Persephone

Persephone is the daughter of the goddess Demeter and god Zeus. She was playing in a field of flowers alone, when suddenly she vanished. Her mother, Demeter looked everywhere for her, and even convinced Zeus to help. In the end, they could not find her and Demeter grew depressed. They had no idea that she vanished to the Underworld where Hades convinced her to eat the fruit there, so she could never leave.

      Hades smiled with satisfaction because he had one of the god and goddess’s daughters from the above world. He watched her day by day sit in the same spot and cry for hours and in the above world, Demeter was causing severe cold weather with her depression. The crops failed and the people couldn’t find enough warmth so lots of them died and went to the Underworld. Hades noticed this increase and wondered what was going on in the above world. More and more continued to come and he was getting irritated, one day Persephone gathered the courage to confront him. She asked him if she could go to the above world, and she promised she would come back as soon as she saw what was happening and could see her mother. Hades didn’t believe her but he knew he could bring her back himself if he wanted to, so he allowed her to go. He only allowed her one week and she agreed without complaint. He was so surprised that she didn’t try to raise the time and he asked her “Do you not wish longer child?” and she replied with a firm, brave face, “I’m just happy for that much. I am grateful for being able to see the above world and my mom again at all, that’s good enough for me”.

        So Hades sent her to the above world and reminded her that she only had a week. When she arrived, she was in a small village and saw that the crops were plated in ice and she felt herself shivering as soon as she took a step. The wind felt like icy daggers hitting her in the face and her body ached from the pressure of the cold wind. No one was in sight because it was too cold to go out and she saw that people must be starving because the water in the ponds and lakes were frozen over, dominated by brutal weather. Persephone stayed in a village hut and before too long, Demeter heard that her daughter was residing there from another village inhabitant, so she fled to the village immediately.

     When Demeter saw her daughter at the village she cried out with joy and immediately embraced her as the weather automatically turned very warm. When Demeter heard what Hades had done to her child, she cursed him and wished him a life of eternal unhappiness. During that week, Demeter and her daughter spent all of their time together and Persephone told her mother stories about what happened to her in the Underworld.

     A week was over and Demeter watched Persephone disappear to the Underworld before her very eyes. When Hades saw her back he was shocked that he didn’t have to bring her back himself. Hades decided that since she came back as she was told, he would allow her to stay longer in the above world, doing this would also bring the number of people coming to the Underworld lower. So Persephone stayed in the above world for three more months and Demeter was joyous about that. But when it came time for her to return to the Underworld, Demeter got depressed again. More deaths fell upon Hades world as he kept Persephone. Aphrodite begged Hades to let her stay with her mother but Hades wouldn’t allow it, for she was in the Underworld so she was already dead.

     However, Hades was shocked that Persephone was not weeping or begging him to go back to the above world with her mother. More and more people came to the Underworld, crowding it, and Aphrodite asked Hades to release Persephone again. This time Hades thought about it, for Persephone had shown him gratitude and great kindness the first time he let her go for only a week, and he was impressed by that. She hasn’t complained to him or begged him to go back up to the above world because she said that she was happy that he even let her go. Hades realized that Persephone was doing all of this for her depressed mother instead of for her own selfishness. He was moved by this and decided to release Persephone into the stars, so she could be close to her father, Zeus and so her mother could look up to see her anytime. Hades told Aphrodite what he decided and she told Demeter, so every night Demeter would look up at the stars and see a flower and knew it was her little Persephone. Hades had chosen a flower because not only were flowers able to bloom again when Demeter saw Persephone, but that Persephone never tried to escape the Underworld, but also never lost the will to keep going to the above world to see her mother. He compared her rising and falling to the underworld and above world, that of a flower. So now because of her determination and thoughtfulness towards others, she can be seen in the night sky, in the shape of a flower. Demeter and Zeus both looked at the sky each night to see their daughter Persephone bloom wildly in the twinkle of the beautiful night stars.