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Who is Persephone?





          Persephone, the daughter of Demeter who was kidnapped by   he couldn’t do anything about the situation and Persephone would
        Hades.This story represents the change of the seasons. The myth   stay with Hades.
        of Persephone was very popular in the ancient times and her story   In the underworld Persephone was starving although she was
        was symbolized in the Eleusinian Mysteries.            not  accepting  any  food  from  Hades.  While  she  was  walking
          According to Greek Mythology, Persephone was the daughter of   around she came upon a pomegranate and she finally ate it. It was
        Zeus and Demeter. Persephone was also called Kore, which means   a trap set by Hades and now she was trapped and forced to be with
        “maiden”. As  she  matured,  she  became  a  beautiful  young  lady   him in the Underworld. This was the food of the Underworld and
        who caught the attention of numerous gods. However, Demeter   every time someone ate even a few seeds of this, after a while they
        had an obsession for her only daughter and tried to keep her safe   would miss life in the Underworld and they would never wanna
        and sound.                                             leave. During the gathering before Zeus, when the maiden was
          Hades,  the  ruler  of  the  Underworld  became  captivated  by   asked where she would want to be, she replied that she wanted to
        Persephone’s beauty, being her most enduring admirer. When he   stay with her husband. After hearing this Demeter understood that
        asked Demeter to marry her daughter, Demeter got furious and said   Hades had done something to her daughter and she got furious.
        there wasn’t a chance for that to ever happen. Hades was heart-  A great fight followed and Demeter threatened that she would
        broken and he wanted to marry Persephone no matter what. One   never  make the earth fertile again and everything on Earth would
        day, Persephone was gamboling in a meadow with a freshwater   die. To put an end to the famine, Zeus decided that Persephone
        nymph.  While  admiring  a  narcissus  flower  they  felt  the  world   would spend 6 months with her husband and 6 months with her
        shake beneath their feet and soon the earth split and an ominous   mother on Olympus. This compromise satisfied neither of them
        figure arose. It was Hades. Then Hades grabbed Persephone and   but they had no choice but to accept it. Persephone became the
        dragged her into the Underworld and the gap in the earth closed   Queen of the Underworld.
        after them. Nymph shed tears with such intensity she dissolved,   For the living things on Earth Persephone’s arrival represented
        becoming one with the water.                           the start of spring. Each time she went back to the Underworld her
          The  whole  incident  had  been  witnessed  by  Zeus,  father  of   mother mourned, and the earth became frigid and barren, making
        Persephone and brother of Hades, as well as by Helios, god of the   the onset of winter. Knowing Demeter couldn’t be roused from her
        Sun. Zeus chose silence regarding the matter to avoid confrontation   grief, the humans stocked their crops and supplies for winter and
        with  his  brother,  while  Helios  thought  it  would  be  better  if  he   awaited Persephone’s return.
        stayed out of this  situation that didn’t concern him. Heartbroken   Therefore, this myth was created to explain the change of the
        Demeter looked around the earth looking for her daughter until her   seasons, the eternal cycle of Nature’s death and rebirth.
        good friend Hecate, goddess of wilderness and childbirth, advised
        her to ask for the help of Helios. Helios felt sorry for Demeter and                              Ilgın Baysan
        told her that Hades had kidnapped her daughter. Demeter became
        incensed, so she chose to punish the gods and express her sorrow
        by quitting her duties. This action had terrible results, the earth
        dried up, all of the crops died and humans and animals suffered
        from famine .
          People who were suffering reached Zeus so he realized that if he
        wouldn’t do something about Demeters rage, all humanity would
        disappear and there would no longer be humans or any living thing.
        So he started to look for another way to please both Demeter and
        Hades. He assured Demeter that her daughter would return if it
        could be proven that Persephone remained with Hades. Otherwise





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