forbidden fruit || Περσεφόνη {persephone}
persephone is the olympian goddess of springtime and vegetation, specifically grain, and the wife of hades, with whom she rules the Underworld. persephone’s mother, demeter, scoured the earth for her daughter, meanwhile hades kept her hidden away in the Underworld. demeter swore the earth would be barren until her daughter was returned to the surface. hades offered her a pomegranate, and for each seed she ate would be another month she was required to stay in the underworld. this cycle is symbolic of the changing seasons and the perennial change from life to death, to life once more.
persephone is the daughter of zeus and demeter, and a duel deity, since, in addition to presiding over the dead as the Queen of the Underworld, as the daughter of demeter, she is also the goddess of fertility and spring.
persephone was greatly feared as Queen of the Underworld, and thus began her many friendlier euphamisms, such as “the maiden” and “the pure one”. interestingly enough, persephone differed from the other goddesses because unlike them, she was not merely her husband’s consort, but also exerted considerable authority over the underworld.
read the forbidden fruit fic here!