Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She had been wooed by Hermes and Apollo, but Demeter hid her away from the other gods. However, Zeus allowed his brother Hades, the god of the underworld, to abduct her. Demeter searched for her, either neglecting her role as fertility goddess or forbade the earth to produce. Helios, the sun, told Demeter of her daughter's fate, and Zeus ordered Hades to restore her in order to return to normality. Hades acceded to the demand but tricked Persephone into eating some pomegranate seeds before Hermes arrived to retrieve her. Demeter's son Acheron had been transformed into the "river of woe" across which Charon ferried the spirits of the dead after he offered drink to the titans during their war against Zeus and the other Olympians. Through his union with Styx he fathered Askalaphos, the custodian of the orchard of Hades. He told the other gods that Persephone had tasted food in the underworld, obliging Persephone to return to there for part of every year, making Demeter so angry that she buried him beneath a heavy rock. When Herakles went to the underworld, he rolled the stone away and released him, but Demeter changed him into an owl, the familiar bird of Hades. As Publius Ovidius Naso wrote, "So he became the vilest bird; a messenger of grief; the lazy owl; sad omen to mankind."
Afar away the light that brings cold cheer Unto this wall, - one instant and no more Admitted at my distant palace-door Afar the flowers of Enna from this drear Dire fruit, which, tasted once, must thrall me here. Afar those skies from this Tartarean grey That chills me: and afar how far away, The nights that shall become the days that were.
Afar from mine own self I seem, and wing Strange ways in thought, and listenfor a sign: And still some heart unto some soul doth pine, O, Whose sounds mine inner sense in fain to bring, Continually together murmuring) — 'Woe me for thee, unhappy Proserpine'.
--Dante Gabriel Rossetti [Proserpina is Persephone's Latin name.]
Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She had been wooed by Hermes and Apollo, but Demeter hid her away from the other gods. However, Zeus allowed his brother Hades, the god of the underworld, to abduct her. Demeter searched for her, either neglecting her role as fertility goddess or forbade the earth to produce. Helios, the sun, told Demeter of her daughter's fate, and Zeus ordered Hades to restore her in order to return to normality. Hades acceded to the demand but tricked Persephone into eating some pomegranate seeds before Hermes arrived to retrieve her. Demeter's son Acheron had been transformed into the "river of woe" across which Charon ferried the spirits of the dead after he offered drink to the titans during their war against Zeus and the other Olympians. Through his union with Styx he fathered Askalaphos, the custodian of the orchard of Hades. He told the other gods that Persephone had tasted food in the underworld, obliging Persephone to return to there for part of every year, making Demeter so angry that she buried him beneath a heavy rock. When Herakles went to the underworld, he rolled the stone away and released him, but Demeter changed him into an owl, the familiar bird of Hades. As Publius Ovidius Naso wrote, "So he became the vilest bird; a messenger of grief; the lazy owl; sad omen to mankind."
ReplyDeleteProserpina
ReplyDeleteAfar away the light that brings cold cheer
Unto this wall, - one instant and no more
Admitted at my distant palace-door
Afar the flowers of Enna from this drear
Dire fruit, which, tasted once, must thrall me here.
Afar those skies from this Tartarean grey
That chills me: and afar how far away,
The nights that shall become the days that were.
Afar from mine own self I seem, and wing
Strange ways in thought, and listenfor a sign:
And still some heart unto some soul doth pine,
O, Whose sounds mine inner sense in fain to bring,
Continually together murmuring) —
'Woe me for thee, unhappy Proserpine'.
--Dante Gabriel Rossetti
[Proserpina is Persephone's Latin name.]