This was, however, a cunning move by Hades. Hades knew he could not refuse the commands of Zeus, but he also could not part from his beloved Persephone.īefore she departed from the Underworld, Hades offered Persephone a pomegranate as a farewell. When Hermes reached the Underworld, he requested that Persephone come back to earth with him to rejoin her mother and father. However, Persephone missed her dear mother greatly and wished to spend time on earth with her. Hades admired her kind and nurturing nature. As she would have up in Olympus, she remained eternally beautiful in the Underworld. In the Underworld, Persephone had grown to love Hades, who treated her with compassion and loved her as his Queen. He told Hermes, the messenger, to bring Persephone back up to Demeter’s care. Zeus had no other choice but to agree to Demeter’s demands. The rivers shriveled up, and the lakes froze over. The trees began to shrink into the hard dirt. The now yellow meadows blackened and decomposed to dust. She sought to punish Zeus for betraying her and their daughter. She demanded Zeus to return Persephone to her care.ĭemeter left Olympus and watched as the earth began to decay without her nurture. He informed her of Persephone’s marriage to Hades in the Underworld. Having searched the entire living land, Demeter finally contacted Zeus. Her immense sorrow caused the earth to grow dark, cold, and barren. Stricken with grief, Demeter scoured the earth in search of her daughter. Demeter gently asked her where Persephone was. She found one particular nymph in a grove, usually boasting morning glory flowers in her hair, sobbing the flowers lay strewn along the lush grass. Now in the Underworld, Persephone was under Hades’ control.ĭemeter approached the gardens where Persephone usually played with the nymphs but could no longer find her daughter anywhere. Persephone cried out for her dear mother Demeter but to no avail. Now, Hades, at the sight of Persephone’s natural but rich beauty took hold of her and carried her gently down with him to the Underworld. With little concern for how Demeter would respond to such a request, Zeus agreed and Hades was given consent. So, one day he approached Zeus asking for permission to take Persephone as his Queen. He desperately wanted her to be his Queen of the Underworld. Out of the deep, dark blackness Hades emerged.įrom his place in the Underworld, he had seen Persephone’s innocent beauty grow to radiance. On one occasion however, as Persephone was picking the flower, narcissus, with a group of her favourite flora nymphs, the earth suddenly opened up. Persephone lived a happy, fruitful childhood, playing with the other Olympian children and spending time in the gardens of Olympus. She cared as deeply for her daughter Persephone as she did the earth. Demeter was the most nurturing of goddesses and, in turn, was the most nurturing of mothers. The Greek goddess, Persephone, was the child of Demeter, the goddess of earth’s fertility and harvest, and Zeus, the king of all the Olympians. © Written by Tasha Guenther and illustrated by Leanne Guenther
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