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Persephone

Queen of the Underworld

PERSEPHONE:  According to ancient Greek myth, Persephone is the wife of HADES, ruler of the underworld.  She is referred to as the queen of the dead.  The two are often pictured together in their subterranean kingdom on ancient vases, tombs, and other MEMORIALS.

Persephone is the daughter of the powerful deity Demeter, goddess of the harvest.  Hades becomes infatuated with the young maiden and kidnaps Persephone and drags her to the underworld to be his bride.  Enraged at this act, Demeter destroys the crops and renders the earth infertile.  She vows to continue this condition until her child is returned to her, but Hades is determined to keep the lovely Persephone as his queen.  A devastating famine results throughout the land.

Eventually, Zeus and the other gods intervene to settle the dispute.  Because Persephone has eaten "the food of the dead," she is unable to return to the land of the living.  When Demeter is informed of this, she and Hades strike a compromise:  Persephone will spend half the year in the underworld the other half with her mother.  This, according to Greek myth, is the reason for the winter season.  It is the time when Persephone is with Hades, and Demeter is in mourning.

Persephone plays an important role in several underworld legends.  When the musician ORPHEUS travels to Hades in search of his recently deceased wife, it is Persephone who convinces the king to restore the dead EURYDICE.  Through Persephone's intervention, Hades agrees to let Eurydice return to the land of the living on one condition:  Orpheus must promise not to look back until they have reached the surface of the earth.  At first Orpheus complies, but soon he becomes convinced that Hades has tricked him.  Just before they emerge from the underworld, Orpheus turns around to make certain that his wife is following him.  As he does so, the beautiful Eurydice disappears into the murky mist, lost to him forever.

In another famous story, the heroes THESEUS and Pirithoüs venture to the underworld to steal Persephone away from Hades and return her to her mother.  They fail miserably and are damned to TARTARUS, the lowest realm of the dead.  The two are mercilessly punished by the FURIES and even heckled by King Hades himself for their foolishness in trying to best the lord of hell.  Theseus is later retrieved from this torment by the legendary hero HERCULES; however, Pirithoüs remains among the damned.

The beautiful Persephone also appears in such works as the opera ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD and the epic poem ODYSSEY. (o)

Resource List - all entries are taken verbatim from the original source:

(o) "The Encyclopedia of Hell."  Miriam Van Scott.  St. Martin's Press.  ©1998