Persephone

The goddess of spring and the queen of the Underworld. Wife of Hades. In her role as goddess of spring and daughter of Demeter, she is called Kore.

Selected Epithets

Offerings

• Asphodel
• Wheat
• Pomegranate

Prayers and Hymns

“I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess, of her and of her daughter lovely Persephone.”

“Hymn to Persephone. Daughter of Zeus, Persephone divine, come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline: only-befotten, Plouton's honoured wife, O venerable Goddess, source of life: 'tis thine in earth's profundities to dwell, fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell. Zeus' holy offspring, of a beauteous mien, Praxidike, subterranean queen. The Eumenides' source, fair-haired, whose frame proceeds from Zeus' ineffable and secret seeds. Mother of Eubouleos [Dionysos-Zagreus], sonorous, divine, and many-formed, the parent of the vine. Associate of the Horai, essence bright, all-ruling virgin, bearing heavenly light. With fruits abounding, of a bounteous mind, horned, and alone desired by those of mortal kind. O vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight, sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight : whose holy form in budding fruits we view, earth's vigorous offspring of a various hue : espoused in autumn, life and death alone to wretched mortals from thy power is known : for thine the task , according to thy will, life to produce, and all that lives to kill. Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase of various fruits from earth, with lovely peace : send health with gentle hand, and crown my life with blest abundance, free from noisy strife; last in extreme old age the prey of death, dismiss me willing to the realms beneath, to thy fair palace and the blissful plains where happy spirits dwell, and Plouton reigns.”