In Classical Greek and Roman myth, various goddesses represented the Earth, seasons, crops and fertility, including Demeter and Persephone ; Ceres ; the Horae ( goddesses of the seasons ), and Proserpina ; and Hades ( Pluto ) who ruled the souls of dead in the Underworld.

In the Linear B Mycenean Greek tablets of circa 1400-1200 BC found at Pylos, the " two mistresses and the king " are identified with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.

In Greek mythology, Persephone (, ; ), also called Kore (; " the maiden "), is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld.

In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed ; often carrying a sheaf of grain.

In a Linear B ( Mycenean Greek ) inscription on a tablet found at Pylos dated 1400 – 1200 BC, John Chadwick reconstructs the name of a goddess * Preswa who could be identified with Persa, daughter of Oceanus and finds speculative the further identification with the first element of Persephone.

The Greek version of the abduction myth is related to corn-important and rare in the Greek environment, and the return ( ascent ) of Persephone was celebrated at the autumn sowing.

During summer months, the Greek Corn-Maiden ( Kore ) is lying in the corn of the underground silos, in the realm of Hades and she is fused with Persephone, the Queen of the underworld.

In the reformulation of Greek mythology expressed in the Orphic Hymns, Dionysus and Melinoe are separately called children of Zeus and Persephone.

** Archaeological finds suggest that worship of Demeter and Persephone was widespread in Sicily and Greek Italy.

In Greek mythology, Hades kidnapped Persephone to be his wife.

Her Greek goddess ' equivalent is Persephone.

The four months during which Persephone is with Hades correspond to the dry Greek summer, a period during which plants are threatened with drought.

Persephone supervising Sisyphus in the Greek underworld | Underworld, Attica | Attis black-figure amphora, ca.

In Greek mythology, he is presented as a son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, thus semi-divine or heroic: and as son of Zeus and Persephone or Demeter, thus both fully divine, part-chthonic and possibly identical with Iacchus of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Persephone supervising Sisyphus in the Greek underworld | Underworld, Attica black-figure amphora ( vase ), ca.

In Greek mythology, Agelasta ( Ἀγέλαστος in Ancient Greek or Αγέλαστη Modern Greek " smile-less ") was the name of the stone on which Demeter rested during her search for Persephone.

The cult was based on ancient, ethnically Greek cults to Demeter, most notably the Thesmophoria to Demeter and Persephone, whose cults and myths also provided a basis for the Eleusinian mysteries.

The formal, official development of the Aventine Triad may have encouraged the assimilation of its individual deities to Greek equivalents: Ceres to Demeter, Liber to Dionysus and Libera to Persephone or Kore.

Thesmophoria was a festival held in Greek cities, in honor of the goddesses Demeter and her daughter Persephone.

* Cora, an alternate name for the Greek goddess Persephone

The poem is addressed to the goddess Proserpina, the Roman equivalent of Persephone.

Persephone as a vegetation goddess ( Kore ) and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon, and promised to the initiated a more enjoyable prospect after death.

The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as chthonic and vegetation goddess.

As a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically friendly names.

The earliest depiction of a goddess who may be identified with Persephone growing out of the ground, is on a plate from the Old-Palace period in Phaistos.

The association with the flower-picking Persephone and her companions is compelling. On the Minoan ring of Isopata, four women are performing a dance between flowers in a field, and a smaller figure, the goddess herself appears floating in the air.

She has a large stylized flower turned over her head, and the resemblance with the flower picking Persephone and her companions is compelling The depiction of the goddess is similar with later images of " Anodos of Pherephata ".

Despoina and " Hagne " were probably euphimistic surnames of Persephone, therefore he theorizes that the cult of Persephone was the continuation of the worship of a Minoan Great goddess.

Persephone used to live far away from the other deities, a goddess within Nature herself before the days of planting seeds and nurturing plants.

Seated goddess, probably Persephone on her throne in the underworld, Severe style ca 480 – 60, found at Taranto | Tarentum, Magna Graecia ( Pergamon Museum, Berlin ) Persephone held an ancient role as the dread queen of the Underworld, within which tradition it was forbidden to speak her name.

***" Mistress Demeter goddess of heaven, which God or mortal man has rapt away Persephone and pierced with sorrow your dear heart?

In the first legend, Trapani stemmed from the sickle which fell from the hands of the goddess Demeter while she was seeking for her daughter Persephone, who had been kidnapped by Hades.

The white poplar was also sacred to Persephone, for whom Leuce seems to be a doublet, as a goddess of regeneration.

Creiddylad has been compared to the Greek springtime goddess Persephone, who is similarly abducted by an admirer ( the underworld god Hades ), rescued by an intervening character ( Zeus ), and reunited with her family ( her mother Demeter ), then cursed to repeat the experience every year.

Female examples are Inanna, also known as Ishtar, whose cult dates to 4000 BCE, and Persephone, the central figure of the Eleusinian Mysteries, whose cult may date to 1700 BCE as the unnamed goddess worshiped in Crete.

Graves carries the meaning still further, to the perse-in Persephone, goddess of death.

* Mistress of the house ( Greek, " Despoina "), a title applied to the Greek goddess Persephone, but also to the goddesses Demeter and Hecate.

The mythographer Apollodorus says that Iambe's jesting was the reason for the practice of ritual jesting at the Thesmophoria, a festival celebrated in honor of Demeter and Persephone, but in other versions of the myth of Demeter, the goddess is received by a woman named Baubo, who makes her laugh by exposing herself, in a ritual gesture called anasyrma (" lifting skirts ").

Other examples he gives include the goddess triad Moira Ilythia and Callone (" Death, Birth and Beauty ") from Plato's Symposium ; the triple goddess Hecate ; the story of the rape of Kore, ( the triad here Graves said to be Kore, Persephone and Hecate with Demeter the general name of the goddess ); alongside a large number of other configurations.

For according to them, there were seven islands in that sea in their time, sacred to Persephone, and also three others of enormous size, one of which was sacred to Hades, another to Ammon, and another one between them to Poseidon, the extent of which was a thousand stadia ; and the inhabitants of it — they add — preserved the remembrance from their ancestors of the immeasurably large island of Atlantis which had really existed there and which for many ages had reigned over all islands in the Atlantic sea and which itself had like-wise been sacred to Poseidon.

Of the four deities of Empedocles's elements, it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo — Nestis is a euphemistic cult title — for she was also the terrible Queen of the Dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was euphemistically named simply as Kore or " the Maiden ", a vestige of her archaic role as the deity ruling the underworld.

Nysion ( or Mysion ), the place of the abduction of Persephone was also probably a mythical place which didn ’ t exist in the map, a magically distant chthonic land of myth which was intended in the remote past.

Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone.

Persephone also appears many times in popular culture.

Temples dedicated to Hephaestus, Heracles and Asclepius were also constructed in the sacred area, which includes a sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone ( formerly known as the Temple of Castor and Pollux ); the marks of the fires set by the Carthaginians in 406 BC can still be seen on the sanctuary's stones.

According to the hymn, Demeter's daughter Persephone ( also referred to as Kore, " maiden ") was gathering flowers with friends, when she was seized by Hades, the god of death and the underworld.

Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone.

Instead, according to Borza, Tomb I, also known as the Tomb of Persephone may have contained the remains of Phillip II and his family.

Persephone was also taken by Adonis ' beauty and refused to give him back to Aphrodite.

She was an attendant to Persephone, Aphrodite and Hera, and was also associated with Dionysus, Apollo and Pan.

Aita is also pictured with his wife Phersipnai, the Etruscan equivalent to the Greek Persephone.

Instead, according to Borza, Tomb I, also known as the Tomb of Persephone may have contained the remains of Phillip II and his family.

Hecate, for instance, was typically offered puppies at crossroads ( see also Crossroads ( mythology )) – a practice neither typical of an Olympian sacrifice nor of a chthonic sacrifice to Persephone or the heroes.

Dorothy Canfield also wrote The Bent Twig ( 1915 ), Home Fires in France ( 1918 ), The Day of Glory ( 1919 ), The Brimming Cup ( 1921 ), Rough-Hewn ( 1922 ) and The Home-Maker ( 1924 ), which was reprinted by Persephone Books in 1999.

Persephone may also refer to:

Orphics also revered Persephone ( who annually descended into Hades for a season and then returned ) and Dionysus or Bacchus ( who also descended into Hades and returned ).

The name comes from the Greek goddess Persephone ( Roman: Proserpina ) who is also known as Cora.