Greek mythology, which has a history of thousands of years, represents the religious belief of the pre-Christian Greek society. There are many gods, goddesses and supernatural creatures in this belief. One of them is the goddess Persephone. The story of Persephone is not about a goddess with superior talents, but a woman whose beauty caused unfortunate things to happen to her, and that’s why the world was plunged into drought.
You might also see the name Persephone as a goddess or queen of the underworld, but it wasn’t a power she wanted. She earned the title because she was abducted by Hades and forcibly held underground. After Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, was abducted, her mother was so upset that drought swept the world. Let’s take a closer look at who Persephone is and see her story, the reason why winter has come even today.
Who is Persephone? A young goddess who enchants everyone with her pure beauty:
Actually, the real name of the young goddess is Kore. The name Persephone was given to her by Hades after she was smuggled into the underworld. Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. In some narratives, it is said that Zeus and Demeter were actually siblings and that Persephone was born as a result of an incestuous relationship. In other narratives, Persephone is said to be the daughter of Zeus as well as his wife. Greek mythology on this one is a little sickening.
The short story of Persephone:
According to the common Persephone story in all narratives, Hades kidnaps Persephone and takes her to the underworld. When his mother, Demeter, could not find him, drought hit the world. Seeing this, the gods asked Hades to show the girl to his mother, albeit occasionally. So Persephone starts seeing her mother at certain times of the year.
Let’s come to the legend of Persephone’s abduction:
One day, Hades sees Persephone and falls in love. When she meets with her brother Zeus, who is Persephone’s father, Zeus tells her to kidnap the girl. One day, while Persephone was picking flowers with her friends, she saw a daffodil shining brightly in the distance. She distances herself from her friends as she proceeds to retrieve it.
Just as he was about to reach out and take the daffodil, the ground splits and Hades, the god of the underworld, rushed out from under the ground in his chariot, on which his only black horse was tied, and forcibly detains the young goddess Persephone. Persephone gets into Hades’ chariot and flees underground. Persephone is full of hatred towards Hades, but when time passes and she gets hungry, she eats four pomegranate seeds from among the fruits offered by him. That’s when it happens.
Unable to find her daughter, Demeter turns the world upside down:
Since it was Zeus who suggested Persephone’s abduction, he doesn’t care much about the events, but when his mother Demeter could not find her in the garden where she left her, she set out and traveled the world for nine days and nine nights in search of her daughter. Finally, he learns from the sun titan Helios that Hades has kidnapped his daughter.
Then Demeter begins to live among people, saying “damn her goddess”. Demeter, who mingled with the people as an old woman, starts to work as a nanny for a small child. But meanwhile, he refuses to give fertility, which is his primary duty, and a great drought covers the world.
Fearing that such a great disaster will bring the end of humanity, the gods talk to Demeter and ask her to give her blessings again. All he wants is to meet his daughter. This time the gods talk to Hades. But there is a problem, the rules of the underworld are more important than a mother’s wish to have her child.
Persephone can never leave the underworld:
Persephone could not stand the hunger and ate exactly four pomegranates from among the fruits that Hades offered her, but because of those four pomegranate seeds, she can never come out of the underground again because according to the rule, ‘Those who eat anything in the land of the dead do not have the right to go to the earth.’
During the time Demeter was looking for her daughter, unable to find her and mingling with people, Hades had already taken things forward and made Persephone his wife and declared her the queen of the underworld. So there was little hope of reaching Demeter’s daughter Persephone, but a solution was found nonetheless.
Persephone comes, it becomes summer, when she leaves, it becomes winter:
Because of the four pomegranate seeds she ate, Persephone could never, ever get out of the underground for three months of the year. He could spend the remaining nine months on earth. Demeter, who received this news, flew into the air with joy. For nine months, he did not leave his daughter for a moment. In the meantime, abundance poured out from all over the world. Then the time has come.
After nine joyful months, Persephone was again forced to return to the underworld for three months. Of course, the heart of the mother does not understand the rule mural. Demeter lost herself again, she took her hands off the world and all the blessings fled. They say that even today it is winter because Demeter’s daughter Persephone had to go underground.
There are some interesting details about the legend:
It is said that Persephone had many children, but none of them were Hades fathers, but someone on earth during the nine months. They also say that Demeter fell in love with Hades because she allowed him to see his daughter.
In another story, Adonis, the love of Aphroidit, goes underground and when Persephone sees him and falls in love, he does not allow her to return to earth. In another story, Persephone, who was jealous of Hades’ love affair with a fairy girl named Minthe, trampled her under her feet, but Hades took pity on the fairy and turned her into a mint.
What does Persephone mean, what does it mean today?
Even though the story of Persephone dates back thousands of years, the details it has are downright chilling. Zeus and Demeter are in an incestuous relationship, the girl’s uncle falls in love with the girl, the girl’s father allows her brother to kidnap the girl. The girl is kidnapped, the father doesn’t care, the mother goes crazy, nobody cares, if the world doesn’t get dry, even the gods don’t care if the girl is kidnapped, Demeter falls in love because Hades, who kidnapped the girl, did a small favor; We haven’t seen anything like this even in TV series.
In the early narratives, Persephone is the symbol of purity and virginity, while Demeter is the symbol of fertility. They began to be called two goddesses in Greek mythology because of the bad events. Even today, a festival is organized with the participation of those who want to accompany Demeter’s lament.
We talked about the details of her remarkable story through the question of who is the goddess Persephone, who has one of the most tragic stories in Greek mythology. So even if you are a goddess, the woman has no name in this world.
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