Jump to content

Persephone: Difference between revisions

Persephone (edit)

Revision as of 02:51, 27 June 2022

83,136 bytes added ,  27 June 2022
robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)
m (1 revision imported: as per requested by user:SonOfZeus)
(robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit))
Line 1: Line 1:
[[File:Locri Pinax Persephone Opens Liknon Mystikon.jpg|thumb|[[Pinax]] of Persephone.]]
{{short description|Greek goddess of spring and the underworld}}
{{About|the Greek goddess}}
{{Use dmy dates|date= March 2022}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Persephone
| image = AMI - Isis-Persephone.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Statue of [[Syncretism|syncretic]] Persephone-[[Isis]] with a [[sistrum]]. [[Heraklion]] Archaeological Museum, [[Crete]]
| god_of = Queen of the Underworld <br /> Goddess of the dead, life, grain, spring, nature and destruction
| abode = [[Greek Underworld|The underworld]], Sicily, [[Mount Olympus]]
| symbol = Pomegranate, seeds of grain, torch, flowers and deer
| spouse = [[Hades]]
| parents = [[Zeus]] and [[Demeter]]<br>
[[Zeus]] and [[Rhea (Greek mythology)|Rhea]] ([[Orphic]])
| siblings = [[Aeacus]], [[Angelos (Greek mythology)|Angelos]], [[Aphrodite]], [[Apollo]], [[Ares]], [[Arion (mythology)|Arion]], [[Artemis]], [[Athena]], [[Chrysothemis]], [[Despoina]], [[Dionysus]], [[Eileithyia]], [[Enyo]], [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]], [[Ersa]], [[Eubuleus]], [[Hebe (mythology)|Hebe]], [[Helen of Troy]], [[Hephaestus]], [[Heracles]], [[Hermes]], [[Iacchus]], [[Minos]], [[Pandia]], [[Philomelus]], [[Plutus]], [[Perseus]], [[Rhadamanthus]], the [[Graces]], the [[Horae]], the [[Litae]], the [[Muse]]s, the [[Moirai]]
| children = [[Melinoë]], [[Zagreus]]/[[Dionysus#Orphism|Dionysus]] (Orphic)<ref>Gantz (1996) p. 118</ref><ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA35 p. 35]</ref><ref> Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456.</ref><br> [[Erinyes]] (Orphic)<ref>''[[Orphism (religion)#The Hymns|Orphic Hymns]] 29 to Persephone'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=rvSuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 11] (Athanassakis and Wolkow, pp. 26&ndash;27).</ref><ref>''[[Orphism (religion)#The Hymns|Orphic Hymns]] 70 to the [[Erinyes|Furies]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=rvSuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA151 4-5] (Athanassakis and Wolkow, pp. 56&ndash;57).</ref>  <!-- please do not add Macaria/Makaria as daughter unless citing a reliable source that Persephone is her mother  -->
| mount =
| Roman_equivalent = [[Proserpina]]
}}
{{Special characters}}
{{Ancient Greek religion}}
In ancient [[Greek mythology]] and [[Ancient Greek religion|religion]], '''Persephone''' ({{IPAc-en|p|ər|ˈ|s|ɛ|f|ə|n|iː}} {{respell|pər|SEF|ə|nee}}; {{lang-gr|Περσεφόνη|Persephónē}}), also called '''Kore''' or '''Cora''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɔər|iː}} {{respell|KOR|ee}}; {{lang-gr|Κόρη|Kórē|the maiden}}), is the daughter of [[Zeus]] and [[Demeter]]. She became the queen of the [[Greek Underworld|Underworld]] after her abduction by her uncle [[Hades]], the god of the underworld.<ref name=Nilsson462>Martin Nilsson (1967). ''Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion'' Vol I pp 462–463, 479–480</ref>


'''Persephone''' ({{lang-el|Περσεφόνη}}, ''Persephonē'') is the goddess of the dead and queen of the underworld in ancient Greek religion and [[Greek mythology|myth]]. She is the daughter of [[Zeus]] and [[Demeter]] and is married to the god [[Hades]], with whom she rules over the souls of the dead. As a vegetation goddess, she presided over the bounty of the [[harvest]] as it emerged during the season of spring.  
While Persephone was picking flowers from a field, Hades burst though a crack on the earth driving his chariot and snatched Persephone as she cried for help. Her mother Demeter searched long for her with no success before being informed that Hades had taken her to be his queen, with the approval of Zeus. Persephone was not allowed to return to the world above until Demeter prevented all plants from growing, causing a [[famine]] and forcing Zeus to demand that Hades let her go. Persephone however had consumed some [[pomegranate]] seeds while in the Underworld, and having eaten food from Hades' realm she could not leave. Zeus settled this by decreeing that Persephone would spend some months in the Underworld with her husband, and the rest of the year above with her mother.


Persephone and her mother [[Demeter]] were the central figures of the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]], which promised initiates a reward in the afterlife. The tale of her being abducted by [[Hades]], during which she was tricked into eating seeds from a [[pomegranate]] (the food of the dead), served to explain the cause of the seasons, and is one prominently featured in ancient Greek literature. Her symbols included the pomegranate, flowers and seeds of grain. The goddess [[Proserpina]] is her Roman counterpart.  
The myth of her abduction, her sojourn in the underworld and her temporary return to the surface represents her functions as the embodiment of spring and the personification of vegetation, especially grain crops, which disappear into the earth when sown, sprout from the earth in spring, and are harvested when fully grown. In [[Art in ancient Greece|Classical Greek art]], Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a [[wikt:sheaf|sheaf]] of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades.


[[Category:Greek gods and goddesses]]
Persephone as a [[vegetation deity|vegetation goddess]] and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]], which promised the initiated a happy [[afterlife]]. The origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on ancient agrarian cults of agricultural communities. In Athens, the mysteries celebrated in the month of [[Anthesterion]] were dedicated to her.
 
Her name has numerous historical variants. These include '''Persephassa''' ({{lang|grc|Περσεφάσσα}}) and '''Persephatta''' ({{lang|grc|Περσεφάττα}}). In Latin, her name is rendered [[Proserpina]]. She was identified by the Romans as the [[Roman mythology|Italic goddess]] [[Libera (mythology)|Libera]], who was conflated with Proserpina. Myths similar to Persephone's descent and return to earth also appear in the cults of male gods including [[Attis]], [[Adonis]], and [[Osiris]],<ref>Martin Nilsson (1967). Vol I, pp. 215</ref> and in [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] [[Crete]].
 
==Name==
[[File:DSC00426 - Statua cineraria etrusca - Proserpina-defunta con melagrana- Foto G. Dall'Orto.jpg|thumb|left|Persephone or "the deceased woman" holding a [[pomegranate]]. Etruscan terracotta cinerary statue. National archaeological museum in [[Palermo]], Italy ]]
In a [[Linear B]] [[Mycenaean Greek]] inscription on a tablet found at [[Pylos]] dated 1400–1200 BC, [[John Chadwick]] reconstructed{{efn|The actual word in [[Linear B]] is {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀟𐀩𐁚}}}}, ''pe-re-*82'' or ''pe-re-swa''; it is found on the [[Pylos|PY]] Tn 316 tablet.<ref>{{cite web |title=pe-re-*82 |work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B |last=Raymoure |first=K.A. |publisher=Deaditerranean |url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/pe/pe-re-82/}} {{cite web |title=PY 316 Tn (44) |website=DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo |publisher=[[University of Oslo]] |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/4985}}</ref>}} the name of a goddess, ''*Preswa'' who could be identified with [[Perse (mythology)|Perse]], daughter of [[Oceanus]] and found speculative the further identification with the first element of Persephone.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chadwick |first=John |author-link=John Chadwick |year=1976 |title=The Mycenaean World |location=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-29037-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RMj7M_tGaNMC&pg=PA95 |page=95}} At Google Books.</ref>{{efn|Comments about the goddess ''pe-re-*82'' of [[Pylos]] tablet Tn 316, tentatively reconstructed as ''*Preswa''
:"It is tempting to see&nbsp;... the classical Perse&nbsp;... daughter of [[Oceanus]]&nbsp;... ; whether it may be further identified with the first element of Persephone is only speculative."<ref>[[John Chadwick]]. ''Documents in Mycenean Greek''. Second Edition</ref>}} ''Persephonē'' ([[Greek language|Greek]]: {{lang|grc|Περσεφόνη}}) is her name in the [[Ionic Greek]] of [[Epic poetry|epic]] literature. The Homeric form of her name is ''Persephoneia'' (Περσεφονεία,<ref name="Homer1899">{{cite book |last=Homer |title=Odyssey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_-ZDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP230 |access-date=31 March 2014|year=1899 |publisher=Clarendon Press |page=230}}</ref> ''Persephoneia''). In other dialects, she was known under variant names: ''Persephassa'' ({{lang|grc|Περσεφάσσα}}), ''Persephatta'' ({{lang|grc|Περσεφάττα}}), or simply ''Korē'' ({{lang|grc|Κόρη}}, "girl, maiden").<ref>H.G. Liddell and R. Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon''</ref> On 5th century Attic vases one often encounters the form ({{lang|grc|Φερρϖφάττα}}) [[Plato]] calls her ''Pherepapha'' ({{lang|grc|Φερέπαφα}}) in his [[Cratylus (dialogue)|''Cratylus'']], "because she is wise and touches that which is in motion". There are also the forms ''Periphona'' (Πηριφόνα) and ''Phersephassa'' ({{lang|grc|Φερσέφασσα}}). The existence of so many different forms shows how difficult it was for the Greeks to pronounce the word in their own language and suggests that the name may have a [[Pre-Greek substrate|Pre-Greek origin]].<ref>Martin P. Nilsson (1967), ''Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion'', Volume I, C.F. Beck Verlag, p. 474.</ref>
 
The etymology of the word 'Persephone' is obscure. According to a recent hypothesis advanced by  {{ill|lt=Rudolf Wachter|Rudolf Wachter (Philologe)|de}}, the first element in the name (''Perso''- (Περσο-) may well reflect a very rare term, attested in the [[Rig Veda]] (Sanskrit ''parṣa-''), and the [[Avesta]], meaning 'sheaf of corn'/'ear (of grain)'. The second constituent, ''phatta'', preserved in the form ''Persephatta'' ({{lang|grc|Περσεφάττα}}),  would in this view reflect [[Proto-Indo European]] ''{{PIE|*-gʷn-t-ih}}'', from the root ''{{PIE|*gʷʰen-}}'' "to strike/beat/kill". The combined sense would therefore be "she who beats the ears of corn", i.e., a "thresher of grain".<ref> [[Jan Bremmer|Jan N. Bremmer]], [https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_World_of_Greek_Religion_and_Mytholog/5I_HDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Etymological+Dictionary+of+Greek%2B+Beekes%2BPersephone&pg=PA74&printsec=frontcover ''The World of Greek Religion and Mythology:Collected Essays II,''] [[Mohr Siebeck]] 2019 {{isbn|978-3-161-54451-4}} p.75.</ref><ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', [[Brill Publishers|Brill]], 2009, vol.2, pp.1179–80.</ref>
 
A popular folk etymology is from {{lang|grc|φέρειν φόνον}}, ''pherein phonon'', "to bring (or cause) death".<ref name=SmithPersephone>Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=persephone-bio-1 "Perse'phone"]</ref>
 
==Titles and functions==
The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as [[chthonic]] (underworld) and vegetation goddess. The surnames given to her by the poets refer to her character as Queen of the lower world and the dead, or her symbolic meaning of the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. Her common name as a vegetation goddess is Kore, and in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]] she was worshipped under the title [[Despoina]], "the mistress", a very old chthonic divinity.<ref name=SmithPersephone/> [[Günther Zuntz]], treating "Persephone" and "Kore" as distinct deities wrote that "no farmer prayed for corn to Persephone; no mourner thought of the dead as being with Kore." Ancient Greek writers, however, were not as consistent as Zuntz's hypothesis would have them seem.{{sfn|Bennett|Paul|Iozzo|White|2002|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=R7PP3wNr4zMC&pg=PA83 83]}}
 
===Goddess of Spring and Nature===
[[Plutarch]] writes that Persephone was identified with a spring season<ref>Plutarch, ''[[Moralia]]'' ([https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Isis_and_Osiris*/E.html ''On Isis and Osiris'', Ch. 69])</ref> and [[Cicero]] calls her the seed of the fruits of the fields. In the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]], her return from the underworld each spring is a symbol of immortality, and hence she was frequently represented on sarcophagi.
 
In the religions of the [[Orphism (religion)|Orphics]] and the [[Platonism|Platonists]], Kore is described as the all-pervading goddess of nature<ref>Orphic Hymn 29.16</ref> who both produces and destroys everything, and she is therefore mentioned along with or identified as other such divinities including [[Isis]], [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], [[Gaia (mythology)|Ge]], [[Hestia]], [[Pandora]], [[Artemis]], and [[Hecate]].<ref>Schol. ad. Theocritus 2.12</ref>  In Orphic tradition, Persephone is said to be the daughter of Zeus and his mother Rhea, rather than of Demeter.<ref>Orphic [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/16/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 58 Kern] [= [[Athenagoras of Athens|Athenagoras]], ''[[Athenagoras of Athens#Legatio Pro Christianis|Legatio Pro Christianis]]'' 20.2]; West 1983, p. 73; Meisner, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ethjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 p.&nbsp;134].</ref> The Orphic Persephone is said to have become by [[Zeus]] the mother of [[Dionysus]], [[Iacchus]], [[Zagreus]],<ref name=SmithPersephone/> and the little-attested [[Melinoe]].{{efn|In the ''Hymn to Melinoe'', where the father is ''Zeus Chthonios'', either Zeus in his chthonic aspect, or [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]].<ref name=Edmonds-2011>Edmonds, Radcliffe G., III (2011) "Orphic Mythology," [in] ''A Companion to Greek Mythology'', First Edition. Edited by Ken Dowden and Niall Livingstone. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.</ref>{{rp|style=ama|p= 100}} }}
 
===Goddess of the Underworld===
[[File:Throning goddess (Persephone) 480-460 BC (Sk 1761) 1.JPG|thumb|upright|right|Seated goddess, probably Persephone on her throne in the underworld, [[Severe style]] {{circa|480–460 BC,}} found at [[Taranto|Tarentum]], [[Magna Graecia]] ([[Pergamon Museum]], Berlin)]]
In mythology and literature she is often called dread(ed) Persephone, and queen of the Underworld, within which tradition it was forbidden to speak her name. This tradition comes from her conflation with the very old chthonic divinity Despoina ("[the] mistress"), whose real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated into her mysteries.<ref>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' ([https://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias8C.html#5 Book 8, Ch. 37, sect. 9])"</ref> As goddess of death, she was also called a daughter of Zeus and [[Styx]],<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.3.1 1.3.1].</ref> the river that formed the boundary between Earth and the underworld. In [[Homer]]'s epics, she appears always together with [[Hades]] and the Underworld, apparently sharing with Hades control over the dead.<ref>Gantz (1996) p. 64</ref><ref>Homer, ''[[Odyssey]]'' ([https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+10.491&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136 ''Book 10'', ln. 494]).</ref> In Homer's ''[[Odyssey]]'', Odysseus encounters the "dread Persephone" in [[Tartarus]] when he visits his dead mother. Odysseus sacrifices a ram to the chthonic goddess Persephone and the ghosts of the dead who drink the blood of the sacrificed animal. In the reformulation of Greek mythology expressed in the ''[[Orphic Hymns]]'', Dionysus and Melinoe are separately called children of Zeus and Persephone.<ref>''Orphic Hymn 26'', ''71''</ref> Groves sacred to her stood at the western extremity of the earth on the frontiers of the lower world, which itself was called "house of Persephone".<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' ([https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+10.491&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136 ''Book 10'', ln. 491]; ''Book 10'', ln. 509).</ref>
 
Her central myth served as the context for the secret rites of regeneration at Eleusis,<ref>[[Károly Kerényi]] (1967) ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter'', ''passim''</ref> which promised immortality to initiates.
 
===Nestis===
In a [[classical Greek|Classical period text]] ascribed to [[Empedocles]], {{circa|490–430&nbsp;BC,}}{{efn|Empedocles was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher who was a citizen of [[Agrigentum]], a Greek colony in [[Sicily]].}} describing a correspondence among four deities and the [[classical element]]s, the name ''Nestis'' for water apparently refers to Persephone:
: "Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: Enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus, and Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears."<ref>[[Peter Kingsley (scholar)|Peter Kingsley]] (1995) ''Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition'' Oxford University Press.</ref>
 
Of the four deities of Empedocles' elements, it is the name of Persephone alone that is [[taboo]] – ''Nestis'' is a euphemistic cult title{{efn|Kingsley 1995 identifies ''Nestis'' as a cult title of Persephone.}} – for she was also the terrible Queen of the Dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was [[euphemism|euphemistically]] named simply as ''Kore'' or "the Maiden", a vestige of her archaic role as the deity ruling the underworld. ''Nestis'' means "the Fasting One" in ancient Greek.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}
 
===Epithets===
As a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically friendly names.<ref name=Rhode206>Rhode (1961), ''Psyche'' I, pp. 206–210</ref> However, it is possible that some of them were the names of original goddesses:
* '''[[Despoina]]''' (''dems-potnia'') "the mistress" (literally "the mistress of the house") in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].
* '''Hagne''', "pure", originally a goddess of the springs in [[Messenia]].<ref name="auto">Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 478–480</ref>
* '''Melindia''' or '''Melinoia''' (meli, "honey"), as the consort of [[Hades]], in Hermione. (Compare [[Hecate]], [[Melinoe]])<ref name=Rhode206/>
* '''Malivina'''<ref name=Rhode206/>
* '''Melitodes'''<ref name=Rhode206/>
* '''Aristi cthonia''', "the best [[chthonic]]".<ref name=Rhode206/>
* '''[[Praxidike]]''', the [[Orphic]] Hymn to Persephone identifies Praxidike as an [[epithet]] of Persephone: "Praxidike, subterranean queen. The [[Erinyes|Eumenides]]' source [mother], fair-haired, whose frame proceeds from Zeus' ineffable and secret seeds."<ref>[[Orphic]] Hymn 29 to Persephone</ref>
 
As a vegetation goddess, she was called:<ref name="auto"/><ref name=Nilsson463>Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 463–466</ref>
* '''Kore''', "the maiden".
* '''Kore Soteira''', "the savior maiden", in [[Megalopolis, Greece|Megalopolis]].
* '''Neotera''', "the younger", in [[Eleusis]].
* '''Kore of Demeter Hagne''' in the [[Homeric hymn]].
* '''Kore memagmeni''', "the mixed daughter" (bread).
 
[[Demeter]] and her daughter '''Persephone''' were usually called:<ref name=Nilsson463/><ref name=Nilsson478/>
* '''The goddesses''', often distinguished as "the older" and "the younger" in [[Eleusis]].
* '''Demeters''', in [[Rhodes]] and [[Sparta]]
* '''The thesmophoroi''', "the legislators" in the [[Thesmophoria]].
* '''The Great Goddesses''', in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].
* '''The mistresses''' in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].<ref name=Pausanias515>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]].''Description of Greece'' 5.15.4, 5, 6</ref>
* '''Karpophoroi''', "the bringers of fruit", in [[Tegea]] of Arcadia.
 
==Mythology==
===Abduction myth<!--Part of this section is linked from The High Priestess -->===
[[File:Sarcophagus with the Abduction of Persephone by Hades (detail).JPG| thumb|left|[[Sarcophagus]] with the abduction of Persephone. Walters Art Museum. [[Baltimore]], Maryland]]
 
Persephone's abduction by Hades{{efn|In art the abduction of Persephone is often referred to as the "[[Rape of Persephone]]".}} is mentioned briefly in [[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'',<ref name=HesTh914>Hesiod, ''Theogony'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.%20Th.%20914&lang=original&highlight=Persephone 914].</ref> and is told in considerable detail in the ''[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn to Demeter]]''. Zeus, it is said, permitted Hades, who was in love with the beautiful Persephone, to abduct her as her mother Demeter was not likely to allow her daughter to go down to Hades. Persephone was gathering flowers with the [[Oceanid]]s along with Artemis and [[Pallas (daughter of Triton)|Pallas]], daughter of [[Triton (mythology)|Triton]], as the ''Homeric Hymn'' says, in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth.<ref>''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH+2+4 4–20], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH+2+414 414–434].</ref> Demeter, when she found her daughter had disappeared, searched for her all over the earth with Hecate's torches. In most versions, she forbids the earth to produce, or she neglects the earth and, in the depth of her despair, she causes nothing to grow. [[Helios]], the Sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened and at length she discovered where her daughter had been taken. Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone.<ref name="Theoi Project - Persephone">{{cite web|url=http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Persephone.html |title=Theoi Project – Persephone |publisher=Theoi.com |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref>
[[File:Rape of Prosepina September 2015-3a.jpg|thumb|''[[The Rape of Proserpina]]'' by [[Gian Lorenzo Bernini]] (1621–22) at the [[Galleria Borghese]] in Rome.]]
Hades complies with the request, but first he tricks Persephone, giving her some [[pomegranate]] seeds to eat.{{efn|The ''[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn to Demeter]]'', has Persephone tell Demeter: "he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will."<ref>''[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn to Demeter]]'', [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg002.perseus-eng1:398-448 411–412]</ref> Gantz describes this as a "trick".<ref>Gantz (1996) p. 65</ref>}} Hermes is sent to retrieve her but, because she had tasted the food of the underworld, she was obliged to spend a third of each year (the winter months) there, and the remaining part of the year with the gods above.<ref>Gantz (1996) p. 65.</ref> With the later writers Ovid and Hyginus, Persephone's time in the underworld becomes half the year.<ref>Gantz (1996) p. 67.</ref> It was explained to Demeter, her mother, that she would be released, so long as she did not taste the food of the Underworld, as that was an Ancient Greek example of a [[Taboo#In religion and mythology|taboo]].
 
Various local traditions place Persephone's abduction in different locations. The [[Sicily#Antiquity|Sicilians]], among whom her worship was probably introduced by the Corinthian and Megarian colonists, believed that Hades found her in the meadows near [[Enna]], and that a well arose on the spot where he descended with her into the lower world. The [[Crete#Archaic and Classical period|Cretans]] thought that their own island had been the scene of the abduction, and the [[Eleusis#Eleusinian Mysteries|Eleusinians]] mentioned the Nysian plain in Boeotia, and said that Persephone had descended with Hades into the lower world at the entrance of the western Oceanus. Later accounts place the abduction in [[Attica]], near [[Athens]], or near Eleusis.<ref name="Theoi Project - Persephone"/> The [[Homeric]] hymn mentions the ''Nysion'' (or Mysion) which was probably a mythical place. The location of this mythical place may simply be a convention to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past.<ref name="Nilsson463" />
 
[[File:FredericLeighton-TheReturnofPerspephone(1891).jpg|thumb|left|''The Return of Persephone'', by [[Frederic Leighton]] (1891)]]
Before Persephone was abducted by Hades, the shepherd Eumolpus and the swineherd [[Eubuleus]] saw a girl in a black chariot driven by an invisible driver being carried off into the earth which had violently opened up. Eubuleus was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld, and his swine were swallowed by the earth along with her. This aspect of the myth is an [[etiology]] for the relation of pigs with the ancient rites in [[Thesmophoria]],<ref name="ReferenceA">Reference to the Thesmophoria in [[Lucian]]'s ''Dialogues of the Courtesans'' 2.1.</ref> and in Eleusis.
 
In the hymn, Persephone eventually returns from the underworld and is reunited with her mother near Eleusis. The Eleusinians built a temple near the spring of Callichorus, and Demeter establishes her mysteries there.<ref>''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D2%3Acard%3D449 478&ndash;79]: "Awful mysteries which no one may in any way transgress or pry into or utter, for deep awe of the gods checks the voice. Happy is he among men upon earth who has seen these mysteries; but he who is uninitiate and who has no part in them, never has lot of like good things once he is dead, down in the darkness and gloom".</ref>
 
In some versions, [[Ascalaphus]] informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. As punishment for informing Hades, he was pinned under a heavy rock in the Underworld by either Persephone or Demeter.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D3 1.5.3]; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 5.533-371</ref> When Demeter and her daughter were reunited, the Earth flourished with vegetation and color, but for some months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm. This is an [[origin myth|origin story]] to explain the seasons.
 
In an earlier version, Hecate rescued Persephone. On an Attic [[Red-figure pottery|red-figured]] [[Krater|bell krater]] of {{Nowrap|c. 440 BC}} in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], Persephone is rising as if up stairs from a cleft in the earth, while Hermes stands aside; Hecate, holding two torches, looks back as she leads her to the enthroned Demeter.<ref>The figures are unmistakable, as they are inscribed "Persophata, Hermes, Hekate, Demeter"; Gisela M. A. Richter, "An Athenian Vase with the Return of Persephone" ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'' '''26'''.10 (October 1931:245–248)</ref>
 
The 10th-century [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] encyclopedia ''[[Suda]]'' introduces a goddess of a blessed [[afterlife]] assured to Orphic mystery initiates. This [[Macaria]] is asserted to be the daughter of Hades, but no mother is mentioned.<ref>Suidas s.v. Makariai, with English translation at [http://www.stoa.org/sol Suda On Line], [http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?db=REAL&field=adlerhw_gr&searchstr=mu,51 Adler number mu 51]</ref>
 
===Interpretation of the myth===
[[File:Fragment of a marble relief depicting a Kore, 3rd century BC, from Panticapaeum, Taurica (Crimea) (12853680765).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Fragment of a marble relief depicting a [[Persephone (mythology)|Kore]], 3rd century&nbsp;BC, from [[Panticapaeum]], [[Taurica]] ([[Crimea]]), [[Bosporan Kingdom]]]]
 
The abduction of Persephone is an [[Etiology|etiological myth]] providing a explanation for the changing of the seasons. Since Persephone had consumed pomegranate seeds in the Underworld, she was forced to spend four months, or in other versions six months for six seeds, with Hades.<ref>Burkert (1985) p. 160</ref><ref>Gantz (1996) pp. 65, 67.</ref>  When Persephone would [[Katabasis#trip into the underworld|return to the Underworld]], Demeter’s despair at losing her daughter would cause the vegetation and flora of the world to wither, signifying the Autumn and Winter seasons. When Persephone’s time is over and she would be reunited with her mother, Demeter’s joyousness would cause the vegetation of the earth to bloom and blossom which signifies the Spring and Summer seasons. This also explains why Persephone is associated with Spring: her re-emergence from the Underworld signifies the onset of Spring. Therefore, not only does Persephone and Demeter’s annual reunion symbolize the changing seasons and the beginning of a new cycle of growth for the crops, it also symbolizes death and the regeneration of life.<ref name="Nilssonpopular51">{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr/ |title=Martin Nilsson, ''The Greek popular religion'', The religion of Eleusis, pp 51–54 |publisher=Sacred-texts.com |date=8 November 2005 |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref><ref>Martin Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 473–474.</ref>{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}
 
In another interpretation of the myth, the abduction of Persephone by Hades, in the form of Ploutus ({{lang|el|πλούτος}}, wealth), represents the wealth of the grain contained and stored in underground silos or ceramic jars (''pithoi'') during the Summer seasons (as that was drought season in Greece).<ref>As in Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' (Harvard, 1985) p. 160.</ref> In this telling, Persephone as grain-maiden symbolizes the grain within the ''pithoi'' that is trapped underground within the realm of Hades. In the beginning of the autumn, when the grain of the old crop is laid on the fields, she ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter.<ref>[https://sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr/gpr07.htm#page_48 Martin Nilsson, ''Greek Popular Religion''.] pp 48–50</ref><ref name="Nilssonpopular51">{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr/ |title=Martin Nilsson, ''The Greek popular religion'', The religion of Eleusis, pp 51–54 |publisher=Sacred-texts.com |date=8 November 2005 |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref><ref>Martin Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 473–474.</ref> This interpretation of Persephone's abduction myth symbolizes the cycle of life and death as Persephone both dies as she (the grain) is buried in the ''pithoi'' (as similar ''pithoi'' were used in ancient times for funerary practices) and is [[Dying-and-rising deity|reborn]] with the exhumation and spreading of the grain.
 
=== Other accounts ===
[[File:Lycosoura-group.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|From L-R, Artemis, Demeter, Veil of Despoina, Anytus, Tritoness from the throne of [[Despoina]] at [[Lycosura]]. [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens]]]]
 
According to the Greek tradition a hunt-goddess preceded the harvest goddess.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D30%3Asection%3D2 2.30.2]</ref> In [[Arcadia (region)|Arcadia]], Demeter and Persephone were often called ''Despoinai'' (Δέσποιναι, "the mistresses"). They are the two Great Goddesses of the Arcadian cults, and evidently they come from a more primitive religion.<ref name=Nilsson463/> The Greek god [[Poseidon]] probably substituted for the companion (''Paredros'', Πάρεδρος) of the [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] [[Mother goddess|Great goddess]]<ref>Nilsson, VoI, p. 444</ref>
in the Arcadian mysteries. In the Arcadian mythos, while Demeter was looking for the kidnapped Persephone, she caught the eye of her younger brother Poseidon. Demeter turned into a mare to escape him, but then Poseidon turned into a stallion to pursue her. He caught her and raped her. Afterwards, Demeter gave birth to the talking horse [[Arion (mythology)|Arion]] and the goddess [[Despoina]] ("the mistress"), a goddess of the Arcadian mysteries.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Discription of Greece'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Paus.+8.25.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 8.25.5]–[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D25%3Asection%3D7 8.25.7]</ref>
 
[[File:Head of Persephone. Earthenware. From Sicily, Centuripae, c. 420 BCE. The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, UK.jpg|thumb|Head of Persephone. Earthenware. From Sicily, Centuripae, {{circa|420&nbsp;BC.}} The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, UK]]
 
After a plague hit [[Aonia]], its people asked the [[Pythia|Oracle of Delphi]], and they were told they needed to appease the anger of the king and queen of the Underworld by means of sacrifice. Two maidens, [[Menippe and Metioche]] (who were the daughters of [[Orion (mythology)|Orion]]), were chosen and they agreed to be offered to the two gods in order to save their country. As the two of them were led to the altar to be sacrificed, Persephone and Hades took pity on them and turned them into [[comets]] instead.<ref>[[Antoninus Liberalis]], ''Metamorphoses''  [https://topostext.org/work/216#25 25]</ref>
 
[[Adonis]] was an exceedingly beautiful mortal man with whom Persephone fell in love.<ref>[[Greek anthology]] ''Agathias Scholasticus'' [https://topostext.org/work/532#5.289 5.289]</ref><ref>[[Alciphron]], ''Letters to Courtesans'' [https://topostext.org/work/495#4.14.1 4.14.1]</ref><ref>[[Clement of Alexandria]], ''[[Protrepticus (Clement)|Exhortations]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/215#2.29 2.29]</ref> After he was born, [[Aphrodite]] entrusted him to Persephone to raise. But when Persephone got a glimpse of the beautiful Adonis&mdash;finding him as attractive as Aphrodite did&mdash;she refused to give him back to her. The matter was brought before [[Zeus]], and he decreed that Adonis would spend one third of the year with each goddess, and have the last third for himself. Adonis chose to spend his own portion of the year with Aphrodite.<ref>[[Pseudo-Apollodorus]], ''Bibliotheca'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.14.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 3.14.4]; Grimal, s.v. [https://archive.org/details/concisedictionar00grim/page/12/mode/2up?view=theater Adonis]; Bell, s.v. [https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/54/mode/2up?view=theater Aphrodite]; Tripp s.v [https://archive.org/details/meridianhandbook00trip/page/12/mode/2up?view=theater Adonis]</ref> Alternatively Adonis had to spend one halve of the year with each goddess, at the suggestion of the Muse [[Calliope]].<ref>[[Hyginus]], ''Astronomica'' [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.7.4 2.7.4]</ref> Of them [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]] wrote that Adonis' life was divided between two goddesses, one who loved him beneath the earth, and one above,<ref>[[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], ''On Animals'' [http://www.attalus.org/translate/animals9.html#36 9.36]</ref> while the satirical author [[Lucian]] of [[Samosata]] has Aphrodite complain to the [[moon goddess]] [[Selene]] that [[Eros]] made Persephone fall in love with her own beloved, and now she has to share Adonis with her.<ref>[[Lucian]], ''[[Dialogues of the Gods]]'' [http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:dialogues:dialogues-of-the-gods#section11 Aphrodite and the Moon]</ref>
 
[[Minthe]] was a [[Naiad]] [[nymph]] of the [[Potamoi|river]] [[Cocytus]] who became mistress to Persephone's husband [[Hades]]. Persephone was not slow to notice, and in jealousy she trampled the nymph, killing her and turning her into a [[Mentha|mint plant]].<ref>[[Strabo]], ''[[Geographica]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+8.3.14&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198 8.3.14]</ref><ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph10.htm#484521431 10.728]</ref> Alternatively, Persephone tore Minthe to pieces for sleeping with Hades, and it was he who turned his former lover into the sweet-smelling plant.<ref>[[Scholia]] ad [[Nicander|Nicandri]] ''Alexipharmaca'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=Zy2LWzF4v3oC&pg=PA212 375]</ref> In another version, Persephone's mother [[Demeter]] kills Minthe over the insult done to her daughter.<ref>[[Oppian]], ''Halieutica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Oppian/Halieutica/3*.html#482 3.485]</ref>
 
Theophile was a girl who claimed that Hades loved her and that she was better than Persephone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/182847|title=CIRB 130 - PHI Greek Inscriptions}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2020/03/17/hades-newest-bride-a-remarkable-epitaph-2/|title = Hades' Newest Bride: A Remarkable Epitaph|date = 17 March 2020}}</ref>
 
Once, [[Hermes]] chased Persphone (or [[Hecate]]) with the aim to rape her; but the goddess snored or roared in anger, frightening him off so that he desisted, hence her earning the name "[[Brimo]]" ("angry").<ref>[[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]] ad [[Lycophron]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=DDxEAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA29 1176, 1211]; Heslin, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WhJbDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39 p. 39].</ref>
 
The hero [[Orpheus]] once descended into the Underworld seeking to take back to the land of the living his late wife [[Eurydice]], who died when a snake bit her. So lovely was the music he played that it charmed Persephone and even stern Hades.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph10.htm#484521418 10.1-85]</ref> So entranced was Persephone by Orpheus' sweet melody that she persuaded her husband to let the unfortunate hero take his wife back.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], ''[[Bibliotheca historica|Library of History]]'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html#p425 4.25.4]</ref>
 
[[File:Locri Pinax Persephone Opens Liknon Mystikon.jpg|thumb|right|Persephone opening a ''[[cista]]'' containing the infant [[Adonis]], on a [[pinax]] from [[Locri]]]]
 
In the [[Orphism (religion)|Orphic]] "Rhapsodic Theogony" (first century BC/AD),<ref>Meisner, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ethjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 1], [https://books.google.com/books?id=ethjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 5]</ref> Persephone is described as the daughter of [[Zeus]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]]. Zeus was filled with desire for his mother, Rhea, intending to marry her. He pursued the unwilling Rhea, only for her to change into a serpent. Zeus also turned himself into a serpent and raped Rhea, which resulted in the birth of Persephone.<ref name=":meis">Meisner, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ethjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 134]</ref> Afterwards, Rhea became [[Demeter]].<ref>[[Proclus]], ''Commentary on Plato's Cratylus'' 403 e (90, 28 Pasqu.) [= Orphic [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/188/mode/2up?view=theater fr.&nbsp;145 Kern]]; West 1983, p.&nbsp;217; Kerényi 1976, p.&nbsp;112. Demeter was usually said to be the daughter of [[Cronus]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]].</ref> Persephone was born so deformed that Rhea ran away from her frightened, and did not breastfeed Persephone.<ref name=":meis"/> Zeus then mates with Persephone, who gives birth to [[Dionysus]]. She later stays in her mother's house, guarded by the [[Korybantes|Curetes]]. Rhea-Demeter prophecies that Persephone will marry [[Apollo]]. This prophecy does not come true, however, as while weaving a dress, Persephone is abducted by [[Hades]] to be his bride. She becomes the mother of the [[Erinyes]] by Hades.<ref>West 1983, pp. 73&ndash;74.</ref>
 
[[File:The Abduction of Persephone by Pluto, Amphipolis.jpg|thumb|left|A [[mosaic]] of the [[Kasta Tomb]] in [[Amphipolis]] depicting the abduction of Persephone by [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]], 4th century&nbsp;BC]]
 
In [[Nonnus]]'s ''[[Dionysiaca]]'', the gods of Olympus were bewitched by Persephone's beauty and desired her. [[Hermes]], [[Apollo]], [[Ares]], and [[Hephaestus]] each presented Persephone with a gift to woo her. Demeter, worried that Persephone might end up marrying Hephaestus, consults the [[Astrology|astrological]] god [[Astraeus]]. Astraeus warns her that Persephone will be ravished and impregnated by a serpent. Demeter then hides Persephone in a cave; but Zeus, in the form of a serpent, enters the cave and rapes Persephone. Persephone becomes pregnant and gives birth to [[Zagreus]].<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/208/mode/2up?view=theater 5.563]&ndash;[https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/225/mode/2up?view=theater 6.165]</ref>
 
[[Sisyphus]], the wily king of [[Corinth]] managed to avoid staying dead, after [[Thanatos|Death]] had gone to collect him, by appealing to and tricking Persephone into letting him go; thus Sisyphus returned to the light of the sun in the surface above.<ref>[[Theognis]], fragments [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=1.11.2+699-718&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0479 699-718]</ref>
 
It was said that while Persephone was playing with the nymph Hercyna, Hercyna held a goose against her that she let loose. The goose flew to a hollow cave and hid under a stone; when Persephone took up the stone in order to retrieve the bird, water flowed from that spot, and hence the river received the name Hercyna.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D9%3Achapter%3D39%3Asection%3D2 9.39.2]</ref> This was when she was abducted by Hades according to Boeotian legend; a vase shows water birds accompany the goddesses Demeter and Hecate who are in search of the missing Persephone.<ref>{{cite book |title = The Mysteries | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=qMP1-m1cTMMC&pg=PA54 54] |last1 = Campbell | first1 = Joseph | publisher= [[Princeton University Press]]| date= 1955| isbn =0-691-01823-5}}</ref>
 
Socrates in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Cratylus (dialogue)|Cratylus]]'' previously mentions that Hades consorts with Persephone due to her wisdom.<ref>[[Plato]], ''[[Cratylus (dialogue)|Cratylus]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Atext%3DCrat.%3Apage%3D404 404d]</ref>
 
==Worship==
[[File:Hades and Persephone, Vergina.jpg|thumb|300px|A fresco showing Hades and Persephone riding in a [[chariot]], from the tomb of Queen [[Eurydice I of Macedon]] at [[Vergina]], Greece, 4th century BC]]
Persephone was worshipped along with her mother Demeter and in the same mysteries. Her cults included agrarian magic, dancing, and rituals. The priests used special vessels and holy symbols, and the people participated with rhymes. In Eleusis there is evidence of sacred laws and other inscriptions.<ref>Burkert (1985), pp. 285–289</ref>
 
The Cult of Demeter and the Maiden is found at Attica, in the main festivals Thesmophoria and [[Eleusinian mysteries]] and in a number of local cults. These festivals were almost always celebrated at the autumn sowing, and at full-moon according to the Greek tradition. In some local cults the feasts were dedicated to Demeter.
 
===Origins===
[[File:P1010629 crop.png|thumb|left|Gold ring from Isopata tomb, near [[Knossos]], [[Crete]], 1400–1500 BC. Depicted are female figures dancing among blossoming vegetation; [[Heraklion Archaeological Museum]]]]
 
The myth of [[Rape of Persephone|a goddess being abducted and taken to the Underworld]] is probably Pre-Greek in origin. [[Samuel Noah Kramer]], the renowned scholar of ancient [[Sumer]], has posited that the Greek story of the abduction of Persephone may be derived from an ancient Sumerian story in which [[Ereshkigal]], the ancient Sumerian goddess of the Underworld, is abducted by [[Kur]], the primeval [[dragon]] of [[Sumerian religion|Sumerian mythology]], and forced to become ruler of the Underworld against her own will.<ref>Kramer, Samuel Noah. ''Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C.: Revised Edition''. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961, Philadelphia. {{ISBN|0-8122-1047-6}} (Pages 76–79) available at [http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/sum/sum08.htm sacred-texts.com]. "Moreover, the crime involved is probably that of abducting a goddess; it therefore brings to mind the Greek story of the abduction of Persephone."</ref>
 
The location of Persephone's abduction is different in each local cult. The ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'' mentions the "plain of Nysa".<ref>''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH+2+17 17].</ref> The locations of this probably mythical place may simply be conventions to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past.<ref>Nilsson (1967), Vol I, p. 463</ref>{{efn|name=Sherwood217|"In Greek mythology [[Nysa (mythology)|Nysa]] is a mythical mountain with unknown location, the birthplace of the god [[Dionysos]]."<ref>Fox, William Sherwood (1916), ''[[The Mythology of All Races]]'', v.1, ''Greek and Roman'', General editor, Louis Herbert Gray, p.217</ref>}} Demeter found and met her daughter in Eleusis, and this is the mythical disguise of what happened in the mysteries.<ref name=Burkert285>Burkert (1985), pp. 285–290.</ref>
 
In his 1985 book on Greek Religion, Walter Burkert claimed that Persephone is an old chthonic deity of the agricultural communities, who received the souls of the dead into the earth, and acquired powers over the fertility of the soil, over which she reigned. The earliest depiction of a goddess Burkert claims may be identified with Persephone growing out of the ground, is on a plate from the Old-Palace period in [[Phaistos]]. According to Burkert, the figure looks like a vegetable because she has snake lines on other side of her. On either side of the vegetable person there is a dancing girl.<ref name=Burkert42>Burkert (1985) p. 42</ref> A similar representation, where the goddess appears to come down from the sky, is depicted on the Minoan ring of Isopata.
 
[[File:Persephone krater Antikensammlung Berlin 1984.40.jpg|thumb|[[Rape of Persephone]]. [[Hades]] with his horses and Persephone (down). An Apulian red-figure volute krater, {{circa|340 BC}}. [[Antikensammlung Berlin]]]]
 
The cults of Persephone and Demeter in the Eleusinian mysteries and in the Thesmophoria were based on old agrarian cults.<ref>Nilsson, Vol I, p.470</ref> The beliefs of these cults were closely-guarded secrets, kept hidden because they were believed to offer believers a better place in the afterlife than in miserable Hades. There is evidence that some practices were derived from the religious practices of the [[Mycenean Greece|Mycenaean age]].<ref name=Dietrich-origins-220>Dietrich (n/d?) ''The origins of the Greek Religion'', pp 220, 221</ref><ref name="Burkert42"/> [[Karl Kerenyi|Kerenyi]] asserts that these religious practices were introduced from Minoan Crete.<ref name="Kerenyi24">"Kerenyi (1976), ''Dionysos, archetypal image of indestructible life''. Princeton University Press. p. 24</ref><ref name="Kerenyi31">[[Karl Kerenyi]] (1967). ''Eleusis. Archetypal image of mother and daughter''. Princeton University Press. p. 31f</ref> The idea of immortality which appears in the syncretistic religions of the [[Near East]] did not exist in the Eleusinian mysteries at the very beginning.<ref>Burkert (1985) p. 289</ref>{{efn|"According to the Greek popular belief,{{lang|grc|ἕν ἀνδρῶν, ἕν θεῶν γένος}}".(One is the nature of men, another one the nature of gods)<ref>Erwin Rhode (1961), ''Psyche'' Band I, p. 293</ref>}}
 
===In the Near East and Minoan Crete===
[[Walter Burkert]] believed that elements of the Persephone myth had origins in the Minoan religion. This belief system had unique characteristics, particularly the appearance of the goddess from above in the dance. Dance floors have been discovered in addition to "vaulted tombs", and it seems that the dance was ecstatic. Homer memorializes the dance floor which [[Daedalus]] built for [[Ariadne]] in the remote past.<ref name="Burkert34">Burkert (1985) pp. 34–40</ref> A gold ring from a tomb in Isopata depicts four women dancing among flowers, the goddess floating above them.<ref name="Burkert40">Burkert (1985) p. 40</ref> An image plate from the first palace of Phaistos seems to depict the ascent of Persephone: a figure grows from the ground, with a dancing girl on each side and stylized flowers all around.<ref name="Burkert42" /> The depiction of the goddess is similar to later images of "Anodos of Pherephata". On the Dresden vase, Persephone is growing out of the ground, and she is surrounded by the animal-tailed agricultural gods [[Seilenos|Silenoi]].<ref name="Hermesthe">"Hermes and the Anodos of Pherephata": Nilsson (1967) p. 509 taf. 39,1</ref>
 
Despoina and "Hagne" were probably euphemistic surnames of Persephone, therefore Karl Kerenyi theorizes that the cult of Persephone was the continuation of the worship of a Minoan Great goddess.<ref>[[Karl Kerenyi]] (1976), Dionysos: archetypal image of indestructible life, pp. 89, 90 {{ISBN|0-691-02915-6}}</ref><ref>[[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]], listing of {{lang|grc|ἀδνόν}}, a Cretan-Greek form for {{lang|grc|ἁγνόν}}, "pure"</ref> It is possible that some religious practices, especially the [[Mystery religions|mysteries]], were transferred from a Cretan priesthood to Eleusis, where Demeter brought the [[poppy]] from Crete.<ref>Kerenyi(1976), p.24</ref> Besides these similarities, Burkert explains that up to now it is not known to what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and [[Mycenea]]n religion.{{efn|"To what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and Mycenaean religion is a question which has not yet found a conclusive answer" .<ref>Burkert (1985). p. 21.</ref>}} In the [[Anthesteria]] Dionysos is the "divine child".
 
===In Mycenaean Greece===
[[File:Triptolemos Kore Louvre G452 full.jpg|240px|thumb|[[Triptolemus]] and Kore, [[tondo (art)|tondo]] of an Attic red-figure bowl by the Aberdeen Painter, c.470/60 BC. ([[Louvre]], [[Paris]])]]
 
There is evidence of a cult in Eleusis from the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenean period]];<ref>G. Mylonas (1932). Eleusiniaka. I,1 ff</ref> however, there are not sacral finds from this period. The cult was private and there is no information about it. As well as the names of some Greek gods in the Mycenean Greek inscriptions, names of goddesses who do not have Mycenean origin appear, such as "the divine Mother" (the mother of the gods) or "the Goddess (or priestess) of the winds".<ref name=Burkert285/> In historical times, Demeter and Kore were usually referred to as "the goddesses" or "the mistresses" (Arcadia) in the mysteries .<ref>Nilsson (1967), pp. 463–465</ref> In the Mycenean Greek tablets dated 1400–1200 BC, the "two queens and the king" are mentioned. John Chadwick believes that these were the precursor divinities of Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.<ref>John Chadwick (1976).''The Mycenean World''. Cambridge University Press</ref>{{efn|"Wa-na-ssoi, wa-na-ka-te, (to the two queens and the king). Wanax is best suited to Poseidon, the special divinity of Pylos. The identity of the two divinities addressed as wanassoi, is uncertain".<ref>George Mylonas (1966) Mycenae and the Mycenean age" p. 159 : Princeton University Press</ref>}}
 
Some information can be obtained from the study of the cult of [[Eileithyia]] at Crete, and the cult of [[Despoina]]. In the cave of Amnisos at Crete, Eileithyia is related with the annual birth of the divine child and she is connected with  ''Enesidaon'' (The earth shaker), who is the chthonic aspect of the god Poseidon.<ref name=Dietrich-origins-220/>
Persephone was conflated with Despoina, "the mistress", a chthonic divinity in West-Arcadia.<ref name="Kerenyi31"/> The [[megaron]] of Eleusis is quite similar to the "megaron" of Despoina at Lycosura.<ref name=Burkert285/> Demeter is united with her, the god [[Poseidon]], and she bears him a daughter, the unnameable Despoina.<ref name="Pausanias 8.37.9">{{cite web |title=Pausanias 8.37.9 |publisher=Perseus.tufts.edu |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+8.37.9&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref> Poseidon appears as a horse, as usually happens in Northern European folklore. The goddess of nature and her companion survived in the Eleusinian cult, where the words "Mighty Potnia bore a great sun" were uttered.<ref name=Dietrich-origins-220/> In Eleusis, in a ritual, one child ("pais") was initiated from the hearth. The name ''pais'' (the divine child) appears in the Mycenean inscriptions.<ref name=Burkert285/>
 
In Greek mythology Nysa is a mythical mountain with an unknown location.{{efn|name=Sherwood217}} ''Nysion'' (or Mysion), the place of the abduction of Persephone was also probably a mythical place which did not exist on the map, a magically distant chthonic land of myth which was intended in the remote past.<ref>Nilsson, Vol I p. 463</ref>
 
===Secret rituals and festivals===
[[File:Eleusis2.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Eleusinian mysteries|Eleusinian trio]]: Persephone, [[Triptolemus]] and [[Demeter]] on a marble bas-relief from [[Eleusis]], 440–430 BC. [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens]]]]
{{Main|Thesmophoria|Eleusinian mysteries}}
[[File:Kore55.jpg|thumb|left|Kore, daughter of Demeter, celebrated with her mother by the [[Thesmophoriazusae]] (women of the festival). [[Acropolis Museum]], Athens]]
Persephone and Demeter were intimately connected with the Thesmophoria, a widely-spread Greek festival of secret women-only rituals. These rituals, which were held in the month [[Attic calendar|Pyanepsion]], commemorated marriage and fertility, as well as the abduction and return of Persephone.
 
They were also involved in the Eleusinian mysteries, a festival celebrated at the autumn sowing in the city of Eleusis. Inscriptions refer to "the Goddesses" accompanied by the agricultural god [[Triptolemos]] (probably son of Gaia and Oceanus),<ref>Pseudo Apollodorus Biblioteca IV.2</ref> and "the God and the Goddess" (Persephone and Plouton) accompanied by Eubuleus who probably led the way back from the underworld.<ref>Kevin Klinton (1993), ''Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches'', Routledge, p. 11</ref>
 
===In Rome===
{{main|Proserpina}}
 
The [[ancient Rome|Romans]] first heard of her from the [[Aeolians|Aeolian]] and [[Dorians|Dorian]] cities of [[Magna Graecia]], who used the dialectal variant ''Proserpinē'' ({{lang|grc|Προσερπίνη}}). Hence, in [[Roman mythology]] she was called [[Proserpina]], a name erroneously derived by the Romans from ''proserpere'', "to shoot forth"<ref>[[Cicero]]. ''[[De Natura Deorum]]'' 2.26</ref> and as such became an emblematic figure of the [[Renaissance]].<ref>Welch (2013), p. 164</ref> In 205&nbsp;BC, Rome officially identified Proserpina with the local Italic goddess [[Libera (mythology)|Libera]], who, along with [[Liber]], were closely associated with the Roman grain goddess [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]] (considered equivalent to the Greek Demeter). The Roman author [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]] also considered Proserpina equivalent to the Cretan goddess Ariadne, who was the bride of Liber's Greek equivalent, Dionysus.<ref>[[T. P. Wiseman]] (1988) "Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica", ''The Journal of Roman Studies'', Vol. 78, p 7, note 52.</ref><ref>Barbette Stanley Spaeth (1996) ''The Roman goddess Ceres'', University of Texas Press</ref>
 
===In Magna Graecia===
[[File:Locri Pinax Of Persephone And Hades.jpg|thumb|left|Pinax of Persephone and Hades from Locri. [[Reggio Calabria]], National Museum of Magna Graecia. ]]
 
At [[Locri]], a city of Magna Graecia situated on the coast of the [[Ionian Sea]] in [[Calabria]] (a region of southern Italy), perhaps uniquely, Persephone was worshiped as protector of marriage and childbirth, a role usually assumed by [[Hera]] (in fact, Hera seems to have played no role in the public worship of the city{{sfn|Parker|2011|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=e_ytDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA231 231]}}); in the iconography of [[Pinax|votive plaques]] at Locri, her abduction and marriage to Hades served as an emblem of the marital state, children at Locri were dedicated to Proserpina, and maidens about to be wed brought their ''[[peplos]]'' to be blessed.<ref>Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, "Persephone" ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' '''98''' (1978:101–121).</ref> [[Diodorus Siculus]] knew the temple there as the most illustrious in Italy.<ref name="auto1">{{cite journal |title=Life, Death, and a Lokrian Goddess. Revisiting the Nature of Persephone in the Gold Leaves of Magna Graecia |first=Hanne |last=Eisenfel d|date=1 October 2016 |journal=Kernos. Revue internationale et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique |issue=29 |pages=41–72 |url=http://journals.openedition.org/kernos/2388 |via=journals.openedition.org |doi=10.4000/kernos.2388|doi-access=free}}</ref> During the 5th century&nbsp;BC, votive pinakes in [[terracotta]] were often dedicated as offerings to the goddess, made in series and painted with bright colors, animated by scenes connected to the myth of Persephone. Many of these pinakes are now on display in the [[Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia|National Museum of Magna Græcia]] in [[Reggio Calabria]]. Locrian pinakes represent one of the most significant categories of objects from Magna Graecia, both as documents of religious practice and as works of art.<ref name="auto2">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R7PP3wNr4zMC&q=cult+of+persephone+reggio+calabria&pg=PA201 |title=Magna Graecia: Greek Art from South Italy and Sicily |first1=Michael |last1=Bennett |first2=Michael J. |last2=Bennett |first3=Professor of Palliative Medicine Michael |last3=Bennett |last4=etc |first5=Aaron J. |last5=Paul |first6=Mario |last6=Iozzo |first7=et |last7=al |first8=Bruce M. |last8=White |first9=Cleveland Museum of |last9=Art |first10=Tampa Museum of |last10=Art |date=14 May 2019 |publisher=Hudson Hills |isbn=9780940717718 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
 
[[File:Proserpina kidnapped Kircheriano Terme.jpg|thumb|right|Cinerary altar with tabula representing the abduction of [[Proserpina]]. White marble, Antonine Era, 2nd century [[Rome]], Baths of Diocletian ]]
 
For most Greeks, the marriage of Persephone was a marriage with death, and could not serve as a role for human marriage; the Locrians, not fearing death, painted her destiny in a uniquely positive light.{{sfn|Parker|2011|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=e_ytDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA232 232]}} While the return of Persephone to the world above was crucial in Panhellenic tradition, in southern Italy Persephone apparently accepted her new role as queen of the underworld, of which she held extreme power, and perhaps did not return above;{{sfn|Edmonds|2004|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=I_YkMvUVoyYC&pg=PA58 58]}} [[Virgil]] for example in ''[[Georgics]]'' writes that "Proserpina cares not to follow her mother",<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Georgics]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0058%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 1.38]</ref>—though it is to be noted that references to Proserpina serve as a warning, since the earth is only fertile when she is above.<ref>Miles, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BG3tDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 68]</ref> Although her importance stems from her marriage to Hades, in Locri she seems to have the supreme power over the land of the dead, and Hades is not mentioned in the [[Pelinna]] tablets found in the area.{{sfn|Edmonds|2004|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=I_YkMvUVoyYC&pg=PA59 59]}} Many ''pinakes'' found in the cult are near Epizephyrian Locri depict the abduction of Persephone by Hades, and others show her enthroned next to her beardless, youthful husband, indicating that in Locri Persephone's abduction was taken as a model of transition from girlhood to marriage for young women; a terrifying change, but one that provides the bride with status and position in society. Those representations thus show both the terror of marriage and the triumph of the girl who transitions from bride into matroness.{{sfn|Edmonds|2013|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=CR9aAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA311 311]}}
 
It was suggested that Persephone's cult at Locri was entirely independent from that of Demeter, who supposedly was not venerated there,{{sfn|Bennett|Paul|Iozzo|White|2002|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=R7PP3wNr4zMC&pg=PA83 83]}} but a sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros has been found in a different region of Locri, ruling against the notion that she was completely excluded.{{sfn|Parker|2011|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=e_ytDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA231 231]}}
 
The temple at Locri was looted by [[Pyrrhus of Epirus|Pyrrhus]].<ref>Livy: 29.8, 29.18</ref> The importance of the regionally powerful Locrian Persephone influenced the representation of the goddess in Magna Graecia. Pinakes, terracotta tablets with brightly painted sculptural scenes in relief were founded in Locri. The scenes are related to the myth and cult of Persephone and other deities. They were produced in Locri during the first half of the 5th century BC and offered as votive dedications at the Locrian sanctuary of Persephone. More than 5,000, mostly fragmentary, pinakes are stored in the National Museum of Magna Græcia in Reggio Calabria and in the museum of Locri.<ref name="auto2"/> Representations of myth and cult on the clay tablets (pinakes) dedicated to this goddess reveal not only a 'Chthonian Queen,' but also a deity concerned with the spheres of marriage and childbirth.<ref name="auto1"/>
 
The Italian archaeologist [[Paolo Orsi]], between 1908 and 1911, carried out a meticulous series of excavations and explorations in the area which allowed him to identify the site of the renowned Persephoneion, an ancient temple dedicated to Persephone in Calabria which Diodorus in his own time knew as the most illustrious in Italy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.locriantica.it/english/site/persephoneion_eng.htm |title=Locri Epizephyrii, The Archaeological Site – Persephoneion, the Sanctuary of Persephone |website=www.locriantica.it}}</ref>
 
The place where the ruins of the Sanctuary of Persephone were brought to light is located at the foot of the Mannella hill, near the walls (upstream side) of the [[polis]] of Epizephyrian Locri.
Thanks to the finds that have been retrieved and to the studies carried on, it has been possible to date its use to a period between the 7th century&nbsp;BC and the 3rd century&nbsp;BC.
 
Archaeological finds suggest that worship of Demeter and Persephone was widespread in Sicily and Greek Italy.
 
===In Orphism===
[[File:Hades abducting Persephone.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Hades]] abducting Persephone, wall painting in the small royal tomb at [[Vergina]]. [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]], Greece]]
 
Evidence from both the Orphic Hymns and the [[Totenpass|Orphic Gold Leaves]] demonstrate that Persephone was one of the most important deities worshiped in Orphism.<ref name=bremmer>Bremmer, J.N. (2013). Divinities in the Orphic Gold Leaves: Euklês, Eubouleus, Brimo, Kybele, Kore and Persephone. ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'', 35–48.</ref> In the Orphic religion, gold leaves with verses intended to help the deceased enter into an optimal afterlife were often buried with the dead. Persephone is mentioned frequently in these tablets, along with Demeter and Euklês, which may be another name for [[Plouton]].<ref name=bremmer/> The ideal afterlife destination believers strive for is described on some leaves as the "sacred meadows and groves of Persephone". Other gold leaves describe Persephone's role in receiving and sheltering the dead, in such lines as "I dived under the ''kolpos'' [portion of a Peplos folded over the belt] of the Lady, the Chthonian Queen", an image evocative of a child hiding under its mother's apron.<ref name=bremmer/>
 
In Orphism, Persephone is believed to be the mother of the first Dionysus. In Orphic myth, Zeus came to Persephone in her bedchamber in the underworld and impregnated her with the child who would become his successor. The infant Dionysus was later dismembered by the [[Titan (mythology)|Titans]], before being reborn as the second Dionysus, who wandered the earth spreading his mystery cult before ascending to the heavens with his second mother, [[Semele]].<ref name=Edmonds-2011/> The first, "Orphic" Dionysus is sometimes referred to with the alternate name Zagreus ({{lang-grc-gre|Ζαγρεύς}}). The earliest mentions of this name in literature describe him as a partner of Gaia and call him the highest god. The Greek poet [[Aeschylus]] considered Zagreus either an alternate name for Hades, or his son (presumably born to Persephone).<ref>Sommerstein, [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-attributed_fragments/2009/pb_LCL505.237.xml?result=1&rskey=f0foz8 p. 237 n. 1]; Gantz (1996) p. 118; Smyth, [https://archive.org/stream/aeschyluswitheng02aescuoft#page/458/mode/2up p. 459].</ref> Scholar [[Timothy Gantz]] noted that Hades was often considered an alternate, cthonic form of Zeus, and suggested that it is likely Zagreus was originally the son of Hades and Persephone, who was later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone, owing to the identification of the two fathers as the same being.<ref>Gantz (1996) p. 118.</ref> However, no known Orphic sources use the name "Zagreus" to refer to Dionysus. It is possible that the association between the two was known by the 3rd century&nbsp;BC, when the poet [[Callimachus]] may have written about it in a now-lost source.<ref>Gantz (1996) pp. 118–119; West (1983) pp. 152–154; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=335 pp. 309–311].</ref>
 
===Other local cults===
[[File:S03 06 01 020 image 2524.jpg|thumb|Italy. Renaissance relief, ''Rape of Persephone''. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection]]
 
There were local cults of Demeter and Kore in Greece, [[Asia Minor]], Sicily, Magna Graecia, and Libya.
; Attica<ref>Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 463–465</ref>
* [[Athens]], in the mysteries of Agrae. This was a local cult near the river [[Ilissos]]. They were celebrated during spring in the month [[Attic calendar|Anthesterion]]. Later they became an obligation for the participants of the "greater" [[Eleusinian mysteries]]. There was a temple of Demeter and Kore and an image of [[Triptolemos]].<ref>Pausanias 1.14,1: Nilsson (1967), Vol I, pp. 668–670</ref>[[File:Demeter in horse chariot w daughter kore 83d40m wikiC Tempio Y di Selinunte sec VIa.JPG|thumb|Demeter drives her horse-drawn chariot containing her daughter Persephone at [[Selinunte]], Sicily 6th century&nbsp;BC]]
* [[Piraeus]]: The ''Skirophoria'', a festival related to the [[Thesmophoria]].
* [[Megara]]: Cult of Demeter ''thesmophoros'' and Kore. The city was named after its ''megara'' .<ref>Pausanias I 42,6, Nilsson (1967), ''Vol I'', p. 463</ref>
* [[Aegina]]: Cult of Demeter ''thesmophoros'' and Kore.
* [[Phlya]]: near Koropi. The local mystery religion may have been originally dedicated to Demeter, Kore, and Zeus Ktesios; Pausanias mentions a temple to all three there. It seems that the mysteries were related to the mysteries of [[Andania]] in [[Messene]].<ref name=Nilsson668>Nilsson (1967), ''Vol I'', pp. 668–670</ref>
; Boeotia
* [[Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)|Thebes]]: purportedly granted to her by Zeus in return for a favor.<ref>Scholia ad. Euripides Phoen. 487</ref> As well, the cults of Demeter and Kore in a feast named [[Thesmophoria]] but probably different. It was celebrated in the summer month ''Bukatios''.<ref name="Nilsson463" /><ref name="Diodor">[[Diodorus Siculus]] (v.4.7) :"At [[Thebes (Greece)|Thebes]] or [[Delos]] the festival occurred two months earlier, so any seed-sowing connection was not intrinsic."</ref>
* A feast in Boeotia, in the month ''Demetrios'' ([[Attic calendar|Pyanepsion]]), probably similar with the [[Thesmophoria]].
; Peloponnese (except Arcadia)<ref name=Nilsson463/>
* [[Hermione (Argolis)|Hermione]]: An old cult of Demeter [[chthonic|Chthonia]], Kore, and ''Klymenos'' ([[Hades]]). Cows were pushed into the temple, and then they were killed by four women. It is possible that Hermione was a mythical name, the place of the souls.<ref name=Rhode206/>
* [[Asine]]: Cult of Demeter Chthonia. The cult seems to be related to the original cult of Demeter in Hermione.<ref name=Rhode206/>
* [[Lakonia]]: Temple of Demeter ''Eleusinia'' near [[Taygetos]]. The feast was named ''Eleuhinia'', and the name was given before the relation of Demeter with the cult of [[Eleusis]].
* [[Lakonia]] at Aigila: Dedicated to Demeter. Men were excluded.
* near [[Sparta]]: Cult of Demeter and Kore, the Demeters (Δαμάτερες, "Damaters"). According to Hesychius, the feast lasted three days (Thesmophoria).
* [[Corinth]]: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Pluton.<ref name=Rhode206/>
* [[Triphylia]] in [[Ancient Elis|Elis]]: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Hades.<ref name=Rhode206/>
; Arcadia<ref name=Nilsson478>Nilsson, pp. 477–480 :"The Arcadian Great goddesses"</ref>
*[[Pheneos]] : Mysteries of Demeter ''Thesmia'' and Demeter ''Eleusinia''. The Eleusinian cult was introduced later.
* Pallantion near [[Tripoli, Greece|Tripoli]]: Cult of Demeter and Kore.
* [[Karyai (ancient city)|Karyai]]: Cult of Kore and Pluton.<ref name=Rhode206/>
* [[Tegea]]: Cult of Demeter and Kore, the ''Karpophoroi'', "Fruit givers".
* [[Megalopolis, Greece|Megalopolis]]: Cult of the Great goddesses, Demeter and ''Kore Sotira'', "the savior".
* [[Mantineia]]: Cult of Demeter and Kore in the fest ''Koragia''.<ref>For Mantinea, see ''Brill's New Pauly'' "Persephone", II D.</ref>
* [[Trapezus, Arcadia|Trapezus]]: Mysteries of the Great goddesses, Demeter and Kore. The temple was built near a spring, and a fire was burning out of the earth.
; Islands
* [[Paros]]: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Eubuleus.<ref name=Rhode206/>
* [[Amorgos]]: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Eubuleus.<ref name=Rhode206/>
* [[Delos]]: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Eubuleus. Probably a different feast with the name [[Thesmophoria]], celebrated in a summer month (the same month in Thebes). Two big loaves of bread were offered to the two goddesses. Another feast was named ''Megalartia''.<ref name=Nilsson463/><ref name=Diodor/>
* [[Mykonos]]: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and [[Zeus]]-Buleus.
* [[Crete]] : Cult of Demeter and Kore, in the month Thesmophorios.
* [[Rhodes]]: Cult of Demeter and Kore, in the month Thesmophorios. The two goddesses are the Damaters in an inscription from [[Lindos]]
; Egypt
* [[Alexandria]]: According to [[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]], a temple of Kore existed in Alexandria. He describes a celebration of the birth of [[Aion (deity)|Aion]] from Kore the Virgin which took place there on [[6 January#Holidays and observances|6 January]].<ref>Fossum, "The Myth of the Eternal Rebirth," pp. 306–307.</ref> Aion may be a form of Dionysus, reborn annually;<ref>Fossum, "The Myth of the Eternal Rebirth," p. 309.</ref> an inscription from Eleusis also identifies Aion as a son of Kore.<ref>Dittenberger: ''Sylloge Inscriptionum'', 3rd ed., 1125</ref>
; [[Asia Minor]]
* [[Knidos]]: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Pluton.<ref name=Rhode206/> Agrarian magic similar to the one used in [[Thesmophoria]] and in the cult of the [[potnia]]i ([[Cabeiri]]an).<ref name=Nilsson463/>
* [[Ephesos]] : Cult of Demeter and Kore, celebrated at night-time.<ref>Herodotus VI, 16: Nilsson (1967) ,''Vol I'', p. 464</ref>
* [[Priene]]: Cult of Demeter and Kore, similar to the Thesmophoria.<ref name=Nilsson463/>
; [[Sicily]]
* [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]]: There was a harvest festival of Demeter and Persephone at Syracuse when the grain was ripe (about May).<ref>Brill's New Pauly, "Persephone", citing [[Diodorus]] 5.4</ref>
* A fest ''Koris katagogi'', the descent of Persephone into the underworld.<ref name=Nilsson463/>
; Libya
* [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]]: Temple of Demeter and Kore<ref name=Nilsson463/>
 
==Modern reception==
{{Main|Persephone in popular culture}}
 
Persephone also appears many times in popular culture. Featured in a variety of young adult novels such as ''Persephone '' <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15724908-persephone|title=Persephone (Daughters of Zeus, #1)}}</ref> by Kaitlin Bevis, '' A Touch of Darkness '' by Scarlett St. Clair, ''Persephone's Orchard''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17790646-persephone-s-orchard |title=Persephone's Orchard}}</ref> by Molly Ringle, ''The Goddess Test'' by Aimee Carter, ''The Goddess Letters'' by Carol Orlock, ''Abandon'' by Meg Cabot, and ''[[Lore Olympus]]'' by Rachel Smythe, her story has also been treated by Suzanne Banay Santo in ''Persephone Under the Earth'' in the light of women's spirituality. Here Santo treats the mythic elements in terms of maternal sacrifice to the burgeoning sexuality of an adolescent daughter. Accompanied by the classic, sensual paintings of [[Frederic Leighton|Fredric Lord Leighton]] and [[William-Adolphe Bouguereau]], Santo portrays Persephone not as a victim but as a woman in quest of sexual depth and power, transcending the role of daughter, though ultimately returning to it as an awakened Queen.<ref>{{cite book|title=Persephone Under the Earth|publisher=Red Butterfly Publications|author=Santo, Suzanne Banay|year=2012|isbn=978-0-9880914-0-5}}</ref>
 
==See also==
{{Portal|Ancient Greece|Myths|Religion}}
* [[Anthesphoria]], festival honoring Proserpina, and Persephone
* [[Eleusinian Mysteries]]
* [[Rape of Persephone]]
* [[Sporus]]
 
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
 
== References ==
{{reflist|25em}}
 
== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book| first1 =Michael J. |last1=Bennett | first2 = Aaron J. |last2 = Paul |first3 = Mario| last3= Iozzo|first4= Bruce|last4= White|title = Magna Graecia: Greek Art from South Italy and Sicily|publisher = The Cleveland Museum of Art|date = 2002|isbn= 0-940717-71-9}}
* [[Theognis]]; Edmonds, J.M.  (1931) [in] ''Elegy and Iambu with an English Translation by J.M. Edmonds''. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0479%3Avolume%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Ovid]] (n/d) ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Ov.+Met.+10.728&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028 10.728–731]
* [[Strabo]] (1924) ''The Geography of Strabo.'' Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
* [[Diodorus Siculus]] (1888-1890) ''Bibliotheca Historica''. vols 1-2. Immanel Bekker; Ludwig Dindorf; Friedrich Vogel [eds]. Leipzig: aedibus B.G. Teubneri. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0540 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Antoninus Liberalis]]; Celoria, F. (1992) ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria. Routledge. [https://topostext.org/work/216 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* Athanassakis, Apostolos N.; Wolkow, Benjamin M. (29 May 2013) ''The Orphic Hymns'', Johns Hopkins University Press; owlerirst Printing edition. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0882-8}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TTo3r8IHy0wC&printsec=frontcover Google Books].
* Bell, Robert E., ''Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary'', [[ABC-CLIO]] 1991, {{ISBN|0-87436-581-3}}. [https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/mode/2up?view=theater Internet Archive.]
* [[Oppian]], [[Colluthus]], [[Tryphiodorus]] (1928) "Halieutica" [in] ''Oppian, Colluthus, and Tryphiodorus'', translated by A.W. Mair. Loeb Classical Library 219. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [https://topostext.org/work/524 Online version at Topos text.]
* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]]; Frazer, J. (1921) ''Apollodorus, ''The Library'', with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes.'' Cambridge, MA: [[Harvard University Press]]; London, UK: William Heinemann Ltd. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Maurice Bowra|Bowra, M.]] (1957) ''The Greek Experience''. The World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York.
* [[Walter Burkert|Burkert Walter]] (1985). ''Greek Religion''. Harvard University Press . {{ISBN|0-674-36281-0}}
* [[Lewis Richard Farnell|Farnell, Lewis Richard]] (1906) ''The Cults of the Greek States'', volume 3 (chapters on: Demeter and Kore-Persephone; Cult-monuments of Demeter-Kore; Ideal types of Demeter-Kore).
* [[Timothy Gantz|Gantz, T.]] (1996) ''Early Greek Myth: A guide to literary and artistic sources''. Johns Hopkins University Press, in two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
* Grimal, Pierre, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, {{ISBN|978-0-631-20102-1}}.
* Hard, Robin (2004) ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology"'', Psychology Press, ISBN 978-0-415-18636-0.
* Heslin, Peter (2018) ''Propertius, Greek Myth, and Virgil: Rivalry, allegory, and polemic'', Oxford, Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-199-54157-7}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=WhJbDwAAQBAJ Google Books].
* [[Homer]]; Murray, A.T. (1924) ''The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PhD in two volumes'', Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd.
* [[Homer]]; Murray, A.T. (1919) ''The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes''. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd.
* Evelyn-White, H.G. (1914) [[Homeric Hymns|''Homeric Hymn to Demeter (2)'']], in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, MA: [[Harvard University Press]]; London, UK: William Heinemann Ltd. [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg002.perseus-eng1:1-39 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Janda, Michael (2010) ''Die Musik nach dem Chaos''. Innsbruck
* [[Karl Kerenyi|Kerenyi, K.]] (1967) ''Eleusis: Archetypal image of mother and daughter'' . Princeton University Press.
* [[Karl Kerenyi|Kerenyi, K.]] (1976) ''Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life'', Princeton: Bollingen. [https://books.google.com/?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&printsec=frontcover Google Books].
* [[Otto Kern|Kern, O.]] (1922) ''Orphicorum Fragmenta'', Berlin. [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive].
* [[Martin P. Nilsson|Nilsson Martin]] (1967) ''Die Geschichte der Griechischen Religion'', vol I. Revised ed. Muenchen, DE: C.F Beck Verlag.
* [[Martin P. Nilsson|Nilsson, M.]] (1950) ''Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, and its Survival in Greek Religion'', Revised 2nd ed. Lund: Gleerup.
* Meisner, Dwayne A. (2018) ''Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods'', [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-19-066352-0}}.
* [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]; Jones, W.H.S.; Ormerod, H.A. (1918) ''Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 volumes'', Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd.
* {{cite book | title = On Greek Religion| last1 = Parker |first1 = Robert|publisher = Cornell University Press|date = 2011 |isbn =978-0-8014-4948-2}}
* [[Lucian]]; Fowler, H.W.; Fowler, F.G. (1905) ''[[Dialogues of the Gods]]''; translated by Fowler, H.W. and F.G. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
* [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]]; Grant, Mary (n/d?) ''Astronomica from the Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. [https://topostext.org/work/207 Online version at the Topos Text Project].
* Miles, Gary B. (1980), ''Virgil's Georgics: A New Interpretation'', [[University of California Press]], {{ISBN|0-520-03789-8}}. [https://books.google.gr/books?id=BG3tDwAAQBAJ&dq= Google books].
* [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]]; Scholfield, A.F. (1959) ''On Animals'', volume III: books 12-17, translated by A.F. Scholfield, [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 449, Cambridge, MA: [[Harvard University Press]]. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL449/1959/volume.xml  Online version] at Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99494-2}}.
* Paton, W.R. (1916) ''The [[Greek Anthology]] with an English Translation''. London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1. [https://topostext.org/work/532 Online version at the Topos Text Project].
* {{cite book | last1= Edmonds III |first = Radcliffe G.| title = Myths of the Underworld Journey: Plato, Aristophanes, and the 'Orphic' Gold Tablets | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]|date = 2004|isbn=0-52183434-1}}
* {{cite book | last1= Edmonds III |first = Radcliffe G.|title = Redefining Ancient Orphism: A Study in Greek Religion| publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]] |date = 2013|isbn= 978-1-107-03821-9}}
* [[Erwin Rohde|Rohde, E.]] (1961) ''Psyche. Seelenkult und Unsterblichkeitsglaube der Griechen. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellshaft''. Darmstad. (First edition 1893): full text in German downloadable as [https://books.google.com/books?id=uiZF4fYQTQcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:Psyche+inauthor:Erwin+inauthor:Rohde&lr=&as_brr=3#PPR3,M1 pdf].
* [[Erwin Rohde|Rohde, E.]] (2000), ''Psyche: The Cult of Souls and the Belief in Immortality among the Greeks'', trans. from the 8th edn. by W. B. Hillis (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1925; reprinted by Routledge, 2000), [https://books.google.com/books?id=EsVTr_6c7E0C&printsec=frontcover online]
* [[Fritz Schachermeyr|Schachermeyr, F.]] (1964), ''Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta'', W.Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart.
* King, Stephen (2008) ''Duma Key''
* [[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith, W.]] (1873) ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'', London. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=persephone-bio-1 "Persephone"].
* [[Herbert Weir Smyth|Smyth, H.W.]] (1926) ''Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth'', Volume II, London Heinemann. [https://archive.org/stream/aeschyluswitheng02aescuoft#page/n7/mode/2up Internet Archive].
* Tripp, Edward, ''Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology'', Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). {{ISBN|069022608X}}.
* Welch, Anthony (2013) ''The Renaissance Epic and the Oral Past'', Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0300178867}}.
* [[Martin Litchfield West|West, M.L.]] (1983) ''The Orphic Poems'', [[Clarendon Press]] Oxford. {{ISBN|978-0-19-814854-8}}.
* [[Günther Zuntz|Zuntz, G.]] (1973) ''Persephone: Three essays on religion and thought in Magna Graecia''.
{{refend}}
 
==External links==
{{Commons category|Persephone}}
{{Wiktionary}}
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr Martin Nilsson. The Greek popular religion]
* [http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/mycen.html Adams John Paul. Mycenean divinities]
* [http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/PersephoneGoddess.html PERSEPHONE from The Theoi Project]
* [http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/HaidesPersephone1.html THE RAPE OF PERSEPHONE from The Theoi Project]
* [http://www.maicar.com/GML/Persephone.html PERSEPHONE from Greek Mythology Link]
* [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=despoina The Princeton Encyclopedia of classical sites:Despoina]
* [http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Despoine.html DESPOINA from The Theoi Project]
* [https://www.flickr.com/photos/schumata/tags/kore/ Kore Photographs]
* [https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/persephone/clusters/britishmuseum-museum/ Flickr users' photos tagged with Persephone]
* [https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/16964 Proserpine (Persephone) sculpture] by [[Hiram Powers]]
 
{{Greek mythology (deities)}}
{{Greek religion}}
{{Greek myth (aquatic olympian)}}
 
{{Authority control}}
 
[[Category:Persephone| ]]
[[Category:Queens in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Life-death-rebirth goddesses]]
[[Category:Eleusinian Mysteries]]
[[Category:Underworld goddesses]]
[[Category:Greek death goddesses]]
[[Category:Greek underworld]]
[[Category:Greek goddesses]]
[[Category:Divine women of Zeus]]
[[Category:Chthonic beings]]
[[Category:Children of Demeter]]
[[Category:Mythological rape victims]]
[[Category:Nature goddesses]]
[[Category:Harvest goddesses]]
[[Category:Health goddesses]]
[[Category:Death goddesses]]
[[Category:Destroyer goddesses]]
[[Category:Food goddesses]]
[[Category:Children of Zeus]]
[[Category:Marriage goddesses]]
[[Category:Deeds of Demeter]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Women of Hades]]
[[Category:Women in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Fertility goddesses]]
[[Category:Kidnapped people]]
[[Category:Characters in the Odyssey]]
[[Category:Rape of Persephone]]
[[Category:Childhood goddesses]]
[[Category:Characters in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Women and death]]
[[Category:Seasons]]
[[Category:Spring (season)]]
Retrieved from "https://en.bharatpedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/325696"