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Who is She
In the Greek myth, Persephone (also known as Proserpine)
is kidnapped and taken to Hades, where she is forced
to marry Pluto, the dark God of Hades. She is condemned
to live half the year there and half the year on earth.
"Persephone
is the goddess of the underworld in Greek mythology.
She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, goddess of
the harvest. Persephone was such a beautiful girl that
everyone loved her, even Hades wanted her for himself.
When she was a little girl, she and the Oceanids were
collecting flowers on the plain of Enna, when suddenly
the earth opened and Hades rose up from the gap and
abducted her. None but Zeus had noticed it.
Broken-hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, looking
for her daughter until Helios, the all-seeing, revealed
what had happened. Demeter was so angry that she withdrew
herself in loneliness, and all fertility on earth stopped.
Finally, Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to make him
release Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed, but before
she went back he gave Persephone a pomegranate to eat,
thus she would always be connected to his realm and
had to stay there one-third of the year. The other months
she remained with her mother. When Persephone was in
Hades, Demeter refused to let anything grow and winter
began. This myth is a symbol of the budding and dying
of nature. In the Eleusinian mysteries, this happening
was celebrated in honor of Demeter and Persephone, who
was known in this cult as Kore."
(Copyright
(c) 2000 Encyclopedia Mythica. All rights reserved.)
Her
story at first seems unbearably sad. Yet you find yourself
drawn here, to sit at her feet. She is holding a pomegranate.
Some say she is compliant and too submissive. That's
not how she speaks to me. I interpret her quietness
another way. She is inward, introverted. She comes to
me when I sit silently thinking, or writing in my journal,
when I shut out the outer clamor, the hubbub, the shoulds
and woulds. She's not distracted by them. She sees everything
the noise is hiding.
Why do you come to visit her? Perhaps you want to get
in touch with a dark part of yourself. Not necessarily
a bad part, but a hidden one. Persephone can help. She
knows that, in the darkest part of the year, some plants
die, but some sleep in the earth, waiting to be reborn.
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Images
of Persephone
"The
Return of Persephone" by Lord Leighton.
Image from Art
Today.
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"Council
of the Gods" by Nicolas Kaissaroff.
Image from Art
Today.
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