Greek mythology is full of wonderful stories, many of which aim to explain some natural event that otherwise could not be explained. We invite you to read this article about the myth of persephone, an important character used by the Greeks to explain the seasons.
Who is Persephone?
Within Greek mythology we find many characters who play a leading role in the best known myths around the world. All stories have an end, that is, a purpose, myths are no exception. Of course, some of the narrations are more focused on the teachings that they can transmit. Thus, many of the myths were created to explain some natural event.
For the man of those times, the myths were true stories, which explained the events of different magnitudes that occurred in his life. Persephone is a well-known character in mythology, with a Greek name, Περσεφόνη or Persephonē, is a maiden, daughter of Zeus and Demeter.
Persephone or Kore, is the goddess of spring, the seasons, and fertility. At some point in her life, she also becomes queen of the Underworld, when she is kidnapped by Hades and marries him. Interestingly, the character of Persephone has been interpreted in various ways, which do not always coincide with the image they had of her in ancient Greece.
There is a certain romanticism that revolves around its best-known myth, the myth of the abduction. However, its history is free to interpretation, which allows each individual to have their own opinion about this myth.
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Overview of the myth
The story of Persephone teaches a duality, there is a before and after in Persephone's life when her abduction happens. It is then that she is easily observed, as Persephone, even in her goddess capacity, is not immune to being a changeable person.
At the beginning of the story, we see a sweet and innocent goddess, who is cruelly kidnapped from her home and her mother's pain is what makes her return home. That period where she is not with Demeter was for the Greeks, the winter time, while her return to her house was spring.
Many forget that Persephone changed upon entering the underworld. When you finish the story and listen to the myths that happen after the abduction, you can notice how Persephone's personality changes to adapt to her environment. For some, she will always be the goddess of spring, for others - the queen of the underworld.
The myth of Persephone
To start with the history of the myth we must clarify some things, there are two different versions that talk about what happened.
The first explains that Persephone was kidnapped by Hades, her uncle, and that he forces her to spend time locked up in the underworld. Always in that story, it is emphasized that Persephone is spending time there against her will. Also, there is talk that Hades tricked her into eating a fruit from the underworld knowing that it would force her to stay.
However, the second version of the myth speaks of a rather innocent Persephone who falls for the deceptions of Hades. Until then, everything happens the same way, but the difference is that Persephone falls in love with Hades. When he offers her her fruit, she takes it knowing the consequences of consuming a food from there. So she voluntarily consumes a few seeds and decides to stay with Hades that time.
Duality of the myth of Persephone
Both versions will always depend on personal interpretation. The traditional myths also differ a bit from the parentage of Persephone, officially Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. However, the mythological library of Apollodorus explains that there is a possibility that she was the daughter of Zeus and Styx.
Following the narrative that explains that Persephone is the daughter of Demeter, the myth tells that Demeter, despite being a goddess of Olympus, stayed far away from it. She decides to raise her daughter quite apart from the other gods, living a quiet life, taking care of nature and growing seeds.
Persephone in the myth of Demeter
When his daughter is already of age, she is courted by the gods Hermes, Ares, Apollo and Hephaestus. However, Demeter rejects all gifts and propositions for his daughter. She decides to drive her further away, taking her to a field quite far from all civilization. In that field, Persephone was in charge of helping her mother and taking care of all nature and living creatures. It was a simple and fairly quiet life.
One day, while Persephone was with the nymphs, a large crack opened in the ground and Hades, the god of the dead and guardian of the underworld, came out. He had watched Persephone for a while and completely fell in love with her, so he devises a plan to kidnap her and succeeds. He takes Persephone in his arms and returns to the underworld where he makes her his wife.
spring and winter
The nymphs who were with Persephone were punished for not stepping in and helping, so they were turned into mermaids. Demeter discovers the disappearance of his daughter and makes the earth become a desolate and lifeless world.
Hecate hears the cries of Demeter looking for her daughter and tells her that she should talk to Helios. The sun god tells him everything, explains how Hades appeared and the kidnapping of Persephone. Demeter. Hearing the story, he turns to Zeus and demands that he look for his daughter, otherwise the earth will remain cold forever.
More of the myth of Persephone
Zeus asks Hades to return Persephone to the underworld. To achieve this, she looks for Hermes who rescues her. The only condition that existed to rescue Persephone was that she did not consume any food during the journey. Hades, being smarter than Zeus, managed to convince Persephone to eat six or four pomegranate seeds.
For each seed, Persephone had to spend a month in the underworld. With such a condition she managed to get Persephone to stay with Hades for at least a large part of the year. There are several opinions regarding this latest version, it is said that she was forced and deceived. However, Ascalo told the other gods that Persephone willingly consumed the seeds.
When both women are finally reunited, the land becomes once again a place full of vegetation and life. However, six months of the year the earth will be a barren place, a consequence of Demeter's pain for his daughter.
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Other versions of Persephone
Some modern researchers theorize the existence of a personality with the same characteristics as Persephone who was worshiped long before the Greek existence.
In fact, it is thanks to these investigations that it has been possible to determine that since Neolithic times this goddess was already worshiped, even though she was not exactly known by her Greek name. On the other hand, the mythologist Karoly Kerenyi explains that Persephone was linked to Ariadne, the daughter of Mino, king of Crete, and that she was identified as the mistress of the labyrinth.
veneration and worship
The 12 main gods of Olympus were not the only ones who received veneration. For the people of Ancient Greece, Demeter and Persephone represented a very important role for the culture, due to the powers of nature they had. They were in charge of maintaining the life cycle of all living beings.
Not only were they worshiped at various locations in Greece, but the existence of both goddesses is also believed to date long before the existence of the Olympian pantheon. This makes them part of the oldest group of deities in history. There are several stages of his cult or veneration, the most modern, that is, in Greek times, are the ones that are most recorded and studied.
Eleusinian rites
The Secrets of Eleusis explains that both goddesses had cult initiation rites for their veneration and that these rites were held each year at Eleusis. Eleusis was a town near Athens and was considered one of Demeter's chambers during the search for his daughter.
The Eleusinian rites are considered to be extremely important ceremonies for the Greek people, in fact, they managed to survive long enough for the Roman people to perform them as well. However, explaining what exactly happened in these rites is very difficult, initiates were forbidden to talk about what they should do during the private parts. Despite this, many Greek poets managed to immortalize some parts of the rites that took place in public, such as processions.
Recent research on rituals
Various researchers have analyzed the scriptures and myths. They have determined that the mysteries behind these rites promised to reveal the great secret of mankind, the promise of immortality in Hades (or the underworld), all about Persephone's subterranean kingdom, and ultimately when death would come for mankind and for all. each person.
The inclusion of Demeter and Persephone in Olympus was thanks to the main god Zeus. However, it was quite unstable, as historians theorize that Demeter and Persephone didn't really spend time on Olympus, so many don't consider them when discussing the gods of Olympus.
Interestingly, there is evidence that many of the people who worshiped Demeter and Persephone did not want them to belong to Olympus. They considered that they were too powerful to be seen under the shadow of a masculine divinity, so the cult of these goddesses tried to distance them from these personalities.
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orphic cults
Orphism is a set of beliefs, rites and religious practices that belong to the Orphic religion, whose foundation is attributed to the poet Orpheus, a mythical character. His main belief was that the soul of a being was the true essence of him and that this was the most important part of the human being, additionally, he spoke of the soul and the body as two individual objects. It specifies that the body was only a container for the soul and that it would die, while the soul would suffer the consequences of life.
Persephone played a fairly prominent role in the Orphic cults, she was worshiped in conjunction with Dionysus. In fact, it is not known exactly what kind of relationship they had since there are several versions that claim that she was her son, her brother or even her lover.
More on Persephonic Orphism
Within these cults and beliefs, the temples especially dedicated to them stand out, an example of this is the Gortina, a place that was used to perform mystical rites, in addition, as a curious fact, in these places full celebrations were held. of alcohol and the main reason was to celebrate life and death.
On the other hand, both the initiates and the believers of the cult had to go through a period of abstinence, where they had to remain sober for long periods of time and then drink a large amount of wine. This managed to alter the natural states of his mind and body, which allowed him to completely disinhibit himself, a characteristic that was necessary to worship these deities.
This type of ritual, where the consumption of wine was gigantic, was very common among the initiates, it is from these that it is said that the different secrets they kept were revealed to people. Dionysus and Persephone had something in common, both deities had set foot in the underworld and had returned to earth without any problem.
The Goddess and the Feminine Archetypes
To understand the influence of the myth of Persephone and herself on the female archetypes, we must know exactly what these are. Archetypes are a term used in depth psychology to define the elements or devices of the mind, which can be found in people, with an external or internal influence.
They drive or influence the behaviors of an individual for different reasons. These types of elements do not have an exact fixation, they exist independently of the culture, the time, the thought, the religion, the place or other conditions, the feminine archetype is usually closely associated with mythology.
Although the most common references between the feminine archetypes and the divinities are the cases of the goddess Athena, Hera and Demeter, if there is a reference with the Goddess Persephone and that is the one that we are going to explore next. Persephone is the goddess of spring and the queen of the underworld, this duality has characteristics that can be used as a model to identify the personality of a group of individuals.
Persephone as archetype
The Persephone type is usually seen as a passive person, very dependent on outside entities and susceptible to deception. It is said that this personality develops due to the existence of a mother like Demeter, that is, a controlling, possessive and demanding personality in the role of her mother. Persephone was completely submissive and benevolent.
On the other hand, a person with a Persephone personality is usually a person who constantly seeks feminine approval or maternal approval, this they do unconsciously, since they are not able to rationalize that desire. Additionally, these people are often referred to as weak against a person with greater strength.
They dedicate their lives to pleasing others, they do not seek leadership, they are submissive people but very creative, in general, they transmit a childish personality even when their age reflects a mature age. The archetype of Persephone is more related to her personality before being the queen of the underworld, since little is known about her character after this fact.
Feminine archetype and mythological duality
Many declare that there is a strong duality that contrasts their personality, that is, they are submissive but stubborn. They are not leaders but neither do they follow others faithfully, and thus many aspects of their behavior reflect polar opposites.
The development of his personality will only depend on his self-exploration and the outcome of his characteristics, just as Persephone does. That process of self-knowledge and rebirth is repeated throughout Greek mythology.
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