Persephone (Greek mythology)

PERSEPHONE

She is the daugther of Zeus and Demeter.

    Persephone was the goddess queen of the underworld, and wife of the god Haides. She was also the goddess of spring growth, who was worshipped alongside her mother: Demeter.

In other myths, Persephone appears exclusively as the queen of the underworld, receiving the likes of Herakles and Orpheus at her court.  

     Once upon a time when she was playing in a flowery meadow with her Nymph companions, Persephone was seized by Haides and carried off to the underworld as his bride. Because the girl had tasted of the food of Haides she was forced to forever spend a part of the year with her husband in the underworld. Her annual return to the earth in spring was marked by the flowering of the meadows and the sudden growth of the new grain. Her return to the underworld in winter, conversely, saw the dying down of plants and the halting of growth.

     Persephone was usually depicted as a young goddess holding sheafs of grain and a flaming torch. Sometimes she was shown in the company of her mother and the hero Triptolemos, the teacher of agriculture. At other times she appears enthroned beside Haides.