Why would persephone

But she had: Hades had offered her a pomegranate, and she had sucked the pulp from six of the seeds. For six months, she would have to live with Hades and for the other six months she could return to her mother.

Thus, the Greeks and Romans explained seasonal shifts: vegetation dies and the Earth goes into mourning as Demeter does when Persephone returns to Hades—the darkest, coldest months of Winter are those when Demeter's grief is greatest—and the Earth blooms again when she returns, giving us Spring. The key elements of seasonal death and rebirth in Persephone's story are old themes that human populations around the globe have observed. In Babylonian mythology, for example, Tammuz a god of harvests and food is likewise mourned.

The passing of the summer solstice, when the heat of the summer defeats agrarian efforts, marks his death. His lover Ishtar, a goddess of fertility, journeys to the underworld to bring him back and during this period the Earth effectively dies. During her absence the passion of love ceased to operate: men and beasts alike forgot to reproduce their kinds: all life was threatened with extinction.

So intimately bound up with the goddess were the sexual functions of the whole animal kingdom that without her presence they could not be discharged. A messenger of the great god Ea was accordingly despatched [sic] to rescue the goddess on whom so much depended. The stern queen of the infernal regions, Allatu or Eresh-Kigal by name, reluctantly allowed Ishtar to be sprinkled with the Water of Life and to depart, in company with her lover Tammuz, that the two might return together to the upper world, and that with their return all nature might revive.

Osiris, the Egyptian god of death and afterlife, has a complicated story of rebirth tied to his mythology. In short, the keeper and judge of the dead is also the keeper of life as he manages the flooding of the Nile and consequently the growth of crops. And Quetzalcoatl, a Mesoamerican deity often depicted as a feathered serpent, may have been tied to the regrowth of vegetation. The list can go on.

While there are parallels within mythologies—particularly those of the Ancient World—these stories ultimately suggest a way to reconcile changes that touch everyone.

And while we may not necessarily rend our clothes and beat our breasts to remember Osiris' dismemberment, we recognize these changes in our own way. Spring cleaning, for example, clears the old to make way for the new and can arguably instigate a psychological rebirth. How do you mark these periods of transition? This is false. An equinox is not the same as an equilux. They didn't have a clue for the sudden disappearance of Persephone.

The whole incident, however, had been witnessed by Zeus, father of the maiden and brother of the abductor, as well as by Helios, god of the Sun. Zeus decided to keep silent about the whole thing to prevent a fight with his brother while Helios wisely thought it better not to get involved in anything that didn't concern him. A distraught and heartbroken Demeter wandered the earth looking for her daughter until her good friend Hecate, goddess of wilderness and childbirth, advised her to seek for the help of Helios, the all-seeing Sun god, in order to find her daughter.

Helios felt sorry for Demeter, who was crying and pleading him to help her. Thus she revealed her that Persephone had been kidnapped by Hades. When she heard that, Demeter got angry and wanted to take revenge but Helios suggested that it was not such a bad thing for Persephone to be the wife of Hades and queen of the dead. Demeter, however, could not let it gone. She was furious at this insult and deeply believed that Hades, who after all had only dead people for company, was not the right husband for her sweet daughter.

She also got angry at Zeus for not having revealed this to her. To punish gods and to grief, Demeter decided to take a long and indefinite leave from her duties as the goddess of harvest and fertility, with devastating consequences.

The earth began to dry up,harvests failed, plants lost their fruitfulness, animals were dying for lack of food and famine spread to the whole earth, resulting in untold misery. The cries of the people who were suffering reached Olympus and the divine ears of Zeus.

The mighty god finally realized that if he wouldn't do something about his wife's wrath, all humanity would disappear. Thus he tried to find another solution to both calm Demeter and please Hades. He promised Demeter to restore Persephone to her if it can be proved that the maiden stays with Hades against her will. Otherwise, Persephone belongs to her husband. The crafty Hades learned this agreement and tricked his reluctant bride, who was crying all day and night from despair, to eat a few seeds of the pomegranate fruit.

This was the food of the Underworld and every time someone ate even a few seeds of this, then, after a while, he would miss life in the Underworld. When the gathering in front of Zeus took place and Persephone was asked where she would like to live, she answered she wanted to live with her husband. When Demeter heard that, she got infuriated and accused Hades that somehow he had tricked her daughter.

A great fight followed and Demeter threatened that she would never again make the earth fertile and everyone on Earth would die. To put an ed on this quarrel, Zeus decided that Persephone would spend half months with her husband in Hades and half months with her mother on Olympus. This alternative pleased none of the two opponents, nevertheless that had no other option but accept it.

Thus the lovely maiden Persephone became the rightful wife of Hades and Queen of the Underworld. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Persephone also helped to give death a more merciful face. Hades was known for being immovable, but Persephone assists a number of heroes and grieving lovers who stumble down into her world. She is the one who grants Eurydice back to Orpheus, and she likewise aids Psyche in her quest to earn back Eros.

Fill a large bowl up with water, submerge the pomegranate, and cut and strip it underwater. Not only will it contain the juice squirts, but the white pulp floats and the seeds sink. Much easier! Good thing I am not Persephone or it would never be spring again…. Myth of the Week: Persephone. Monday, December 5 th , Happy December!

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