Persefone - Proserpina/Persephone - Proserpina

Persefone

Persefone (dal greco Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), detta anche Kore (dal greco Κόρη, giovinetta), Kora, o Core, è una figura della mitologia greca, fondamentale nei Misteri Eleusini, entrata in quella romana come Proserpina. Essendo la sposa di Ade, era la dea minore degli Inferi e regina dell'oltretomba. Secondo il mito principale, nei sei mesi dell'anno (Autunno e Inverno) che passava nel regno dei morti, Persefone svolgeva la stessa funzione del suo consorte Ade, cioè governare su tutto l'oltretomba; negli altri sei mesi (Primavera ed Estate) ella andava sulla Terra da sua madre Demetra, facendo rifiorire la terra al suo passaggio. Qui Persefone non svolgeva alcuna funzione.  

Il mito di Persefone

Persefone era figlia di Demetra e Zeus, o, secondo un'altra leggenda, di Zeus e della dea omonima del fiume infernale Stige. Venne rapita dallo zio Ade, dio dell'oltretomba (la tradizione associa diverse località in cui avvenne il rapimento: Eleusi, Ermione, Feneo, Cnosso, Ipponio, Enna e Siracusa) anche se la più famosa è la zona di Enna, mentre raccoglie dei fiori nella piana di Nysa, insieme alle sue compagne, figlie di Oceano, dal prato fiorito spunta un narciso di straordinaria bellezza. Persefone, immersa in un sacro stupore (θαμβήσασ'), protende le mani per raccogliere il meraviglioso fiore quando dalla base del narciso si apre una voragine da cui emerge il re dei morti, Ade, che la porta via negli inferi per sposarla ancora fanciulla contro la sua volontà.
Fu madre di Agrianome. Una volta negli inferi le venne offerta della frutta, ed ella mangiò senza appetito solo sei semi di melograno. Persefone ignorava però che chi mangia i frutti degli inferi è costretto a rimanervi per l'eternità.
Il significato del melograno può certamente rimandare al matrimonio e alla fertilità. Secondo altre interpretazioni, il frutto che nel mito stabilisce il contatto con il regno dell'oltretomba non è il melograno ma, a causa delle sue virtù narcotiche e psicotrope, l'oppio, la cui capsula è peraltro straordinariamente simile (tranne le dimensioni, che sono più ridotte) proprio al frutto del melograno.

La ricerca di Demetra e il ritorno (periodico) di Persefone

La madre Demetra, dea della fertilità e dell'agricoltura, che prima di questo episodio procurava agli uomini interi anni di bel tempo e di raccolti, reagì disperata al rapimento, impedendo la crescita delle messi, scatenando un inverno duro che sembrava non avere mai fine. Furente nei confronti di Zeus, Demetra rifiutò quindi di tornare sull'Olimpo e, trasformatasi in una vecchia, si recò a Eleusi in Attica, dove venne accolta dal re Celeo.
Con l'intervento di Zeus si arrivò a un accordo, per cui, visto che Persefone non aveva mangiato un frutto intero, sarebbe rimasta nell'oltretomba solo per un numero di mesi equivalente al numero di semi da lei mangiati, potendo così trascorrere con la madre il resto dell'anno. Così Persefone avrebbe trascorso sei mesi con il marito negli inferi e sei mesi con la madre sulla terra. Demetra allora accoglieva con gioia il periodico ritorno di Persefone sulla Terra, facendo rifiorire la natura in primavera e in estate.
Se si suppone che Persefone sia rimasta con Ade per quattro mesi e con Demetra per otto mesi, corrispondenti agli otto mesi di crescita e abbondanza per essere seguiti da quattro mesi di assenza di produttività, si può vedere il parallelo con il clima mediterraneo dell'antica Grecia. I quattro mesi durante i quali Persefone è con Ade corrispondono alla secca estate greca, un periodo durante il quale le piante sono minacciate di siccità. All'inizio dell'autunno, quando i semi sono piantati, Persefone ritorna dagli inferi e si riunisce con sua madre, e il ciclo di crescita ricomincia.
Questa lettura del rituale, tuttavia, non quadra con il documento centrale di fondazione del mistero, l'Inno omerico a Demetra, verso 415, in cui si dice esplicitamente che Persefone ritorna nella primavera dell'anno, non nella caduta: "Questo fu il giorno [del ritorno di Persefone], proprio all'inizio della generosa primavera."
La rappresentazione del suo ritorno in terra era locata presso i prati di Vibo Valentia, celebri per i fiori dai colori sgargianti e per la loro bellezza, e ciò è testimoniato anche dalle numerosissime statuette greche ritrovate nel territorio Vibonese. Un elemento supplementare della vicenda consiste nel fatto che Demetra non seppe che la figlia aveva mangiato il melograno, finché non fu un giardiniere dell'Oltretomba, Ascalafo, a rivelarlo: vuoi che Persefone avesse mangiato di sua volontà, vuoi che fosse stata persuasa da Ade, in questo modo Demetra perse la possibilità di avere la figlia con sé tutto il tempo, e castigò Ascalafo trasformandolo in un barbagianni.
Persefone contese ad Afrodite il bell'Adone, riuscendo a trascinare la questione fin davanti a Zeus che preferì, per non scontentare nessuno, affidarlo separatamente a entrambe, in modo simile alla permanenza di Persefone stessa che era divisa fra gli dei dell'Olimpo e l'Ade.
Una tradizione diversa faceva di Persefone una figlia di Zeus e di Stige. Fu generata dal dio dopo la sconfitta dei Titani, avvenuta durante la Titanomachia. Nella mitologia romana a Persefone corrispondeva a Proserpina e a sua madre Demetra la dea Cerere, al cui culto era preposto un flamine minore.
Vi sono comunque altre versioni della leggenda. Secondo una di queste è Ecate a salvare Persefone. Una delle più diffuse dice che Persefone non fu indotta a mangiare i sei semi con l'inganno, ma lo fece volontariamente perché si era affezionata ad Ade.
Il mito di Persefone trae alcuni suoi elementi dalla mitologia mesopotamica, riassunti ne la Discesa di Inanna negli Inferi. In tale opera Inanna, recatasi nel Kurnugea (gli inferi sumeri) per recare le condoglianze alla sorella Ereshkigal, vi rimane intrappolata. Grazie a un sotterfugio riesce a tornare in superficie ma, in un momento d'ira nel trovare Dumuzi, il suo compagno, intento a oziare e non a preoccuparsi per la sua assenza, lo condanna a prendere il suo posto. Dumuzi riesce a fuggire dalla sorella Geshtinanna la quale si offre per passare sei mesi dell'anno negli inferi al posto suo. Dato che Dumizil e Geshtinanna erano considerati le divinità del malto e della vite, il mito spiega l'alternanza delle stagioni e fa riferimento ai diversi periodi di raccolta e produzione rispettivamente della birra e del vino.

Culto in Italia

Il maggiore culto nel mondo greco fuori dalla madrepatria era localizzato a Catania, come testimoniato da Cicerone nelle Verrine. Nel centro storico della città è venuto alla luce il più esteso deposito votivo greco esistente, la Stipe votiva di piazza San Francesco. Nel quartiere di Cibali, a nord della città, era presente una grotta da cui si diceva che fosse fuoriuscito il dio Ade per rapire la fanciulla Persefone. Tale cavità, talora identificata con la Grotta di San Giovanni nel quartiere di Galermo, è andata perduta.
Il mito di Demetra e Kore è strettamente legato al territorio di Enna e in particolare alla sua frazione del lago Pergusa. Diversi santuari di notevole importanza sono stati ritrovati all'interno dell'area archeologica di Morgantina, sita in Aidone, mentre a Enna si può ammirare la "Rocca di Cerere".
Testimonianze magno-greche del culto dedicato a Persefone sono oggi i molti reperti rinvenuti nell'area di Reggio Calabria, soprattutto presso gli scavi di Locri Epizefiri dei quali uno smisurato numero di Pinakes (tavolette votive in terracotta) è custodito al Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia di Reggio Calabria; mentre la magnifica "Statua di Persefone" esposta oggi all'Altes Museum di Berlino, fu rinvenuta in Via Duca degli Abruzzi n. 73 a Taranto e trafugata da Taranto nel 1912, e dopo varie vicissitudini fu acquistata dal Governo tedesco per un milione di marchi. Un'ulteriore testimonianza del culto di Persefone ci viene da Oria, dove fu presente e attivo dal VI secolo a.C. fino all'età romana, un importante santuario (oggi sito presso Monte Papalucio), dedicato alle divinità Demetra e Persefone.
Qui vi si svolgevano culti in grotta legati alla fertilità. Gli scavi archeologici svolti negli anni ottanta, infatti, hanno evidenziato numerosi resti composti di maialini (legati alle due divinità) e di melograno. Inoltre, a sottolineare l'importanza del santuario, sono state rinvenute monete di gran parte della Magna Grecia, e migliaia di vasi accumulatisi nel corso dei secoli come deposito votivo lungo il fianco della collina. Di particolare interesse sono alcuni vasetti miniaturistici e alcune statuette raffiguranti colombe e maialini sacri alle due divinità cui era dedicato il luogo di culto. Altri esempi di ritrovamenti della Kore si hanno a Gela, una delle colonie greche di Sicilia. Diversi reperti sono custoditi presso il Museo archeologico regionale di Gela.

Nella cultura di massa

• Persefone é la principale antagonista del videogioco God of War: Chains of Olympus,in cui vuole far crollare i pilastri che sostengono il mondo,causando la distruzione di tutto e di tutti,incluso degli dei e degli inferi,così da liberarsi per sempre del marito Ade.
• Persefone fa una breve apparizione nella saga Percy Jackson e gli dei dell'Olimpo.

Persefone apre la cesta (λίκνον) mistica (μυστικών) contenente gli oggetti sacri propri dell'iniziazione. Pinax (πίναξ) rivenuta nel santuario di Persefone a Locri, risalente al V sec. a.C. e conservata al Museo archeologico nazionale di Reggio Calabria

Proserpina

Prosèrpina (lat. Proserpĭna) è la versione romana della dea greca Persefone o Kore (gr. κόρη, fanciulla). Il nome potrebbe derivare dalla parola latina proserpere ("emergere") a significare la crescita del grano. Infatti, in origine, fu senza dubbio una dea agreste. Viene anche identificata con la dea Libera.
Proserpina era figlia di Cerere; rapita da Plutone re dell'Ade mentre coglieva i fiori sulle rive del lago Pergusa a Enna e trascinata sulla sua biga trainata da quattro cavalli neri, ne divenne la sposa e fu regina degli Inferi. Secondo Proclo (Epitome Oraculorum, riportata da Marafiotus) e Strabone (lib. 6), invece l'episodio del mito si verificò a Hipponion (oggi Vibo Valentia). Dopo che la madre ebbe chiesto a Giove di farla liberare, poté ritornare in superficie, a patto che trascorresse sei mesi all'anno ancora con Plutone. Cerere faceva calare il freddo ed il gelo durante i mesi in cui la figlia era assente come segno di dolore, per poi far risvegliare la natura per il ritorno di Proserpina sulla terra.
Il suo culto a Roma fu introdotto accanto a quello di Dis Pater (assimilato a Ade), nel 249 a.C. Si celebrarono allora in loro onore i Giochi Tarantini, così chiamati da una località nel campo di Marte, il Tarentum. Oggi è a lei intitolata l'Università Kore di Enna, città alla quale Proserpina era profondamente legata, e a Proserpina erano dedicate le Cotittie, antiche feste erotiche nate in Tracia e poi diffusesi nel resto della Grecia.

Il mito

Il ratto di Proserpina è un mito tra i più celebri della tradizione pagana siciliana, ritratto pertanto in diverse e pregevoli opere d'arte come il gruppo scultoreo del Bernini.

Il ratto si realizzò sul lago di Pergusa, nelle vicinanze di Enna. Secondo Proclo (Epitome Oraculorum, riportata da Marafiotus) e Strabone (lib. 6), invece l'episodio del mito si verificò a Hipponion (oggi Vibo Valentia).

«Plutone, dio degli inferi, stanco delle tenebre del suo regno, decise un giorno di affiorare alla luce e vedere un po' di questo mondo... Dopo un lungo e faticoso cammino emerse infine su una pianura bellissima, posta a mezza costa del monte Enna. Era Pergusa, dal lago ceruleo, alimentato da ruscelli armoniosi e illeggiadriti da fiori di tante varietà che mischiando i profumi creavano soavi odori e così intensi da inebriare... Ad un tratto, volgendo lo sguardo, scorse in un prato un gruppo di fanciulle che coglievano fiori con movenze leggere, fiori tra i fiori»

(Claudiano Strabone)

Dal racconto del celebre poeta Claudiano, Plutone, re degli inferi, deciso a visitare la terra, emerse nei pressi di Enna, sui Monti Erei nel centro della Sicilia, e scorse Proserpina, figlia della dea Cerere, tra le tante fanciulle intente a cogliere fiori sulle rive del lago di Pergusa. Dal racconto che ne fa Strabone, che riporta Proclo, l'episodio del ratto si realizzò sul lido di Hipponion, sul mare Tirreno, dove il pirata Plutone arrivò dalla Sicilia e rapì Proserpina.

«[Plutone] si precipitò verso di lei [Proserpina], che, scortolo, così nero e gigantesco, con quegli occhi di fuoco e le mani protese ad artigliarla, fu colta dal terrore e fuggì leggera assieme alle compagne... Il dio dell'Ade, in due falcate le fu addosso e l'abbracciò voracemente e via col dolce peso; la pose sul cocchio, invano ostacolato da una giovinetta, Ciane, compagna di Proserpina, che tentò di fermare i cavalli, ché il dio infuriato la trasformò in fonte. Ancora oggi Ciane, con i suoi papiri, porta le sue limpide acque a Siracusa»

(Claudiano)

Cerere, madre di Proserpina e dea dell'Olimpo, fu disperata alla notizia della scomparsa della figlia, e invocò l'aiuto di Giove, re di tutti gli dei, per aiutarla a ritrovare la bella Proserpina.

«Dopo nove giorni e nove notti insonni di dolore, decise di rivolgersi a Giove per impetrarlo di farle riavere la figlia; ma Giove nicchiava (come poteva tradire suo fratello Plutone?). Allora Cerere, folle di dolore, decise di provocare una grande siccità in tutta la terra. E dopo la siccità venne la carestia e gli uomini e le bestie morivano in grande quantità. Non valevano invocazioni e scongiuri alla dea, che era irremovibile. Giove inviò Mercurio da Plutone per imporgli di restituire Proserpina alla madre. A Plutone non restò che obbedire. Però, prima di farla partire, fece mangiare alla sua amata dei chicchi di melograno»

(Claudiano)

I succosi chicchi di melograno legarono Proserpina all'Ade per sempre. Zeus, tuttavia, mosso a compassione, fece sì che Proserpina potesse trascorrere sei mesi ogni anno insieme alla madre (sarebbero l'estate e la primavera), e che i sei mesi restanti vivesse insieme a Plutone (ovvero autunno e inverno): è proprio al mito di Proserpina e all'ira di Cerere, infatti, che si fa risalire l'alternanza delle stagioni.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Proserpina (1874); olio su tela, 125,1×61 cm, Tate Britain, Londra

Persephone

In Greek mythology, Persephone (/pərˈsɛfəni/ pər-SEF-ə-nee; Greek: Περσεφόνη), also called Kore (/ˈkɔːriː/ KOR-ee; "the maiden"), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic queen of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. She becomes the queen of the underworld through her abduction by and subsequent marriage to Hades, the god of the underworld. The myth of her abduction represents her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she is also associated with spring as well as the fertility of vegetation. Similar myths appear in the Orient, in the cults of male gods like Attis, Adonis, and Osiris, and in Minoan Crete.
Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised the initiated a more enjoyable prospect after death. In some versions, Persephone is the mother of Zeus' sons Dionysus, Iacchus, or Zagreus. The origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on very old agrarian cults of agricultural communities.
Persephone was commonly worshipped along with Demeter and with the same mysteries. To her alone were dedicated the mysteries celebrated at Athens in the month of Anthesterion. In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades.
In Roman mythology, she is called Proserpina.

Name

Etymology

In a Linear B (Mycenean Greek) inscription on a tablet found at Pylos dated 1400–1200 BC, John Chadwick reconstructed^{[n 1]} the name of a goddess *Preswa who could be identified with Persa, daughter of Oceanus and found speculative the further identification with the first element of Persephone. Persephonē (Greek: Περσεφόνη) is her name in the Ionic Greek of epic literature. The Homeric form of her name is Persephoneia (Περσεφονεία, Persephoneia). In other dialects, she was known under variant names: Persephassa (Περσεφάσσα), Persephatta (Περσεφάττα), or simply Korē (Κόρη, "girl, maiden"). Plato calls her Pherepapha (Φερέπαφα) in his Cratylus, "because she is wise and touches that which is in motion". There are also the forms Periphona (Πηριφόνα) and Phersephassa (Φερσέφασσα). The existence of so many different forms shows how difficult it was for the Greeks to pronounce the word in their own language and suggests that the name may have a Pre-Greek origin.
Persephatta (Περσεφάττα) is considered to mean "female thresher of grain"; the first constituent of the name originates in Proto-Greek "perso-" (related to Sanskrit "parṣa-"), "sheaf of grain" and the second constituent of the name originates in Proto-Indo European *-gʷn-t-ih, from the root *gʷʰen- "to strike".
A popular folk etymology is from φέρειν φόνον, pherein phonon, "to bring (or cause) death".

Roman Proserpina

The Romans first heard of her from the Aeolian and Dorian cities of Magna Graecia, who used the dialectal variant Proserpinē (Προσερπίνη). Hence, in Roman mythology she was called Proserpina, a name erroneously derived by the Romans from proserpere, "to shoot forth" and as such became an emblematic figure of the Renaissance.
At Locri, perhaps uniquely, Persephone was the protector of marriage, a role usually assumed by Hera; in the iconography of votive plaques at Locri, her abduction and marriage to Hades served as an emblem of the marital state, children at Locri were dedicated to Proserpina, and maidens about to be wed brought their peplos to be blessed.

Nestis

In a Classical period text ascribed to Empedocles, c. 490 – 430 BC,^{[n 2]} describing a correspondence among four deities and the classical elements, the name Nestis for water apparently refers to Persephone: "Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus. And Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears."
Of the four deities of Empedocles' elements, it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo—Nestis is a euphemistic cult title^{[n 3]}—for she was also the terrible Queen of the Dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was euphemistically named simply as Kore or "the Maiden", a vestige of her archaic role as the deity ruling the underworld.

Titles and functions

The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as chthonic and vegetation goddess. The surnames given to her by the poets refer to her character as Queen of the lower world and the dead, or her symbolic meaning of the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. Her common name as a vegetation goddess is Kore, and in Arcadia she was worshipped under the title Despoina, "the mistress", a very old chthonic divinity. Plutarch identifies her with spring and Cicero calls her the seed of the fruits of the fields. In the Eleusinian mysteries, her return is the symbol of immortality and hence she was frequently represented on sarcophagi.
In the mystical theories of the Orphics and the Platonists, Kore is described as the all-pervading goddess of nature who both produces and destroys everything, and she is therefore mentioned along or identified with other mystic divinities such as Isis, Rhea, Ge, Hestia, Pandora, Artemis, and Hecate. The Orphic Persephone is further said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus, Iacchus, Zagreus, and the little-attested Melinoe.

Epithets

As a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically friendly names. However it is possible that some of them were the names of original goddesses:

• Despoina (dems-potnia) "the mistress" (literally "the mistress of the house") in Arcadia.
• Hagne, "pure", originally a goddess of the springs in Messenia.
• Melindia or Melinoia (meli, "honey"), as the consort of Hades, in Hermione. (Compare Hecate, Melinoe)
• Melivia
• Melitodes
• Aristi cthonia, "the best chthonic".
• Praxidike, the Orphic Hymn to Persephone identifies Praxidike as an epithet of Persephone: "Praxidike, subterranean queen. The Eumenides' source [mother], fair-haired, whose frame proceeds from Zeus' ineffable and secret seeds."

As a vegetation goddess, she was called:

• Kore, "the maiden".
• Kore Soteira, "the savior maiden", in Megalopolis.
• Neotera, "the younger", in Eleusis.
• Kore of Demeter Hagne in the Homeric hymn.
• Kore memagmeni, "the mixed daughter" (bread).

Demeter and her daughter Persephone were usually called:

• The goddesses, often distinguished as "the older" and "the younger" in Eleusis.
• Demeters, in Rhodes and Sparta
• The thesmophoroi, "the legislators" in the Thesmophoria.
• The Great Goddesses, in Arcadia.
• The mistresses in Arcadia.
• Karpophoroi, "the bringers of fruit", in Tegea of Arcadia.

Origins of the cult

The myth of a goddess being abducted and taken to the Underworld is probably Pre-Greek in origin. Samuel Noah Kramer, the renowned scholar of ancient Sumer, has posited that the Greek story of the abduction of Persephone may be derived from an ancient Sumerian story in which Ereshkigal, the ancient Sumerian goddess of the Underworld, is abducted by Kur, the primeval dragon of Sumerian mythology, and forced to become ruler of the Underworld against her own will.
The location of Persephone's abduction is different in each local cult. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter mentions the "plain of Nysa". The locations of this probably mythical place may simply be conventions to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past. Demeter found and met her daughter in Eleusis, and this is the mythical disguise of what happened in the mysteries.
Persephone is an old chthonic deity of the agricultural communities, who received the souls of the dead into the earth, and acquired powers over the fertility of the soil, over which she reigned. The earliest depiction of a goddess who may be identified with Persephone growing out of the ground, is on a plate from the Old-Palace period in Phaistos. The goddess has a vegetable-like appearance, and she is surrounded by dancing girls between blossoming flowers. A similar representation, where the goddess appears to come down from the sky, is depicted on the Minoan ring of Isopata.
In some forms Hades appears with his chthonic horses. The myth of the rape of Kore was derived from the idea that Hades catches the souls of the dead and then carries them with his horses into his kingdom. This idea is vague in Homer, but appears in later Greek depictions, and in Greek folklore. "Charos" appears with his horse and carries the dead into the underworld.
The cults of Persephone and Demeter in the Eleusinian mysteries and in the Thesmophoria were based on old agrarian cults. A lot of ancient beliefs were based on initiation into jealously-guarded mysteries (secret rites) because they offered prospects after death more enjoyable than the final end at the gloomy space of the Greek Hades. There is evidence that some practices were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenaean age. Kerenyi asserts that these religious practices were introduced from Minoan Crete., The idea of immortality which appears in the syncretistic religions of the Near East did not exist in the Eleusinian mysteries at the very beginning.

Near East and Minoan Crete

In the Near eastern myth of the early agricultural societies, every year the fertility goddess bore the "god of the new year", who then became her lover, and died immediately in order to be reborn and face the same destiny. Some findings from Catal Huyuk since the Neolithic age, indicate the worship of the Great Goddess accompanied by a boyish consort, who symbolizes the annual decay and return of vegetation. Similar cults of resurrected gods appear in the Near East and Egypt in the cults of Attis, Adonis and Osiris.
In Minoan Crete, the "divine child" was related to the female vegetation divinity Ariadne who died every year. The Minoan religion had its own characteristics. The most peculiar feature of the Minoan belief in the divine, is the appearance of the goddess from above in the dance. Dance floors have been discovered in addition to "vaulted tombs", and it seems that the dance was ecstatic. Homer memorializes the dance floor which Daedalus built for Ariadne in the remote past. On the gold ring from Isopata, four women in festal attire are performing a dance between blossoming flowers. Above a figure apparently floating in the air seems to be the goddess herself, appearing amid the whirling dance. An image plate from the first palace of Phaistos, seems to be very close to the mythical image of the Anodos (ascent) of Persephone. Two girls dance between blossoming flowers, on each side of a similar but armless and legless figure which seems to grow out of the ground. The goddess is bordered by snake lines which give her a vegetable like appearance She has a large stylized flower turned over her head. The resemblance with the flower-picking Persephone and her companions is compelling The depiction of the goddess is similar to later images of "Anodos of Pherephata". On the Dresden vase, Persephone is growing out of the ground, and she is surrounded by the animal-tailed agricultural gods Silenoi.
Kerenyi suggests that the name Ariadne (derived from ἁγνή, hagne, "pure"), was an euphemistical name given by the Greeks to the nameless "Mistress of the labyrinth" who appears in a Mycenean Greek inscription from Knossos in Crete. The Greeks used to give friendly names to the deities of the underworld. Cthonic Zeus was called Eubuleus, "the good counselor", and the ferryman of the river of the underworld Charon, "glad". Despoina and "Hagne" were probably euphemistic surnames of Persephone, therefore he theorizes that the cult of Persephone was the continuation of the worship of a Minoan Great goddess. The labyrinth was both a winding dance-ground and, in the Greek view, a prison with the dreaded Minotaur at its centre. It is possible that some religious practices, especially the mysteries, were transferred from a Cretan priesthood to Eleusis, where Demeter brought the poppy from Crete. Besides these similarities, Burkert explains that up to now it is not known to what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and Mycenean religion. In the Anthesteria Dionysos is the "divine child".

Mycenean Greece

There is evidence of a cult in Eleusis from the Mycenean period; however, there are not sacral finds from this period. The cult was private and there is no information about it. As well as the names of some Greek gods in the Mycenean Greek inscriptions, also appear names of goddesses, like "the divine Mother" (the mother of the gods) or "the Goddess (or priestess) of the winds", who don't have Mycenean origin . In historical times, Demeter and Kore were usually referred to as "the goddesses" or "the mistresses" (Arcadia) in the mysteries . In the Mycenean Greek tablets dated 1400–1200 BC, the "two queens and the king" are mentioned. John Chadwick believes that these were the precursor divinities of Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.
Some information can be obtained from the study of the cult of Eileithyia at Crete, and the cult of Despoina. In the cave of Amnisos at Crete, Eileithyia is related with the annual birth of the divine child and she is connected with Enesidaon (The earth shaker), who is the chthonic aspect of the god Poseidon. Persephone was conflated with Despoina, "the mistress", a chthonic divinity in West-Arcadia. The megaron of Eleusis is quite similar with the "megaron" of Despoina at Lycosura. Demeter is united with the god Poseidon, and she bears a daughter, the unnameable Despoina. Poseidon appears as a horse, as it usually happens in Northern European folklore. The goddess of nature and her companion survived in the Eleusinian cult, where the following words were uttered "Mighty Potnia bore a great sun". In Eleusis, in a ritual, one child ("pais") was initiated from the hearth. The name pais (the divine child) appears in the Mycenean inscriptions, and the ritual indicates the transition from the old funerary practices to the Greek cremation.
In Greek mythology Nysa is a mythical mountain with an unknown location. Nysion (or Mysion), the place of the abduction of Persephone was also probably a mythical place which did not exist on the map, a magically distant chthonic land of myth which was intended in the remote past.

Mythology

Abduction myth

The story of her abduction by Hades can be seen as either consensual or against her will, is traditionally referred to as the Rape of Persephone. It is mentioned briefly in Hesiod's Theogony, and told in considerable detail in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Persephone used to live far away from the other gods, a goddess within Nature herself before the days of planting seeds and nurturing plants. In the Olympian telling, the gods Ares, Hermes and Apollo had wooed Persephone; but Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the Olympian gods. Zeus, it is said, permitted Hades, who was in love with the beautiful Persephone, to abduct her as her mother Demeter was not likely to allow her daughter to go down to Hades. Persephone was gathering flowers with the Oceanids along with Artemis and Athena—the Homeric Hymn says—in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. Demeter, when she found her daughter had disappeared, searched for her all over the earth with Hecate's torches. In most versions she forbids the earth to produce, or she neglects the earth and in the depth of her despair she causes nothing to grow. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened and at length she discovered the place of her abode. Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone.
Hades indeed complied with the request, but first he tricked her, giving her some pomegranate seeds to eat. Persephone was released by Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, but because she had tasted food in the underworld, she was obliged to spend a third of each year (the winter months) there, and the remaining part of the year with the gods above. With the later writers Ovid and Hyginus, Persephone's time in the underworld becomes half the year.
Various local traditions place Persephone's abduction in a different location. The Sicilians, among whom her worship was probably introduced by the Corinthian and Megarian colonists, believed that Hades found her in the meadows near Enna, and that a well arose on the spot where he descended with her into the lower world. The Cretans thought that their own island had been the scene of the rape, and the Eleusinians mentioned the Nysian plain in Boeotia, and said that Persephone had descended with Hades into the lower world at the entrance of the western Oceanus. Later accounts place the rape in Attica, near Athens, or near EleusisThe Homeric hymn mentions the Nysion (or Mysion) which was probably a mythical place. The location of this mythical place may simply be a convention to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past. Before Persephone was abducted by Hades, the shepherd Eumolpus and the swineherd Eubuleus saw a girl in a black chariot driven by an invisible driver being carried off into the earth which had violently opened up. Eubuleus was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld when Persephone was abducted by Plouton. His swine were swallowed by the earth along with her, and the myth is an etiology for the relation of pigs with the ancient rites in Thesmophoria, and in Eleusis.
In the hymn, Persephone returns and she is reunited with her mother near Eleusis. Demeter as she has been promised established her mysteries (orgies) when the Eleusinians built for her a temple near the spring of Callichorus. These were awful mysteries which were not allowed to be uttered. The uninitiated would spend a miserable existence in the gloomy space of Hades after death.^{[n 4]}
In some versions, Ascalaphus informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. When Demeter and her daughter were reunited, the Earth flourished with vegetation and color, but for some months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm. This is an origin story to explain the seasons.
In an earlier version, Hecate rescued Persephone. On an Attic red-figured bell krater of c. 440 BC in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Persephone is rising as if up stairs from a cleft in the earth, while Hermes stands aside; Hecate, holding two torches, looks back as she leads her to the enthroned Demeter.
The 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda introduces a goddess of a blessed afterlife assured to Orphic mystery initiates. This Macaria is asserted to be the daughter of Hades, but no mother is mentioned.

Interpretation of the myth

In the myth Pluto abducts Persephone to be his wife and the queen of his realm (this is the myth which explains their marriage). Pluto (Πλούτων, Ploutōn) was a name for the ruler of the underworld; the god was also known as Hades, a name for the underworld itself. The name Pluton was conflated with that of Ploutos (Πλούτος Ploutos, "wealth"), a god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground, and because Pluto as a chthonic god ruled the deep earth that contained the seeds necessary for a bountiful harvest. Plouton is lord of the dead, but as Persephone's husband he has serious claims to the powers of fertility.
In the Theogony of Hesiod, Demeter was united with the hero Iasion in Crete and she bore Ploutos. This union seems to be a reference to a hieros gamos (ritual copulation) to ensure the earth's fertility. This ritual copulation appears in Minoan Crete, in many Near Eastern agricultural societies, and also in the Anthesteria.^{[n 5]}
Nilsson believes that the original cult of Ploutos (or Pluto) in Eleusis was similar with the Minoan cult of the "divine child", who died in order to be reborn. The child was abandoned by his mother and then it was brought up by the powers of nature. Similar myths appear in the cults of Hyakinthos (Amyklai), Erichthonios (Athens), and later in the cult of Dionysos.
The Greek version of the abduction myth is related to grain – important and rare in the Greek environment – and the return (ascent) of Persephone was celebrated at the autumn sowing. Pluto (Ploutos) represents the wealth of the grain that was stored in underground silos or ceramic jars (pithoi), during summer months. Similar subterranean pithoi were used in ancient times for burials and Pluto is fused with Hades, the King of the realm of the dead. During summer months, the Greek grain-Maiden (Kore) is lying in the grain of the underground silos in the realm of Hades, and she is fused with Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld. At the beginning of the autumn, when the seeds of the old crop are laid on the fields, she ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter, for at that time the old crop and the new meet each other. For the initiated, this union was the symbol of the eternity of human life that flows from the generations which spring from each other.

Arcadian myths

The primitive myths of isolated Arcadia seem to be related to the first Greek-speaking people who came from the north-east during the bronze age. Despoina (the mistress), the goddess of the Arcadian mysteries, is the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon Hippios (horse), who represents the river spirit of the underworld that appears as a horse as often happens in northern-European folklore. He pursues the mare-Demeter and from the union she bears the horse Arion and a daughter who originally had the form or the shape of a mare. The two goddesses were not clearly separated and they were closely connected with the springs and the animals. They were related with the god of rivers and springs; Poseidon and especially with Artemis, the Mistress of the Animals who was the first nymph. According to the Greek tradition a hunt-goddess preceded the harvest goddess. In Arcadia, Demeter and Persephone were often called Despoinai (Δέσποιναι, "the mistresses") in historical times. They are the two Great Goddesses of the Arcadian cults, and evidently they come from a more primitive religion. The Greek god Poseidon probably substituted the companion (Paredros, Πάρεδρος) of the Minoan Great goddess in the Arcadian mysteries.

Queen of the Underworld

Persephone held an ancient role as the dread queen of the Underworld, within which tradition it was forbidden to speak her name. This tradition comes from her conflation with the very old chthonic divinity Despoina (the mistress), whose real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated to her mysteries. As goddess of death she was also called a daughter of Zeus and Styx, the river that formed the boundary between Earth and the underworld. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic queen of the shades, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead, along with her husband Hades. In the reformulation of Greek mythology expressed in the Orphic Hymns, Dionysus and Melinoe are separately called children of Zeus and Persephone. Groves sacred to her stood at the western extremity of the earth on the frontiers of the lower world, which itself was called "house of Persephone".
Her central myth served as the context for the secret rites of regeneration at Eleusis, which promised immortality to initiates.

Cult of Persephone

Persephone was worshipped along with her mother Demeter and in the same mysteries. Her cults included agrarian magic, dancing, and rituals. The priests used special vessels and holy symbols, and the people participated with rhymes. In Eleusis there is evidence of sacred laws and other inscriptions.
The Cult of Demeter and the Maiden is found at Attica, in the main festivals Thesmophoria and Eleusinian mysteries and in a lot of local cults. These festivals were almost always celebrated at the autumn sowing, and at full-moon according to the Greek tradition. In some local cults the feasts were dedicated to Demeter.

Thesmophoria

Thesmophoria, were celebrated in Athens, and the festival was widely spread in Greece. This was a festival of secret women-only rituals connected with marriage customs and commemorated the third of the year, in the month Pyanepsion, when Kore was abducted and Demeter abstained from her role as goddess of harvest and growth. The ceremony involved sinking sacrifices into the earth by night and retrieving the decaying remains of pigs that had been placed in the megara of Demeter (trenches and pits or natural clefts in rock), the previous year. These were placed on altars, mixed with seeds, then planted. Pits rich in organic matter at Eleusis have been taken as evidence that the Thesmophoria was held there as well as in other demes of Attica. This agrarian magic was also used in the cult of the earth-goddesses potniai (mistresses) in the Cabeirian, and in Knidos.
The festival was celebrated over three days. The first was the "way up" to the sacred space, the second, the day of feasting when they ate pomegranate seeds and the third was a meat feast in celebration of Kalligeneia a goddess of beautiful birth. Zeus penetrated the mysteries as Zeus- Eubuleus which is an euphemistical name of Hades (Chthonios Zeus). In the original myth which is an etiology for the ancient rites, Eubuleus was a swineherd who was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld when Persephone was abducted by Plouton. His swine were swallowed by the earth along with her.

Eleusinian mysteries

The Eleusinian mysteries was a festival celebrated at the autumn sowing in the city of Eleusis. Inscriptions refer to "the Goddesses" accompanied by the agricultural god Triptolemos (probably son of Ge and Oceanus), and "the God and the Goddess" (Persephone and Plouton) accompanied by Eubuleus who probably led the way back from the underworld. The myth was represented in a cycle with three phases: the "descent", the "search", and the "ascent", with contrasted emotions from sorrow to joy which roused the mystae to exultation. The main theme was the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother Demeter. The festival activities included dancing, probably across the Rharian field, where according to the myth the first grain grew.
At the beginning of the feast, the priests filled two special vessels and poured them out, the one towards the west, and the other towards the east. The people looking both to the sky and the earth shouted in a magical rhyme "rain and conceive". In a ritual, a child was initiated from the hearth (the divine fire). It was the ritual of the "divine child" who originally was Ploutos. In the Homeric hymn the ritual is connected with the myth of the agricultural god Triptolemos The high point of the celebration was "an ear of grain cut in silence", which represented the force of the new life. The idea of immortality didn't exist in the mysteries at the beginning, but the initiated believed that they would have a better fate in the underworld. Death remained a reality, but at the same time a new beginning like the plant which grows from the buried seed. In the earliest depictions Persephone is an armless and legless deity, who grows out of the ground.

Local cults

Local cults of Demeter and Kore existed in Greece, Asia Minor, Sicily, Magna Graecia, and Libya.

• Attica:
  • Athens, in the mysteries of Agrae. This was a local cult near the river Ilissos. They were celebrated during spring in the month Anthesterion. Later they became an obligation for the participants of the "greater" Eleusinian mysteries. There was a temple of Demeter and Kore and an image of Triptolemos.
  • Piraeus: The Skirophoria, a festival related to the Thesmophoria.
  • Megara: Cult of Demeter thesmophoros and Kore. The city was named after its megara .
  • Aegina: Cult of Demeter thesmophoros and Kore.
  • Phlya, near Koropi, in the mysteries of Phlya: These have very old roots and were probably originally dedicated to Demeter Anesidora, Kore, and Zeus Ktesios, who was the god of the underground stored grain. Pausanias mentions a temple of Demeter-Anesidora, Kore Protogone, and Zeus Ktesios. The surname Protogonos, indicates a later Orphic influence. It seems that the mysteries were related to the mysteries of Andania in Messene.

• Boeotia:

• • Thebes, which Zeus is said to have given to her as an acknowledgement for a favour she had bestowed upon him. Pausanias records a grove of Cabeirian Demeter and the Maid, three miles outside the gates of Thebes, where a ritual was performed, so-called on the grounds that Demeter gave it to the Cabeiri, who established it at Thebes. The Thebans told Pausanias that some inhabitants of Naupactus had performed the same rituals there, and had met with divine vengeance. The Cabeirian mysteries were introduced from Asia Minor at the end of the archaic period. Nothing is known of the older cult, and it seems that the Cabeiri were originally wine-daemons. Inscriptions from the temple in Thebes mention the old one as Cabir, and the new one as son (pais), who are different. According to Pausanias, Pelarge, the daughter of Potnieus, was connected with the cult of Demeter in the Cabeirian (potniai).
  • A feast in Boeotia, in the month Demetrios (Pyanepsion), probably similar with the Thesmophoria.
  • Thebes: Cult of Demeter and Kore in a feast named Thesmophoria but probably different. It was celebrated in the summer month Bukatios.
• Peloponnese (except Arcadia)
  • Hermione: An old cult of Demeter Chthonia, Kore, and Klymenos (Hades). Cows were pushed into the temple, and then they were killed by four women. It is possible that Hermione was a mythical name, the place of the souls.
  • Asine: Cult of Demeter Chthonia. The cult seems to be related to the original cult of Demeter in Hermione.
  • Lakonia: Temple of Demeter Eleusinia near Taygetos. The feast was named Eleuhinia, and the name was given before the relation of Demeter with the cult of Eleusis.
  • Lakonia at Aigila: Dedicated to Demeter. Men were excluded.
  • near Sparta: Cult of Demeter and Kore, the Demeters (Δαμάτερες, "Damaters"). According to Hesychius, the feast lasted three days (Thesmophoria).
  • Corinth: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Pluton.
  • Triphylia in Elis: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Hades.
  • Pellene: Dedicated to the Mysian Demeter. Men were excluded. The next day, men and women became naked.
  • Andania in Messenia (near the borders of Arcadia): Cult of the Great goddesses, Demeter and Hagne. Hagne, a goddess of the spring, was the original deity before Demeter. The temple was built near a spring.
• Arcadia
  • Pheneos : Mysteries of Demeter Thesmia and Demeter Eleusinia. The Eleusinian cult was introduced later. The priest took the holy book from a natural cleft. He used the mask of Demeter Kidaria, and he hit his stick on the earth, in a kind of agrarian magic. An Arcadian dance was named kidaris.
  • Pallantion near Tripoli: Cult of Demeter and Kore.
  • Karyai: Cult of Kore and Pluton.
  • Tegea: Cult of Demeter and Kore, the Karpophoroi, "Fruit givers".
  • Megalopolis: Cult of the Great goddesses, Demeter and Kore Sotira, "the savior".
  • Mantineia: Cult of Demeter and Kore in the fest Koragia.
  • Trapezus: Mysteries of the Great goddesses, Demeter and Kore. The temple was built near a spring, and a fire was burning out of the earth.
  • near Thelpusa in Onkeion: Temple of Demeter Erinys (vengeful) and Demeter Lusia (bathing). In the myth Demeter was united with Poseidon Hippios (horse) and bore the horse Arion and the unnamed. The name Despoina was given in West Arcadia.
  • Phigalia: Cult of the mare-headed Demeter (black), and Despoina. Demeter was depicted in her archaic form, a Medusa type with a horse's head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin. The temple was built near a spring.
  • Lycosura,
    
    
    Cult of Demeter and Despoina. In the portico of the temple of Despoina there was a tablet with the inscriptions of the mysteries. In front of the temple there was an altar to Demeter and another to Despoine, after which was one of the Great Mother. By the sides stood Artemis and Anytos, the Titan who brought up Despoine. Besides the temple, there was also a hall where the Arcadians celebrated the mysteries A fire was always burning in front of the temple of Pan (the goat-god), the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks. In a relief appear dancing animal-headed women (or with animal-masks) in a procession. Near the temple have been found terracotta figures with human bodies, and heads of animals.
• Islands
  • Paros: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Eubuleus.
  • Amorgos: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Eubuleus.
  • Delos: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Eubuleus. Probably a different feast with the name Thesmophoria, celebrated in a summer month (the same month in Thebes). Two big loaves of bread were offered to the two goddesses. Another feast was named Megalartia.
  • Mykonos: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Buleus.
  • Crete : Cult of Demeter and Kore, in the month Thesmophorios.
  • Rhodes: Cult of Demeter and Kore, in the month Thesmophorios. The two goddesses are the Damaters in an inscription from Lindos
• Asia Minor
  • Knidos: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Pluton. Agrarian magic similar to the one used in Thesmophoria and in the cult of the potniai (Cabeirian).
  • Ephesos : Cult of Demeter and Kore, celebrated at night-time.
  • Priene: Cult of Demeter and Kore, similar to the Thesmophoria.
• Sicily

• • Syracuse: There was a harvest festival of Demeter and Persephone at Syracuse when the grain was ripe (about May).
  • A fest Koris katagogi, the descent of Persephone into the underworld.
• Magna Graecia
  • Epizephyrian Locri: A temple associated with childbirth; its treasure was looted by Pyrrhus.
  • Archaeological finds suggest that worship of Demeter and Persephone was widespread in Sicily and Greek Italy.
• Libya
  • Cyrene: Temple of Demeter and Kore

Ancient literary references

• Homer:
  • Iliad:
    • "the gods fulfilled his curse, even Zeus of the nether world and dread Persephone." (9, line 457; A. T. Murray, trans)
    • "Althea prayed instantly to the gods, being grieved for her brother's slaying; and furthermore instantly beat with her hands upon the all-nurturing earth, calling upon Hades and dread Persephone" (9, 569)
  • Odyssey:
    • "And come to the house of Hades and dread Persephone to seek sooth saying of the spirit of Theban Teiresias. To him even in death Persephone has granted reason that ..." (book 10, card 473)
• Hymns to Demeter
  • Hymn 2:
    • "Mistress Demeter goddess of heaven, which God or mortal man has rapt away Persephone and pierced with sorrow your dear heart?(hymn 2, card 40)
  • Hymn 13:
    • "I start to sing for Demeter the lovely-faced goddess, for her and her daughter the most beautiful Persephone. Hail goddess keep this city safe!" (hymn 13, card 1)
• Pindar
  • Olympian:
    • "Now go Echo, to the dark-walled home of Persephone."(book O, poem 14)
  • Isthmean:
    • "Aecus showed them the way to the house of Persephone and nymphs, one of them carrying a ball."(book 1, poem 8)
  • Nemean:
    • "Island which Zeus, the lord of Olympus gave to Persephone;he nodded descent with his flowers hair."(book N, poem 1)
  • Pythian:
    • "You splendor-loving city, most beautiful on earth, home of Persephone. You who inhabit the hill of well-built dwellings."(book P, poem 12)
• Aeschylus
  • Libation bearers:
    • Electra:"O Persephone, grant us indeed a glorious victory!" (card 479)
• Aristophanes
  • Thesmophoriazusae:
    • Mnesilochos:"Thou Mistress Demeter, the most valuable friend and thou Persephone, grant that I may be able to offer you!" (card 266)
• Euripides
  • Alcestis:
    • "O you brave and best hail, sitting as attendand Beside's Hades bride Persephone!" (card 741)
  • Hecuba:
    • "It is said that any of the dead that stand beside Persephone, that the Danaids have left the plains to Troy." (card 130)
• Bacchylides
  • Epinicians:
    • "Flashing thunderbolt went down to the halls of slender-ankled Persephone to bring up into the light of Hades." (book Ep. poem 5)
• Vergil
  • The Aeneid:
    • "For since she had not died through fate, or by a well-earned death, but wretchedly, before her time, inflamed with sudden madness, Proserpine had not yet taken a lock of golden hair from her head, or condemned her soul to Stygian Orcus." (IV.696–99)

Modern reception

In 1934, Igor Stravinsky based his melodrama Perséphone on Persephone's story. In 1961, Frederick Ashton of the Royal Ballet appropriated Stravinsky's score, to choreograph a ballet starring Svetlana Beriosova as Persephone.
Persephone also appears many times in popular culture. Featured in a variety of young adult novels such as "Persephone" by Kaitlin Bevis, "Persephone's Orchard" by Molly Ringle, "The Goddess Test" by Aimee Carter, "The Goddess Letters" by Carol Orlock, and "Abandon" by Meg Cabot, her story has also been treated by Suzanne Banay Santo in "Persephone Under the Earth" in the light of women's spirituality. Here Santo treats the mythic elements in terms of maternal sacrifice to the burgeoning sexuality of an adolescent daughter. Accompanied by the classic, sensual paintings of Frederic Lord Leighton and William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Santo portrays Persephone not as a victim but as a woman in quest of sexual depth and power, transcending the role of daughter, though ultimately returning to it as an awakened Queen.

In film and television

• Walt Disney's 1934 Silly Symphony short The Goddess of Spring adapts the story of her abduction to Hades and how she returns to the earth for half a year. She is not called by her name.
• In the 2009 film Wonder Woman, Persephone (voiced by Vicki Lewis) is the name of an Amazon from the island of Themyscira. After being charmed by Ares for a century while guarding him in his cell, she betrays her people by freeing him after killing another amazon. She briefly fights Princess Diana of the Amazons. Persephone is killed by Hippolyta for her treachery but tells Hippolyta that the Amazons were denied a life of families and children and that they are women too not just warriors.
• In the 2013 film Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Persephone (voiced by Candi Milo) is the name of an Amazon soldier in Wonder Woman's army. She is killed by Professor Zoom, when she attempts to kill Lois Lane.
• The 2014 comic book series The Wicked + The Divine features Persephone as one of the gods who reincarnate every 90 years by taking over someone else's body. This modern interpretation of Persephone has powers that include summoning vines from the ground.
• Persephone also appears as a character in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, played by Monica Bellucci. She is the wife of the Merovingian, a powerful program that handles other programs exiled from the Matrix. In the Matrix Revolutions, they are seen together as being seated in a rave club named Club Hel, possibly a strong reference to Hel, the underworld of Norse Mythology, and Hell, the underworld in Christian Theology.
• In the movie Spike, the title character greets the girl whom he loves by calling her his Persephone. Later, she attempts to convince (or trick) him to let her go by saying, "I'm your Persephone. Persephone stayed with Hades only part of every year. I need to return to my world. I promise I will return to you."
• In the cult TV Show Firefly, Persephone is the name of one of the border planets where there is both high society and slums. The planet is the first one to be viewed in the series.
• In the BBC Television series Spooks the title of Series 3 Episode 6 is "Persephone", referring to character Zoe Reynold's code name during an undercover operation. The storyline parallels that of Greek mythology.
• Persephone (played by Andrea Croton) appears in two episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
• In season 2 of The Simpsons an executive working for Herbert Powell proposes to call a new car the company designed the Persephone.
• In the 2010 BBC series Upstairs Downstairs, Lady Agnes' sister is called Persephone (shortened to Persie).
• She is referred to in The Lightning Thief, the first book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series.

In literature

• Kaitlin Bevis begins the Daughters of Zeus series with a modern-day retellings of the Persephone myth.
• Mary Shelley wrote a "mythological drama" titled "Proserpine," which was published posthumously.
• Algernon Charles Swinburne published "Hymn to Proserpine" and "The Garden of Proserpine" in 1866.
• Second April, a collection of poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay published in 1921, contains two poems which make explicit reference to Persephone: "Ode to Silence" and "Prayer to Persephone."
• Persephone "Persi" Wright is the protagonist of the graphic novel trilogy Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons
• The Stephen King book Duma Key features the evil supernatural character "Perse" as the antagonist to the main character. As the novel reaches its conclusion, it transpires that "Perse" is actually short for Persephone.
• In Douglas Adams' book Mostly Harmless the fictional, newly discovered 10th planet is named Persephone. However it gets given the nickname Rupert after "some astronomer's parrot".
• A Court of Mist and Fury, the sequel to A Court of Thorns and Roses fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas, is loosely based on the myth of Hades and Persephone.
• The comic Epicurus the Sage by William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth features a fractured version of the abduction of Persephone, adding in the comic twist that Hades and Persephone had staged the entire kidnapping simply to get away from her overbearing mother.
• Persephone appears as a character in the books The Demigod Files, as well as The Last Olympian of the Percy Jackson series, the latter in which she has gained love for Hades over the years.
• In John C. Wright's Orphans of Chaos, "the Maiden", a title of Persephone's, is a candidate for the throne of Olympus after Zeus's death.
• Roberta Gellis's Dazzling Brightness retells the story of Hades and Persephone.
• In Eva Ibbotson's young adult novel A Company of Swans the heroine Harriet Morton eats pomegranate seeds in the hope that will mean she has to remain in Brazil rather than go back to her family home in Cambridge.
• In the book series Secret Society Girl written by Diana Peterfreund, the Secret Society of Rose and Grave worships Persephone as their Goddess.
• Erin Kinsella's novel Olympian Confessions: Hades and Persephone focuses on Persephone's escape from her mother; her passion to claim her independence and power; her love for Hades and her ability to grow as an individual and face serious challenges as Zeus and Demeter try to break her.

In video games

• In the video game Ogre Battle 64, the Goddess Danika, was seduced by Demunza, the king of the netherworld by eating a cursed fruit, which turned her into the queen of the netherworld. However, when she is summoned by someone pure of heart, she will revert to her goddess form.^{[citation needed]}
• In the video game BioShock 2, Persephone is the name given to the prison facility that spans over two levels, Inner Persephone and Outer Persephone.
• Persephone is the final boss and the overall antagonist of the 2008 video game God of War: Chains of Olympus. Her remains in a tree casket are seen and used in the 2010 video game God of War III.
• Persephone is depicted as goddess of life in Sacrifice
• In Elite: Dangerous, Persephone is the name given to the game's fictional depiction of the hypothetical Planet Nine in the Sol system, a world made largely of ice but with no atmosphere.
• In Skylanders, Persephone gives Skylanders upgrades in exchange for gold and is the most powerful fairy.

In music

• "Persephone (the gathering of flowers)" is the final track of the Dead Can Dance album Within the Realm of a Dying Sun. The song's musical narrative traces a path of death and rebirth.
• Cocteau Twins released "Persephone" in 1984 on their critically acclaimed album Treasure.
• The progressive death metal band Persefone is named after the Greek goddess, and they have released an album called "Core", which is based on the myth of Persephone.
• "Don't Look Back", a track on Indie band She & Him's second album, Volume Two, opens with the lyric "Orpheus melted the heart of Persephone, but I never had yours."
• In the Tori Amos song "Pandora's Aquarium", from her album From the Choirgirl Hotel, she sings: "I'm not asking you to believe in me/boy, I think you're confused, I'm not Persephone".
• Song 3 on the 1974 album There's the Rub by Wishbone Ash is titled Persephone.
• The album Strangefolk by artist Kula Shaker featured a track titled and about Persephone.
• The album Turbo Ocho by Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers features a track titled Persephone as a love song written by Hades to Persephone.
• The folk opera Hadestown based off the myth of Orpheus, Persephone is a main character.
• "Persephone" is the instrumental opening track of Opeth's 2016 album Sorceress. The album's theme (including several of its tracks) arguably contains elements loosely related to the Persephone mythos in Greek mythology. The closing track is also entitled "Persephone (slight return)".

Other

• When a 10th 'planet' was discovered in July 2005, a poll in New Scientist magazine picked Persephone as the public's favourite name. Its status as a planet was later downgraded to dwarf planet together with Pluto and was given the name Eris.
• Persephone is the name of the logging tug in the CBC Television series The Beachcombers.

 Archaeological Museum in Herakleion. Statue of Isis-Persephone holding a sistrum. Temple of the Egyptian gods, Gortyn. Roman period ( 180-190 A.C.)

Wolfgang Sauber - Own work

Proserpina

Proserpina (/proʊˈsɜːrpɪnə/; Latin: Prōserpina [proː.ˈsɛr.pɪ.na]) or Proserpine (/proʊˈsɜːrpɪˌni, ˈprɒsərˌpaɪn/) is an ancient Roman goddess whose cult, myths and mysteries were combined from those of Libera, an early Roman goddess of wine, and the Greek Persephone and Demeter, goddesses of grain and agriculture. The originally Roman goddess Libera was daughter of the agricultural goddess Ceres and wife to Liber, god of wine and freedom. In 204 BC, a new "greek-style" cult to Ceres and Proserpina as "Mother and Maiden" was imported from southern Italy, along with Greek priestesses to serve it, and was installed in Libera and Ceres' temple on Rome's Aventine Hill. The new cult and its priesthood were actively promoted by Rome's religious authorities as morally desirable for respectable Roman women, and may have partly subsumed the temple's older, native cult to Ceres, Liber and Libera; but the new rites seem to have functioned alongside the old, rather than replaced them.
Just as Persephone was thought to be a daughter of Demeter, Romans made Proserpina a daughter of Demeter's Roman equivalent, Ceres. Like Persephone, Proserpina is associated with the underworld realm and its ruler; and along with her mother Ceres, with the springtime growth of crops and the cycle of life, death and rebirth or renewal. Her name is a Latinisation of "Persephone", perhaps influenced by the Latin proserpere ("to emerge, to creep forth"), with respect to the growing of grain. Her core myths – her forcible abduction by the god of the Underworld, her mother's search for her and her eventual but temporary restoration to the world above – are the subject of works in Roman and later art and literature. In particular, Proserpina's seizure by the god of the Underworld – usually described as the Rape of Proserpina, or of Persephone – has offered dramatic subject matter for Renaissance and later sculptors and painters.

Cult and myths

Origin as Libera

In early Roman religion, Libera was the female equivalent of Liber (freedom). She was originally an Italic goddess; at some time during Rome's Regal or very early Republican eras, she was paired with Liber, also known as Liber Pater (The Free Father), Roman god of wine, male fertility, and a guardian of plebeian freedoms. She enters Roman history as part of a Triadic cult alongside Ceres and Liber, in a temple established on the Aventine Hill around 493 BCE. The location and context of this early cult mark her association with Rome's commoner-citizens, or plebs; she might have been offered cult on March 17 as part of Liber's festival, Liberalia, or at some time during the seven days of Cerealia (mid- to late April); in the latter festival, she would have been subordinate to Ceres. Otherwise, her relationship to her Aventine cult partners is uncertain; she has no known native mythology.
Libera was officially identified with Proserpina in 205 BCE, when she acquired a Romanised form of the Greek mystery rites and their attendant mythology. In the late Republican era, Cicero described Liber and Libera as Ceres' children. At around the same time, possibly in the context of popular or religious drama, Hyginus equated her with Greek Ariadne, as bride to Liber's Greek equivalent, Dionysus. The older and newer forms of her cult and rites, and their diverse associations, persisted well into the late Imperial era. St. Augustine (AD 354 – 430) observed that Libera is concerned with female fertility, as Liber is with male fertility.

Cult

Proserpina was officially introduced to Rome around 205 BCE, along with the ritus graecia cereris (a Greek form of cult dedicated to her mother Ceres), as part of Rome's general religious recruitment of deities as allies against Carthage, towards the end of the Second Punic War. The cult originated in southern Italy (part of Magna Graecia) and was probably based on the women-only Greek Thesmophoria, a mystery cult to Demeter and Persephone as "Mother and Maiden". It arrived along with its Greek priestesses, who were granted Roman citizenship so that they could pray to the gods "with a foreign and external knowledge, but with a domestic and civil intention". The new cult was installed in the already ancient Temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera, Rome's Aventine patrons of the plebs; from the end of the 3rd century BC, Demeter's temple at Enna, in Sicily, was acknowledged as Ceres' oldest, most authoritative cult centre, and Libera was recognised as Proserpina, Roman equivalent to Demeter's daughter Persephone. Their joint cult recalls Demeter's search for Persephone, after the latter's rape and abduction into the underworld by Hades (or Pluto). At the Aventine, the new cult took its place alongside the old. It made no reference to Liber, whose open and gender-mixed cult continued to play a central role in plebeian culture, as a patron and protector of plebeian rights, freedoms and values. The exclusively female initiates and priestesses of the new "greek style" mysteries of Ceres and Proserpina were expected to uphold Rome's traditional, patrician-dominated social hierarchy and traditional morality. Unmarried girls should emulate the chastity of Proserpina, the maiden; married women should seek to emulate Ceres, the devoted and fruitful Mother. Their rites were intended to secure a good harvest, and increase the fertility of those who partook in the mysteries.
A Temple of Proserpina was located in a suburb of Melite, in modern Mtarfa, Malta. The temple's ruins were quarried between the 17th and 18th centuries, and only a few fragments survive.

Myths

The best-known myth surrounding Proserpina is of her abduction by the god of the Underworld, her mother Ceres' frantic search for her, and her eventual but temporary restitution to the world above. In Latin literature, several versions are known, all similar in most respects to the myths of Greek Persephone's abduction by the King of the underworld, named variously in Greek sources as Hades or Pluto. "Hades" can mean both the hidden Underworld and its king ("The hidden one"), who in early Greek versions of the myth is a dark, unsympathetic figure; Persephone is "Kore" ("The Maiden"), taken against her will; in the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries, her captor is known as Pluto; they form a divine couple who rule the underworld together, and receive Eleusinian initiates into some form of better afterlife. Renamed thus, the king of the underworld is distanced from his consort's violent abduction. In the early 1st century Ovid gives two poetic versions of the myth in Latin; one in Book 5 of his Metamorphoses (Book 5) and another in Book 4 of his Fasti. An early 5th century Latin version of the same myth is Claudian's De raptu Proserpinae; in most cases, these Latin works identify Proserpina's underworld abductor and later consort by the Roman god of the underworld's traditional Latin name, Dis.
Venus, in order to bring love to Pluto, sent her son Amor (also known as Cupid) to hit Pluto with one of his arrows. Proserpina was in Sicily, at the Pergusa Lake near Enna, where she was playing with some nymphs and collecting flowers, when Pluto came out from the volcano Etna with four black horses named Orphnaeus, Aethon, Nycteus and Alastor. He abducted her in order to marry her and live with her in the underworld of which he was the ruler.
Her mother Ceres, also known as Demeter, the goddess of agriculture or of the Earth, went looking for her across all of the world, and all in vain. She was unable to find anything but a small belt floating upon a little lake made from the tears of the nymphs. In her desperation, Ceres angrily stopped the growth of fruits and vegetables, bestowing a malediction on Sicily. Ceres refused to return to Mount Olympus and started walking the Earth, creating a desert with each step.
Worried, Jupiter sent Mercury to order Pluto (Jupiter's brother) to free Proserpina. Pluto obeyed, but before letting her go he made her eat six pomegranate seeds, because those who have eaten the food of the dead could not return to the world of the living. This meant that she would have to live six months of each year with him, and stay the rest with her mother. This story was undoubtedly meant to illustrate the changing of the seasons: when Ceres welcomes her daughter back in the spring the earth blossoms, and when Proserpina must be returned to her husband it withers.
In another version of the story, Proserpina ate only four pomegranate seeds, and she did so of her own accord. When Jupiter ordered her return, Pluto struck a deal with Jupiter, saying that since she had stolen his pomegranate seeds, she must stay with him four months of the year in return. For this reason, in spring when Ceres receives her daughter back, the crops blossom, and in summer they flourish.
In the autumn Ceres changes the leaves to shades of brown and orange (her favorite colors) as a gift to Proserpina before she has to return to the underworld. During the time that Proserpina resides with Pluto, the world goes through winter, a time when the earth is barren.

Orpheus and Eurydice

The most extensive myth of Proserpina in Latin is Claudian's (4th century AD). It is closely connected with that of Orpheus and Eurydice. In Virgil's Georgics, Orpheus' beloved wife, Eurydice, died from a snake-bite; Proserpina allowed Orpheus into Hades without losing his life; charmed by his music, she allowed him to lead his wife back to the land of the living, as long as he did not look back during the journey. But Orpheus could not resist a backward glance, so Eurydice was forever lost to him.

In artwork

Proserpina's figure inspired many artistic compositions, eminently in sculpture (Bernini, see The Rape of Proserpina (Bernini) ) in painting (D.G.Rossetti, a fresco by Pomarancio, J.Heintz, Rubens, A. Dürer, Dell'Abbate, Parrish) and in literature (Goethe's Proserpina and Swinburne's Hymn to Proserpine and The Garden of Proserpine) The statue of the Rape of Prosepina by Pluto that stands in the Great Garden of Dresden, Germany is also referred to as "Time Ravages Beauty". Kate McGarrigle's song about the legend was one of the last things she wrote prior to her death, and received its only performance at her last concert at Royal Albert Hall in December 2009.

In astronomy

26 Proserpina is a Main belt asteroid 95.1 kilometres (59.1 mi) in diameter, which was discovered by Robert Luther in 1853.

The rape of Proserpina by Hans von Aachen

1587

Demeter and Kore (Persephone), marble relief, 500-475 BC. Archaeological Museum of Eleusis.

Zde - Own work

 Persephone, Athenian red-figure bell krater C5th B.C., Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rape of Persephone. Hades with his horses and Persephone (down). An Apulian red-figure volute krater, c. 340 BC. Antikensammlung Berlin

Circle of the Darius Painter - User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2008

Rape of Persephone. Side A of the “Persephone krater”, an Apulian red-figure volute-krater, ca. 340 BC.

 Hades and Persephone in the Underworld, Apulian red-figure krater C4th B.C., Staatliche Antikensammlungen

Cinerary altar with tabula representing the rape of Proserpina. White marble, Antonine Era, 2nd century Rome, Baths of Diocletian

Jastrow (2006)

Cinerary altar with tabula representing the rape of Proserpina. White marble, Antonine Era, 2nd century CE.

 Hades and Persephone, Apulian red-figure amphora C4th B.C., British Museum

Apollonia. 4th century BC. Æ (17mm, 5.38 g, 4h). Wreathed head of Persephone right / Hydra left.

Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com

 Persephone, Sisyphus and Hades, Athenian black-figure neck amphora C6th B.C., Staatliche Antikensammlungen

 Grotesque dwarf woman holding a young girl. May be a caricature of Demeter holding young Persephone. Terracotta, coming from Lamia, Thessaly, made in Attica?, c. 325–300 BC.

 Persephone, Triptolemus and Demeter, Athenian red-figure skyphos C5th B.C., British Museum

 Aquincum BHM tablet IMG 0608 Prosperpina and Pluto.

 Religious tablet from Aquincum, 2-4th Century Hungary

Bjoertvedt - Own work

The Rape of Persephone, Greek fresco from Macedonia Tomb C4th B.C., Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai

 Kore (Persephone), Syracuse, V sec. b.C.

 Stella - Own work

Persephone or "the deceased woman" holding a pomegranate. Etruscan terracotta cinerary statue. National archaeological museum in Palermo, Italy

G.dallorto - Own work

Etruscan terracotta cinerary statue. It represnts Persephone/the deceased woman holding a pomegranate. Feet and hands have been modelled separately. National archeological museum in Palermo, Italy. Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, September 28 2006.

 Head of Persephone. Earthenware. From Sicily, Centuripae, c. 420 BCE. The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, UK.

Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) - Own work

La statua della Dea Persefone, detta Persefone Gaia per via del suo sorriso appena accennato (Altes Museum, Berlino). 

Ealdgyth - Opera propria

Goddess seated on a throne (Persephone?). South-Italian statue found in Tarent, Parian marble, ca. 460 BC. H. 151 cm, W. 90 cm, D. 70 cm. Pergamonmuseum, Antikensammlung Berlin (Sk 1761).

 The Rape of Persephone (1570) Alessandro Allori  PD-art-100

 “The Rape of Proserpina,” by Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1610

 Proserpina
Circa 1619, Proserpina (Persephone). Greco-Roman goddess of the Underworld. The daughter of Ceres (Demeter) and Jupiter (Zeus), abducted by Pluto (Hades), god of the Underworld, who made her his wife and queen of the Dead. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

 Rubens, Peter Paul -Painter- (and workshop)
The Rape of Proserpine
1636 - 1637. Oil on canvas
Proserpine, daughter of the earth goddess Ceres, was kidnapped by Pluto, the god of the underworld. Despite the resistance put up by Minerva, Venus and Diana, their relationship would blossom into love, as revealed by the presence of the cupids holding the chariot reigns and urging the horses on. This story of passion was part of the decoration of the Torre de la Parada.

 Wenceslas Hollar - The Greek gods. Pluto
 (author lived 1607-1677)

The Rape of Proserpine

circa 1650 

Simone Pignoni  (1611–1698) 

 Il "Ratto di Proserpina", di Luca Giordano

1684-1686 

Natoire - Psyché et Proserpine 1735

Charles-Joseph Natoire

 

 The Abduction of Proserpina,” by Joseph Marie Vien, 1762
© Musée de Grenoble

 Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Appiani Andrea, Psiche davanti a Proserpina

1789

 The Rape of Proserpina by Simon Troger, carved ivory and wood, second quarter of 18th century, Hermitage

Simon Troger - Own work

 Proserpina-Statue von Dominikus Auliczek (1778) im Schlosspark Nymphenburg

 Proserpina-Statue von Dominikus Auliczek (1778) im Schlosspark Nymphenburg, Muenchen - b&w version - Krochmal

 Persephone by Armand Toussaint (1840).

'Persephone', Carrara marble sculpture by Hiram Powers, 1844

Hiram Powers - Photograph by Hiart taken 2012

 Hermann Rudolf Heidel: Psyche und Persephone (vgl. Persephone), Grabrelief (1847) für den Schriftsteller Philipp Joseph Rehfues auf dem Alten Friedhof Bonn; die beschädigte linke Figur (Persephone) hielt vermutlich einen Granatapfel in ihrer rechten Hand

Jotquadrat - Own work

Rape of Proserpina, by Ulpiano Checa

Poniol

El rapto de Proserpina. Tinta china, aguada, plumilla y gouache sobre papel. 59 x 44,2 cm. Ulpiano Checa  (1860–1916)   Description Spanish painter, sculptor, poster artist and illustrator Date of birth/death 3 April 1860 5 January 1916 Location of birth/death Colmenar de Oreja Dax

 Hades (Pluton) depicted sitting on the left holding a bident in his left hand, next to Persephone (Proserpina), with Cerberus (Kerberos) seated below

Publisher: Eduard Trewendt, Atelier für Holzschnittkunst von August Gaber in Dresden - Mythologie der Griechen und Römer für die reifere und gebildete weibliche Jugend, Von Julie Hoffmann; 264 Seiten, Breslau 1864

 Queen of the Underworld; Goddess of Spring

 Walter Crane - The Bridgeman Art Library, 1877

George Wilson - The Spring Witch. 1880
Very little is known about the painter George Wilson. He was associated with a group of artists and writers who called themselves “The Brotherhood,” united in their admiration of artist-poets Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Blake. The subject of Spring Witch is loosely based on the myth of Persephone, who, captured by Hades, god of the underworld, was granted freedom by Zeus on the condition that she had not partaken of any food while imprisoned beneath the earth, a promise which she did not keep. She is shown here on the day of her release, emerging into the early Spring. Wilson takes full advantage of the season, filling the foreground with new-flowering plant matter, depicted with Ruskinian attention to detail.

 Proserpina with Pomegranate. Dante Gabriel Rosetti, 1882.

Statue of Proserpine (c. 1884-1886), by Henri Chapu (1833-1891) situated in the park of Château de Chantilly

Mel22 - Own work

The Return of Persephone (1891) Frederic Leighton  PD-art-100

 Henry Siddons Mowbray - The Marriage of Persephone
 circa 1895

Figure of Persephone, created by Christian Friedrich Tieck, a 19th century sculptor. Inscription: ΠΕΡΣΕΦΟΝΕΙΑ.

 The Odor of Pomegranates (platinum print) by Zaida Ben-Yusuf

Zaida Ben-Yusuf - Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Originally from Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

 Waterhouse, JW - Narcissus (1912)

John William Waterhouse

 The Rape of Persephone 1913

Rupert Bunny - The painting is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

 Demeter rejoiced, for her daughter was by her side.

These stories from the history of ancient Greece begin with myths and legends of gods and heroes and end with the conquests of Alexander the Great. The book is accessible and well organized, but it is considerably more detailed than some other introductory texts. It covers Greek history from the age of Mythology to the rise of Alexander, but because of its length we do not recommend it for 5th grade or younger. It is an excellent reference, thoroughly engaging, and a good candidate for a somewhat older student's first foray into Greek history.

Walter Crane - The story of Greece : told to boys and girls (1914) by Mary Macgregor

 Persefone, griechische Todesgöttin, auf dem Parkfriedhof Berlin-Neukölln, Max Kruse 1915~

Tilman Harte - Own work

 

Proserpine, A Book of Myths

  llustration from a collection of myths.

Helen Stratton - A book of myths (1915) New York : G. P. Putnam's sons; London, T. C. & E. C. Jack.

The golden fleece and the heroes who lived before Achilles Year: 1921 (1920s) Authors: Colum, Padraic, 1881-1972 Pogány, Willy, 1882-1955, ill  

Copy of The Rape of Proserpina by Vincenzo de' Rossi [it], on view near Cliveden House

WyrdLight.com

This copy of Vincenzo de'Rossi's "The Rape of Proserpina" is on a pedestal in The Ring of the Parterre faces the Garden Front of Cliveden House Source: http://www.wyrdlight.com Author: Antony McCallum

 Proserpina

Bassorilievo di Persefone

Davide Mauro - Own work

 Persephone

 the_garden_of_proserpine_by_solitairemiles

Kore - Persephone

  Opera di circa 220mq realizzata a San Gavino Monreale col contributo dell'Associazione Culturale Skizzo 

Zard - Own work

Proserpina, Sunray Goddess

 Persephone, Goddess of Seasons. alhalah

 

The Rape of Proserpina by Bernini  

Proserpina, Sunray Goddess

Greek God Pluto and Proserpina Statue by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). Premium Cold Cast Marble. Museum-Grade Masterpiece Replica. 

 Libera

 Persefone - dea della primavera - regina degli inferi - ciondolo Dee - Proserpina-dea gioielli-mista - Persefone

"Hades and Persephone" by lleye.

 PROSERPINE [aka PROSERPINA]

 Proserpina, Sunshine Goddess

 PROSERPINA

 Orpheus in front of Pluto (Hades) and Proserpina (Persephone). Engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book X, 11-52.

Persephone (Olympian goddess)

Marvel Universe

 vintage Proserpina bust Roman Greek Goddess porcelain ? statue figure Italy