DemeterPersephone

Demeter and Persephone are central figures in Greek mythology, often treated as a mother and daughter who symbolize the cycle of growth and decay. Demeter, goddess of grain, harvest, and fertility, governs the earth’s bounty, while Persephone, also called Kore, is her daughter who becomes queen of the underworld after her disappearance.

According to the myth, Hades abducts Persephone to the underworld. Demeter’s grief causes the earth to wither and barren. Zeus mediates a compromise: Persephone spends part of each year with Hades in the underworld and part with Demeter on earth, thereby making the seasonal cycle of spring and summer a time of growth and autumn and winter a time of decay. Persephone’s consumption of food—traditionally six pomegranate seeds—in the underworld binds her there for part of the year, explaining the return of winter when Demeter mourns.

The story is central to the Eleusinian Mysteries, a major religious tradition in ancient Greece. Demeter and Persephone were venerated as patron deities of agriculture, and initiates sought assurance of personal renewal in the afterlife through these rites. Eleusis and the broader cult center around themes of loss, reunion, agricultural fertility, and the hope of rebirth.

In later antiquity, Persephone’s dual role as daughter of Demeter and queen of the underworld gave her lasting symbolic prominence as a figure of duality and seasonal change. In Roman mythology, she is known as Proserpina, and Demeter is equated with Ceres.