簡介
PersophonePersephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Demeter is the goddess of harvest, fertility of the earth and the seasons. Persephone was such a beautiful young woman that everyone loved her; even Hades (King of the underworld) wanted her for himself.
說明
One day, Persephone was accompanied by the Oceanids, collecting flowers on the plain of Enna. (According to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Athena and Artemis was also there picking flowers).Somehow Persephone managed to wander away from her companions, and picked the narcissus amongst all the flowers that are blossoming.The earth suddenly opened and Hades rose up from the gap and abducted her. None but Zeus, and the all-seeing sun, Helios, had noticed it. Some version of the story said that Zeus gave permission for Hades to marry Persephone, while never mentioned it to either Persephone or Demeter.
Broken-hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, looking for her daughter until Helios revealed what had happened. Demeter was so angry that she withdrew herself in loneliness, and the earth ceased to be fertile. Knowing this could not continue much longer, Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to make him release Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed, but before she went back he gave Persephone a pomegranate (or the seeds of a pomegranate, according to some sources). When she later ate three pomegranate seeds, it bound her to underworld forever. Persephone had to stay in the underworld there one-third of the year. The other months she stayed with her mother.
When Persephone was in Hades (underworld), Demeter refused to let anything grow and winter began. This myth is a symbol of the budding and dying of nature. In the Eleusinian mysteries, this happening was celebrated in honour of Demeter and Persephone, who was known in this cult as Kore.
