Persephone

There was once a time when it was summer all year round. Demeter and her daughter Persephone were in charge of the growing plants, fruit and flowers and everything was right in the world. But Hades, brother of Zeus and Lord of the Underworld, saw Persephone and wanted her for his wife, so when she was out picking flowers with her friends, he swooped up through the earth on his chariot and carried her off.

Demeter couldn't find her daughter and when she realised she was lost, she went into deep mourning. She forgot about looking after the plants and the things that grew on the earth and they began to wither and die. The earth turned hard as ice and everything was cold and dark. It was the first autumn and winter, although nobody knew it at the time. Zeus looked down from heaven and saw what was happening and asked Demeter to return the earth to its previous state, but she was too upset. Instead, she asked Zeus to find her daughter.

Zeus looked and saw that it was his brother Hades who had carried Persephone off, and that they were now married, so that Persephone was Queen of the Underworld. Zeus was worried. Only once before had anyone ever returned from the underworld, and he didn't want to upset his powerful brother. But the animals, the plants and the people on earth were getting colder and colder. Soon it would all wither away to nothing.

Meanwhile, Demeter went to find Hecate. Hecate was a wise seer who told Demeter that her daughter had been taken into the depths of the earth. Demeter immediately demanded that Zeus command Hades to give Persephone back. Zeus did not want all the world to perish in the cold. To try to humour his brother as best he could, he said that if Persephone had eaten anything whilst she had been in the underworld she would have to stay there, if not she would be freed. Hades agreed to his request reluctantly, but in the meantime, his loyal but sly gardener had tricked Persephone into eating six Pomegranate seeds. Luckily, Zeus decided to come to a compromise. He ordered that for each seed she had eaten she would remain in the underworld for one month.

Persephone was returned to her mother and there was great rejoicing. The sun came out, the trees sprung into blossom and the plants and animals grew healthy again. That was the first spring. But because of the six Pomegranate seeds, Persephone has to return to Hades for six months each year and when she does Demeter mourns, plunging the earth into cold infertile darkness, only to turn it fruitful again in celebration when Persephone returns in the Spring.