Persephone

Lore & Background

In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades. As a vegetation goddess, she and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised the initiated a happy afterlife. The origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on ancient agrarian cults of agricultural communities. In Athens, the mysteries celebrated in the month of Anthesterion were dedicated to her. She is a goddess of marriage and childbirth in the region of the city of Epizephyrian Locris, in modern Calabria (southern Italy).

In Their Own Story

In Homer's epics, Persephone appears always together with Hades in the underworld, apparently sharing with Hades control over the dead. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus encounters the 'dread Persephone' in Tartarus when he visits his dead mother. Odysseus sacrifices a ram to the chthonic goddess Persephone and the ghosts of the dead, who drink the blood of the sacrificed animal. Her central myth served as the context for the secret rites of regeneration at Eleusis, which promised immortality to initiates. As wife of Pluto, she sent spectres, ruled the ghosts, and carried into effect the curses of men. The lake of Avernus, as an entrance to the infernal regions, was sacred to her.

Reader's Guide

Persephone's epithets reveal her double function as chthonic and vegetation goddess. As a vegetation goddess, she was called Auxesia, Azesia, Kore, Kore Soteira, Neotera, Nestis, and Soteira. As a goddess of the underworld, she was given euphemistically-friendly names and epithets: Aristi Chthonia, Brimo, Chthonia, Despoina, Epaine, Hagne, Malivina, Melindia or Melinoia, Melitodes, and Praxidike. In the Orphic tradition, Persephone is said to be the daughter of Zeus and his mother Rhea, who became Demeter after her seduction by her son. The Orphic Persephone is said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus / Iacchus / Zagreus, and the little-attested Melinoe.

Did You Know?

• Persephone's name has numerous historical variants including Persephassa, Persephatta, and in Latin, Proserpina.
• Plato calls her Pherepapha in his Cratylus, 'because she is wise and touches that which is in motion'.
• The name of the Albanian dawn-goddess Premtë or P(ë)rende is thought to correspond regularly to the Ancient Greek counterpart Persephatta.
• In a Linear B Mycenaean Greek inscription on a tablet found at Pylos dated 1400–1200 BC, John Chadwick reconstructed the name of a goddess, *Preswa.
• Empedocles used the name Nestis for water, apparently referring to Persephone, meaning 'the Fasting One' in ancient Greek.