Persephone

While picking flowers with her companions, Persephone is lured away from the group by the most interesting, beautiful, and sweet-smelling blooms she has ever encountered. As she attempts to gather them, a great chasm opens in the earth and Hades bears upon her riding his monstrous chariot pulled by magnificent black stallions. He sweeps her away to the depths of the kingdom of the dead.

Demeter looks everywhere for her child, causing mayhem and destruction as she goes. At first Zeus does not see a need to seek out Hades and confront him about the abduction of Persephone, but when Demeter’s horrible sadness causes her to neglect her duties as a goddess, the earth begins to suffer. Crops die, animals become barren, and the land becomes cold and lifeless. Zeus appeals to Hades, but finds out that the problem is a lot more complicated than just asking for her release.

The underworld has many rules, one of which is that should a mortal consume anything while in the underworld, that mortal cannot leave it. Supposedly unbeknownst to Hades, Persephone has swallowed several pomegranate seeds. Zeus is usually a stickler for the rules, unless it restricts him from getting something that he truly wants, but it this instance, he has to consider the fate of the world. He decrees that Persephone must be returned to Demeter for everyone’s sake, and that she and Hades must share their time with her. They each get six months of the year with her.

When Hermes guides her out of the underworld and back to her mother, the earth begins to thaw. The earth experiences spring and summer while Persephone and Demeter are together. While she is with Hades, the earth feels Demeter’s lament during autumn and winter.