The Mythology Book

50

HE SLIPPED A

POMEGRANATE,

SWEET AS HONEY,

INTO HER HAND

THE ABDUCTION OF PERSEPHONE

O

ne of classical Greece’s

Homeric Hymns refers to

Demeter as the “sacred

goddess with the glorious hair”—

her thick and lustrous golden

tresses were emblematic of the

abundance of the harvest. Demeter

was the goddess of the harvest,

charged with ensuring that the

fields were rich and fertile. Before

tragedy struck, there was no

winter, cold, or decay.

Demeter’s despair

One day, Demeter’s beloved

daughter Persephone was out

with some nymphs in one of Sicily’s

prettiest vales, picking flowers.

Persephone marveled at the “roses,

crocuses, lovely violets ... irises,

hyacinths, and narcissi,” exulting

in the beautiful colors and heady

fragrances of the scene.

When Persephone pulled a

narcissus from the ground, the

earth split and opened up beneath

her. A huge chariot thundered forth,

drawn by sable-black horses. As her

companions fled, Persephone stood

transfixed. A tall, shadowy figure

leaned down from the chariot and

scooped her up. Persephone’s uncle,

Hades, had come up from the

Underworld to take her as his bride.

Hades kidnaps Persephone in a

field of daffodils in British artist Walter

Crane’s The Fate of Persephone (1877).

The horses rear up between a sunlit

world and ominous darkness.

IN BRIEF

THEME

Life, death, and the

seasons

SOURCES

Theogony, Hesiod, ca. 700 bce;

Hymn to Demeter, Homer,

ca. 600 bce; Description of

Greece, Pausanias, ca. 150 ce.

SETTING

Sicily; the Underworld.

KEY FIGURES

Demeter Goddess of the

harvest, sister of Zeus

and Hades.

Persephone Demeter’s

daughter, who became the

queen of the Underworld.

Hades God of the Underworld

and Demeter’s brother.

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51

See also: The Olympian gods 24–31 ■ Hades and the Underworld 48–49 ■

Cupid and Psyche 112–13

ANCIENT GREECE

Persephone struggled and wept,

crying out for her father, Zeus. But

her pleas went unanswered. Some

versions of the myth suggest that

Zeus himself had played a part in

the abduction by conspiring with

his brother. Hades took Persephone

with him down into the gloomy

Underworld. He promised that she

would be queen of his subterranean

kingdom, revered and beloved by

all—but she was inconsolable.

Demeter’s despair

Persephone’s mother, Demeter,

was equally distraught. Frantically

combing the forests, fields, and

hills in search of her daughter, she

called out Persephone’s name over

and over again—but received no

reply. In her grief, Demeter blighted

the countryside, causing the crops

to die and all the leaves to turn

brown. It seemed as if the entire

earth had died. Eventually, the sun

god, Helios, told Demeter that her

brother Hades had snatched her

daughter and spirited her off to

his dismal realm. At this news,

Demeter was filled with rage, and

wrought yet more destruction upon

the earth. Hades’s abduction of

Persephone had set all of creation

askew. At last, Zeus was forced to

intervene in the quarrel between

his siblings. He ruled that, so long

as Persephone had not taken food

or drink since she arrived in the

Underworld, Hades must agree to

release her.

A seasonal solution

Unfortunately, Persephone had

eaten something in the Underworld.

Hades had given her a pomegranate,

the fruit of the dead, and she had

consumed several of the sweet

seeds. This resulted in a fresh

judgment from Zeus, who decided

that Persephone could return to the

world above—but she would have

to go back down to the Underworld

and reside with Hades for three

months of every year.

Persephone’s sentence

explained why, with the onset of

winter, the world appears to fade

and die, as Demeter mourns her

daughter’s absence. Then, as

spring approaches and Persephone

returns to the surface of the earth,

its fields and forests once again

come into bloom. ■

Eleusian mysteries

Priests at the shrine of Eleusis,

a settlement near Athens in

the region of Attica, developed

an elaborate set of ceremonies

based on the story of the

abduction of Persephone. The

“Eleusinian Mysteries” are

among the oldest and best

known of the secret religious

rites of the ancient Greeks.

By the Greek classical period

(5th–4th century bce), the

Eleusinian Mysteries were

already ancient. The cult

spread to Athens soon after

the annexation of Eleusis in

600 bce. As with similar rituals

in other early societies, the

Eleusinian cult strove to

assert a sense of control

over the growing cycle and

the seasons.

The highpoint of the

Eleusinian calendar came

toward the end of winter,

with ceremonies designed to

ensure the return of the sun

and the renewal of the earth.

The ceremonies involved rites

of personal purification,

animal sacrifices, libations (the

ritual pouring of wine onto the

earth), fasting, and feasting.

The priests of Eleusia honor

Demeter, Kybele, and Persephone

on this altar from Chalandri, Attica,

ca. 360 ce. The man is Iakhos,

leader of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Hades dragged

Persephone into his

speeding chariot

and she screamed

out loud.

Hymn to Demeter

Stealthily, though, Hades

slipped a pomegranate,

sweet as honey, into

Persephone’s hand.

Hymn to Demeter

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