DEMETER , PERSEPHONE AND THE GOD OF THE UNDERWORLD (HADES)

Introduction

Hades

In Greek mythology, Hades, the god of the underworld, was a son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. He had three sisters, Demeter, Hestia, and Hera, as well as two brothers,Zeus, the youngest of the three, and Poseidon.

 Demeter

In Greek Mythology  Demeter was daughter of the deities Cronus and Rhea, sister and wife of Zeus (the king of the gods), and goddess of agriculture.

Persephone

In Greek Mythology,Persephone, the queen of the underworld, was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of harvest and fertility. She was also called Kore, which means "maiden" and grew up to be a lovely girl attracting the attention of many gods.

STORY

Demeter loved her little daughter,  Persephone more than anything else in the world and cringed at the idea of ever being apart from her.

After she had grown up and become a young woman, Persephone’s beauty caught the eye of Hades, the ruler of the Underworld. Hades fell in love at the very first sight of

her. He knew he wanted to marry no one else. Overcome  with love, Hades went to Zeus, his brother and Persephone’s father.

Zeus thought that Hades would be a good husband for Persephone. Hades was a fair and powerful god. However, Zeus also knew that Demeter would never allow her daughter to marry  Hades and go to live far away in the Underworld. He did not want to upset her. He wanted to please his brother and allow the marriage, but he did not wish to cause a conflict with Demeter. Finally, Zeus found a clever way to grant his brother’s request without actually saying so. Carefully wording his response, Zeus said, “Brother, I cannot approve of a marriage between you and Persephone.”

Zeus was telling Hades that although he could not officially approve the marriage, he was not forbidding it either. Hades understood Zeus’s intention. He realized that Zeus was encouraging him to mary Persephone without her parents’ blessing. Hades returned to the Underworld to plan the details of exactly how he would go about kidnapping Persephone.

One day, soon after Hades’s meeting with Zeus, Persephone went to pick wildflowers with her friends near the town of Eleusis. In a small wooded glen near the meadow, out of sight

and earshot of her friends, Persephone spotted a beautiful narcissus that she thought would make a lovely addition to the bouquet she was making for her mother. Dreamily,Persephone knelt to pick the flower. She was surprised to find that its roots were so deep that she could not wrench it out of the ground. Suddenly, as she tugged mightily on the flower, a huge hole opened up in the middle of the glen. The god of the Underworld raced out of the chasm, the roaring noise of his chariot filling the air. Quickly, Hades grasped the frightened maiden by the wrist and pulled her up beside him onto his chariot. Racing off to the Underworld, Persephone cried out in fear to her mother

and her friends. No one had any idea where she had gone to or what had happened to her.

Demeter was sick with worry and grief. She asked Helios the sun god what had happened. When she learned that Hades had captured her daughter she became very angry. For a year she caused crops and plants to wither and die. A terrible famine gripped the earth.

Zeus commanded that Hades release Persephone. Persephone was overjoyed. However he tricked her into eating four pomegranate seeds before she left the underworld. He knew that if she ate anything from the land of the dead, she would have to return to him for a part of each year.

Demeter was delighted that her daughter had returned to her. However every time Persephone had to return to Hades, Demeter mourned terribly again. From that time on, mother and daughter spent two thirds of the year together. During their time together, the earth bloomed and the crops flourished. But when Persephone returned each year to spend four months with Hades   in  the Underworld, the earth became as cold as ice While  Demeter mourned for her daughter’s lost company. Then, every spring, when Persephone returned to her mother, the world would become green again in

celebration of their joyous reunion.