Who is Persephone, Goddess in Greek Mythology?

Persephone is a very important character in Greek mythology. Not only by her position or magical powers but for the story about her abduction, which clearly presents the relationships among the Greek gods as well. There are twelve major deities on Greek Pantheon and Persephone is a daughter of two: Zeus and Demeter. Functions of Demeter and Persephone often overlap, depending on the location of their worshippers, so it's probably best to focus on the central story about the Persephone's abduction where Demeter actually plays the more important role. This way we'll at least understand how important they both are.

Demeter is a goddess of nature, agriculture, but also inevitably deeply involved in the recurring cycle of birth and death in nature. In Roman mythology, she is called Ceres. She was also a central figure in Cretan cult built around opium made from poppies. Her brother Zeus raped her and Persephone was born.

Persephone (Proserpina in Roman mythology) was a beautiful girl. Wherever she landed her foot, flowers appeared and animals followed her to admire her beauty. She soon caught the eye of Hades, her uncle, and god of the underworld. Demeter noticed that and made clear the marriage of her daughter with Hades is out o the question. But Hades knew who can help him - who else than Zeus, the greatest master of abductions and rapes ever.

So one day when Persephone picked flowers with Oceanids, water nymphs, who kept her company. Aphrodite, Artemis, and Athena were also there. Suddenly the most beautiful narcissus caught the attention of Persephone. She moved a few steps from the group and while everybody looked in another way, she tried to pick the flower. The Earth opened and from the rift, a black chariot driven by Hades came. He grabbed Persephone and drove her in his kingdom under the ground.

Nobody really knew what happened. One moment Persephone was there, among others, and in the next moment, she disappeared. When Demeter found out her daughter is gone, she unsuccessfully tried to find Persephone. Hekate told her she heard Persephone's cries but didn't see what happened. But Helios should see - he is the god of the sun, looking everywhere on earth after all. So Helios told Demeter about the deal between Zeus and Hades. He also mentioned Persephone got a pretty good match - one of the most powerful deities of all.

Demeter was enraged. Soon after she became depressed. She was wandering around the world without doing her job - taking care of the grains - and feminine struck out. People started to die massively. Zeus wasn't happy with that. They were his worshippers! Unfortunately, nobody else could do her job, so he had to do something about her sorrow.

Zeus sent Hermes, the divine messenger to Hades. Hades must return Persephone. While Zeus was technically his king and his commands should be obeyed, Hades had a plan on his own. Zeus was his younger brother after all. Yes, Persephone can return home on one condition: if she didn't eat any food from the underworld. Of course, he gave her some pomegranates to eat before that ...

So Persephone happily returned to her mother who immediately brought life on earth. Grains grew, trees bore fruit, people and animals had food again, but ... Well, Persephone couldn't stay for good. After a while, she had to return to the underground kingdom ruled by Hades.

Different versions of the stories offer different reasons for her return. Some claim she became fond of her abductor, the mighty king of the dead, and missed him just like she missed life in the world of living creatures. Some stay faithful to the magic of pomegranate seeds - varying from one to six - which she ate when kidnapped.

There are also different time intervals of her life on and under the surface of the world. In some cases she has to stay under just three, in some up to six months, depending on the climate of the area where the story is told. More southern countries are happy with three, more northern need six. Why? Well, it matches with the time of winter. While Persephone resides with her husband, Demeter mourns her faith and everything on the surface dies.

This means we have the cycles of summers and winters, life and death, harvest and famine, depending on the position of Persephone and the mood of her mother. If you recognized the plot from Little Red Riding Hood with Persephone in the title role and Big Bad Wolf played by the Hades, you are probably right. The mythological explanation of this fairy tale is pretty faithful to natural cycles to summer and winter, day and night, life and death, light and darkness, ... And we have a scene of careless picking flowers too!

Persephone is often portrayed with red hair - red is not only very photogenic, but can be seen as the color of sin. Her red hair is certainly easily transformed into a red hood!

Resources:

http://www.the-athenaeum.org/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Persephone