Myths similar to Persephone's descent and return to earth also appear in the cults of male gods including Attis, Adonis, and Osiris, and in Minoan Crete. She was identified by the Romans as the Italic goddess Libera, who was conflated with Proserpina. In Latin, her name is rendered Proserpina. Her name has numerous historical variants. The city of Epizephyrian Locris, in modern Calabria (southern Italy), was famous for its cult of Persephone, where she is a goddess of marriage and childbirth in this region. In Athens, the mysteries celebrated in the month of Anthesterion were dedicated to her. The origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on ancient agrarian cults of agricultural communities. Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised the initiated a happy afterlife. 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. In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain. The myth of her abduction, her sojourn in the underworld, and her temporary return to the surface represents her functions as the embodiment of spring and the personification of vegetation, especially grain crops, which disappear into the earth when sown, sprout from the earth in spring, and are harvested when fully grown. She became the queen of the underworld after her abduction by and marriage to her uncle Hades, the king of the underworld. And so it is that we have the seasons.In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( / p ər ˈ s ɛ f ə n iː/ pər- SEF-ə-nee Greek: Περσεφόνη, romanized: Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( / ˈ k ɔːr iː/ KOR-ee Greek: Κόρη, romanized: Kórē, lit.'the maiden'), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Hermes persuades Hades that Persephone should be allowed to return to her mother for six months of the year, and then to return to Hades and the underworld for the other six. Persephone is aware she must eat no food and intends only to drink the juice.but she swallows some of the pips. Hermes arrives in the underworld where Hades offers Persephone a pomegranate to eat. Zeus sends Hermes to bring Persephone back - and he must hurry, because if Persephone has eaten any food in the underworld she will have to stay there forever. When Demeter finds out what has happened she is inconsolable she curses the Earth and the plants begin to wither and die. ![]() Hades is entranced and takes Persephone down to his underground kingdom to become his bride. ![]() Hermes relates how one day she is out picking flowers when Hades, god of the underworld, comes to the upper world and sees her. Persephone is the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the Earth and of the harvest. Hermes - who has winged boots and a winged helmet - then files down to the Earth, where he watches offerings being made to the goddess Demeter, and that becomes the springboard for his first story. Hermes begins with an introduction to himself and some of the other gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece - Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo - and their home on Mount Olympus.
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