the story of demeter and her daughter

Birth

1 CE

Persephone was born to Zeus, king of Gods, and Demeter, Goddess of agriculture.

Childhood

2

Persephone spent her childhood with her goddess and nymph friends, running around the mortal world, carefree and picking flowers.

abduction of persephone

3

One day, when she was collecting flowers on the plain of Enna, the earth suddenly opened and Hades rose up from the gap and abducted her.
Hades was so taken by her beauty that he kidnapped her, and brought her to the underworld, By swooping down in a chariot and grabbing her. Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, her friend and Helios, god of sun hear Persephone's cries.

Demeter, found her daughter had disappeared

4

Zeus told hades it was okay to take Persephone as his bride, and Hades took him a bit literally.
When Demeter realized that her daughter was missing, she began to worry, and when she couldn’t find her she began to neglect her duties for taking care of the earth.
The leaves of the trees began to fall off and die. Flowers stopped blossoming, etc.
By then, Zeus realized that something must be done.

Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone

5

Demeter decides to go ask Helios, the sun god since he’s up in the sky all day and sees pretty much everything. Helios ends up telling Demeter the whole deal- Zeus agreed to give Persephone to Hades and hades hauled her down to the Underworld.
Demeter is Furious to Zeus. Demeter vows that she won’t let anything grow on earth until she sets eyes on her daughter again. Demeter demanded Persephone back.

Pomegranate

6

Zeus sends Hermes the messenger of the gods to the underworld to order hades to let Persephone go.
Hades was sad to see Persephone go and wooed her with a pomegranate. She ate the pomegranate. She ate six seeds of it.
But there was a catch. During Persephone time in the Underworld, Persephone had eaten one pomegranate. If a person eats a single bit of food while they’re in Underworld they must stay forever.

Rescue

7

Hades was sad to see Persephone go and wooed her with a pomegranate. She ate the pomegranate. She ate six seeds of it.
By then Zeus ruled, that she would spend six months in the Underworld with Hades for the six seeds that she had swallowed, and six months with Demeter outside the underworld
Whenever Persephone returned to her mother, the earth began to thrive or flourish again, ( Spring or Summer), Because they were both happy, and Demeter was able to work.

new life

8

However despite the deal and the promised return of her daughter, Demeter couldn’t stand to have Persephone away from her for six months, and once again neglected her duties so she could search for the entrance to the Underworld to see her.
Demeter says that when Persephone is in the Underworld, nothing on earth will grow. This lead to fall and winter. • The Story of Persephone and her mother was used to explain the change of seasons.