Myth of Hades and Persephone Essay Example

it. Hades had appeared in a four-horse chariot in the plains thundering and swopped the princess with one hand. Hades figuratively deflowered Persephone leaving the plain behind scattered with blossoms of every color. The event was so swift that no one among Persephone’s companions witnessed. Although the princess made some pleas to the companions and the mother to save her, no one heard them (LOCHHEAD’S, L. I. Z., and D. I. A. R. Y. LUCY’S 23-24). The earth opened in front of Hades chariot for them to get through with the hole closing upon their entrance. Hades took Persephone with him to the underground and made her his wife and the goddess of the underworld.

Events happened after the kidnapping with Demeter coming to pick her daughter only to find that she was missing. The goddess searched her everywhere, high and low and to every corner of the earth with vain. The search took Demeter nine days and nights with no food, drink or even bathe and rest (Tobin 187-200). Demeter’s anger was high that she destroyed everything on the earth bewailing her lost daughter. Demeter threatened to launch her revenge on the earth and make it barren destroying all human kind if Persephone was not found. On the tenth day, Demeter got information from goddess Hecate that Persephone was taken by someone but she didn’t know who the person was. They all went to sun’s god Helius to enquire since the god had an ability to see everything happening beneath the sun. Helius told them what happened but told Demeter that Hades was fit to marry Persephone an idea she refused to accept.

Upon learning that

Persephone was being abducted and that Zeus was involved, she declared hunger on earth and failed to return to Mount Olympus. This went for one year but Zeus realized that all human will starve if Demeter was allowed to persist. According to Tobin (187-200), Zeus worry was that there will be no offering for the gods. Zeus reacted by sending a parade of to goddess Demeter to beg her restore earth’s fertility and return to Mount Olympus. Demeter’s condition was that Persephone was to be brought back to her leaving Zeus with no choice but to return the princess.

Hades agreed to let Persephone leave but he gave her some food from the underworld. It was understood that if one took food from the underworld, the person was to remain in the place or spent a given time of the year in the place. Rhea who was the mother to Zeus, Demeter and Hades gave them an option that they all accepted since by eating the seed, Persephone had made a deal of remaining in the underworld. They all accepted that Persephone will spend half of the year in the underworld as a goddess and the rest of the year with her mother Demeter. After the deal was made, Demeter agreed to restore earth’s fertility and returned to Mount Olympus.

Persephone dwelt half of her life in the underworld as a goddess though little is taught of her life above the ground. She was a feared goddess that mortals invoked the name Persephone in curses. Despite being a dreaded queen, she showed mercy in some cases. An instant when Alcestis offered to die in place of her

dying husband, the underworld queen sent her back to life and gave them a chance to live. Persephone had no children for Hades but was faithful to her husband. Hades returned the favor to Persephone when Peirithous travelled to the underworld to abduct Persephone and make her his bride. Hades made the visitors sit on the Chairs of Forgetfulness making Peirithous remain underground forever.

Work Cited

1. Kerényi, Karl. The gods of the Greeks. Grove Press, 1960.
2. LOCHHEAD’S, L. I. Z., and D. I. A. R. Y. LUCY’S. "CHAPTER TWO THE PERSEPHONE FIGURE IN EAVAN BOLAND’S “THE POMEGRANATE”." From Word to Canvas: Appropriations of Myth in Women’s Aesthetic Production (2009): 23.
3. Tobin, Vincent Arieh. "Isis and Demeter: Symbols of divine motherhood." Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 28 (1991): 187-200.