Persaphone

By C.B.

Though Persephone is not a very well known Greek goddess, she played an important role in ancient Greek mythology and had many interesting traits. Persephone was a very docile goddess who made flowers bloom and the world happy. She was known as the goddess of spring and summer. She loved to play with her friends the nymphs, and spent more time on earth than on Mount Olympus. She was said to be radiant, beautiful and full of grace. She was also the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, both important gods. Yet Persephone’s myth shows the dark side of her life as a goddess. Hades, god of the Underworld saw how beautiful Persephone was and took her with him to the Underworld. In the Underworld she ate four pomogranite seeds. Demeter, her mother, and Zeus, her father rescued her, but because she had eaten the seeds she was forced to return to the Underworld for a third of the year. Demeter blamed the land every year for taking her again. She created famine and winter. Persephone going back to the Underworld is the Ancient Greek’s explanation of winter. The Greeks relied on agriculture for food and so when the cold and barren winter came across the land nothing could grow. They believed Demeter’s sorrow about Persephone going back to the Underworld is the cause of winter as said in her myth. Then when she came back there were crops and warm weather again. Persephone was an important figure in Aincient Greek mythology and her myth contributed many ideas to Greek culture.