Persephone
The myths surrounding Persephone has always been my favourites, the mix of love and revenge, of life and death and rebirth.
Persephone is the queen of the Underworld wife to Hades (her uncle) she was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter.
The Myth of Persephone and the Underworld is a myth that if wrote today would probably be a best seller, it is a mix of kidnap, arranged marriage, mental instability and Horror. Not only dose it contain all that it contain the ability to read your own story into it.
One of the biggest questions to ask when looking at Persephone is did she love Hades? Was she in on it? Did she choose a life in the underworld rather than returning to an over baring mother?
The Basic story states that Persephone was playing with her nymphs in a flowery meadow when the earth opens and out rides Hades and grabs Persephone and carries her to the Underworld.
The Goddess Hecate heard Persephone’s cries and informs Demeter and together the search the Earth using Hecate’s torches to light the way. When they cannot find her Hecate suggest the Demeter asks Helios. Helios informs Demeter what happens and Demeter then partitions Zeus to intervene.
Zeus refuses to help and lets it slip he assisted by giving his permission for the abduction to place. In a blind rage Demeter refuses to let anything grow on earth until Persephone is returned to her, at that moment all the plants withered on earth. Some say Demeter wander the earth going madder and madder with grief.
During this time Persephone grow in to her role of wife and Queen of the Underworld although it is said that she missed her mother. While Persephone was in the Under world the Earth was racked with famine and Demeter’s grief continued to grow seeing this Zeus heart softened and he relented he summons Hermes and informs him that Persephone is commanded to return to her Mother.
Hermes then travels to the Underworld and informs Hades and Persephone of Zeus command. Knowing that no God or mortal can refuse a command from Zeus. So as she was leaving to return to her mother Hades offers her a pomegranate. Persephone new that if she ate any of the food from the underworld she would be bound to the Underworld and Not even Zeus could force her to leave, So she are 6 (some say 7 others 4 I like 6 as it make more sense) pomegranate seeds.
Hermes Knowing he could not complete his task and knowing that Zeus would be most upset that his commands where not completed. So he opens a negotiation between Demeter and Hades after what must have been a very difficult negotiation it is agreed that because Persephone did not eat the whole pomegranate that she could return to her mother for part of the time.
Some stories say the 4 months of winter while other say six months for myself I like the idea that she leaves in autumn and returns in spring, the trees drawing back in to the earth the earth slowly dying a way in time with Demeter’s lose and as time moves on Demeter grief increases just like any mother with their child away. Well until the mind set change from my babies going to be a way for x number of weeks to my babies back in x weeks. I often see the solstice as this point of change as it part of our nature soon as the solstice arrives people start saying x number weeks to spring.
As I start preparing for Imbolc my thoughts always focus on Persephone and that first daffodil just poking out of the ground heralding her arrival.
The abduction of Persephone is but one of the legends of Persephone and in each myth she is a kind and giving goddess. Persephone was willing to help Psyche pass Aphrodite’s tests so that Psyche could be reunited with her beloved husband she also helped Heracles (Hercules), loaning him Cerberus, the ferocious three-headed dog that guarded the entrance of the underworld, so that he could complete the Twelve Labours he’d been assigned to make retribution for the death of his wife.
Persephone is the keeper of dark knowledge and sometime is part of the triple goddess that includes Hecate as maiden, Persephone as bride and Demeter as crone sometimes called the Dark Demeter.
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Related articles
- The Opulence of the Underworld (theater.nytimes.com)
- Donna Henes: Harvesting Mother Earth’s Gifts of Life (huffingtonpost.com)
Originally posted 2011-01-26 10:13:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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