]S4 · Homeric Hymnsc. 700–300 BCEtext[S5]S5 · Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library (Bibliotheca)c. 1st–2nd c. CE (transmits earlier)text. She is both a spring/vegetation goddess and the queen of the dead — a dual role the sources preserve without resolving the tension [S4]S4 · Homeric Hymnsc. 700–300 BCEtext[S6]S6 · Pausanias, Description of Greecec. 150–180 CEtext.
Worth knowing
- Ate six pomegranate seeds in the underworld, binding her to return each year [S4]S4 · Homeric Hymnsc. 700–300 BCEtext[S5]S5 · Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library (Bibliotheca)c. 1st–2nd c. CE (transmits earlier)text.
- Her annual return to earth is the mythic origin of spring [S4]S4 · Homeric Hymnsc. 700–300 BCEtext[S5]S5 · Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library (Bibliotheca)c. 1st–2nd c. CE (transmits earlier)text.
- Queen of the underworld as Hades's wife [S4]S4 · Homeric Hymnsc. 700–300 BCEtext[S5]S5 · Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library (Bibliotheca)c. 1st–2nd c. CE (transmits earlier)text.
Uncertainties & variants
- The 'six pomegranate seeds' detail is from the Orphic Hymns and later tradition, not the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (which gives the season-compromise without the seeds) — we note the layering [S4]S4 · Homeric Hymnsc. 700–300 BCEtext[S5]S5 · Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library (Bibliotheca)c. 1st–2nd c. CE (transmits earlier)text.
Relationships (2)
Connections
Family & kinship
PARENT_OFDemeter — Demeter is the parent of Persephone.[S4] [S5]
Partners
PARTNER_OFHades — Hades took Persephone as his queen.[S4] [S5]
Local graph
Their corner of the divine world
Viewhierarchical — generations top → bottom, partners side by side
Overlays
FocusPersephoneGreek
- parentage
- marriage ♥
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1 story
The Abduction of Persephone and the Seasons
Hades abducted Persephone to be his queen. Demeter's grief withheld the earth's fertility until a compromise: Persephone spends part of the year on earth (spring/summer) and part in the underworld (autumn/winter), because she ate pomegranate seeds below [S4]S4 · Homeric Hymnsc. 700–300 BCEtext[S5]S5 · Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library (Bibliotheca)c. 1st–2nd c. CE (transmits earlier)text.
Depictions