Persephone (1)

The daughter of Zeus and Demeter and the bride of Hades (lord of the Underworld); she was abducted by Hades and taken to the Underworld against her will.

When Demeter found out about the abduction of her daughter she cursed the earth and made it infertile; Zeus sent Hermes to the House of Hades and persuaded him to release Persephone but the crafty Hades had Persephone eat a pomegranate seed before she left his realm which bound her to him; as a compromise, Zeus decreed that Persephone would spend part of each year with Hades and the rest of the year with her mother.

Demeter renounced her curse upon the earth and allowed the plants to grow once more; Persephone and Demeter are worshiped together as the Karpophorus (Carpophorus) and were often referred to as The Two.

Persephone was also worshiped in Attika (Attica) as Kore, i.e. The Daughter.

Her name is also rendered as Proserpina and Proserpine.

• Hymn to Demeter
• Theogony, lines 768 and 913
• Odyssey, book 10, lines 491, 494, 509, 534 and 564; book 11, lines 47, 213, 217, 226, 385 and 634
• Iliad, book 9, lines 457 and 569
• Argonautika, book 2, line 911