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Greek Pantheonmythabout 3 min

The Abduction of Persephone

Illustration of the myth "The Abduction of Persephone" from the Greek Pantheon
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Hades carries off Persephone, daughter of Demeter, with Zeus's consent. Demeter's grief and her withholding of the harvest force the gods to bargain, but because Persephone has eaten a pomegranate seed below, she must return to the underworld for part of every year.

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An editorial retelling

The story

The Flower in the Meadow

In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the oldest full telling of this story, Persephone is gathering flowers with the daughters of Ocean in a soft meadow: roses, crocuses, violets, irises, hyacinths. Among them grows a narcissus of astonishing beauty, which Earth has put there at Zeus's wish, as a lure. When the girl reaches for it, the ground opens. Hades, lord of many, rises in his golden chariot drawn by immortal horses and carries her away, screaming for her father. Zeus has given his consent, and he sits apart in his temple, taking offerings from mortals, so that he will not hear her.

Only two hear her cry: Hecate, in her cave, and Helios, the sun, who sees all that happens on earth.

A Mother's Search

Demeter hears the echo of her daughter's voice and tears the veil from her hair. For nine days she wanders the earth carrying blazing torches, without eating ambrosia, drinking nectar, or bathing. On the tenth day Hecate meets her, and together they go to Helios, who tells her the truth: Zeus gave Persephone to his brother Hades as a wife, and Hades is not an unworthy husband, since he rules a third of the world.

The Goddess at Eleusis

Furious with Zeus, Demeter leaves the company of the gods. Disguised as an old woman, she sits by the Maiden Well at Eleusis, where the daughters of King Celeus find her and bring her home to nurse their baby brother, Demophon. The servant Iambe finally makes her laugh with jests. Secretly, each night, Demeter anoints the child with ambrosia and lays him in the fire to burn away his mortality. His mother Metaneira sees it and screams, and the goddess, angered, snatches the child out and reveals herself in her full glory. She orders a temple built for her at Eleusis, and sits in it, apart, mourning.

The Barren Year

Then Demeter makes the most terrible year for mortals. No seed sprouts. Oxen drag the plough through the fields for nothing. Humanity would have starved, and the gods would have lost their honors and sacrifices, had Zeus not noticed. He sends Iris, then all the gods one after another, with gifts, but Demeter refuses to set foot on Olympus or let the grain grow until she sees her daughter.

The Pomegranate Seed

Zeus sends Hermes down to the underworld. Hades smiles and lets Persephone go, but first he secretly gives her a pomegranate seed to eat, so that she cannot stay forever above with her mother. Mother and daughter are reunited in joy, but Demeter's first question is whether she ate anything below. Because she did, Persephone must spend a third of every year with Hades and the rest with her mother and the other gods.

Demeter lets the fields bear again, and before returning to Olympus she teaches her rites, the Eleusinian Mysteries, to the rulers of Eleusis: Triptolemus, Diocles, Eumolpus, and Celeus. The hymn ends by blessing those mortals who have seen these rites, for the uninitiated have no such share after death.

Later Tellings

Ovid moves the story to Sicily, near Henna. In his version Venus sends Cupid to shoot Dis so that love will reach even the underworld, the nymph Cyane tries to block the chariot and dissolves into her own pool, and Ascalaphus, a son of Acheron who saw her in the garden of Dis, betrays that Proserpina ate seven seeds. Ovid divides the year in half rather than in thirds. Apollodorus keeps the third of the year and also blames Ascalaphus.

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Highlights

Earth grew the narcissus as a lure, by the will of Zeus. Demeter searched nine days with torches. Because Persephone ate a pomegranate seed below, she must spend part of every year with Hades.

Why it matters

The story is the founding myth of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the most famous initiation rites of the ancient Greek world, celebrated for roughly a thousand years until the late fourth century CE. It gave Greeks a way to think about loss, the fertility of the land, and a better lot after death. The popular reading of Persephone's absence as winter is a later interpretation: the hymn itself only says she returns 'when the earth blooms with fragrant spring flowers', and scholars still debate which season her time below was meant to match.

Quick answers

What is the story of The Abduction of Persephone about?
Hades carries off Persephone, daughter of Demeter, with Zeus's consent. Demeter's grief and her withholding of the harvest force the gods to bargain, but because Persephone has eaten a pomegranate seed below, she must return to the underworld for part of every year.
What themes does The Abduction of Persephone explore?
The atlas lists these themes for The Abduction of Persephone: grief, mother and daughter, death and return, the cycle of the year, and mysteries and initiation.

One myth, many tellings

Where does Persephone's story happen, and how long is she gone?

The hymn, Ovid, and Apollodorus agree on the abduction and the pomegranate, but not on the place, the witnesses, or how much of the year Persephone spends below. The half-year many people know is Ovid's; the oldest telling says a third.

  1. 1 · 600 BCEHomeric Hymn to Demeter
  2. 2 · 8 CEOvid, Metamorphoses 5.341-661
  3. 3 · 9 CEOvid, Fasti 4.417-620
  4. 4 · 100 CEApollodorus, Library 1.5.1-3
  • Told this way
  • Told differently
  • Not narrated here
  • Text lost or broken
  • Shaded source: comparison baseline

1. Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Hymn 2 of the Homeric Hymns

c. 650-550 BCE

Primary source · comparison baseline

Where she is taken
Told this wayA meadow on the Nysian plain; its location is not fixed.
Why Hades takes her
Told this wayZeus has promised her to his brother; Earth grows the narcissus lure.
Who reveals what happened
Told this wayHecate hears, and Helios, who saw everything, tells Demeter.
Demeter at Eleusis
Told this wayShe nurses Demophon, is revealed, and founds her temple and Mysteries.
Demeter withholds the harvest
Told this way
The pomegranate
Told this wayHades gives her a single seed in secret.
Time spent below
Told this wayA third of the year.

2. Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.341-661

Latin epic

c. 8 CE

Primary source

Where she is taken
Told differentlySicily, by Lake Pergus near Henna.
Why Hades takes her
Told differentlyVenus has Cupid shoot Dis so love will rule the underworld too.
Who reveals what happened
Told differentlyThe nymph Arethusa tells Ceres she saw Proserpina below; Ascalaphus reports the seeds.
Demeter at Eleusis
Not narrated here
Demeter withholds the harvest
Told this wayCeres curses the land, Sicily above all.
The pomegranate
Told differentlyShe eats seven seeds in a garden.
Time spent below
Told differentlyHalf the year.

3. Ovid, Fasti 4.417-620

Latin poem on the Roman calendar

c. 8 CE

Primary source

Where she is taken
Told differentlySicily, near Henna.
Why Hades takes her
Not narrated here
Who reveals what happened
Told differentlyHelios, as in the hymn.
Demeter at Eleusis
Told this wayCeres heals the child Triptolemus at Eleusis.
Demeter withholds the harvest
Not narrated here
The pomegranate
Told differentlyThree seeds.
Time spent below
Told differentlyHalf the year.

4. Apollodorus, Library 1.5.1-3

Greek mythographic handbook

1st-2nd century CE

Later ancient

Where she is taken
Not narrated here
Why Hades takes her
Told this wayHades carries her off with Zeus's help.
Who reveals what happened
Told differentlyThe people of Hermione tell Demeter; Ascalaphus testifies about the seed.
Demeter at Eleusis
Told this way
Demeter withholds the harvest
Not narrated here
The pomegranate
Told this wayOne seed, given by Hades.
Time spent below
Told this wayA third of the year.

Dates are approximate. For manuscripts copied long after composition, the chronology uses the estimated date of the telling.

Other versions

2 alternate accounts in the catalog.

  • Ovid, Metamorphoses 5c. 8 CE

    Set in Sicily near Henna. Venus and Cupid cause Dis to fall in love, the nymph Cyane resists and dissolves into water, and Ascalaphus reveals that Proserpina ate seven seeds. The year is split in half.

    Note: Ovid turns a cult hymn into a story about the reach of love's power.

  • Apollodorus, Library 1.51st-2nd century CE

    Ascalaphus, son of Acheron, testifies against Persephone, and Demeter punishes him. The third of the year below is kept from the hymn.

    Note: A compact mythographer's summary.

Myths changed across centuries and communities; these differences are part of how the stories were preserved.

Sources and further reading

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. . Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

Works cited

  1. Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Hymn 2)primary

    Anonymous · entire hymn

  2. Theogonyprimary

    Hesiod · 912-914

  3. Metamorphosesprimary

    Ovid · 5.341-661

  4. Fastiprimary

    Ovid · 4.417-620

  5. Libraryprimary

    Apollodorus · 1.5.1-3

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