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	Persephone

	
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		This article is about the Greek goddess. For other uses, see Persephone (disambiguation).

Greek goddess of spring and the underworld




	Persephone
	Queen of the Underworld 
 Goddess of spring, flowers, death, life and vegetation

	Statue of Persephone with a sistrum. Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete

	Abode	The underworld, Sicily, Mount Olympus
	Symbol	Pomegranate, seeds of grain, torch, flowers and deer
	Personal information
	Parents	Zeus and Demeter
	Siblings	Aeacus, Angelos, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Arion, Artemis, Athena, Chrysothemis, Despoina, Dionysus, Eileithyia, Enyo, Eris, Ersa, Eubuleus, Hebe, Helen of Troy, Hephaestus, Heracles, Hermes, Minos, Pandia, Philomelus, Plutus, Perseus, Rhadamanthus, the Graces, the Horae, the Litae, the Muses, the Moirai
	Spouse	Hades
	Children	Melinoë, Plutus, Dionysus (Orphic), Zagreus
	Roman equivalent	Proserpina


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In Greek mythology, Persephone (/pərˈsɛfəniː/ pər-SEF-ə-nee; Greek: Περσεφόνη), also called Kore or Kora (/ˈkɔːriː/ KOR-ee; Greek: Κόρη; "the maiden"), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld through her abduction by Hades, the god of the underworld, with the approval of her father, Zeus.[1] The myth of her abduction represents her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she is also associated with spring as well as the fertility of vegetation. Similar myths appear in the cults of male gods like Attis, Adonis, and Osiris,[2] and in Minoan Crete.

Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian mysteries, which promised the initiated a more enjoyable prospect after death. The origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on ancient agrarian cults of agricultural communities.

Persephone was commonly worshipped along with Demeter and with the same mysteries. To her alone were dedicated the mysteries celebrated at Athens in the month of Anthesterion. In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed 
robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades.

Her name has numerous historical variants. These include Persephassa (Περσεφάσσα) and Persephatta (Περσεφάττα). In Latin her name is rendered Proserpina. She was identified by the Romans as the Italic goddess Libera.


Contents


	1 Name
	2 Titles and functions
	2.1 Goddess of Spring and Nature
	2.2 Goddess of the Underworld
	2.3 Nestis
	2.4 Epithets



	3 Mythology
	3.1 Abduction myth
	3.2 Interpretation of the myth
	3.3 Arcadian myths



	4 Worship
	4.1 Origins
	4.2 In the Near East and Minoan Crete
	4.3 In Mycenaean Greece
	4.4 The Thesmophoria
	4.5 The Eleusinian mysteries
	4.6 In Rome
	4.7 In Magna Graecia
	4.8 In Orphism
	4.9 Other local cults



	5 Ancient literary references
	6 Modern reception
	7 See also
	8 Notes
	9 References
	9.1 Sources



	10 External links





Name[edit]

  
Persephone or "the deceased woman" holding a pomegranate. Etruscan terracotta cinerary statue. National archaeological museum in Palermo, Italy



In a Linear B Mycenaean Greek inscription on a tablet found at Pylos dated 1400–1200 BC, John Chadwick reconstructed[n 1] the name of a goddess, *Preswa who could be identified with Persa, daughter of Oceanus and found speculative the further identification with the first element of Persephone.[4][5] Persephonē (Greek: Περσεφόνη) is her name in the Ionic Greek of epic literature. The Homeric form of her name is Persephoneia (Περσεφονεία,[6] Persephoneia). In other dialects, she was known under variant names: Persephassa (Περσεφάσσα), Persephatta (Περσεφάττα), or simply Korē (Κόρη, "girl, maiden").[7] Plato calls her Pherepapha (Φερέπαφα) in his Cratylus, "because she is wise and touches that which is in motion". There are also the forms Periphona (Πηριφόνα) and Phersephassa (Φερσέφασσα). The existence of so many different forms shows how difficult it was for the Greeks to pronounce the word in their own language and suggests that the name may have a Pre-Greek origin.[8]

Persephatta (Περσεφάττα) is considered to mean "female thresher of grain"; the first constituent of the name originates in Proto-Greek "perso-" (related to Sanskrit "parṣa-"), "sheaf of grain" and the second constituent of the name originates in Proto-Indo European *-gʷn-t-ih, from the root *gʷʰen- "to strike".[9]

A popular folk etymology is from φέρειν φόνον, pherein phonon, "to bring (or cause) death".[10]


Titles and functions[edit]

The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as chthonic (underworld) and vegetation goddess. The surnames given to her by the poets refer to her character as Queen of the lower world and the dead, or her symbolic meaning of the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. Her common name as a vegetation goddess is Kore, and in Arcadia she was worshipped under the title Despoina, "the mistress", a very old chthonic divinity.[10]


Goddess of Spring and Nature[edit]

Plutarch writes that Persephone was identified with the spring season[11] and Cicero calls her the seed of the fruits of the fields. In the Eleusinian Mysteries, her return from the underworld each spring is a symbol of immortality, and hence she was frequently represented on sarcophagi.

In the religions of the Orphics and the Platonists, Kore is described as the all-pervading goddess of nature[12] who both produces and destroys everything, and she is therefore mentioned along with or identified as other such divinities including Isis, Rhea, Ge, Hestia, Pandora, Artemis, and Hecate.[13] The Orphic Persephone is said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus, Iacchus, Zagreus,[10] and the little-attested Melinoe.[14]


Goddess of the Underworld[edit]

  
Seated goddess, probably Persephone on her throne in the underworld, Severe style ca 480–460, found at Tarentum, Magna Graecia (Pergamon Museum, Berlin)



In mythology and literature she is often called dread(ed) Persephone, and queen of the Underworld, within which tradition it was forbidden to speak her name. This tradition comes from her conflation with the very old chthonic divinity Despoina ("[the] mistress"), whose real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated into her mysteries.[15] As goddess of death, she was also called a daughter of Zeus and Demeter,[16] the river that formed the boundary between Earth and the underworld. In Homer's epics, she appears always together with Hades and the Underworld, apparently sharing with Hades control over the dead.[17] In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus encounters the "dread Persephone" in Tartarus when he visits his dead mother. Odysseus sacrifices a ram to the chthonic goddess Persephone and the ghosts of the dead who drink the blood of the sacrificed animal. In the reformulation of Greek mythology expressed in the Orphic Hymns, Dionysus and Melinoe are separately called children of Zeus and Persephone.[18] Groves sacred to her stood at the western extremity of the earth on the frontiers of the lower world, which itself was called "house of Persephone".[19]

Her central myth served as the context for the secret rites of regeneration at Eleusis,[20] which promised immortality to initiates. 


Nestis[edit]

In a Classical period text ascribed to Empedocles, c. 490–430 BC,[n 2] describing a correspondence among four deities and the classical elements, the name Nestis for water apparently refers to Persephone: "Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus. And Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears."[21]

Of the four deities of Empedocles' elements, it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo—Nestis is a euphemistic cult title[n 3]—for she was also the terrible Queen of the Dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was euphemistically named simply as Kore or "the Maiden", a vestige of her archaic role as the deity ruling the underworld. Nestis means "the Fasting One" in ancient Greek.[citation needed]


Epithets[edit]

As a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically friendly names.[22] However it is possible that some of them were the names of original goddesses:


	Despoina (dems-potnia) "the mistress" (literally "the mistress of the house") in Arcadia.
	Hagne, "pure", originally a goddess of the springs in Messenia.[23]
	Melindia or Melinoia (meli, "honey"), as the consort of Hades, in Hermione. (Compare Hecate, Melinoe)[22]
	Malivina[22]
	Melitodes[22]
	Aristi cthonia, "the best chthonic".[22]
	Praxidike, the Orphic Hymn to Persephone identifies Praxidike as an epithet of Persephone: "Praxidike, subterranean queen. The Eumenides' source [mother], fair-haired, whose frame proceeds from Zeus' ineffable and secret seeds."[24][25]


As a vegetation goddess, she was called:[23][26]


	Kore, "the maiden".
	Kore Soteira, "the savior maiden", in Megalopolis.
	Neotera, "the younger", in Eleusis.
	Kore of Demeter Hagne in the Homeric hymn.
	Kore memagmeni, "the mixed daughter" (bread).


Demeter and her daughter Persephone were usually called:[26][27]


	The goddesses, often distinguished as "the older" and "the younger" in Eleusis.
	Demeters, in Rhodes and Sparta
	The thesmophoroi, "the legislators" in the Thesmophoria.
	The Great Goddesses, in Arcadia.
	The mistresses in Arcadia.[28]
	Karpophoroi, "the bringers of fruit", in Tegea of Arcadia.


Mythology[edit]

Abduction myth[edit]

  
Sarcophagus with the abduction of Persephone. Walters Art Museum. Baltimore, Maryland



Persphone's abduction by Hades[n 4] is mentioned briefly in Hesiod's Theogony,[29] and told in considerable detail in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Zeus, it is said, permitted Hades, who was in love with the beautiful Persephone, to abduct her as her mother Demeter was not likely to allow her daughter to go down to Hades. Persephone was gathering flowers with the Oceanids along with Artemis and Pallas, daughter of Triton, as the Homeric Hymn says, in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth.[30] Demeter, when she found her daughter had disappeared, she searched for her all over the earth with Hecate's torches. In most versions she forbids the earth to produce, or she neglects the earth and in the depth of her despair she causes nothing to grow. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened and at length she discovered the place of her abode. Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone.[31]


  
The Rape of Proserpina by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1621–22) at the Galleria Borghese in Rome.



Hades complies with the request, but first he tricks Persephone, giving her some pomegranate seeds to eat.[32] Hermes is sent to retrieve her but, because she had tasted the food of the underworld, she was obliged to spend a third of each year (the winter months) there, and the remaining part of the year with the gods above.[33] With the later writers Ovid and Hyginus, Persephone's time in the underworld becomes half the year.[34] It was explained to Demeter, her mother, that she would be released, so long as she did not taste the food of the dead.

Various local traditions place Persephone's abduction in different locations. The Sicilians, among whom her worship was probably introduced by the Corinthian and Megarian colonists, believed that Hades found her in the meadows near Enna, and that a well arose on the spot where he descended with her into the lower world. The Cretans thought that their own island had been the scene of the abduction, and the Eleusinians mentioned the Nysian plain in Boeotia, and said that Persephone had descended with Hades into the lower world at the entrance of the western Oceanus. Later accounts place the abduction in Attica, near Athens, or near Eleusis.[31]


  
The Return of Persephone, by Frederic Leighton (1891)



The Homeric hymn mentions the Nysion (or Mysion) which was probably a mythical place. The location of this mythical place may simply be a convention to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past.[26] Before Persephone was abducted by Hades, the shepherd Eumolpus and the swineherd Eubuleus saw a girl in a black chariot driven by an invisible driver being carried off into the earth which had violently opened up. Eubuleus was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld when Persephone was abducted by Plouton. His swine were swallowed by the earth along with her, and the myth is an etiology for the relation of pigs with the ancient rites in Thesmophoria,[35] and in Eleusis.

In the hymn, Persephone returns and she is reunited with her mother near Eleusis. Demeter, as she had promised, established her mysteries (orgies) when the Eleusinians built for her a temple near the spring of Callichorus. These were awful mysteries which were not allowed to be uttered. The uninitiated would spend a miserable existence in the gloomy space of Hades after death.[n 5]

In some versions, Ascalaphus informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. When Demeter and her daughter were reunited, the Earth flourished with vegetation and color, but for some months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm. This is an origin story to explain the seasons.

In an earlier version, Hecate rescued Persephone. On an Attic red-figured bell krater of c. 440 BC in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Persephone is rising as if up stairs from a cleft in the earth, while Hermes stands aside; Hecate, holding two torches, looks back as she leads her to the enthroned Demeter.[36]

The 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda introduces a goddess of a blessed afterlife assured to Orphic mystery initiates. This Macaria is asserted to be the daughter of Hades, but no mother is mentioned.[37]


Interpretation of the myth[edit]

  
Pinax of Persephone and Hades from Locri. Reggio Calabria, National Museum of Magna Graecia.



In the myth Pluto abducts Persephone to be his wife and the queen of his realm (this is the myth which explains their marriage).[38] Pluto (Πλούτων, Ploutōn) was a name for the ruler of the underworld; the god was also known as Hades, a name for the underworld itself. The name Pluton was conflated with that of Ploutos (Πλούτος Ploutos, "wealth"), a god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground, and because Pluto as a chthonic god ruled the deep earth that contained the seeds necessary for a bountiful harvest.[39] Plouton is lord of the dead, but as Persephone's husband he has serious claims to the powers of fertility.[40]

In the Theogony of Hesiod, Demeter was united with the hero Iasion in Crete and she bore Ploutos.[29] This union seems to be a reference to a hieros gamos (ritual copulation) to ensure the earth's fertility.[40] This ritual copulation appears in Minoan Crete, in many Near Eastern agricultural societies, and also in the Anthesteria.[n 6]

Nilsson believes that the original cult of Ploutos (or Pluto) in Eleusis was similar with the Minoan cult of the "divine child", who died to be reborn. The child was abandoned by his mother and then it was brought up by the powers of nature. Similar myths appear in the cults of Hyakinthos (Amyklai), Erichthonios (Athens), and later in the cult of Dionysos.[42]

The Greek version of the abduction myth is related to grain – important and rare in the Greek environment – and the return (ascent) of Persephone was celebrated at the autumn sowing. Pluto (Ploutos) represents the wealth of the grain that was stored in underground silos or ceramic jars (pithoi), during summer months. Similar subterranean pithoi were used in ancient times for burials and Pluto is fused with Hades, the King of the realm of the dead. During summer months, the Greek grain-Maiden (Kore) is lying in the grain of the underground silos in the realm of Hades, and she is fused with Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld. At the beginning of the autumn, when the seeds of the old crop are laid on the fields, she ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter, for at that time the old crop and the new meet each other. For the initiated, this union was the symbol of the eternity of human life that flows from the generations which spring from each other.[43][44]


Arcadian myths[edit]

  
From L-R, Artemis, Demeter, Veil of Despoina, Anytus, Tritoness from the throne of Despoina at Lycosura. National Archaeological Museum of Athens



The primitive myths of isolated Arcadia seem to be related to the first Greek-speaking people who came from the north-east during the Bronze Age. Despoina (the mistress), the goddess of the Arcadian mysteries, is the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon Hippios (horse), who represents the river spirit of the underworld as a horse, as often happens in northern-European folklore. He pursues the mare-Demeter and from their union she bears the horse Arion and a daughter who originally had the form or shape of a mare. The two goddesses were not clearly separated, and they were closely connected with springs and animals. They were connected with Poseidon, the god of rivers and springs, and especially with Artemis, the Mistress of the Animals who was the first nymph.[1] According to the Greek tradition a hunt-goddess preceded the harvest goddess.[45] In Arcadia, in historical times Demeter and Persephone were often called Despoinai (Δέσποιναι, "the mistresses"). They are the two Great Goddesses of the Arcadian cults, and evidently they come from a more primitive religion.[26] The Greek god Poseidon probably substituted for the companion (Paredros, Πάρεδρος) of the Minoan Great goddess[46]
in the Arcadian mysteries.


Worship[edit]

Persephone was worshipped along with her mother Demeter and in the same mysteries. Her cults included agrarian magic, dancing, and rituals. The priests used special vessels and holy symbols, and the people participated with rhymes. In Eleusis there is evidence of sacred laws and other inscriptions.[47]

The Cult of Demeter and the Maiden is found at Attica, in the main festivals Thesmophoria and Eleusinian mysteries and in a number of local cults. These festivals were almost always celebrated at the autumn sowing, and at full-moon according to the Greek tradition. In some local cults the feasts were dedicated to Demeter.


Origins[edit]

  
Gold ring from Isopata tomb, near Knossos, Crete, 1400–1500 BC. Depicted are female figures dancing among blossoming vegetation; Heraklion Archaeological Museum



The myth of a goddess being abducted and taken to the Underworld is probably Pre-Greek in origin. Samuel Noah Kramer, the renowned scholar of ancient Sumer, has posited that the Greek story of the abduction of Persephone may be derived from an ancient Sumerian story in which Ereshkigal, the ancient Sumerian goddess of the Underworld, is abducted by Kur, the primeval dragon of Sumerian mythology, and forced to become ruler of the Underworld against her own will.[48]

The location of Persephone's abduction is different in each local cult. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter mentions the "plain of Nysa".[49] The locations of this probably mythical place may simply be conventions to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past.[50][51] Demeter found and met her daughter in Eleusis, and this is the mythical disguise of what happened in the mysteries.[52]

Persephone is an old chthonic deity of the agricultural communities, who received the souls of the dead into the earth, and acquired powers over the fertility of the soil, over which she reigned. The earliest depiction of a goddess who may be identified with Persephone growing out of the ground, is on a plate from the Old-Palace period in Phaistos. The goddess has a vegetable-like appearance, and she is surrounded by dancing girls between blossoming flowers.[53] A similar representation, where the goddess appears to come down from the sky, is depicted on the Minoan ring of Isopata.


  
Rape of Persephone. Hades with his horses and Persephone (down). An Apulian red-figure volute krater, c. 340 BC. Antikensammlung Berlin



In some forms Hades appears with his chthonic horses. The myth of the abduction of Persephone was derived from the idea that Hades catches the souls of the dead and then carries them with his horses into his kingdom. This idea is vague in Homer, but appears in later Greek depictions, and in Greek folklore. "Charos" appears with his horse and carries the dead into the underworld.[54][55]

The cults of Persephone and Demeter in the Eleusinian mysteries and in the Thesmophoria were based on old agrarian cults.[56]
A lot of ancient beliefs were based on initiation into jealously-guarded mysteries (secret rites) because they offered prospects after death more enjoyable than the final end at the gloomy space of the Greek Hades. There is evidence that some practices were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenaean age.[57][53] Kerenyi asserts that these religious practices were introduced from Minoan Crete.,[58][59] The idea of immortality which appears in the syncretistic religions of the Near East did not exist in the Eleusinian mysteries at the very beginning.[60][61]


In the Near East and Minoan Crete[edit]

  
The Lady of Auxerre, an Archaic (640 BC) image from Crete. A version of a Minoan goddess who may be identified with Kore



In the Near Eastern myth of the early agricultural societies, every year the fertility goddess bore the "god of the new year", who then became her lover, and died immediately to be reborn and face the same destiny. Some findings from Catal Huyuk since the Neolithic age, indicate the worship of the Great Goddess accompanied by a boyish consort, who symbolizes the annual decay and return of vegetation.[62] Similar cults of resurrected gods appear in the Near East and Egypt in the cults of Attis, Adonis and Osiris.[63]

In Minoan Crete, the "divine child" was related to the female vegetation divinity Ariadne who died every year.[64] The Minoan religion had its own characteristics. The most peculiar feature of the Minoan belief in the divine, is the appearance of the goddess from above in the dance. Dance floors have been discovered in addition to "vaulted tombs", and it seems that the dance was ecstatic. Homer memorializes the dance floor which Daedalus built for Ariadne in the remote past.[65] On the gold ring from Isopata, four women in festal attire are performing a dance between blossoming flowers. Above a figure apparently floating in the air seems to be the goddess herself, appearing amid the whirling dance.[66] An image plate from the first palace of Phaistos, seems to be very close to the mythical image of the Anodos (ascent) of Persephone. Two girls dance between blossoming flowers, on each side of a similar but armless and legless figure which seems to grow out of the ground. The goddess is bordered by snake lines which give her a vegetable like appearance She has a large stylized flower turned over her head. The resemblance with the flower-picking Persephone and her companions is compelling.[53] The depiction of the goddess is similar to later images of "Anodos of Pherephata". On the Dresden vase, Persephone is growing out of the ground, and she is surrounded by the animal-tailed agricultural gods Silenoi.[67]

Kerenyi suggests that the name Ariadne (derived from ἁγνή, hagne, "pure"), was an euphemistical name given by the Greeks to the nameless "Mistress of the labyrinth" who appears in a Mycenean Greek inscription from Knossos in Crete. The Greeks used to give friendly names to the deities of the underworld. Cthonic Zeus was called Eubuleus, "the good counselor", and the ferryman of the river of the underworld Charon, "glad".[55] Despoina and "Hagne" were probably euphemistic surnames of Persephone, therefore he theorizes that the cult of Persephone was the continuation of the worship of a Minoan Great goddess. The labyrinth was both a winding dance-ground and, in the Greek view, a prison with the dreaded Minotaur at its centre.[68][69] It is possible that some religious practices, especially the mysteries, were transferred from a Cretan priesthood to Eleusis, where Demeter brought the poppy from Crete.[70] Besides these similarities, Burkert explains that up to now it is not known to what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and Mycenean religion.[71] In the Anthesteria Dionysos is the "divine child".


In Mycenaean Greece[edit]

  
Two women or goddesses on a chariot. Fresco from Tiryns, 1200 BC. National Archaeological Museum of Athens.



There is evidence of a cult in Eleusis from the Mycenean period;[72] however, there are not sacral finds from this period. The cult was private and there is no information about it. As well as the names of some Greek gods in the Mycenean Greek inscriptions, also appear names of goddesses, like "the divine Mother" (the mother of the gods) or "the Goddess (or priestess) of the winds", who don't have Mycenean origin .[52] In historical times, Demeter and Kore were usually referred to as "the goddesses" or "the mistresses" (Arcadia) in the mysteries .[73] In the Mycenean Greek tablets dated 1400–1200 BC, the "two queens and the king" are mentioned. John Chadwick believes that these were the precursor divinities of Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.[74][75]

Some information can be obtained from the study of the cult of Eileithyia at Crete, and the cult of Despoina. In the cave of Amnisos at Crete, Eileithyia is related with the annual birth of the divine child and she is connected with  Enesidaon (The earth shaker), who is the chthonic aspect of the god Poseidon.[76] 
Persephone was conflated with Despoina, "the mistress", a chthonic divinity in West-Arcadia.[59] The megaron of Eleusis is quite similar with the "megaron" of Despoina at Lycosura.[52] Demeter is united with her, the god Poseidon, and she bears him a daughter, the unnameable Despoina.[77] Poseidon appears as a horse, as it usually happens in Northern European folklore. The goddess of nature and her companion survived in the Eleusinian cult, where the following words were uttered "Mighty Potnia bore a great sun".[76] In Eleusis, in a ritual, one child ("pais") was initiated from the hearth. The name pais (the divine child) appears in the Mycenean inscriptions,[52] and the ritual indicates the transition from the old funerary practices to the Greek cremation.[78]

In Greek mythology Nysa is a mythical mountain with an unknown location.[51] Nysion (or Mysion), the place of the abduction of Persephone was also probably a mythical place which did not exist on the map, a magically distant chthonic land of myth which was intended in the remote past.[79]


The Thesmophoria[edit]

Main article: Thesmophoria

  
Kore, daughter of Demeter, celebrated with her mother by the Thesmophoriazusae (women of the festival). Acropolis Museum, Athens



Thesmophoria, were celebrated in Athens, and the festival was widely spread in Greece. This was a festival of secret women-only rituals connected with marriage customs and commemorated the third of the year, in the month Pyanepsion, when Kore was abducted and Demeter abstained from her role as goddess of harvest and growth. The ceremony involved sinking sacrifices into the earth by night and retrieving the decaying remains of pigs that had been placed in the megara of Demeter (trenches and pits or natural clefts in rock), the previous year. These were placed on altars, mixed with seeds, then planted.[80] Pits rich in organic matter at Eleusis have been taken as evidence that the Thesmophoria was held there as well as in other demes of Attica.[81] This agrarian magic was also used in the cult of the earth-goddesses potniai (mistresses) in the Cabeirian, and in Knidos.[82]

The festival was celebrated over three days. The first was the "way up" to the sacred space, the second, the day of feasting when they ate pomegranate seeds and the third was a meat feast in celebration of Kalligeneia a goddess of beautiful birth. Zeus penetrated the mysteries as Zeus- Eubuleus[80] which is an euphemistical name of Hades (Chthonios Zeus).[22] In the original myth which is an etiology for the ancient rites, Eubuleus was a swineherd who was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld when Persephone was abducted by Plouton. His swine were swallowed by the earth along with her.[35]


The Eleusinian mysteries[edit]

Main article: Eleusinian mysteries

  
The Eleusinian trio: Persephone, Triptolemus and Demeter on a marble bas-relief from Eleusis, 440–430 BC. National Archaeological Museum of Athens


 
The Eleusinian mysteries was a festival celebrated at the autumn sowing in the city of Eleusis. Inscriptions refer to "the Goddesses" accompanied by the agricultural god Triptolemos (probably son of Ge and Oceanus),[83] and "the God and the Goddess" (Persephone and Plouton) accompanied by Eubuleus who probably led the way back from the underworld.[84] The myth was represented in a cycle with three phases: the "descent", the "search", and the "ascent", with contrasted emotions from sorrow to joy which roused the mystae to exultation. The main theme was the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother Demeter.[43] The festival activities included dancing, probably across the Rharian field, where according to the myth the first grain grew.

At the beginning of the feast, the priests filled two special vessels and poured them out, the one towards the west, and the other towards the east. The people looking both to the sky and the earth shouted in a magical rhyme "rain and conceive". In a ritual, a child was initiated from the hearth (the divine fire). It was the ritual of the "divine child" who originally was Ploutos. In the Homeric hymn the ritual is connected with the myth of the agricultural god Triptolemos[78] The high point of the celebration was "an ear of grain cut in silence", which represented the force of the new life. The idea of immortality didn't exist in the mysteries at the beginning, but the initiated believed that they would have a better fate in the underworld. Death remained a reality, but at the same time a new beginning like the plant which grows from the buried seed.[52] In the earliest depictions Persephone is an armless and legless deity, who grows out of the ground.[53]


In Rome[edit]

Main article: Proserpina

  
Cinerary altar with tabula representing the abduction of Proserpina. White marble, Antonine Era, 2nd century Rome, Baths of Diocletian



  
Persephone opening a cista containing the infant Adonis, on a pinax from Locri



The Romans first heard of her from the Aeolian and Dorian cities of Magna Graecia, who used the dialectal variant Proserpinē (Προσερπίνη). Hence, in Roman mythology she was called Proserpina, a name erroneously derived by the Romans from proserpere, "to shoot forth"[85] and as such became an emblematic figure of the Renaissance.[86] In 205 BC, Rome officially identified Proserpina with the local Italic goddess Libera, who, along with Liber, were strongly associated with the Roman grain goddess Ceres (considered equivalent to the Greek Demeter). The Roman author Gaius Julius Hyginus also considered Proserpina equivalent to the Cretan goddess Ariadne, who was the bride of Liber's Greek equivalent, Dionysus.[87][88]


In Magna Graecia[edit]

At Locri, a city of Magna Graecia situated on the coast of the Ionian Sea in Calabria (a region of southern Italy), perhaps uniquely, Persephone was worshiped as protector of marriage and childbirth, a role usually assumed by Hera; in the iconography of votive plaques at Locri, her abduction and marriage to Hades served as an emblem of the marital state, children at Locri were dedicated to Proserpina, and maidens about to be wed brought their peplos to be blessed.[89] Diodorus Siculus knew the temple there as the most illustrious in Italy.[90] During the 5th century BC, votive pinakes in terracotta were often dedicated as offerings to the goddess, made in series and painted with bright colors, animated by scenes connected to the myth of Persephone. Many of these pinakes are now on display in the National Museum of Magna Græcia in Reggio Calabria. 
Locrian pinakes represent one of the most significant categories of objects from Magna Graecia, both as documents of religious practice and as works of art.[91]

The temple at Lorci was looted by Pyrrhus.[92] The importance of the regionally powerful Lokrian Persephone influenced the representation of the goddess in Magna Graecia. Pinakes, terracotta tablets with brightly painted sculptural scenes in relief were founded in Locri. The scenes are related to the myth and cult of Persephone and other deities. They were produced in Locri during the first half of the 5th century BC and offered as votive dedications at the Locrian sanctuary of Persephone. More than 5,000, mostly fragmentary, pinakes are stored in the National Museum of Magna Græcia in Reggio Calabria and in the museum of Locri.[91] Representations of myth and cult on the clay tablets (pinakes) dedicated to this goddess reveal not only a 'Chthonian Queen,’ but also a deity concerned with the spheres of marriage and childbirth.[90]

The Italian archaeologist Paolo Orsi, between 1908 and 1911, carried out a meticulous series of excavations and explorations in the area which allowed him to identify the site of the renowned Persephoneion, an ancient temple dedicated to Persephone in Calabria which Diodorus in his own time knew as the most illustrious in Italy.[93]

The place where the ruins of the Sanctuary of Persephone were brought to light is located at the foot of the Mannella hill, near the walls (upstream side) of the polis of Epizephyrian Locri.
Thanks to the finds that have been retrieved and to the studies carried on, it has been possible to date its use to a period between the 7th century BC and the 3rd century BC.

Archaeological finds suggest that worship of Demeter and Persephone was widespread in Sicily and Greek Italy.


In Orphism[edit]

Evidence from both the Orphic Hymns and the Orphic Gold Leaves demonstrate that Persephone was one of the most important deities worshiped in Orphism.[94] In the Orphic religion, gold leaves with verses intended to help the deceased enter into an optimal afterlife were often buried with the dead. Persephone is mentioned frequently in these tablets, along with Demeter and Euklês, which may be another name for Plouton.[94] The ideal afterlife destination believers strive for is described on some leaves as the "sacred meadows and groves of Persephone". Other gold leaves describe Persephone's role in receiving and sheltering the dead, in such lines as "I dived under the kolpos [portion of a Peplos folded over the belt] of the Lady, the Chthonian Queen", an image evocative of a child hiding under their mother's apron.[94]

In Orphism, Persephone is believed to be the mother of the first Dionysus. In Orphic myth, Zeus came to Persephone in her bedchamber in the underworld and impregnated her with the child who would become his successor. The infant Dionysus was later dismembered by the Titans, before being reborn as the second Dionysus, who wandered the earth spreading his mystery cult before ascending to the heavens with his second mother, Semele.[95] The first, "Orphic" Dionysus is sometimes referred to with the alternate name Zagreus (Greek: Ζαγρεύς). The earliest mentions of this name in literature describe him as a partner of Gaia and call him the highest god. The Greek poet Aeschylus considered Zagreus either an alternate name for Hades, or his son (presumably born to Persephone).[96] Scholar Timothy Gantz noted that Hades was often considered an alternate, cthonic form of Zeus, and suggested that it is likely Zagreus was originally the son of Hades and Persephone, who was later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone, owing to the identification of the two fathers as the same being.[97] However, no known Orphic sources use the name "Zagreus" to refer to Dionysus. It is possible that the association between the two was known by the 3rd century BC, when the poet Callimachus may have written about it in a now-lost source.[98]


Other local cults[edit]

  
A mosaic of the Kasta Tomb in Amphipolis depicting the abduction of Persephone by Pluto, 4th century BC



  
Hades abducting Persephone, wall painting in the small royal tomb at Vergina. Macedonia, Greece



  
Italy. Renaissance relief, Rape of Persephone. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection



  
Fragment of a marble relief depicting a Kore, 3rd century BC, from Panticapaeum, Taurica (Crimea), Bosporan Kingdom



Local cults of Demeter and Kore existed in Greece, Asia Minor, Sicily, Magna Graecia, and Libya.


	Attica:[99]
	Athens, in the mysteries of Agrae. This was a local cult near the river Ilissos. They were celebrated during spring in the month Anthesterion. Later they became an obligation for the participants of the "greater" Eleusinian mysteries. There was a temple of Demeter and Kore and an image of Triptolemos.[100]  
Demeter drives her horse-drawn chariot containing her daughter Persephone at Selinunte, Sicily 6th century BC



	Piraeus: The Skirophoria, a festival related to the Thesmophoria.
	Megara: Cult of Demeter thesmophoros and Kore. The city was named after its megara .[101]
	Aegina: Cult of Demeter thesmophoros and Kore.
	Phlya, near Koropi, in the mysteries of Phlya: These have very old roots and were probably originally dedicated to Demeter Anesidora, Kore, and Zeus Ktesios, who was the god of the underground stored grain. Pausanias mentions a temple of Demeter-Anesidora, Kore Protogone, and Zeus Ktesios. The surname Protogonos, indicates a later Orphic influence. It seems that the mysteries were related to the mysteries of Andania in Messene.[102]


	Boeotia:
	Thebes, which Zeus is said to have given to her as an acknowledgement for a favour she had bestowed upon him.[103] Pausanias records a grove of Cabeirian Demeter and the Maid, three miles outside the gates of Thebes, where a ritual was performed, so-called on the grounds that Demeter gave it to the Cabeiri, who established it at Thebes. The Thebans told Pausanias that some inhabitants of Naupactus had performed the same rituals there, and had met with divine vengeance.[104] The Cabeirian mysteries were introduced from Asia Minor at the end of the archaic period. Nothing is known of the older cult, and it seems that the Cabeiri were originally wine-daemons. Inscriptions from the temple in Thebes mention the old one as Cabir, and the new one as son (pais), who are different.[102] According to Pausanias, Pelarge, the daughter of Potnieus, was connected with the cult of Demeter in the Cabeirian (potniai).[82]
	A feast in Boeotia, in the month Demetrios (Pyanepsion), probably similar with the Thesmophoria.
	Thebes: Cult of Demeter and Kore in a feast named Thesmophoria but probably different. It was celebrated in the summer month Bukatios.[26][105]


	Peloponnese (except Arcadia)[26]
	Hermione: An old cult of Demeter Chthonia, Kore, and Klymenos (Hades). Cows were pushed into the temple, and then they were killed by four women. It is possible that Hermione was a mythical name, the place of the souls.[22]
	Asine: Cult of Demeter Chthonia. The cult seems to be related to the original cult of Demeter in Hermione.[22]
	Lakonia: Temple of Demeter Eleusinia near Taygetos. The feast was named Eleuhinia, and the name was given before the relation of Demeter with the cult of Eleusis.
	Lakonia at Aigila: Dedicated to Demeter. Men were excluded.
	near Sparta: Cult of Demeter and Kore, the Demeters (Δαμάτερες, "Damaters"). According to Hesychius, the feast lasted three days (Thesmophoria).
	Corinth: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Pluton.[22]
	Triphylia in Elis: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Hades.[22]
	Pellene: Dedicated to the Mysian Demeter. Men were excluded. The next day, men and women became naked.
	Andania in Messenia (near the borders of Arcadia): Cult of the Great goddesses, Demeter and Hagne. Hagne, a goddess of the spring, was the original deity before Demeter. The temple was built near a spring.


	Arcadia[27]
	Pheneos : Mysteries of Demeter Thesmia and Demeter Eleusinia. The Eleusinian cult was introduced later. The priest took the holy book from a natural cleft. He used the mask of Demeter Kidaria, and he hit his stick on the earth, in a kind of agrarian magic. An Arcadian dance was named kidaris.
	Pallantion near Tripoli: Cult of Demeter and Kore.
	Karyai: Cult of Kore and Pluton.[22]
	Tegea: Cult of Demeter and Kore, the Karpophoroi, "Fruit givers".
	Megalopolis: Cult of the Great goddesses, Demeter and Kore Sotira, "the savior".
	Mantineia: Cult of Demeter and Kore in the fest Koragia.[106]
	Trapezus: Mysteries of the Great goddesses, Demeter and Kore. The temple was built near a spring, and a fire was burning out of the earth.
	near Thelpusa in Onkeion: Temple of Demeter Erinys (vengeful) and Demeter Lusia (bathing). In the myth Demeter was united with Poseidon Hippios (horse), and bore him the horse Arion and the unnamed. The name Despoina was given in West Arcadia.
	Phigalia: Cult of the mare-headed Demeter (black), and Despoina. Demeter was depicted in her archaic form, a Medusa type with a horse's head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin.[107] The temple was built near a spring.
	Lycosura,Main article: Despoina
 Cult of Demeter and Despoina. In the portico of the temple of Despoina there was a tablet with the inscriptions of the mysteries. In front of the temple there was an altar to Demeter and another to Despoine, after which was one of the Great Mother. By the sides stood Artemis and Anytos, the Titan who brought up Despoine. Besides the temple, there was also a hall where the Arcadians celebrated the mysteries[108][109] A fire was always burning in front of the temple of Pan (the goat-god), the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks. In a relief appear dancing animal-headed women (or with animal-masks) in a procession. Near the temple have been found terracotta figures with human bodies, and heads of animals.[27]


	Islands
	Paros: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Eubuleus.[22]
	Amorgos: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Eubuleus.[22]
	Delos: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Eubuleus. Probably a different feast with the name Thesmophoria, celebrated in a summer month (the same month in Thebes). Two big loaves of bread were offered to the two goddesses. Another feast was named Megalartia.[26][105]
	Mykonos: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Zeus-Buleus.
	Crete : Cult of Demeter and Kore, in the month Thesmophorios.
	Rhodes: Cult of Demeter and Kore, in the month Thesmophorios. The two goddesses are the Damaters in an inscription from Lindos


	Egypt
	Alexandria: According to Epiphanius, a temple of Kore existed in Alexandria. He describes a celebration of the birth of Aion from Kore the Virgin which took place there on 6 January. During the ceremony, a wood statue of Aion, marked with gold-inlaid crosses on his hands, knees, and forehead, was brought up from an underground vault and processed through the temple. A feast would follow, after which the icon was returned to the vault.[110] Epiphanius noted that the celebration coincided with Aion's birth: "On this day and at this hour, Kore gave birth to Aion." The date, which coincides with the Christian feast of the Epiphany, brought new year's celebrations to a close.[111] Aion may be a form of Dionysus, reborn annually;[112] an inscription from Eleusis also identifies Aion as a son of Kore.[113]


	Asia Minor
	Knidos: Cult of Demeter, Kore, and Pluton.[22] Agrarian magic similar to the one used in Thesmophoria and in the cult of the potniai (Cabeirian).[26]
	Ephesos : Cult of Demeter and Kore, celebrated at night-time.[114]
	Priene: Cult of Demeter and Kore, similar to the Thesmophoria.[26]




  
Head of Persephone. Earthenware. From Sicily, Centuripae, c. 420 BC. The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, UK



	Sicily
	Syracuse: There was a harvest festival of Demeter and Persephone at Syracuse when the grain was ripe (about May).[115]
	A fest Koris katagogi, the descent of Persephone into the underworld.[26]


	Libya
	Cyrene: Temple of Demeter and Kore[26]




Ancient literary references[edit]

	Homer:
	Iliad:
	"the gods fulfilled his curse, even Zeus of the nether world and dread Persephone." (9, line 457; A. T. Murray, trans)
	"Althea prayed instantly to the gods, being grieved for her brother's slaying; and furthermore instantly beat with her hands upon the all-nurturing earth, calling upon Hades and dread Persephone" (9, 569)


	Odyssey:
	"And come to the house of Hades and dread Persephone to seek sooth saying of the spirit of Theban Teiresias. To him even in death Persephone has granted reason that ..." (book 10, card 473)




	Hymns to Demeter[116]
	Hymn 2:
	"Mistress Demeter goddess of heaven, which God or mortal man has rapt away Persephone and pierced with sorrow your dear heart? (hymn 2, card 40)


	Hymn 13:
	"I start to sing for Demeter the lovely-faced goddess, for her and her daughter the most beautiful Persephone. Hail goddess keep this city safe!" (hymn 13, card 1)




	Pindar[116]
	 Olympian:
	"Now go Echo, to the dark-walled home of Persephone."(book O, poem 14)


	Isthmean:
	"Aecus showed them the way to the house of Persephone and nymphs, one of them carrying a ball."(book 1, poem 8)


	Nemean:
	"Island which Zeus, the lord of Olympus gave to Persephone;he nodded descent with his flowers hair."(book N, poem 1)


	Pythian:
	"You splendor-loving city, most beautiful on earth, home of Persephone. You who inhabit the hill of well-built dwellings."(book P, poem 12)




	Aeschylus[116]
	Libation bearers:
	Electra:"O Persephone, grant us indeed a glorious victory!" (card 479)




	Aristophanes[116]
	Thesmophoriazusae:
	Mnesilochos:"Thou Mistress Demeter, the most valuable friend and thou Persephone, grant that I may be able to offer you!" (card 266)




	Euripides[116]
	Alcestis:
	"O you brave and best hail, sitting as attendand Beside's Hades bride Persephone!" (card 741)


	Hecuba:
	"It is said that any of the dead that stand beside Persephone, that the Danaids have left the plains to Troy." (card 130)




	Bacchylides[116]
	 Epinicians:
	"Flashing thunderbolt went down to the halls of slender-ankled Persephone to bring up into the light of Hades." (book Ep. poem 5)




	Vergil[117]
	The Aeneid:
	"For since she had not died through fate, or by a well-earned death, but wretchedly, before her time, inflamed with sudden madness, Proserpine had not yet taken a lock of golden hair from her head, or condemned her soul to Stygian Orcus." (IV.696–99)






Modern reception[edit]

Main article: Persephone in popular culture

Persephone also appears many times in popular culture. Featured in a variety of young adult novels such as Persephone[118] by Kaitlin Bevis, Persephone's Orchard[119] by Molly Ringle, The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter, The Goddess Letters by Carol Orlock, Abandon by Meg Cabot, and Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe, her story has also been treated by Suzanne Banay Santo in Persephone Under the Earth in the light of women's spirituality. Here Santo treats the mythic elements in terms of maternal sacrifice to the burgeoning sexuality of an adolescent daughter. Accompanied by the classic, sensual paintings of Fredric Lord Leighton and William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Santo portrays Persephone not as a victim but as a woman in quest of sexual depth and power, transcending the role of daughter, though ultimately returning to it as an awakened Queen.[120]


See also[edit]


	Ancient Greece portal
	Myths portal
	Religion portal



	Anthesphoria, festival honoring Proserpina, and Persephon
	Eleusinian Mysteries
	Rape of Persephone
	Sporus


Notes[edit]


	^ The actual word in Linear B is 𐀟𐀩𐁚, pe-re-*82 or pe-re-swa; it is found on the PY Tn 316 tablet.[3]

	^ Empedocles was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher who was a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek colony in Sicily.

	^ Kingsley 1995 identifies Nestis as a cult title of Persephone.

	^ In art the abduction of Persephone is often referred to as the "Rape of Persephone".

	^ Hom. Hymn. to Demeter 470:
"Awful mysteries which no one may in any way transgress or pry into or utter, for deep awe of the gods checks the voice. Happy is he among men upon earth who has seen these mysteries; but he who is uninitiate and who has no part in them, never has lot of like good things once he is dead, down in the darkness and gloom".

	^ "This is the time when Zeus mated with Semele, who is also Persephone, and Dionysos was conceived. It is also the time when Dionysos took Ariadne to be His wife, and so we celebrate the marriage of the Basilinna (religious Queen) and the God".
[41]





References[edit]


	^ a b Martin Nilsson (1967). Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion Vol I pp 462–463, 479–480

	^ Fraser. The golden bough. Adonis, Attis and Osiris. Martin Nilsson (1967). Vol I, pp. 215

	^ Raymoure, K.A. "pe-re-*82". Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B. Deaditerranean. 
"PY 316 Tn (44)". DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo. University of Oslo.

	^ 
Chadwick, John (1976). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 95. ISBN 0-521-29037-6. At Google Books.

	^ Comments about the goddess pe-re-*82 of Pylos tablet Tn 316, tentatively reconstructed as *Preswa
	"It is tempting to see ... the classical Perse ... daughter of Oceanus ... ; whether it may be further identified with the first element of Persephone is only speculative." John Chadwick. Documents in Mycenean Greek. Second Edition



	^ 
Homer (1899). Odyssey. Clarendon Press. p. 230. Retrieved 31 March 2014.

	^ H.G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

	^ Martin P. Nilsson (1967), Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion, Volume I, C.F. Beck Verlag, p. 474.

	^ R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, pp. 1179–80.

	^ a b c Smith, "Perse'phone"

	^ Plutarch, Moralia (On Isis and Osiris, Ch. 69)

	^ Orphic Hymn 29.16

	^ Schol. ad. Theocritus 2.12

	^ In the Hymn to Melinoe, where the father is Zeus Chthonios, either Zeus in his chthonic aspect, or Pluto; Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, "Orphic Mythology," in A Companion to Greek Mythology (Blackwell, 2011), p. 100.

	^ Pausanias, Description of Greece (Book 8, Ch. 37, sect. 9)"

	^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca (Book 1, Ch. 3).

	^ Gantz, p. 64; Homer, Odyssey (Book 10, ln. 494).

	^ Orphic Hymn 26, 71

	^ Homer, Odyssey (Book 10, ln. 491; Book 10, ln. 509).

	^ Károly Kerényi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, 1967, passim

	^ Peter Kingsley, in Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1995).

	^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rhode (1961), Psyche I, pp. 206–210

	^ a b Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 478–480

	^ Orphic Hymn 29 to Persephone

	^ 
"PERSEPHONE – Greek Goddess of Spring, Queen of the Underworld (Roman Proserpina)".

	^ a b c d e f g h i j k Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 463–466

	^ a b c Nilsson, pp. 477–480 :"The Arcadian Great goddesses"

	^ Pausanias.Description of Greece 5.15.4, 5, 6

	^ a b Hesiod, Theogony 914.

	^ Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 4–20, 414–434.

	^ a b 
"Theoi Project – Persephone". Theoi.com. Retrieved 6 July 2012.

	^ The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 411–412, has Persephone say: "but he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will.".

	^ Gantz, p. 65.

	^ Gantz, p. 67.

	^ a b Reference to the Thesmophoria in Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans 2.1.

	^ The figures are unmistakable, as they are inscribed "Persophata, Hermes, Hekate, Demeter"; Gisela M. A. Richter, "An Athenian Vase with the Return of Persephone" The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 26.10 (October 1931:245–248)

	^ Suidas s.v. Makariai, with English translation at Suda On Line, Adler number mu 51

	^ William Hansen (2005) Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 180–182.

	^ Hansen, Classical Mythology, p. 182.

	^ a b Ap. Athanassakis (2004), Hesiod. Theogony, Works and Days, Shield ,Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 56.

	^ The Anthesteria Archived 20 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine Bibliotheca Arcana (1997)

	^ Martin Nilsson (1967). Vol I, pp. 215–219

	^ a b 
"Martin Nilsson, The Greek popular religion, The religion of Eleusis, pp 51–54". Sacred-texts.com. 8 November 2005. Retrieved 6 July 2012.

	^ Martin Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 473–474.

	^ Pausanias 2.30.2

	^ Nilsson, VoI, p. 444

	^ Burkert (1985), pp. 285–289

	^ Kramer, Samuel Noah. Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C.: Revised Edition. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961, Philadelphia. 
ISBN 0-8122-1047-6 (Pages 76–79) available at sacred-texts.com. "Moreover, the crime involved is probably that of abducting a goddess; it therefore brings to mind the Greek story of the abduction of Persephone."

	^ Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 17.

	^ Nilsson (1967), Vol I, p. 463

	^ a b "In Greek mythology Nysa is a mythical mountain with unknown location, the birthplace of the god Dionysos.": Fox, William Sherwood (1916), The Mythology of All Races, v.1, Greek and Roman, General editor, Louis Herbert Gray, p.217

	^ a b c d e Burkert (1985), pp. 285–290.

	^ a b c d Burkert (1985) p. 42

	^ Martin Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 453–455

	^ a b Charon, "glad", probably euphemistically "death". Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1843, 1985 printing), entries on χαροπός and χάρων, pp. 1980–1981; Brill's New Pauly (Leiden and Boston 2003), vol. 3, entry on "Charon", pp. 202–203.

	^ Nilsson, Vol I, p.470

	^ Dietrich  "The origins of the Greek Religion" p.220,221

	^ "Kerenyi (1976), Dionysos, archetypal image of indestructible life. Princeton University Press. p. 24

	^ a b Karl Kerenyi (1967). Eleusis. Archetypal image of mother and daughter. Princeton University Press. p. 31f

	^ Burkert (1985) p. 289

	^ "According to the Greek popular belief,ἕν ἀνδρῶν, ἕν θεῶν γένος".(One is the nature of men, another one the nature of gods): Erwin Rhode (1961), Psyche Band I, p. 293

	^ Burkert p.12

	^ J.Frazer The Golden Bough, Part IV, Adonis, Attis and Osiris

	^ F.Schachermeyer (1972), Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, pp. 141, 308

	^ Burkert (1985) pp. 34–40

	^ Burkert (1985) p. 40

	^ "Hermes and the Anodos of Pherephata": Nilsson (1967) p. 509 taf. 39,1

	^ Karl Kerenyi (1976), Dionysos: archetypal image of indestructible life, pp. 89, 90 
ISBN 0-691-02915-6

	^ Hesychius, listing of ἀδνόν, a Cretan-Greek form for ἁγνόν, "pure"

	^ Kerenyi(1976), p.24

	^ "To what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and Mycenaean religion is a question which has not yet found a conclusive answer" :.Burkert (1985). p. 21.

	^ G. Mylonas (1932). Eleusiniaka. I,1 ff

	^ Nilsson (1967), pp. 463–465

	^ John Chadwick (1976).The Mycenean World. Cambridge University Press

	^ "Wa-na-ssoi, wa-na-ka-te, (to the two queens and the king). Wanax is best suited to Poseidon, the special divinity of Pylos. The identity of the two divinities addressed as wanassoi, is uncertain ": George Mylonas (1966) Mycenae and the Mycenean age" p. 159 : Princeton University Press

	^ a b Dietrich p. 220,221

	^ 
"Pausanias 8.37.9". Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 6 July 2012.

	^ a b "In Greek mythology Achileus becomes immortal by the divine fire. His heel was his only mortal element, because it was not touched by the fire : Wunderlich (1972), The secret of Crete p. 134

	^ Nilsson, Vol I p. 463

	^ a b Burkert (1985), pp. 240–243

	^ Clinton, Greek Sanctuaries, p. 113.

	^ a b Potniai: Pelarge daughter of Potnieus is connected with the cult of Demeter in the Cabeirian : Pausanias 9.25,8, Nilsson (1967) Vol I pp. 151, 463

	^ Pseudo Apollodorus Biblioteca IV.2

	^ Kevin Klinton (1993), Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches, Routledge, p. 11

	^ Cicero. De Natura Deorum 2.26

	^ Welch (2013), p. 164

	^ T. P. Wiseman, "Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica", The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 78 (1988), p 7, note 52.

	^ Barbette Stanley Spaeth, The Roman goddess Ceres, University of Texas Press, 1996

	^ Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, "Persephone" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 98 (1978:101–121).

	^ a b 
Eisenfeld, Hanne (1 October 2016). "Life, Death, and a Lokrian Goddess. Revisiting the Nature of Persephone in the Gold Leaves of Magna Graecia". Kernos. Revue internationale et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique (29): 41–72. doi:10.4000/kernos.2388 – via journals.openedition.org.

	^ a b 
Bennett, Michael; Bennett, Michael J.; Bennett, Professor of Palliative Medicine Michael; etc; Paul, Aaron J.; Iozzo, Mario; al, et; White, Bruce M.; Art, Cleveland Museum of; Art, Tampa Museum of (14 May 2019). "Magna Graecia: Greek Art from South Italy and Sicily". Hudson Hills – via Google Books.

	^ Livy: 29.8, 29.18

	^ 
"Locri Epizephyrii, The Archaeological Site – Persephoneion, the Sanctuary of Persephone". www.locriantica.it.

	^ a b c Bremmer, J. N. (2013). Divinities in the Orphic Gold Leaves: Euklês, Eubouleus, Brimo, Kybele, Kore and Persephone. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 35–48.

	^ Edmonds, R.G. III. (2011). Orphic Mythology. A Companion to Greek Mythology, First Edition. Edited by Ken Dowden and Niall Livingstone. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

	^ Sommerstein, p. 237 n. 1; Gantz, p. 118; Smyth, p. 459.

	^ Gantz, p. 118.

	^ Gantz, pp. 118–119; West 1983, pp. 152–154; Linforth, pp. 309–311.

	^ Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 463–465

	^ Pausanias 1.14,1: Nilsson (1967), Vol I, pp. 668–670

	^ Pausanias I 42,6 , Nilsson (1967), Vol I, p. 463

	^ a b Nilsson (1967), Vol I, pp. 668–670

	^ Scholia ad. Euripides Phoen. 487

	^ Pausanias 9.25.5

	^ a b Diodorus Siculus (v.4.7) :"At Thebes or Delos the festival occurred two months earlier, so any seed-sowing connection was not intrinsic."

	^ For Mantinea, see Brill's New Pauly "Persephone", II D.

	^ L. H. Jeffery (1976). Archaic Greece: The Greek city states c. 800–500 B.C (Ernest Benn Limited) p. 23 
ISBN 0-510-03271-0

	^ 
"Pausanias 8.37.1,8.38.2". Theoi.com. Retrieved 6 July 2012.

	^ 
"Reconstruction of interior of Sanctuary of Despoina". Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 6 July 2012.

	^ Fossum, "The Myth of the Eternal Rebirth," pp. 306–307.

	^ Gilles Quispel, "Hermann Hesse and Gnosis," in Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica: Collected Essays (Brill, 2008), p. 258; Gary Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History (Routledge, 2012), p. 122.

	^ Fossum, "The Myth of the Eternal Rebirth," p. 309.

	^ Dittenberger: Sylloge Inscriptionum, 3rd ed., 1125

	^ Herodotus VI, 16: Nilsson (1967) ,Vol I, p. 464

	^ Brill's New Pauly, "Persephone", citing Diodorus 5.4

	^ a b c d e f 
"perseus tufts-persephone". Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 6 July 2012.

	^ 
"Virgil: Aeneid IV". Poetryintranslation.com. Retrieved 6 July 2012.

	^ 
"Persephone (Daughters of Zeus, #1)".

	^ 
"Persephone's Orchard".

	^ 
Santo, Suzanne Banay (2012). Persephone Under the Earth. Red Butterfly Publications. ISBN 978-0-9880914-0-5.





Sources[edit]

	Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
	Bowra Maurice (1957), The Greek experience. The World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York.
	Burkert Walter (1985). Greek Religion. Harvard University Press . 
ISBN 0-674-36281-0
	Farnell, Lewis Richard (1906), The Cults of the Greek States, Volume 3 (Chapters on: Demeter and Kore-Persephone; Cult-Monuments of Demeter-Kore; Ideal Types of Demeter-Kore).
	Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: 
ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), 
ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
	Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PhD in two volumes, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
	Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
	Homeric Hymn to Demeter (2), in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
	Janda, Michael (2010), Die Musik nach dem Chaos. Innsbruck
	Kerenyi Karl (1967), Eleusis: Archetypal image of mother and daughter . Princeton University Press.
	Kerenyi, Karl (1976), Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, Princeton: Bollingen, Google Books preview
	Nilsson Martin (1967), Die Geschichte der Griechischen Religion, Vol I, C.F Beck Verlag, Muenchen. Revised ed.
	Nilsson Martin (1950), Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, and its Survival in Greek Religion, Lund:Gleerup. Revised 2nd ed.
	Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
	Rohde Erwin (1961), Psyche. Seelenkult und Unsterblichkeitsglaube der Griechen. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellshaft. Darmstad. (First edition 1893): full text in German downloadable as pdf.
	Rohde Erwin (2000), Psyche: The Cult of Souls and the Belief in Immortality among the Greeks , trans. from the 8th edn. by W. B. Hillis (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1925; reprinted by Routledge, 2000), online
	Schachermeyr Fritz (1964), Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta, W.Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart.
	Stephen King (2008), Duma Key
	Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Perse'phone" 
	Anthony Welch (2013), The Renaissance Epic and the Oral Past. Yale University Press. 
ISBN 0300178867
	Zuntz Günther (1973), Persephone: Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia


External links[edit]

		Wikimedia Commons has media related to Persephone.


		Look up persephone in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.


	Martin Nilsson. The Greek popular religion
	Adams John Paul. Mycenean divinities
	Theoi project:Persephone Goddess
	Theoi project:The Rape of Persephone
	The Princeton Encyclopedia of classical sites:Despoina
	Theoi project:Despoine
	Kore Photographs
	Flickr users' photos tagged with Persephone
	Proserpine (Persephone) sculpture by Hiram Powers


	
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	e


Ancient Greek deities by affiliation

	Primordial 
 deities	
	Achlys
	Aether
	Aion/Chronos
	Ananke
	Chaos
	Erebus
	Eros/Phanes
	Gaia
	Hemera
	Nyx
	The Ourea
	Pontus/Thalassa
	Tartarus
	Uranus
	Fates
	Atropos
	Clotho
	Lachesis






	Titan 
 deities	
	Titanes (male)	
	Coeus
	Crius
	Cronus
	Hyperion
	Iapetus
	Oceanus




	Titanides (female)	
	Dione
	Mnemosyne
	Phoebe
	Rhea
	Tethys
	Theia
	Themis




	Children of Hyperion	
	Eos
	Helios
	Selene




	Children of Coeus	
	Asteria
	Leto




	Children of Crius	
	Astraeus
	Pallas
	Perses




	Children of Iapetus	
	Atlas
	Epimetheus
	Menoetius
	Prometheus







	Olympian 
 deities	
	Dodekatheon	
	Aphrodite
	Apollo
	Ares
	Artemis
	Athena
	Demeter
	Dionysus
	Hephaestus
	Hera
	Hermes
	Hestia
	Poseidon
	Zeus




	Theoi Olympioi	
	Asclepius
	Eileithyia
	Enyo
	Eris
	Iris
	Harmonia
	Hebe
	Heracles
	Paean
	Pan




	Mousai (Muses)	
	Daughters of Zeus
	Calliope
	Clio
	Euterpe
	Erato
	Melpomene
	Polyhymnia
	Terpsichore
	Thalia
	Urania


	Daughters of Apollo
	Apollonis
	Borysthenis
	Cephisso


	Boeotian Muses
	Aoide
	Melete
	Mneme


	Muses of the Lyre
	Hypate
	Mese
	Nete


	Muses at Sicyon
	Polymatheia






	Charites (Graces)	
	Aglaea
	Antheia
	Euphrosyne
	Hegemone
	Pasithea
	Thalia




	Horae (Hours)	
	Dike
	Eirene
	Eunomia




	Children of Styx	
	Bia
	Kratos
	Nike
	Zelos







	Aquatic 
 deities	
	Sea Gods	
	Amphitrite
	Benthesikyme
	Brizo
	Calypso
	Ceto
	Eurybia
	Glaucus
	The Ichthyocentaurs
	Leucothea
	Melicertes
	Nereus
	Nerites
	The Nesoi
	Oceanus
	Phorcys
	Pontus/Thalassa
	Poseidon
	Proteus
	Rhodos
	Tethys
	Thaumas
	Thetis
	Triton




	Oceanids	
	Acaste
	Admete
	Amalthea
	Asia
	Callirrhoe
	Ceto
	Clytie
	Dione
	Dodone
	Doris
	Electra
	Eurynome
	Idyia
	Melia (consort of Apollo)
	Melia (consort of Inachus)
	Metis
	Perse
	Pleione
	Plouto
	Styx
	Telesto
	Zeuxo




	Nereides	
	Amphitrite
	Arethusa
	Dynamene
	Galatea
	Galene
	Psamathe
	Thetis




	Potamoi	
	Achelous
	Almo
	Alpheus
	Anapos
	Asopus
	Asterion
	Axius
	Caanthus
	Cebren
	Cephissus
	Clitumnus
	Enipeus
	Kladeos
	Meander
	Nilus
	Numicus
	Phyllis
	Peneus
	Rivers of the Underworld
	Acheron
	Cocytus
	Eridanos
	Lethe
	Phlegethon
	Styx


	Sangarius
	Scamander
	Simoeis
	Strymon




	Naiads	
	Aegina
	Achiroe
	Aganippe
	The Anigrides
	Argyra
	Bistonis
	Bolbe
	Caliadne
	Cassotis
	Castalia
	Cleocharia
	Creusa
	Daphne
	Drosera
	Harpina
	The Ionides
	Ismenis
	Larunda
	Lilaea
	Liriope
	Melite
	Metope
	Minthe
	Moria
	Nana
	Nicaea
	Orseis
	Pallas
	Pirene
	Salmacis
	Stilbe
	The Thriae
	Corycia
	Kleodora
	Melaina


	Tiasa







	Chthonic 
 deities	
	Theoi Chthonioi	
	Angelos
	Gaia
	Hades
	Hecate
	The Lampads
	Macaria
	Melinoë
	Persephone
	Zagreus




	Erinyes (Furies)	
	Alecto
	Megaera
	Tisiphone




	Earthborn	
	Cyclopes
	Gigantes
	Hecatonchires
	Kouretes
	Meliae
	Telchines
	Typhon




	Apotheothenai	
	Trophonius
	Triptolemus
	Orpheus
	Aeacus
	Minos
	Rhadamanthus







	Personifications	
	Children of Eris	
	Algos
	Amphillogiai
	The Androktasiai
	Atë
	Dysnomia
	Horkos
	Hysminai
	Lethe
	Limos
	Machai
	Neikea
	Phonoi
	Ponos
	Pseudea
	Logoi




	Children of Nyx	
	Achlys
	Apate
	Dolos
	Eleos
	Elpis
	Epiphron
	Eris
	Geras
	Hesperides
	Hybris
	Hypnos
	The Keres
	The Moirai
	Atropos
	Clotho
	Lachesis


	Momus
	Moros
	Nemesis
	Oizys
	The Oneiroi
	Philotes
	Sophrosyne
	Thanatos




	Children of Phorcys	
	Echidna
	The Graeae
	Deino
	Enyo
	Pemphredo


	The Gorgones
	Euryale
	Medusa
	Stheno


	The Sirenes
	Aglaopheme
	Leucosia
	Ligeia
	Molpe
	Parthenope
	Peisinoe
	Thelxiepeia






	Children of Thaumas	
	The Harpiae
	Aello
	Celaeno
	Ocypete
	Podarge


	Iris




	Children of 
other gods	
	Aergia
	Aidos
	Alala
	Aletheia
	Angelia
	Arete
	Astraea
	Caerus
	The Younger Charites
	Eucleia
	Eupheme
	Euthenia
	Philophrosyne


	Corus
	Deimos
	The Erotes
	Anteros
	Eros
	Hedylogos
	Hermaphroditus
	Hymen


	Ersa
	Eupraxia
	Hedone
	Homonoia
	Iacchus
	The Litae
	Homonoia
	Peitho
	Phobos
	Tyche




	Others	
	Adephagia
	Alala
	Alke
	Amechania
	Anaideia
	Alastor
	Apheleia
	The Arae
	Dikaiosyne
	Dyssebeia
	Eiresione
	Ekecheiria
	Eulabeia
	Eusebeia
	Gelos
	Heimarmene
	Homados
	Horme
	Ioke
	Kakia
	Koalemos
	Kydoimos
	Lyssa
	The Maniae
	Methe
	Nomos
	Palioxis
	Peitharchia
	Penia
	Penthus
	Pepromene
	Pheme
	Phrike
	Phthonus
	Poine
	Polemos
	Poros
	Praxidice
	Proioxis
	Prophasis
	Soter
	Soteria
	Thrasos







	Other deities	
	Sky	
	The Anemoi
	The Astra Planeti
	Stilbon
	Hesperus
	Phosphorus
	Pyroeis
	Phaethon
	Phaenon


	Aura
	Chione
	The Hesperides
	The Hyades
	Nephele
	The Pleiades
	Alcyone
	Sterope
	Celaeno
	Electra
	Maia
	Merope
	Taygete






	Agriculture	
	Aphaea
	Demeter
	Despoina
	Eunostus
	Philomelus
	Plutus




	Health	
	Asclepius
	Aceso
	Epione
	Iaso
	Hygieia
	Paean
	Panacea
	Telesphorus




	Rustic 
deities	
	Aetna
	Agdistis
	The Alseids
	Amphictyonis
	The Anthousai
	Aristaeus
	Attis
	The Auloniads
	Britomartis
	The Cabeiri
	Comus
	The Dryades
	Erato
	The Hamadryades
	Chrysopeleia




	The Epimeliades
	Hecaterus
	Leuce
	Ma
	The Maenades
	The Meliae
	The Napaeae
	The Nymphai Hyperboreioi
	The Oreads
	Adrasteia
	Echo
	Helice
	Iynx
	Nomia
	Oenone
	Pitys


	The Pegasides
	Priapus
	Rhapso
	Silenus
	Telete




	Others	
	Alexiares and Anicetus
	Aphroditus
	Enyalius
	Lelantos
	Palaestra










	
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Ancient Greek religion and mythology

	Classical religious forms	
	Ancient Greek religion
	Gnosticism
	Paleo-Balkan mythology
	Proto-Indo-European religion
	Hellenistic religion
	Alchemy
	Orphism
	Pythagoreanism
	Mycenaean deities




	Mystery religions
and sacred mysteries	
	Delos Mysteries
	Dionysian Mysteries
	Eleusinian Mysteries
	Imbrian Mysteries
	Mithraism
	Samotracian Mysteries




	Main beliefs	
	Ages of Man
	Apotheosis
	Euhemerism
	Eusebeia
	Greek Heroic Age
	Interpretatio graeca
	Monism
	Mythology
	Nympholepsy
	Paganism
	Paradoxography
	Polytheism
	Theism




	Texts/epic poems/odes	
	Aretalogy
	Argonautica
	Bibliotheca
	Cyranides
	Derveni papyrus
	Dionysiaca
	Ehoiai
	Greek Magical Papyri
	Homeric Hymns
	Iliad
	Odyssey
	Interpretation of Dreams (Antiphon)
	Oneirocritica
	Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis
	Sibylline Books
	Telegony
	The golden verses of Pythagoras
	Theogony
	Works and Days
	Epic Cycle
	Theban Cycle




	Rites and practices	
	Amphidromia
	Animal sacrifice
	Apotheosis
	Baptes
	Curse tablet
	Daduchos
	Delphinion
	Funeral and burial practices
	Funeral oration
	Hymns
	Hero cult
	Heroon
	Hierophany
	Hierophant
	Hierophylakes
	Hieros gamos
	Hypsistarians
	Iatromantis
	Interpretatio graeca
	Kanephoros
	Kykeon
	Libations
	Mystagogue
	Nekyia
	Necromancy
	Necromanteion
	Nymphaeum
	Panegyris
	Pharmakos
	Prayers
	Orgia
	Sacrifices
	Temenos
	Thyia
	Temples
	Votive offerings




	Sacred places	
	Oracles, sanctuaries, 
Necromanteion	
	Aornum
	Delphi
	Didymaion
	Dodona
	Oracle of Apollo Thyrxeus at Cyaneae
	Oracle of Artemis at Ikaros island
	Oracle of Menestheus
	Tegyra




	Mountain	
	Cretea
	Mount Ida (Crete)
	Mount Ida (Turkey)
	Mount Lykaion
	Olympus




	Caves	
	Cave of Zeus, Aydın
	Cave of Zeus, Crete
	Psychro Cave
	Vari Cave




	Islands	
	Achilles island
	Delos




	Others	
	Athenian sacred ships
	Eleusis
	Hiera Orgas
	Kanathos
	Olympia
	Sacred Way







	Mythical beings	
	Dragons in Greek mythology
	Greek mythological creatures
	Greek mythological figures
	List of minor Greek mythological figures




	Deities	
	Primordial deities	
	Aether
	Aion
	Ananke
	Chaos
	Chronos
	Erebus
	Eros
	Gaia
	Hemera
	Nyx
	Phanes
	Pontus
	Thalassa
	Tartarus
	Uranus




	Titans	
	First generation	
	Coeus
	Crius
	Cronus
	Hyperion
	Iapetus
	Mnemosyne
	Oceanus
	Phoebe
	Rhea
	Tethys
	Theia
	Themis




	Second generation	
	Asteria
	Astraeus
	Atlas
	Eos
	Epimetheus
	Helios
	Leto
	Menoetius
	Metis
	Pallas
	Perses
	Prometheus
	Selene




	Third generation	
	Hecate
	Hesperus
	Phosphorus







	Twelve Olympians	
	Aphrodite
	Apollo
	Ares
	Artemis
	Athena
	Demeter
	Dionysus
	Hephaestus
	Hera
	Hermes
	Hestia
	Poseidon
	Zeus




	Aquatic deities	
	Amphitrite
	Alpheus
	Ceto
	Glaucus
	Naiads
	Nereids
	Nereus
	Oceanids
	Phorcys
	Poseidon
	Potamoi
	Potamides
	Proteus
	Scamander
	Thaumas
	Thetis
	Triton




	Love deities	
	Erotes	
	Anteros
	Eros
	Hedylogos
	Hermaphroditus
	Himeros
	 Hymen/Hymenaeus
	Pothos




	
	Aphrodite
	Aphroditus
	Philotes
	Peitho







	War deities	
	Adrestia
	Alala
	Alke
	Amphillogiai
	Androktasiai
	Ares
	Athena
	Bia
	Deimos
	Enyalius
	Enyo
	Eris
	Gynaecothoenas
	Homados
	Hysminai
	Ioke
	Keres
	Kratos
	Kydoimos
	Ma
	Machai
	Nike
	Palioxis
	Pallas
	Perses
	Phobos
	Phonoi
	Polemos
	Proioxis




	Chthonic deities	
	Psychopomps	
	Hermanubis
	Hermes
	Thanatos




	
	Achlys
	Angelos
	Hades / Pluto
	Hecate
	Hypnos
	Keres
	Lampad
	Macaria
	Melinoë
	Persephone







	Health deities	
	Aceso
	Aegle
	Artemis
	Apollo
	Asclepius
	Chiron
	Eileithyia
	Epione
	Hebe
	Hygieia
	Iaso
	Paean
	Panacea
	Telesphorus




	Sleep deities	
	Empusa
	Epiales
	Hypnos
	Pasithea
	Oneiroi




	Messenger deities	
	Angelia
	Arke
	Hermes
	Iris




	Trickster deities	
	Apate
	Dolos
	Hermes
	Momus




	Magic deities	
	Circe
	Hecate
	Hermes Trismegistus




	Other major deities	
	Azone
	Eileithyia
	The Erinyes
	Harmonia
	The Muses
	Nemesis
	Pan
	Unknown God
	Zelus







	Heroes/heroines	
	Abderus
	Achilles
	Actaeon
	Aeneas
	Argonauts
	Ajax the Great
	Ajax the Lesser
	Akademos
	Amphiaraus
	Amphitryon
	Antilochus
	Atalanta
	Autolycus
	Bellerophon
	Bouzyges
	Cadmus
	Chrysippus
	Cyamites
	Daedalus
	Diomedes
	Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux)
	Echetlus
	Eleusis
	Erechtheus
	Eunostus
	Ganymede
	Hector
	Heracles
	Icarus
	Iolaus
	Jason
	Meleager
	Odysseus
	Oedipus
	Orpheus
	Pandion
	Peleus
	Pelops
	Penthesilea
	Perseus
	Theseus
	Triptolemus




	Mythical tribes	
	Amazons
	Anthropophage
	Atlantians
	Bebryces
	Curetes
	Dactyls
	Gargareans
	Halizones
	Korybantes
	Lapiths
	Lotus-eaters
	Myrmidons
	Pygmies
	Telchines




	Oracles/seers	
	Aesacus
	Aleuas
	Amphiaraus
	Amphilochus
	Ampyx
	Anius
	Asbolus
	Bakis
	Branchus
	Calchas
	Carnus
	Carya
	Cassandra
	Delphic Sibyl
	Elatus
	Ennomus
	Epimenides
	Halitherses
	Helenus
	Iamus
	Idmon
	Manto
	Melampus
	Mopsus
	Munichus
	Phineus
	Polyeidos
	Polypheides
	Pythia
	Sibyl
	Telemus
	Theiodamas
	Theoclymenus
	Tiresias




	Magic	
	Apotropaic magic
	Greek Magical Papyri
	Pella curse tablet
	Philia




	Mythical realms	
	Aethiopia
	Atlantis
	Erytheia
	Hyperborea
	Libya
	Nysa
	Ogygia
	Panchaia
	Scheria
	Scythia
	Themiscyra




	Underworld	
	Entrances to
the underworld	
	Rivers	
	Acheron
	Cocytus
	Eridanos
	Lethe
	Phlegethon
	Styx




	Lakes/swamps	
	Acherusia
	Avernus Lake
	Lerna Lake




	Caves	
	Charoniums	
	Charonium at Aornum
	Charonium at Acharaca




	
	Cave at Cape Matapan
	Cave at Lake Avernus
	Cave at Heraclea Pontica







	Ploutonion	
	Ploutonion at Acharaca
	Ploutonion at Eleusis
	Ploutonion at Hierapolis







	Places	
	Elysium
	Erebus
	Fields of Asphodel
	Fields of Punishment
	Isles of the Blessed
	Tartarus




	Judges	
	Aeacus
	Minos
	Rhadamanthus




	Guards	
	Campe
	Cerberus




	Ferryman	
	Charon
	Charon's obol




	Symbols/objects	
	Bident
	Cap of invisibility




	Animals, daemons
 and spirits	
	Ascalaphus
	Ceuthonymus
	Eurynomos
	Hade's cattle







	Mythological wars	
	Amazonomachy
	Attic War
	Centauromachy
	Cranes-Pygmies war
	Gigantomachy
	Indian War (it is described at Dionysiaca)
	Theomachy
	Titanomachy
	Trojan War




	Mythological and
religious objects	
	Adamant
	Aegis
	Ambrosia
	Apple of Discord
	Ara
	Baetylus
	Caduceus
	Cornucopia
	Dragon's teeth
	Diipetes
	Galatea
	Golden apple
	Golden Fleece
	Gorgoneion
	Greek terracotta figurines
	Harpe
	Ichor
	Lotus tree
	Minoan seals
	Moly
	Necklace of Harmonia
	Omphalos
	Orichalcum
	Palladium
	Panacea
	Pandora's box
	Petasos (Winged helmet)
	Philosopher's stone
	Ring of Gyges
	Rod of Asclepius
	Sacrificial tripod
	Sceptre
	Shield of Achilles
	Shirt of Nessus
	Sword of Damocles
	Talaria
	Thunderbolt
	Thymiaterion
	Thyrsus
	Trident
	Trojan Horse
	Winnowing Oar
	Wheel of Fortune
	Wheel of fire
	Xoanon




	Symbols	
	Arkalochori Axe
	Labrys
	Ouroboros
	Owl of Athena




	Mythological powers	
	Divination
	Eidolon
	Eternal youth
	Evocation
	Fortune-telling
	Immortality
	Language of the birds
	Nympholepsy
	Magic
	Ornithomancy
	Shamanism
	Shapeshifting
	Weather modification




	Storage containers,
cups, vases	
	Amphora
	Calathus
	Chalice
	Ciborium
	Cotyla
	Hydria
	Hydriske
	Kalpis
	Kantharos
	Kernos
	Kylix
	Lebes
	Lekythos
	Loutrophoros
	Oenochoe
	Pelike
	Pithos
	Skyphos
	Stamnos
	Urn




	Musical Instruments	
	Aulos
	Barbiton
	Chelys
	Cithara
	Cochilia
	Crotalum (Castanets)
	Epigonion
	Kollops
	Lyre
	Pan flute
	Pandura
	Phorminx
	Psaltery
	Salpinx
	Sistrum
	Tambourine
	Trigonon
	Tympanum
	Water organ




	Games	
	Panhellenic Games	
	Olympic Games
	Pythian Games
	Nemean Games
	Isthmian Games




	
	Agon
	Panathenaic Games
	Rhieia







	Festivals/feasts	
	Actia
	Adonia
	Agrionia
	Amphidromia
	Anthesteria
	Apellai
	Apaturia
	Aphrodisia
	Arrhephoria
	Ascolia
	Bendidia
	Boedromia
	Brauronia
	Buphonia
	Chalceia
	Diasia
	Delphinia
	Dionysia
	Ecdysia
	Elaphebolia
	Gamelia
	Haloa
	Heracleia
	Hermaea
	Hieromenia
	Iolaia
	Kronia
	Lenaia
	Lykaia
	Metageitnia
	Munichia
	Oschophoria
	Pamboeotia
	Pandia
	Plynteria
	Pyanopsia
	Skira
	Synoikia
	Soteria
	Tauropolia
	Thargelia
	Theseia
	Thesmophoria




	Vessels	
	Argo
	Phaeacian ships




	Modern offshoot religions	
	Discordianism
	Gaianism
	Feraferia
	Hellenism




	Modern popular culture	
	Greek mythology in popular culture







	Authority control 	
	GND: 118511181
	LCCN: no2014090208
	SUDOC: 02810661X
	VIAF: 25393432
	 WorldCat Identities: viaf-25393432














Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Persephone&oldid=1004936480"


		Categories: 	Persephone
	Greek goddesses
	Queens in Greek mythology
	Life-death-rebirth goddesses
	Eleusinian Mysteries
	Underworld goddesses
	Greek death goddesses
	Greek underworld
	Divine women of Zeus
	Chthonic beings
	Children of Demeter
	Mythological rape victims
	Nature goddesses
	Harvest goddesses


Hidden categories: 	Articles containing Mycenaean Greek-language text
	Webarchive template wayback links
	Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text
	Articles with short description
	Short description is different from Wikidata
	Use dmy dates from December 2020
	Articles having different image on Wikidata and Wikipedia
	Articles containing Greek-language text
	All articles with unsourced statements
	Articles with unsourced statements from October 2019
	Commons category link is on Wikidata
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	Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers




	




	





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		 This page was last edited on 5 February 2021, at 04:20 (UTC).
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