10.
Persephone:
The Maiden and
Queen of the Underworld,
Receptive Woman and
Mother’s Daughter
PERSEPHONE THE GODDESS
The goddess Persephone, whom the Romans called Proserpina
or Cora, is best known through the Homeric “Hymn to Demeter,”
which describes her abduction by Hades. She was worshipped in
two ways, as the Maiden or the Kore (which means “young girl”),
and as Queen of the Underworld. The Kore was a slender, beautiful
young goddess, associated with symbols of fertility—the pomegran-
ate, grain, and corn, as well as the narcissus, the flower that lured
her. As Queen of the Underworld, Persephone is a mature goddess,
who reigns over the dead souls, guides the living who visit the un-
derworld, and claims for herself what she wants.
Although Persephone was not one of the twelve Olympians, she
was the central figure in the Eleusinian Mysteries, which for two
thousands years prior to Christianity was the major religion of the
Greeks. In the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Greeks experienced the re-
turn or renewal of life after death through Persephone’s annual re-
turn from the underworld.
GENEALOGY AND MYTHOLOGY
Persephone was the only daughter of Demeter and Zeus. Greek
mythology is unusually silent about the circumstances of her con-
ception.