Why does hades taking persephone

A mistake to be so linear. This story is about the sexual maturation of the young female, moving into erotic relationship with men despite the perfectionistic demands of the man-hating matriarchy.

I like the info but there is one problem and that would be, that it does not mention the actual god of death Thanatos.

Other then that, it helped me to finish my mythology project for school. He took her away from Demeter her Mother. Every woman has to be separated from her Mommy mother sooner or later, if she is to go from being a girl to a full-fledged woman. Hades symbolizes the archetypal energy necessary to perform that act for and with a woman. Hence a compromise was announced by Zeus, the leader of the Gods, that Persephone would spend the summer with her Mother and the winter with her husband as the Queen of Hades.

She in time welcomed this arrangement as a mature woman does the presence of a strong man in her life. Persephone did not require Hades to achieve womanhood. In many versions, Persephony grew to love Hades. Women did not have the opertunities men had and would need a husband in order to have a good life. The story is about a girl growing into a woman in their society.

The mistake here what everyone tends to do is put contemporary morals and culture onto an ancient Myth. But simply state the FACT that this story was written in a society ies where war, rape, abduction and forced marriages were common place, so it stands to reason that a story with a metaphorical theme of eternal death winter and rebirth spring will be soaked in what was the norm then….

But, in time, Persephone did fall in love with Hades and appreciate the separation from her suffocating mother. Hades was so hopelessly in love with her, but he knew that Demeter would never allow her to go to the underworld.

Thanks for the interesting story. I had known that Hades was the king of the underworld, but I was not completely familiar with the story of Persephone. I wanted the info for a poem that I am writing. The Greek myths are allegorical, and I bet the smart ancients knew better than to take them literally.

The warm months of spring and summer must yield to the cold and violence of winter, so perhaps the use of the word rape is unfortunate. Winter must also yield to spring and summer eventually. In the ancient world abduction by a suitor was acceptable in some societies and was practised until relatively recently by many indigenous societies in the Americas. It is still acted out symbolically in various marriage rituals, and lives on in certain expressions of love, eg. I agree with the second story.

I feel like that story had more of the facts then the way it was told the first time. Overall I love the concept of this story. They are metaphorical. Many of the Greek myths are metaphorical. And this includes the myth of Hades and Persephone. Okay people, stop arguing. There are so many different versions of greek mythology so lets just agree to disagree. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Hades was the brother of Zeus and the god of the underworld. Hades was not the god of death, fake or otherwise, he was the god of the Underworld Reply. Hades, Thanatos, Eris, Cronus; these gods were never feared as they were just part of the cycle.

Well, maybe Eris was. There the goddess cared for Demophon, the son of Keleos, king of Eleusis, who would later offer the gift of grain to humanity and teach farming. A temple was also built in honor of the goddess, thus commencing the celebrated sanctuary of Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, which lasted for over a millennium.

Once the temple in Eleusis was completed, Demeter withdrew from the world and lived inside it. But her anger and sadness were still great, so he created a great drought to convince the gods to release her daughter from Hades. As the drought cost the lives of many, Zeus finally sent Hermes to persuade Hades to release his ill-gotten bride.

Thus a compromise was made: Hades consulted with Zeus and they both decided to allow Persephone to live on earth for eight months each year, while the rest of the time she would be on his side in the Underworld.

Thus, the myth of Hades and Persephone is associated with the coming of Spring and Winter: the descent of Kore in the Underworld can be seen as an allegorical representation of the coming of winter when the land is not fertile and does not give crops, while her ascent to Olympus and the return to her mother symbolizes the coming of spring and the period of harvest. The disappearance and the return of Persephone were also the theme of the great Eleusinian Mysteries, whose promised the initiates a more perfect life after death.

Therefore, this myth and its relevant Mysteries explained the change of the seasons of Nature and the eternal cycle of death and rebirth. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. She demanded Zeus to return Persephone to her care. Demeter left Olympus and watched as the earth began to decay without her nurture. She sought to punish Zeus for betraying her and their daughter. The now yellow meadows blackened and decomposed to dust.

The trees began to shrink into the hard dirt. The rivers shriveled up, and the lakes froze over. In the Underworld, Persephone had grown to love Hades, who treated her with compassion and loved her as his Queen. As she would have up in Olympus, she remained eternally beautiful in the Underworld. Hades admired her kind and nurturing nature. However, Persephone missed her dear mother greatly and wished to spend time on earth with her.

When Hermes reached the Underworld, he requested that Persephone come back to earth with him to rejoin her mother and father. Hades knew he could not refuse the commands of Zeus, but he also could not part from his beloved Persephone. Before she departed from the Underworld, Hades offered Persephone a pomegranate as a farewell. This was, however, a cunning move by Hades.

All the Olympians knew that if anyone ate or drank anything in the Underworld they would be destined to remain there for eternity, as the Fates had cautioned. Even Demeter had warned Persephone of this fate and instructed her never to eat or drink anything. Thinking of her mother, Persephone decided to, instead, eat the small seeds of the pomegranate — assuming that these would not count as consumption. Little did Persephone know, this was exactly why Hades had given her the pomegranate.

Upon the sight of Hermes alone Demeter spiraled into a fit of immense grief and sobbing — she knew what Hades must have done to keep Persephone there.

However, Zeus, being the mighty king of all gods, could not allow his beloved land to become decayed and barren; and so, he met with Hades himself.