|
|
Odysseus:
"Mother ... why do you avoid me when I try to
reach you, so that even in Hades we may throw our loving arms around each other's
necks and draw cold comfort from our tears? Or is this a mere
phantom that grim Persephone has sent me to accentuate my
grief?"
Anticlia 1: "My child, my
child! ... This is no trick played on you by Persephone ... You are
only witnessing here the law of our mortal nature, when we come to
die." [Homer, The Odyssey
11.210]
"It is also said that on reaching old age a
vision came to Pindar in a dream. As he slept Persephone stood by
him and declared that she alone of the deities had not been honored
by Pindar with a hymn, but that Pindar would compose an ode to her
also when he had come to her. Pindar died at once, before ten days
had passed since the dream. But there was in Thebes an old woman related by birth to Pindar who had
practised singing most of his odes. By her side in a dream stood
Pindar, and sang a hymn to Persephone. Immediately on waking out of
her sleep she wrote down all she had heard him singing in her
dream." [Pausanias, Description
of Greece 9.23.3]
"They say that the soul of man is immortal,
and at one time comes to an end, which is called dying, and at
another is born again, but never perishes. Consequently one ought to
live all one's life in the utmost holiness. For from whomsoever
Persephone shall accept requital for ancient wrong, the souls of
these she restores in the ninth year to the upper sun again
..." [Plato, Meno 81b]
........
Pale, beyond porch and
portal,
Crowned with calm leaves, she stands
Who gathers all
things mortal
With cold immortal hands;
Her languid lips are
sweeter
Than love's who fears to greet her
To men that mix
and meet her
From many times and lands.
........
[Algernon Charles Swinburne
1837-1909, The Garden of
Proserpine] |
|
Persephone is Core, the Maiden, "the goddess of twofold name".
She became queen of the Underworld
after being abducted, while she was gathering flowers, by Hades, who
had fallen in love with her. |
|
|
|
|
The occasion of the abduction |
It is told that Hades
asked Zeus to
give him Persephone in marriage; and since Zeus deemed
that Demeter
would not allow her daughter to live in the gloomy Underworld,
he told his brother to seize her as she was gathering flowers. So Hades did,
near Mount Aetna or near Henna (i.e. Enna, where a temple of Demeter
was built), or near Syracuse in Sicily—a favourite home of Demeter
for its fertility—, on the occasion when Arethusa 3, one of the NYMPHS,
had invited the goddesses to a banquet.
They came with their daughters, whom they left to roam unguarded
through the meadows, where the girls started filling baskets with
marigolds, and violets, and poppies, and hyacinths, and everlasting
amaranths, and roses, and all kinds of bright flowers, some of them
without a name. Persephone herself, they say, plucked crocuses and
white lilies or violets, but while plucking and gathering, she
strayed far so that none of her companions followed her. It was then
that Hades
seized her, and bore her into his own realm.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Hades ravishing
Persephone | |
|
Cyane 1 |
While he galloped through lakes and springs, the naiad Cyane 1,
standing forth from her pool, shouted at him:
"No further shall you go! ... The maiden
should have been wooed, not ravished ..." [Cyane 1 to Hades.
Ovid, Metamorphoses
5.414]
But Hades
smote the pool to its bottom, opening a road to the Underworld;
and that is why some say that it was the god who caused the fountain
named Cyane to gush forth in the neighbourhood of Syracuse. In the
meantime, Cyane 1, having failed to stop the god, dissolved away in
tears because of her pain, and melted into her own waters. Later,
when Demeter
came to the fountain looking for her daughter, there was no naiad to
tell her what had happened; but still the goddess could see
Persephone's girdle floating on the surface of the pool. |
|
Cries in all directions |
When Persephone was seized, she cried out:
"Ho dearest mother, they are carrying me
away!" [Ovid, Fasti
4.447]
... for that is the proper thing to do for an abducted girl. But
the god, having taken Persephone away in his chariot, cleft the
earth and descended with her to the Underworld.
As often happens, she was missed though too late, and those who
first called her nicely:
"Persephone, come to the gifts we have for
you." [Ovid, Fasti
4.452]
... ended up filling the mountain with shrieks and smiting their
own bosoms with their hands. Some of them, it is told, became the SIRENS,
after having sought Persephone in vain through many lands.
There are those who say that Persephone, when she was abducted,
was accompanied by Aphrodite,
Artemis
and Athena;
but others have mentioned several OCEANIDS
among her playmates: Electra 1, Ianthe 1, Rhodia 1, Callirrhoe 1,
Melobosis, Tyche,
Ocyrrhoe 1, Chryseis 1, Ianira 1, Acaste 1, Admete 1, Pluto 1,
Calypso 2, Styx, Urania 1, and Galaxaure. |
|
Demeter
distressed |
Most distressed was the girl's mother Demeter,
who went about seeking her child all over the earth, by night and
day with torches kindled in the craters of Mount Aetna, crying
"Persephone", and "Daughter", and asking whoever she met the one
question:
"Did a girl pass this way?" [Demeter
to anyone. Ovid, Fasti
4.488]
This was Demeter's
darkest moment; and she tore her locks and smote her breast; and
reproaching the whole world, she broke in pieces the plows,
destroyed farmers and cattle, made barren the plowed fields, and
blighted the seed. |
|
Because of Love |
And yet, they say, it was Love who
caused everything. For Aphrodite
feared that Persephone, following Athena
and Artemis,
would also remain a virgin. That is why she instructed her son Eros to
join the young girl to her uncle. And Eros, who
rules the gods and controls all deities, selected the sharpest among
his many arrows, and with it smote Hades
through the heart; and since when this happens nothing can be done,
Hades
abducted Persephone when she, not far from the city of Henna (as
some say), was playing and gathering flowers in a grove. At the
time, she was so girlish and innocent that she is believed to have
felt more pain for the loss of the flowers that fell out of her
loosened tunic when Hades
seized her, than fear for being captured; but she nevertheless
called on her mother and companions while Hades
galloped away. |
|
Demeter
demands her daughter |
Some have asserted [but see also Demeter]
that it was Arethusa 3—whom the river god Alpheus loved—, who first
reported to Demeter
that Persephone was in the Underworld.
For she had seen her when herself glided beneath the earth.
Persephone, she said, seemed sad and perturbed with fear, but on the
other hand, she had become a queen. On hearing this, Demeter
set forth in her chariot to heaven and asked Zeus the
restoration of their daughter, saying:
"... That she has been stolen, I will bear,
if only he will bring her back; for your daughter does not deserve
to have a robber for a husband." [Demeter
to Zeus.
Ovid, Metamorphoses
5.520]
Yet Zeus
replied:
"... If only we are willing to give right
names to things, this is no harm that has been done, but only love
... But if you so greatly desire to separate them, Persephone
shall return to heaven, but on one condition only: if in the
lower-world no food has as yet touched her lips. For so have the
MOERAE decreed." [Zeus to
Demeter.
Ovid, Metamorphoses
5.524] |
|
The seeds of pomegranate |
But the girl, given to plucking even in the Underworld,
had already taken a pomegranate and eaten one seed or seven of its
seeds, as Ascalaphus 2, the son of the infernal river Acheron and
only witness, could testify. And because of his tittle-tattle,
Persephone's return to the upper world was thwarted.
Now, some may reason that Ascalaphus 2's gossip is unimportant,
and may argue that the MOERAE's
decree could not be changed, with or without gossip; but by arguing
in such a way they only prove that they ignore how fate works. But
Demeter
knows, and that is why she turned Ascalaphus 2 into a short-eared
owl, showing what a tattling tongue may cause to his/her owner. And
she also knows because the MOERAE
themselves persuaded her to lay aside her wrath and moderate her
grief; for at the time, Demeter
the Black, as the Phigalians of Arcadia
surnamed her because of her attire, was letting all the fruits of
the earth perish, and the human race die through famine. |
|
The year parcelled |
Since that condition, which Zeus had
mentioned, could not be fulfilled, Persephone remained in the Underworld,
married to its lord Hades. Yet
Zeus did
not wish to break the balance between his brother and his sister,
and that is why he divided the year into two equal parts, so that
Persephone spends half of the time with her mother, and half with
her husband. Others say, however, that he ruled that Persephone
should go down to the Underworld
for the third part of the year, but for the two parts should live
with her mother and the other gods in Heaven, in a similar way as it
was later ruled in Adonis'
case.
For when Adonis
was still a child, Aphrodite
hid him in a chest because of his beauty, entrusting it to
Persephone. But when Persephone saw him, she would not give him
back; such was his beauty. Also this case was tried before Zeus, who
divided the year into three parts, so that Adonis
should stay by himself for one part, with Persephone for another
part, and with Aphrodite
for the remainder. This was done as the lord of heaven ruled, but Adonis
gave to Aphrodite,
whom he loved, his own share in addition. |
|
Queen of the Underworld
|
This is how Persephone, who loved to gather flowers, became the
queen of the Underworld,
having there a grove, with tall black poplars and willows, called
after her. And she was comforted by Hades, who
told her:
"... I shall be no unfitting husband for
you among the deathless gods, that am own brother to father
Zeus. And while you are here, you shall rule all that
lives and moves and shall have the greatest rights among the
deathless gods: those who defraud you and do not appease your
power with offerings, reverently performing rites and paying fit
gifts, shall be punished for evermore." [Hades to
Persephone, Homeric
Hymn to Demeter 2.363] |
|
Helps Orpheus
|
And when Orpheus
came to the Underworld
looking for his wife, Persephone was the first to be entranced by
his song, which persuaded her to help him in his desire to bring
back to life his dead wife.
|
|
Pirithous
loved her |
Later Pirithous,
a friend of Theseus,
wished to marry Persephone; and with that bizarre purpose in mind,
he descended to the Underworld.
But for that attempt he sits forever in the Chair of Forgetfulness
on which he is held fast by coils of serpents, although some say
that Heracles
1 asked Hades for
him, and brought him up unharmed. |
|
Helps Heracles
1 |
It was by her favour, some say, that Heracles
1 received Cerberus 1 in chains; and when Menoetes 1, the
Herdsman of Hades,
challenged Heracles
1 to wrestle and had his own ribs broken, he was let off by Heracles
1 at the request of Persephone [see also HERACLES
1'S LABOURS]. |
|
Helps Tiresias
|
And when the seer Tiresias
came to the Underworld
after his death, Persephone granted that he alone among the shadows
of the dead should keep understanding.
Such is her power, and that is why the Underworld
may be referred to as the "sunless house of Persephone", or the
"sacred floor of Persephone", or "the couch of Persephone", or
"Persephone's gloomy roof", or "the dark-walled home of Persephone";
and the dead as "the portion of Persephone".
And some, fearing Death,
call Persephone awful or dread, but others call her the "fair young
goddess of the nether world".
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Hades and Persephone
banqueting | |
|
|
| |