Persephone

by Cameron
(Seattle)

I don't think you know the story of who Persephone is, but I'm pretty sure that she is the goddess of the seasons. There's a myth that Hades asked for a wife from his brother Zeus and he wanted Persephone to be it, but she hated him and wished to stay up in the world to watch over the plants and trees (also season),(in the myth there is only the season of summer). But Zeus agreed to it with the condition that Persephone would spend 6 months up in the world watching over it changing the seasons making everything grow and live, and the other six months she would spend down in the underworld with Zeus. The first three months are called fall because its the time when she transitioning from the world above down to the underworld down to being with Hades. After that is when she's in the underworld and all the plants die because she can't care for them making this season Winter. The season after that is Spring because it's when Persephone is transitiong from the underworld back up to earth slowly caring for all the plants again bringing them to life. Summer is the hottest, and most powerful season because its when Persephone is completely in the world watching over it and taking care of it.

Hi Cameron,
I know the myth of Persephone, just didn't have the time to add it to the site. In short, Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, and Zeus. Many gods wanted to marry her, but her mother wouldn't allow it. Hades wanted her as a wife, too, so he asked Zeus for her hand. Zeus knew that Demeter wouldn't agree, so he told Hades to just kidnap her. While picking flowers with the nymphs, a chasm opened into the ground and Persephone was kidnapped. Demeter kept looking for her, and in the end Helios, the god of the sun, who sees everything, told her what happened. Demeter was so unhappy, that she didn't want to perform her duties as a goddess any more, so the land remained barren. The people were hungry and kept crying until the gods couldn't bear it any more, so they asked Zeus to give the girl back to her mother. But the rules were that, if someone drank or ate something in the underworld, then he/she should remain there forever. Persephone remained a lot of time without eating, but in the end Hades convinced her to eat three or six pomegranate seeds. Because of that, she had to stay with Hades for three or six months a year and spend the rest of the year with her mother. While she was in the underworld, there were no harvests on earth, because Demeter was sad... and that's how the seasons came into being. Persephone and Demeter had similar functions, as Persephone tended to the vegetation. Of course, there are more versions of this myth, as usual in Greek mythology.