Persephone: Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld

Why Persephone?

My favourite "Disney" princess was Meg from Hercules. At four years old, I didn’t know that she wasn’t actually a princess. I didn’t realise my love for Meg came from a prophetic inner knowing. I would one day grow up pretending I was too tough for cliche stuff like love.

Hercules (1997)

In the film Hercules, Meg is revealed to be in a pact with Hades after sacrificing her soul for her lover that ended up leaving her for another woman. This pact is similar to the myth of Persephone, the Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld.

Persephone was in a meadow picking a narcissus flower (a daffodil) when the ground cracked open beneath her. In the Narcissus myth, he falls in love with his own reflection. Persephone picks these flowers, symbolising the ego and self absorption, as she is oblivious to the world around her and what is about to unfold. Here, Persephone embodies the maiden archetype, an ingenue we see in many stories, symbolising youth and innocense. Persephone is also called Kore, which means “maiden” or “girl.”

Hades rides his chariot out from the underworld and kidnaps her. She screams for her father Zeus, but he does not come to her rescue.

The Rape of Proserpina - Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1621–22)

She is taken to the underworld where she lives for six months. Her mother, Demeter the Goddess of Agriculture, is desperately searching for her. Demeter finds out that Zeus permitted the abduction of Persephone, so she refuses to let the earth fruit until she is returned. Zeus convinces Hades to let her go, but before he does Hades tricks Persephone by giving her a “single, sweet pomegranate seed” to keep her in the underworld, be his wife and Queen of the Dead. 

Because Persephone has eaten the pomegranate, she is bound to spend eternity in the underworld. We can’t unknow what we have experienced. Eating the pomegranate seed symbolises dredging into the unknown, facing the powerful and sometimes frightening aspects of ourselves, just like how eating the seeds of a pomegranate can be both bitter and sweet.

Persephone becomes the Queen of the Underworld and splits her time between living on the Earth’s surface, where the meadows come alive with flowers and the crops grow again. Due to her mothers sadness, the crops on the Earth’s surface die and become dormant in Persephone’s absence when she is in the Underworld, which we know as winter.

It is said, and I believe, that Persephone enjoys the underworld. She falls in love with Hades, a misunderstood man who had been given the job nobody else wanted to do. A man who, quite literally, lives in the shadow of his brother. Persephone embraces the darkness, they share their power equally and they end up having the most healthy relationship out of all the Greek Gods and Goddesses.There is evidence that Persephone is actually a much older and more powerful figure than Hades in the Mycenaean religion (1600-1100 bc) and was actually the Queen of the Underworld before him. This theory is new to me and I will do another article on it. But if you are interested in this idea, watch this video.

Franz Bohumil Doubek, "Allegory of Summer, Persephone" (1904)

I love this Persephone myth because in the face of horrific circumstances, she works with her situation, transforming it into something of great power and agency. 

Persephone is both light and dark, spring and winter. She represents the cyclical nature of life. Sometimes good things happen and everything is going great for you, and then someone or something shatters the floor beneath you and you have to spend some time in the underworld. There you find, albeit lost and confused and probably depressed, that a new sense of self is waiting for you in the darkness. One you had no idea existed, one that is far beyond what you thought yourself capable of. 

You respect the time you spend in the underworld because you know that eventually you will be in the next stage of the cycle. When you are in the Underworld, you make it work for you. You stay curious, open, ready to adapt to your new environment. You don’t fall victim to it or over identify with your story. You keep your agency and become ruler of your kingdom. 

When it came time to pick a name for my daemon, Persephone felt natural. The original name for my art Instagram account was spacepersephone because the word brought vastness, possibility. Now, it’s Planet Persephone. I am discovering that world inside of me that has always existed in one shape or form, even at four years old watching Hercules for the first time.

Thanks for reading. Subscribe to the newsletter to receive weekly pieces written by me to your inbox on Substack.