In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ) is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. referencing the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and Hesiod's Theogony 913f. She became the queen of the underworld after her abduction by her uncle Hades, the king of the underworld, who later took her into marriage. The myth of her abduction, her sojourn in the underworld, and her cyclical 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, remain hidden for a period, sprout from the earth, and are harvested when fully grown.
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.
Persephone, as a vegetation goddess, 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 cult, she was often referred to as Kore () or Cora.Hard, p. 126. The name "Persephone" has multiple historical variants, including Persephassa () and Persophatta (). In Latin, her name is rendered Proserpina. She was identified by the Romans as Libera, an Italic goddess who was conflated with Proserpina. 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.
Name 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, who could be identified with Perse, daughter of Oceanus, and found speculative the further identification with the first element of Persephone. Persephonē (Greek: ) is her name in the Ionic Greek of epic literature. The Homeric form of her name is Persephoneia (, Persephoneia). In other dialects, she was known under variant names: Persephassa (), Persophatta (), or simply Korē (, "girl, maiden").H.G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon On 5th century Attic vases one often encounters the form Perrōphátta (). Plato calls her Pherepapha () in his Cratylus, "because she is wise and touches that which is in motion", and Phersephona () in Meno.Plato, Meno, 81b There are also the forms Periphona () and Phersephassa (). The existence of so many different forms shows how difficult it was for the Greeks to pronounce the word in their own language and suggests that the name may have a Pre-Greek origin.
The etymology of the word "Persephone" is obscure. According to a recent hypothesis advanced by Rudolf Wachter, the first element in the name (Perso- () may well reflect a very rare term, attested in the Rig Veda (Sanskrit parṣa-), and the Avesta, meaning "sheaf of corn" / "ear [of grain]". The second constituent, phatta, preserved in the form Persophatta (), would in this view reflect Proto-Indo-European , from the root "to strike / beat / kill". The combined sense would therefore be "she who beats the ears of corn", i.e., a "thresher of grain"; . (Περσ (Perse) refers to "grains", εφό (phó) refers to "hitting"/"striking" and -νη (-nē) is a female matronymic suffix; an apropos name for the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest).
The name of the Albanian dawn-goddess, goddess of love and protector of women, Premtë or P(ë)rende, is thought to correspond regularly to the Ancient Greek counterpart (Persephatta), a variant of (Persephone). The theonyms have been traced back to the Indo-European *pers-é-bʰ(h₂)n̥t-ih₂ ("she who brings the light through").
A popular folk etymology is from , pherein phonon, "to bring (or cause) death".
Titles and functions The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as chthonic and vegetation goddess. The surnames given to her by the poets refer to her role as queen of the lower world and the dead and to the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. Her common name as a vegetation goddess is Kore. Günther 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." Ancient Greek writers were, however, not as consistent as Zuntz claims.
Goddess of spring and nature Plutarch writes that Persephone was identified with the spring season,Plutarch, Moralia (On Isis and Osiris, Ch. 69 ) and Cicero calls her the seed of the fruits of the fields. In the Eleusinian Mysteries, her return from the underworld each spring is a symbol of immortality, and she was frequently represented on sarcophagi.
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.; Athenagoras, Legatio Pro Christianis 20.2; ; . The Orphic Persephone is said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus / Iacchus / Zagreus, and the little-attested Melinoe.
Queen of the underworld 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. This tradition comes from her conflation with the very old chthonic divinity Despoina ("[the] mistress"), whose real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated into her mysteries. As goddess of death, she was also called a daughter of Zeus and Styx, the river that formed the boundary between Earth and the underworld. In Homer's epics, she 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. In the reformulation of Greek mythology expressed in the Orphic Hymns, Dionysus and Melinoë are separately called children of Zeus and Persephone.Orphic Hymn 26, 71 Groves sacred to her stood at the western extremity of the earth on the frontiers of the lower world, which itself was called "house of Persephone".
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.
Nestis In a Classical period text ascribed to Empedocles, describing a correspondence among four deities and the classical elements, the name Nestis for water apparently refers to Persephone: "Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: Enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus, and Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears."
Of the four deities of Empedocles' elements, it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo – Nestis is a euphemistic cult title – for she was also the terrible Queen of the Dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was euphemistically named simply as Kore or "the Maiden", a vestige of her archaic role as the deity ruling the underworld. Nestis means "the Fasting One" in ancient Greek.
Epithets As a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically-friendly names and epithets. However, it is possible that some of them were the names of original goddesses: Aristi Chthonia (), lit. the "Best Chthonic [Goddess]". Brimo (), lit. "Angry" or "Terrifying". An epithet Persephone shares with her mother, Demeter, Hecate and others. Chthonia (Χθονία, Khthónĭă); literally "She of the Earth", an epithet Persephone shares with her mother, Demeter, and others. Chthonia Ắnăssă (Χθονία Ᾰνᾰσσᾰ), lit. "Subterranean Queen"; used in the Orphic Hymn to Persephone, along with "Praxidike". Despoina (dems-potnia, Δέσποινα, Déspoina) the "Mistress" or "Matriarch" (literally "the mistress of the house") Epaine (, lit. "Dread" or the "Fearful One"); can also translate from , meaning "Praise"). Hagne (Ἁγνή, Hagnḗ), lit. "pure", "holy" (ἁγνὴ Φερσεφόνεια (Hagnē Phersephoneia), lit. "Holy Persephone"), originally a goddess of the springs in Messenia. Malivina, lit. "Sweet Friend", "Soft". An euphemistically-friendly epithet Persephone shares with Hecate. Melindia or Melinoia (meli, "honey"), as the consort of Hades, in Hermione. (Compare Hecate, Melinoë) Melitodes (Μελιτώδης), "mellifluous", "sweet as honey"A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Melitodes Praxidike (, Praxidikê), lit. ""Practical Justice", "Exacter of Justice"; the Orphic Hymn to Persephone identifies Praxidike as an epithet of Persephone: "Praxidike, Subterranean Queen. The Eumenides' source [mother], fair-haired, whose frame proceeds from Zeus' ineffable and secret seeds."Orphic Hymn 29 to Persephone
As a vegetation goddess, she was called: Auxesia, as the goddess who grants growth and prosperity to the fields. Azesia, similar epithet of a growth and harvest nature Kore, "the maiden". Kore Soteira, "the Savior Maiden", in Megalopolis. Neotera, "[the] Younger Earth", in Eleusis, distinguishing Persephone from her mother. Nestis (Νήστις), lit. "the Fasting One"; Used by Empedocles as a euphemism for Persephone, referring to her role in bringing winter and how food is scarce and should be stockpiled before winter arrives. Kore of Demeter Hagne in the Homeric hymn. Kore Memagmeni, "the mixed daughter" (bread). Soteira, "the Savior", in Megalopolis.
Demeter and her daughter Persephone were usually called: The goddesses, often distinguished as "the older" and "the younger" in Eleusis. Demeters, in Rhodes and Sparta The thesmophoroi, "the legislators" in the Thesmophoria. Karpophoroi, "the bringers of fruit", in Tegea
Mythology Abduction myth
Persephone's abduction by Hades is mentioned briefly in Hesiod's Theogony,Hesiod, Theogony 914 . and is told in considerable detail in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Zeus, it is said, permitted Hades, who was in love with the beautiful Persephone, to abduct her as her mother Demeter was not likely to allow her daughter to go down to Hades. Persephone was gathering flowers, along with the Oceanids and the goddesses Pallas Athena and Artemis, as the Homeric Hymn says, in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth.. In another version of the myth, Persephone had her own personal companions whom Demeter turned into the half bird sirens as punishment for failing to prevent her daughter's abduction.
When Persephone was abducted by Hades, the shepherd Eumolpus and the swineherd Eubuleus saw a girl in a black chariot driven by an invisible driver being carried off into the earth which had violently opened up. Eubuleus was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld, and his swine were swallowed by the earth along with her. This aspect of the myth is an etiology for the relation of pigs with the ancient rites in Thesmophoria,Reference to the Thesmophoria in Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans 2.1. and in Eleusis.