In todays video we are gonna tell you about
Persephone , also known as Kore (kór), a goddess in greek mythology. She was the goddess of vegetation and she
brought fertility to the fields. But at the same time, she was the Queen of
the underworld, and she carried out humans’ curses upon the souls of the dead. Through their stories, the greeks found an
explanation to the phenomenon of the 4 seasons of the year. Do you wanna learn about it? Persephone is the daughter of Zeus, father
of the gods and king of the Olympus and Deméter, the Mother Goddess of agriculture. The origin of her name isnt very clear. Perhaps it comes from “PersePHATTA”, which
means “the ones who threshers the wheat”. But it may also come from the expression “PHEREIN
PHONON”, meaning “the one who brings death”. There are also several theories about her
story, but the most complete is the one in the Homeric (houméric) Hymns, from the poet
Homer. The hymn To Demeter, specifically, says Persephone
used to live with her mother, far from the rest of the gods in the Olympus. However, she stood out so much because of
her beauty that she had several suitors. Among them, there were Hermes, God of wit,
Ares god of war, Apollo god of arts and Hephaestus (heféstas) god of fire and forges. However, her mom Demeter rejected all the
presents and marriage proposals, and hid her daughter from all the Olympic Gods. One of the suitors who insistied the most
was Hades, God of the underworld, king of the death. He decided to ask his brother Zeus (Persephone’s
dad) to marry her, and he got a yes as an answer. But Demeter would never let her daughter go
down to the underworld, so he planned to kidnap her and take her with him to his territory. One day, Persehone was innocently picking
flowers in a field in Enna, in the island of Sicily. Apart from some nymphs, she was with Athena
goddess of wisdom and Ártemis, goddess of animals. When she leaned to pick a daffodil, there
was an explossion, and a crack appeared on the ground. Hades came through it, and without any opposition
he put Persephone on his cart and took her to the Underworld. Nymphs were punished for not interfering by
turning into mermaids. And poor Demeter was just devastated. She gave everything up to dedicate full time
to the search of her daughter, non stop, to the edge of the Earth, helped by the torches
of Hécate (hécati), goddess of crossroads and virgin soil. As the goddess of agriculture, Demeter’s
obsession obviously had an effect upon nature. According to some versions, she forbid to
plant on the grounds. According to some others, she just neglected
her work as the mother of agriculture, devastated, and fields lost their fertility. Hécati suggested Demeter to ask Helios, the
personification of the Sun who sees everything, to try and find out what had happened, and
he finally let her know where her daughter was. Zeus, pressured on one hand by the cries of
starving humans due to the lack of harvest, and on the other hand by Demeter’s cries,
accepted and decided to take part. He made Hades free Persephone, by sending
Hermes, God of wit, to rescue her. Hermes strongly negotiated with Hades and
in the end, was able to convince him. One of the conditions there were for Persephone
to leave the underworld was that she couldnt eat any food from there. And, precisely, the sadness she felt during
her captivity hadnt let try any food at all. But before she could leave the underworld,
Hades tricked her to eat 6 seeds of a pomegranate. Hermes took her back, successfully, but punished
for having eaten food from the underworld, she had to go back every year, one month per
each seed she had eaten. From then on, she would spend 6 months of
every year in the Olympus with her mother, and another 6 months in the underworld with
Hades. When Demeter and her daughter were together,
the Earth flourished with vegetation. But during the other half of the year, it
went back to being a sterile soil. And this is how the greeks explained the cycle
of the 4 seasons and its effect upon nature. Apart from this myth, Persephone is present
in many other classic myths such as the story of Orpheus, the musician who descended to
Hell to have his dead wife back. Persephone was so moved by hearing him play
music, that she allowed them both to go back to Earth. Or the Myth of Adónis, a young man who was
so handsome that even Aphrodite (afrdáiti) herself, Goddess of beauty, fell in love with
him. She was the one who sent him to Persephone
so she could take care of him, but she wasnt counting on the queen of the underworld also
being obssesed with him and not wanting to send him back to her. The fight was ended by Zeus, who decided Adónis
would spend one part of the year with each. Persephone appeared in several plays of the
greek classic art. She usually wears a gown and carries a bunch
of hay, tho she can also be carrying a scepter or a little box. She was also the protagonist, along with her
mother, of the Eleusinian (elusínian) Mysteries, rituals celebrated during Persephone’s myth, apart from being very
interesting, is also one of the clearest ways to see how greeks related to their gods, and
especially, how they tried to interpret phenomenons that didnt have an explanation.
