![]() And that, dear Shmoopers, is where the seasons come from.Persephone, the Greek goddess of harvest and fertility, and a daughter of Zeus, is walking through a garden plucking wildflowers one day when Hades, the god of the Underworld, whisks her away to his subterranean realm.Demeter reluctantly agrees with this, but says that when Persephone is in the underworld, nothing on earth will grow.(Note: the number of months is different in various myths, and sometimes it relates to the number of pomegranate seeds that Persephone eats.).It's decided that Persephone only has to spend part of the year with Hades in the underworld.Zeus sends his mother, Rhea, down to broker a deal with Demeter.Just then, Hecate shows up and consoles Persephone and Demeter from that point on Hecate is Persephone's BFF.Demeter is totally ticked off and says that nothing will grow on earth ever again. ![]() Persephone tells her mom how Hades tricked her into eating the pomegranate seeds.It turns out that, if you eat something while you're down there, you have to stay there forever.Demeter is super happy to see her daughter again, but upon seeing her, she immediately asks Persephone if she ate anything while in the underworld.Hermes and Persephone then fly out of the land of the dead in Hermes's chariot.(Note: the number of seeds varies from myth to myth.).Hades agrees, but, before Persephone goes, he secretly slips some pomegranate seeds into her mouth.Seeing this, Zeus sends Hermes, the messenger god, down to the underworld to order Hades to let Persephone go.A terrible famine assaults the earth, and people are starving everywhere.Demeter vows that she won't set foot on Mount Olympus and that she won't let anything grow on earth until she sets eyes on her daughter again.She is even sadder than she was before, and she's furious with Zeus.The sun god tries to cheer Demeter up by pointing out that Hades is a good husband for her daughter after all he's a pretty important and powerful god.Helios ends up telling Demeter the whole deal – Zeus gave Persephone to Hades and Hades hauled her down to the underworld.Demeter decides to go ask Helios, the sun god, since he's up in the sky all day and sees pretty much everything.Eventually, Hecate shows up and tells Demeter that she heard the scream too, but that she doesn't know what happened either.The goddess is so upset that she doesn't eat or bathe while she's searching.Demeter wanders all over the earth with torches in her hands looking for Persephone.She asks all around, but nobody can tell her what happened. Demeter is terrified when she hears her daughter's scream.Her mother, Demeter, also hears her screams, but she's too far away to do anything about it.Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, and Helios, god of the sun, hear Persephone's cries. ![]()
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