The truth about Lady Persephone

The stories of the Greek gods are well known all around the world, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, being the big three to recall. But let me go into the truest story of one of my favourite Goddesses... Lady Persephone, Goddess of Spring and Queen of the underworld. As all the stories go Persephone or Kore, the name meaning 'daughter' and 'maiden', she was taken to the underworld against her will by Hades.

Little do you actually know that there are several accounts of this Memoria that suggest that it was actually Persephone herself that went to the Underworld. Let me elaborate on this, in early mythology Lady Persephone is stated to be the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, being the goddess of spring, she was worshipped alongside her mother within the Eleusinian Mysteries. This being a supposed cult that promised a blessed passage to the afterlife. There is proof that during several retellings of the story Persephone walked into the Underworld herself, even if it might have been with a lure. I believe that if she didn’t wish to go to Hades then she wouldn’t, even as husband-and-wife. Persephone was a Goddess in her own right.

As the previous myth stated, Kore was playing in a flowery meadow with the nymphs when Hades came. He then stole her away 'unwillingly' to the Underworld. Once Demeter found out, despaired by the news of her missing daughter, herself and Hecate searched the world for her. Upon this search Demeter found out of the treachery that Zeus had committed in the help of Kore's abduction. Upon the discovery of this she refused to let the earth fruit until Kore was returned to her. However, during this time, it was discovered that Persephone had eaten a fruit from the Underworld, this fruit being the seeds of a pomegranate, and she would be forced to spend a number of months with Hades. Upon her return to Earth, it was marked with the annual growth of new blooms and grains in spring, and when she was to return, it would be marked as the beginning of Winter when the blooms and grains begin to die.

However, as I previously stated this is merely on side to what many could assume as a two-sided coin. And the question remains; Was Persephone forced or was it her own will that allowed her to go to the Underworld? You see the story I am about to tell, and that I believe to be true, is the story of how Persephone was not a damsel in distress but a maiden who knew what she wanted.

In the recently discovered version of this myth, it is said that Persephone and Hades were in love with one another. This derailing the thoughts of Hades being the one in love and further the fact, that maybe it was a 'willing' trip she made.

It is said that Persephone spent all her time in the meadows with the nymphs, and while this part of the story is the same this is where it changes, she 'willingly' walked into the Underworld whilst following a goose, which later became one of her sacred animals. This goose is to have lured her to Hades of which he offered her a small handful of pomegranate seeds, that she willingly took. She would also know the price of which to pay once she had taken them. As I said before, Lady Persephone is a Goddess in her own right and would know of the consequences of her actions. Upon the further inspection of the myth, it is said that Hades respected Persephone as a Wife and a Queen and that she held the same respect for him. There is further evidence on the change of the myth by the Great Greece, the root of Persephone's cult in Sicily. Leading to new and old evidence of the newer version of the myth of the Queen of the Underworld. And as a conclusion I ask, did she really go unwillingly?