Her mother's name is Demeter. She is a goddess of gardens and growing things. She does it so that people and animals can eat.
Persephone went out of the house one day when her mother was out working. She played with her friends then somebody who liked her named Hades came and took her away with him underground. He decided to kidnap her because her mother didn't allow him to marry her. She was not allowed to eat in the underground or she'd have to stay there. But she ate 6 pomegranate seeds.
Demeter was very worried. Too worried about Persephone that she didn't take care of the plants. She didn't take care of it for a long time so Zeus had to make a meeting with everyone because since Persephone was gone there was no food. So he told Hermes, the messenger to go and ask Hades to let her go.
Because she had eaten 6 seeds, she could not go back forever, but it wasn't a whole fruit, so she had to go back for 6 months above the ground, then go back underground for 6 months.
Demeter gets to have her daughter back for Summer and Spring, but when she goes back underground Demeter is so sad that there is no food.
And that's how we have summer, spring, autumn and winter.
This is a picture of Persephone eating the pomegranite:
And this is a picture of Persephone's mother being very sad that she has gone.
This is a wonderful summary of the myth Elsie, you are such a great writer. I also love the drawings (I love eating pomegranates).
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot (what is a pomegranates)
ReplyDeleteElsie
Hi Elsie, a pomegranate is a type of fruit. It is native to the countries we know as modern-day Iran and Iraq today, but it was grown in many countries like Israel and Greece from ancient times. It is mentioned in the Bible in lots of places. I had a tree in my back yard when I was a kid and loved to eat them. It has tough skin and inside bundles of seeds as big as a peas that are covered with reddish fruit that you chew off the seed. I wonder if Persephone ate the seeds as well as the fruit? When you come home I'll get a pomegranate for you to eat. Love, Grandad.
ReplyDelete