Each year before the ancient Greeks sowed grain, they celebrated Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. On earth, every morsel of food was sweet sustenance, while in the dead land, it ensured a permanent stay.
Demeter tended the fields of the earth with her beloved daughter, Persephone, who inherited her mother's passion and grew into a bright young woman.
But at that moment a shadowy figure was watching from below. One day, Persephone was frolicking in a meadow with Cyane, a freshwater nymph. When they admired a blooming narcissus flower, they saw it trembling in the ground. Suddenly, the ground split open, and a monstrous figure arose.
This was Patal, the god of the dead and the underworld.
He snatched Persephone from the sky, dragged her into his inky chariot, and flew her back to earth. Saiyan cried so loudly that she became one with the river.
By the time Demeter arrived at the scene of the abduction, the hay pit had closed—and Cyane and Persephone had disappeared. Demeter rushed to Mount Olympus for help. Many gods saw this scene.
And they knew of the pact that had paved the way for her: Zeus, Persephone's father, had given Hades her hand in marriage to Demeter without her consent or consent. But when faced with Demeter's pleas, the other gods remained silent, so, she searched alone.
In his grief and despair, he neglected his usual tasks.
The crops withered, and a great famine struck the land. As humans began to perish, the gods became wary.
If humans disappear, who will worship them and who will pay tribute? So, Zeus ordered Demeter to stop her crusade and return to her duties. But he refused.
Deep down, across the cold river Styx, and through the halls of the underworld, Persephone was making her protest. Hades expected her to serve as his wife and queen.
But Persephone rejected the god's advances and refused to eat.
As she longs for her mother's company, the laughter of her friends, and the warmth of the sun, Persephone grows cold and lonely.
And she was hungry. She was hungry for satisfying grains, crisp vegetables, and fresh fruits. Wandering through the haunted groves, he contemplated the pomegranates that hung heavily on their branches... Meanwhile, Demeter continued her hunt.
He appealed to the all-seeing sun god, Helios, whose rays had long warmed his crops. In fact, when Helios pulled his golden chariot across the sky that day, he saw what happened—and he knew about the deal.
Out of respect and sympathy for Demeter,
Helios tells her about the demands of Hades, the betrayal of Zeus and the abduction of Persephone. Enraged and heartbroken, Demeter heads to Mount Olympus and confronts Zeus, demanding the return of her daughter.
But Zeus refused: in her ravenous hunger, Persephone had eaten a few pomegranate seeds that grew in the underworld. Although a small amount, it was enough to trap him in the underworld forever. Demeter would not accept this fate.
He swore that if he was not reunited with Persephone, the fields would never be fertile again, and the gap between Earth and the Underworld would soon disappear.
So, they made a deal. For two-thirds of each year, Persephone returned to the land of the living, but for the rest, she lived in the world of the dead.
When Persephone ascended to earth, she and her mother rejoiced.
Together they rained on the fields and nourished them with sunshine. For humans, Persephone's arrival heralded the beginning of spring. But his descent always came too soon. Each time she returned to Hades, Demeter mourned, and the land grew cold, dark, and barren during the winter months.
Knowing that Demeter could not be awakened from her grief, the humans stored their crops, lit fires, and awaited Persephone's safe return.
And so it was that his passage marked the gradual turning of the seasons and the bitter compromise between life and death.
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