Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the Harvest. “Wherever Persephone danced on her light feet, flowers sprang up. She was so lovely and full of grace that even Hades, who saw so little, noticed her and fell in love with her…so he decided to carry her off”. The world plunged in to a cold gray barren mourning. Demeter appealed to Zeus to bring her daughter back to her. He ordered Hades to return the girl, but she had already eaten the seeds of a pomegranate, the fruit of the underworld. When Persephone appeared on earth Demeter blessed all the land and flowers blossomed in the fields. Zeus “ruled that Persephone had to return to Hades and spend on month in the underworld for each seed she had eaten”. Therefore the myth gives us the harvest seasons. Winter and the barren earth when Persephone returns to the underworld. Springs blossoms and the harvest’s growth when she returns to her mother each season.

*Excerpts taken from D’aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths

*Collage uses “Return of Proserpine” by Frederick Leighton