29/07/2026
In the days when the world was new, the young goddess Persephone wondered away from her friends, through the fields of Eleusis, looking for flowers to gift her mother. There she found a bloom unlikely any she had ever seen before. Curious, she tugged it and, like the clap of thunder, the earth split beneath her hand. From the chasm below a chariot burst through and just like that she disappeared.
For months her mother searched for her but neither tree, nor stream, nor god, nor nymph could tell her where her daughter went. In the end the sun revealed to her the truth. Hades, king of the Underworld, had fallen in love with her and, having petitioned Zeus, taken away from the world above to wed and be his queen.
Such was Demeter’s rage and grief, she blanketed the earth with snow and swore to let none grow until her daughter was returned to her. In vain did the other gods try to appease her with gifts and promises, in the mortals prayed for a good harvest. The dead grew in numbers and thus Hades agreed to let his wife and queen return to the world above. But Persephone, having eaten six seeds of pomegranate, bound herself to the Underworld, to spend six months of the year ruling at her husband’s side and six on the earth keeping her mother company.
And so the world has been since, split in seasons by Demeter’s grief and the underworld gained their queen.
Image credit: © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons
