Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, had a daughter named Persephone. Hades, god of the underworld, kidnapped Persephone and made her his wife. Demeter searched for her daughter and caused a famine on earth in her grief. Zeus intervened and negotiated for Persephone to spend part of each year with her mother and part with Hades. This created the seasons, with winter occurring when Persephone was in the underworld and spring/summer/fall when she was with her mother.

1. DEMETER AND
PERSEPHONE
By Farid Talebi Bidhandi

2. Demeter(goddess of agriculture)
Demeter, in Greek religion, daughter of the deities Cronus and Rhea,
sister and consort of Zeus (the king of the gods), and goddess of
agriculture. She was a god that even Zeus did not want to mess with.
Demeter and Zeus had a daughter named Persephone. With two powerful
gods as parents, it is not surprising that the little girl grew up to be a
beautiful maiden.

3. Hades(God of underworld)
Hades was a son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and brother
of the deities Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, and Hestia.
He was god of the underworld and he loved Persephone.

4. Hades request of Zeus about Persephone
Hades with the first seeing of Persephone fell loved with her madly
and he did not want to marry anyone but her so he went to Zeus for
getting consent from Persephone’s father.
Zeus did not want to separate Demeter(who loved her daughter
dearly) and Persephone but he did not want to refuse hades as well
so he come up with a plan and he said: “Brother, I cannot approve
of a marriage between you and Persephone.”
Zeus was telling Hades that although he could not officially approve
the marriage, he was not forbidding it

5. Persephone got kidnapped
One day, soon after Hodes's meeting with Zeus, Persephone went
to pick wildflowers with her friends near the town of Eleusis. It was
a peaceful town. Persephone was getting flowers for a bouquet she
was making for her mother and she spotted a beautiful narcissus
and when she went to pick it up she realized how long was the root
and suddenly The god of the Underworld raced out of the chasm,
the roaring noise of his chariot filling the air. Quickly, Hades
grasped the frightened maiden by the wrist and pulled her up beside
him onto his chariot. Racing off to the Underworld, Persephone
cried out in fear to her mother and her friends.

6. Upon Mount Olympus, Demeter heard her daughter’s terror-filled cries. She hurried to the area where the girls had
been playing. Persephone’s friends had been frightened when their friend failed to return, but no one could tell
where she had gone. Distraught, Demeter roamed the earth for nine days and nine nights, searching in vain for her
beloved daughter. On the tenth day, Demeter met Hecate, a goddess who lived in a cave near the spot where
Persephone and her friends had been playing. Hecate had indeed heard Persephone’s cries for help, she had not seen
what had happened to the girl. Though she could offer no new information about Persephone’s disappearance,
Hecate offered to help Demeter look for her daughter. Together, the two goddesses set out on their search. The next
morning, the goddesses came upon Helius, the god of the sun. Helius could see everything from his lofty perch in
the sky, so Demeter begged him for information about her daughter’s disappearance. Helius pitied Demeter and
promised to tell her everything he knew. He confessed that he had seen Hades kidnap Persephone and that the girl
had cried uncontrollably when she was made Hades’s bride. Helius told to Demeter that hades is a fair match with
maiden.
Quest of finding Persephone

7. Demeter’s sadness
After losing Persephone, Demeter left Hecate and Helius and began to shun her fellow
immortals. She wandered on earth in disguise of a old lady and broke down and even her looks
changed from a blonde hair to a gray hair. After wandering for many months, Demeter came
again to the town of Eleusis where she stopped to rest by a well. While she was sitting in the
shade of an olive tree, four beautiful princesses came to draw water. Princess pitied her and
offered her to be a nanny of a newborn child, she accepted this offer.

8. Demeter in Eleusis's castle
When Demeter entered the palace, her golden hair had turn to gray, her skin was wrinkled and loose, and all
her inner radiance was hidden beneath a dark robe. Although she was in a bad shape people in castle acted
kindly towards her and offered her wine and a place to sit with ease but she refused so she sat on a low stool
and drank only water mixed with barley mead. Queen Metanira realized that Demeter is not a normal person.
Then Demeter asked to see the child for whom she would be caring. When Demeter first took the baby
Demophoon in her arms, he smiled and gurgled. After Demeter liked the child so much that she decided to
turn him into a immortal so, every night Demeter lathered the boy with ambrosia, an ointment of the gods.
Although she knew that the boy could not become an immortal but she kept on going so because of that
Demophoon grew with extraordinary growth rate and all people were amazed of this matter and thanked
Demeter for it. Queen Metanira suspected that some thing was odd that whatever one person do the boy
could not growth at this rate so one night she sneakily looked something horrifying. There was the nurse,
turning her baby in the fire like a pig on a spit! Metanira screamed at the sight. Interrupted at her magic, the
goddess angrily jerked the child from the fire and threw him to the ground where he began to cry. Demeter’s
wrath soon become sorrow so She decided not to punish the family for their reaction. She had, after all,
loved the baby.

9. Demeter told the king and queen to have the people of Eleusis build a
temple in her honor. While it was being built, she told the townspeople
how to grow corn and how to perform special ceremonies at her
temple. In this way, the town continued to appease and pay tribute to
the inconsolable goddess, whose grief once again became focused on
her lost daughter. When the temple at Eleusis was completed, Demeter
went to live there, far from Mount Olympus and the other gods and
goddesses. Sadly, she sat silently in her temple for an entire year. While
she sat, no crops grew, and the people became hungrier with every
passing day. Soon it seemed like every living thing on earth was in
danger of starving.
Demeter in Eleusis pt.2

10. Zeus decision
Zeus feared that Demeter mourning could become
destructive He begged her to end the famine, but Demeter
repeatedly refused the request. so he knew what he had to
do! Zeus sent Hermes, the official messenger of the gods,
to the Underworld to deliver a message to Hades. When
Hermes reached the Underworld, he found Hades and his
bride sitting side by side on their thrones. Persephone
looked miserable. When Persephone heard about that it is
time for her return she cried of joy and for that she missed
her mother.

11. Hades’ trick
When it was time for Persephone to go, Hades said, “My
beloved wife, remember that here you are the queen, the
most powerful woman of all. As the queen of the
Underworld, you even have power over the living, because
you have control over what happens to people when they
die. Because of this, you have the power to be merciful,
which is the greatest gift of all. Do not think ill of me or
this kingdom when you are far away from here.” and hades
offered four pomegranate seeds to eat. After Persephone
ate that she was ready to go. Hades knew that that if
Persephone ate anything from the world of the dead, she
would have to return to his kingdom someday.

12. Mother and daughter’s reunion
When Persephone’s chariot finally reached Eleusis, Persephone joyfully
embraced her mother. The mother and daughter laughed and cried, and
talked as they had before. Demeter asked if Persephone ate anything from
underworld and Persephone said: “Mother, what a strange question. All I
ate was four pomegranate seeds. Why should that matter?” Demeter
became so upset that she went straight to Zeus with he daughter and
discussed this matter. Zeus could not break the law Zeus had witnessed the
happiness of mother and daughter when they were reunited and he knew
he could not disobey universe rules so he said that Persephone must return
to the underworld but with a little compromise that for every seed that
Persephone ate she should return one month to underworld in a year.
Appeased by Zeus’s compromise, Demeter allowedthe crops on earth to
grow again.

13. Season’s creation
From that time on, mother and daughter spent two thirds
of the year together. During their time together, the earth
bloomed and the crops flourished. But when Persephone
returned each year to spend four months with Hades in the
Underworld, the earth became as cold as ice while
Demeter mourned for her daughter’s lost company. Then,
every spring, when Persephone returned to her mother, the
world would become green again in celebration of their
joyous reunion.