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SHORT
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Persephone is the goddess of the underworld
in Greek mythology. She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter,
goddess of the harvest. Persephone was a beautiful girl and
everyone loved her. Even Hades , brother of Zeus and king of the
Underworld, wanted her for himself.
When she was a young maiden, she and the Oceanids were
collecting flowers on the plain of Enna, when suddenly the earth
opened and Hades rose up from the gap in his chariot, pulled by
magnificent black stallions. He abducted her and none but Zeus
and the sun god Helios had noticed it.
Broken-hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, looking for her
daughter until Helios, the all-seeing, revealed to her what had
happened. Demeter was so angry that she withdrew herself in
loneliness, and all fertility on earth stopped. Plants, flowers
and trees withered and died and crops didn't grow. The earth
grew barren and all the creatures began to starve. Winter and
cold came.
Finally, Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to make him release
Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed, but before she went back
the sly king of the Underworld gave Persephone a pomegranate to
eat. She ate seven seeds of the fruit and by so doing, she was
forever connected to the realm of Hades and had to stay there
one-third of the year. The other months she remained with her
mother.
During the time Persephone was in Hades, Demeter refused to let
anything grow, plants and crops died and winter began. When
Persephone rejoined her mother three months later springtime
returned and earth came back to life. This myth is a symbol of
the budding and dying of nature. In the Eleusinian mysteries,
this happening was celebrated in honor of Demeter and
Persephone, who was known in this cult as Kore, or daughter.
The Romans called her Proserpina.
Pronunciation - {pur-sef'-uh-nee}
Meaning of name - "She who destroys the light"
CEREBRAL VERSION
compliments of the immortal
Thomas Bullfinch
(MM: the
dude's cool, but he calls Zeus 'Jupiter', Aphrodite 'Venus', and
so on...must have been all that Latin he took in high school...)
WHEN Jupiter and his brothers had defeated
the Titans and banished them to Tartarus, a new enemy rose up
against the gods. They were the giants Typhon, Briareus,
Enceladus, and others. Some of them had a hundred arms, others
breathed out fire. They were finally subdued and buried alive
under Mount AEtna, where they still sometimes struggle to get
loose, and shake the whole island with earthquakes. Their breath
comes up through the mountain, and is what men call the eruption
of the volcano.
The fall of these monsters shook the earth, so that Pluto
(Hades) was alarmed, and feared that his kingdom would be laid
open to the light of day. Under this apprehension, he mounted
his chariot, drawn by black horses, and took a circuit of
inspection to satisfy himself of the extent of the damage. While
he was thus engaged, Venus (Aphrodite), who was sitting on Mount
Eryx playing with her boy Cupid, espied him, and said, "My son,
take your darts with which you conquer all, even Jove himself,
and send one into the breast of yonder dark monarch, who rules
the realm of Tartarus. Why should he alone escape? Seize the
opportunity to extend your empire and mine. Do you not see that
even in heaven some despise our power? Minerva (Athena) the
wise, and Diana (Artemis) the huntress, defy us; and there is
that daughter of Ceres (Demeter), who threatens to follow their
example. Now do you, if you have any regard for your own
interest or mine, join these two in one."
The boy unbound his quiver, and selected his sharpest and truest
arrow; then straining the bow against his knee, he attached the
string, and, having made ready, shot the arrow with its barbed
point right into the heart of Pluto (Hades).
In the vale of Enna there is a lake embowered in woods, which
screen it from the fervid rays of the sun, while the moist
ground is covered with flowers, and Spring reigns perpetual.
Here Proserpine was playing with her companions, gathering
lilies and violets, and filling her basket and her apron with
them, when Pluto saw her, loved her, and carried her off.
She screamed for help to her mother and companions; and when in
her fright she dropped the corners of her apron and let the
flowers fall, childlike she felt the loss of them as an addition
to her grief. The ravisher urged on his steeds, calling them
each by name, and throwing loose over their heads and necks his
iron-coloured reins. When he reached the River Cyane (Styx), and
it opposed his passage, he struck the river-bank with his
trident, and the earth opened and gave him a passage to
Tartarus.
Ceres sought her daughter all the world over. Bright-haired
Aurora (Eos), when she came forth in the morning, and Hesperus
(Helios) when he led out the stars in the evening, found her
still busy in the search. But it was all unavailing. At length,
weary and sad, she sat down upon a stone, and continued sitting
nine days and nights, in the open air, under the sunlight and
moonlight and falling showers.
It was where now stands the city of Eleusis, then the home of an
old man named Celeus. He was out on the field, gathering acorns
and blackberries, and sticks for his fire. His little girl was
driving home their two goats, and as she passed the goddess, who
appeared in the guise of an old woman, she said to her,
"Mother,"- and the name was sweet to the ears of Ceres,- "why do
you sit here alone upon the rocks?" The old man also stopped,
though his load was heavy, and begged her to come into his
cottage, such as it was. She declined, and he urged her. "Go in
peace," she replied, "and be happy in your daughter; I have lost
mine."
As she spoke, tears- or something like tears, for the gods never
weep- fell down her cheeks upon her bosom. The compassionate old
man and his child wept with her. Then said he, "Come with us,
and despise not our humble roof; so may your daughter be
restored to you in safety." "Lead on," said she, "I cannot
resist that appeal!" So she rose from the stone and went with
them. As they walked he told her that his only son, a little
boy, lay very sick, feverish, and sleepless. She stooped and
gathered some poppies.
As they entered the cottage, they found all in great distress,
for the boy seemed past hope of recovery. Metanira, his mother,
received her kindly, and the goddess stooped and kissed the lips
of the sick child. Instantly the paleness left his face, and
healthy vigour returned to his body. The whole family were
delighted- that is, the father, mother, and little girl, for
they were all; they had no servants.
They spread the table, and put upon it curds and cream, apples,
and honey in the comb. While they ate, Ceres mingled poppy juice
in the milk of the boy. When night came and all was still, she
arose, and taking the sleeping boy, moulded his limbs with her
hands, and uttered over him three times a solemn charm, then
went and laid him in the ashes. His mother, who had been
watching what her guest was doing, sprang forward with a cry and
snatched the child from the fire. Then Ceres assumed her own
form, and a divine splendour shone all around.
While they were overcome with astonishment, she said, "Mother,
you have been cruel in your fondness to your son. I would have
made him immortal, but you have frustrated my attempt.
Nevertheless, he shall be great and useful. He shall teach men
the use of the plough, and the rewards which labour can win from
the cultivated soil." So saying, she wrapped a cloud about her,
and mounting her chariot rode away.
Ceres continued her search for her daughter, passing from land
to land, and across seas and rivers, till at length she returned
to Sicily, whence she at first set out, and stood by the banks
of the River Cyane, where Pluto made himself a passage with his
prize to his own dominions. The river nymph would have told the
goddess all she had witnessed, but dared not, for fear of Pluto;
so she only ventured to take up the girdle which Proserpine had
dropped in her flight, and waft it to the feet of the mother.
Ceres, seeing this, was no longer in doubt of her loss, but she
did not yet know the cause, and laid the blame on the innocent
land. "Ungrateful soil," said she, "which I have endowed with
fertility and clothed with herbage and nourishing grain, no more
shall you enjoy my favours." Then the cattle died, the plough
broke in the furrow, the seed failed to come up; there was too
much sun, there was too much rain; the birds stole the seeds-
thistles and brambles were the only growth. Seeing this, the
fountain Arethusa interceded for the land.
"Goddess," said she, "blame not the land; it opened unwillingly
to yield a passage to your daughter. I can tell you of her fate,
for I have seen her. This is not my native country; I came
hither from Elis. I was a woodland nymph, and delighted in the
chase. They praised my beauty, but I cared nothing for it, and
rather boasted of my hunting exploits. One day I was returning
from the wood, heated with exercise, when I came to a stream
silently flowing, so clear that you might count the pebbles on
the bottom. The willows shaded it, and the grassy bank sloped
down to the water's edge. I approached, I touched the water with
my foot. I stepped in knee-deep, and not content with that, I
laid my garments on the willows and went in. While I sported in
the water, I heard an indistinct murmur coming up as out of the
depths of the stream; and made haste to escape to the nearest
bank. The voice said, 'Why do you fly, Arethusa? I am Alpheus,
the god of this stream.' I ran, he pursued; he was not more
swift than I, but he was stronger, and gained upon me, as my
strength failed. At last, exhausted, I cried for help to Diana
(Artemis). 'Help me, goddess! help your votary!' The goddess
heard, and wrapped me suddenly in a thick cloud. The river god
looked now this way and now that, and twice came close to me,
but could not find me. 'Arethusa! Arethusa!' he cried. Oh, how I
trembled,- like a lamb that hears the wolf growling outside the
fold. A cold sweat came over me, my hair flowed down in streams;
where my foot stood there was a pool. In short, in less time
than it takes to tell it, I became a fountain. But in this form
Alpheus knew me and attempted to mingle his stream with mine.
Diana cleft the ground, and I, endeavouring to escape him,
plunged into the cavern, and through the bowels of the earth
came out here in Sicily. While I passed through the lower parts
of the earth, I saw your Proserpine. She was sad, but no longer
showing alarm in her countenance. Her look was such as became a
queen- the queen of Erebus; the powerful bride of the monarch of
the realms of the dead."
When Ceres heard this, she stood for a while like one
stupefied; then turned her chariot towards heaven, and hastened
to present herself before the throne of Jove. She told the story
of her bereavement, and implored Jupiter to interfere to procure
the restitution of her daughter. Jupiter consented on one
condition, namely, that Proserpine should not during her stay in
the lower world have taken any food; otherwise, the Fates
forbade her release. Accordingly, Mercury was sent, accompanied
by Spring (Chloris), to demand Proserpine of Pluto. The wily
monarch consented; but, alas! the maiden had taken a pomegranate
which Pluto offered her, and had sucked the sweet pulp from a
few of the seeds. This was enough to prevent her complete
release; but a compromise was made, by which she was to pass
half the time with her mother, and the rest with her husband
Pluto.
Ceres allowed herself to be pacified with this arrangement, and
restored the earth to her favour. Now she remembered Celeus and
his family, and her promise to his infant son Triptolemus. When
the boy grew up, she taught him the use of the plough, and how
to sow the seed. She took him in her chariot, drawn by winged
dragons, through all the countries of the earth, imparting to
mankind valuable grains, and the knowledge of agriculture. After
his return, Triptolemus built a magnificent temple to Ceres in
Eleusis, and established the worship of the goddess, under the
name of the Eleusinian mysteries, which, in the splendour and
solemnity of their observance, surpassed all other religious
celebrations among the Greeks.
There can be little doubt of this story of Ceres and Proserpine
being an allegory. Proserpine signifies the seed-corn which when
cast into the ground lies there concealed - that is, she is
carried off by the god of the underworld. It reappears - that
is, Proserpine is restored to her mother. Spring leads her back
to the light of day.
Milton alludes to the story of Proserpine in "Paradise Lost,"
Book IV.:
"...Not that fair field
Of Enna where Proserpine gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world,-
...might with this Paradise
Of Eden strive."
Hood, in his "Ode to Melancholy," uses the same allusion very
beautifully:
"Forgive, if somewhile I forget,
In woe to come the present bliss;
As frighted Proserpine let fall
Her flowers at the sight of Dis."
The River Alpheus does in fact disappear underground, in part of
its course, finding its way through subterranean channels till
it again appears on the surface. It was said that the Sicilian
fountain Arethusa was the same stream, which, after passing
under the sea, came up again in Sicily. Hence the story ran that
a cup thrown into the Alpheus appeared again in Arethusa. It is
this fable of the underground course of Alpheus that Coleridge alludes
to in his poem of "Kubla Khan":
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree,
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man,
Down to a sunless sea."
In one of Moore's juvenile poems
he thus alludes to the same story, and to the practice of
throwing garlands or other light objects on his stream to be
carried downward by it, and afterwards reproduced at its
emerging:
"O my beloved, how divinely sweet
Is the pure joy when kindred spirits meet!
Like him the river god, whose waters flow,
With love their only light, through caves below,
Wafting in triumph all the flowery braids
And festal rings, with which Olympic maids
Have decked his current, as an offering meet
To lay at Arethusa's shining feet.
Think, when he meets at last his fountain bride,
What perfect love must thrill the blended tide!
Each lost in each, till mingling into one,
Their lot the same for shadow or for sun,
A type of true love, to the deep they run."
The following extract from Moore's "Rhymes on the Road" gives an
account of a celebrated picture by Albano, at Milan, called a
Dance of Loves:
"'Tis for the theft of Enna's flower from earth
These urchins celebrate their dance of mirth,
Round the green tree, like fays upon a heath;-
Those that are nearest Linked in order bright,
Cheek after cheek, like rosebuds in a wreath;
And those more distant showing from beneath
The others' wings their little eyes of light.
While see! among the clouds, their eldest brother,
But just flown up, tells with a smile of bliss,
This prank of Pluto to his charmed mother,
Who turns to greet the tidings with a kiss."
THANK YOU THOMAS BULLFINCH
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