Persephone
Greek mythology · deity · spring, the underworld
Daughter of Demeter, abducted by Hades to be queen of the dead. Having eaten pomegranate seeds below, she divides each year between the underworld and the living earth, dread queen and returning spring at once.
Stories
The Abduction of Persephone
Gathering flowers, Persephone is swallowed by the opening earth and carried to the underworld by Hades. Demeter's grief starves the world until Zeus relents; but Persephone has eaten pomegranate seeds below, and Hecate's torches light her yearly passage between the dead and the spring.
Orpheus and Eurydice
Orpheus sings his way into the underworld, and Hades and Persephone, moved for the only time, release his dead wife on one condition: he must not look back before the light. In the last steps he turns, and loses her twice.