Did you know that the Greek goddess of spring was also the queen of the Underworld?
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Hello and welcome to World History Encyclopedia! My name is Kelly, and today's video is all about a
goddess of Greek mythology whose two primary roles seem to be completely incompatible;
as the goddess of spring and grain and as queen of the Underworld. Today's video is all about the
goddess known as both Kore and Persephone. Don't forget, the easiest way to support us is by giving
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Persephone-Kore was an agricultural deity as the goddess of spring, vegetation and of grain,
but she was also the queen of the Underworld and the wife of Hades, and to the Romans, she was
known as Proserpina. Persephone was the daughter of Zeus, king of the gods and Demeter, the
Olympian goddess of agriculture, and when she was associated with her mother, especially in relation
to the Eleusinian Mysteries, she was referred to as Kore, which means 'maiden' and signifies her as
both a maiden and daughter. Her name Persephone, which is commonly derived from the ancient Greek
words pherein phonon, meaning to bring or cause death, can be seen in Hesiod's "Theogony" where he
calls her 'dread Persephone', despite her role in the Underworld as a protectress in the afterlife.
Not only was she known as Kore, but also Phersephoneia, meaning 'Of the Earth' and
Praxidike, meaning 'Exactor of Justice', which is found in the Orphic Hymn to Persephone.
In the Orphic Hymns, Persephone is noted as the mother of the god Zagreus who is associated with
Dionysos and the goddess Melinoë who is associated with Hecate; both were also associated with Zeus.
The Orphic Hymns also tell us that the Erinyes or Furies,
who were the three goddesses of vengeance, were the daughters of Hades and Persephone,
which strays from Hesiod's telling of the Furies being children of Gaia and Uranus.
Persephone is best known from the myth of the rape of Persephone, in which she is abducted
by Hades and taken to the Underworld with him. In some versions of the story, Hades sees Persephone
picking flowers in a meadow and falls in love with her and in others, he has Zeus' approval
to take the girl away. Persephone cannot escape the Underworld, and all the while, her mother,
Demeter, is on earth searching for her. After Demeter, with the help of Hecate and Helios,
finds out that her daughter is in the Underworld, the soil on earth becomes infertile, and she will
not return to Olympus without her daughter. Eventually, Hades allows Persephone to go with
Hermes to earth to see her mother but slips her a pomegranate seed to eat; since anyone who eats in
the Underworld is then attached to the Dark Realm, she has to return to the Underworld, but because
she ate only a single seed, a bargain is struck where she spends half the year with her mother
and the other half in the Underworld. This myth is thought to explain the seasons and is the main
myth associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries, which honour Demeter and Kore during its festival
and secret rites and focused on the theme of Persephone's death in going to the Underworld
and her rebirth each year, promising adherence a life after death. Her parentage, marriage and
responsibility as queen of the Underworld is seen in the beginning of the Orphic Hymn to Persephone.
"Persephone, blessed daughter of great Zeus, sole offspring of Demeter, come and accept
this gracious sacrifice. Much-honoured spouse of Plouton, discreet and life-giving, you command
the gates of Hades in the bowels of the earth, lovely-tressed Praxidike, pure bloom of Deo,
mother of the Erinyes, queen of the nether world, secretly sired by Zeus in clandestine union."
Despite her abduction by Hades being her most influential myth, Persephone does make an
appearance in many other myths as queen of the Underworld and due to her other associations.
When Aphrodite, goddess of love, put Adonis in a chest because he was so beautiful she wanted to
keep him away from the other gods, the goddess gave the chest to Persephone for safekeeping
but after one glimpse of the beautiful mortal, Persephone refused to give him back to Aphrodite.
Eventually, Zeus got involved as mediator and declared that Adonis would spend a third of the
year with each goddess and then the remaining third on his own. She also had a jealous streak
which is seen in the myth of Minthe. Strabo's version of the tale tells us that Minthe was a
concubine of Hades, but Persephone trampled her and transformed her into a mint plant, although
in later versions, Demeter is the one to trample the nymph. As if Persephone hadn't been kidnapped
enough in her time, King Peirithoos of the Lapiths thought it would be a good idea to kidnap the wife
of the king of the Underworld to be his wife. His friend and son of Zeus, Theseus, kidnapped the
young Helen of Sparta and then they both headed to the Underworld to try and capture Persephone.
Hades pretended to be accommodating and had the two men sit but once they sat,
they were bound tight by serpents. Later, the Greek hero Heracles released Theseus,
but Peirithoos was left down there for eternity. Heracles was also in the Underworld for his final
labour, which was to retrieve the Hound of Hades, Cerberus. Persephone welcomed the hero like a
brother; she gave the hero her favour, and he was allowed to bring Cerberus to the mortal realm.
As king and queen of the Underworld, Hades and Persephone were associated with communing with the
dead or necromancy, as well as the Oracle of the Dead known as the Necromanteion. In the "Odyssey",
Odysseus was told by Circe to perform the rights of necromancy so he could commune with the ghost
of the seer Tiresias, who Persephone had allowed to keep his wisdom in the afterlife. According
to Apollonius Rhodius in his "Argonautica", Persephone also sent the ghost of Actor's son,
who had died during Heracles' battle with the Amazons to the Argonauts who craved to see men
of his own kind. When Persephone was invoked in curses, she would send the Erinyes to punish and
fulfil those curses. She is invoked in the "Iliad" as Meleager is killed by his mother: Althaea who
called on the queen of the Underworld to give death to her son and by Electra in Aeschylus'
"Libation Bearers" who asks Persephone to grant a glorious victory as she and her brother Orestes
prepare to kill their father's murderers. The most important cult associated with Persephone is the
Eleusinian Mysteries. These rituals were observed regularly at Eleusis, northwest of Athens,
between circa 1600 BCE and 392 CE, and despite the longevity of this cult and the associated
rituals, much of what happened during the Mysteries are still just that, a mystery.
We do know that Demeter and Kore were honoured, and the story of Kore's abduction was celebrated
during the Mysteries. The initiates were sworn to secrecy surrounding the details of the ritual but
we know that after participating, initiates were changed and no longer feared death.
The popularity of the cult of Persephone extended beyond Eleusis. It was particularly strong in
Sicily and southern Italy and sanctuaries to Persephone have been uncovered at Sparta,
Mantinea and Megalopolis. She was honoured both in her responsibility as goddess of spring and
as the queen of the Underworld, and as the latter, she would often be appealed to in cursed tablets.
Her name was also invoked on gold leaves that were inscribed and buried with the dead followers
of Orphism, which gave instructions on how to conduct themselves in the afterlife. She was
therefore understood as a goddess of life, whether one's life on earth or afterwards, but as with
life itself, was understood as inspiring either hopeful expectation or fear of the unknown. Why
do you think the ancient Greeks had the goddess of spring as also the queen of the Underworld? Let us
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