Rape of Proserpine
Encyclopedia
The Rape of Persephone is a classical mythological subject in Western art, depicting the kidnap of Proserpina
by Pluto
.
The myth is absent in Homer
and first appears in Hesiod
's Theogony
:[16] "Also he (Zeus
) came to the bed of all-nourishing Demeter
, and she bore white-armed Persephone whom Aidoneus (Hades
) carried off from her mother; but wise Zeus gave her to him."[2] Unlike every other offspring of an Olympian pairing of deities, Persephone
has no stable position at Olympus. Persephone used to live far away from the other deities, a goddess within Nature herself before the days of planting seeds and nurturing plants. In the Olympian telling,[28] the gods Hermes
, Ares
, Apollo
, and Hephaestus
, had all wooed Persephone; but Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the Olympian deities.
Thus, beautiful Persephone lived a peaceful life until Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, fell in love with her. It is said that Zeus advised him to carry her off, as her mother Demeter was not likely to allow. She was innocently picking flowers with some nymphs—Athena
, and Artemis
, the Homeric hymn says—or Leucippe
, or Oceanid
s—in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. The place where Persephone was said to have been carried off is different in the various local traditions. The Sicilian
s believed that Hades found her in the meadows near Enna
. The Eleusinians mentioned the Nysaean plane in Boeotia
and said that Persephone had descended with Hades into the lower world at the entrance of the western Oceanus. Later accounts place the rape near Attica
or at Erineus
near Eleusis. The Cretans thought that their own island was the scene of the rape.[16] Demeter searched desperately with torches for her lost daughter all over the world. In some versions she forbids the earth to produce, or she neglects the earth and in the depth of her despair she causes nothing to grow. Helios
, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened and at length she discovered the place of her abode.
Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate
seeds, (four or six according to the telling) which forced her to return to the underworld for a period each year. The seeds correspond to the dry summer months in Greece, usually one third of the year (four months) when Persephone (Kore
) is absent. In some versions, Ascalaphus
informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. When Demeter and her daughter were reunited, the Earth flourished with vegetation and color, but for some months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm. This is an origin story to explain the season
s.
In an earlier version, Hecate
rescued Persephone. On an Attic red-figured
bell krater of ca 440 BC in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Persephone is rising as if up stairs from a cleft in the earth, while Hermes stands aside; Hecate, holding two torches, looks back as she leads her to the enthroned Demeter.[29]
The tenth-century Byzantine
encyclopedia Suda
, s.v. "Macaria", introduces a goddess of a blessed afterlife assured to Orphic mystery initiates. This Macaria
is asserted to be the daughter of Hades and Persephone, though there is no previous mention of her.
Examples include:
Proserpina
Proserpina or Proserpine is an ancient Roman goddess whose story is the basis of a myth of Springtime. Her Greek goddess' equivalent is Persephone. The probable origin of her name comes from the Latin, "proserpere" or "to emerge," in respect to the growing of grain...
by Pluto
Pluto (mythology)
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Pluto was a name for the ruler of the underworld; the god was also known as Hades, a name for the underworld itself...
.
The myth is absent in Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
and first appears in Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
's Theogony
Theogony
The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC...
:[16] "Also he (Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
) came to the bed of all-nourishing Demeter
Demeter
In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...
, and she bore white-armed Persephone whom Aidoneus (Hades
Hades
Hades , Hadēs, originally , Haidēs or , Aidēs , meaning "the unseen") was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative came to designate the abode of the dead.In Greek mythology, Hades...
) carried off from her mother; but wise Zeus gave her to him."[2] Unlike every other offspring of an Olympian pairing of deities, Persephone
Persephone
In Greek mythology, Persephone , also called Kore , is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld; she was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld....
has no stable position at Olympus. Persephone used to live far away from the other deities, a goddess within Nature herself before the days of planting seeds and nurturing plants. In the Olympian telling,[28] the gods Hermes
Hermes
Hermes is the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology and a guide to the Underworld. Hermes was born on Mount Kyllini in Arcadia. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of the cunning of thieves, of orators and...
, Ares
Ares
Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and...
, Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
, and Hephaestus
Hephaestus
Hephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He is the son of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of the Gods - or else, according to some accounts, of Hera alone. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes...
, had all wooed Persephone; but Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the Olympian deities.
Thus, beautiful Persephone lived a peaceful life until Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, fell in love with her. It is said that Zeus advised him to carry her off, as her mother Demeter was not likely to allow. She was innocently picking flowers with some nymphs—Athena
Athena
In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...
, and Artemis
Artemis
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
, the Homeric hymn says—or Leucippe
Leucippe
In Greek mythology, Leucippe is the name of the following individuals:*One of the Minyades, three sisters who were driven by Dionysus to kill Hippasus, the son of Leucippe...
, or Oceanid
Oceanid
In Greek mythology and, later, Roman mythology, the Oceanids were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Each was the patroness of a particular spring, river, sea, lake, pond, pasture, flower or cloud...
s—in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. The place where Persephone was said to have been carried off is different in the various local traditions. The Sicilian
Sicilian
Sicily is an autonomous Italian island. The adjectival form Sicilian can also refer to:* Sicilian language* Sicilian Baroque, baroque architecture in 17th & 18th centuries on Sicily...
s believed that Hades found her in the meadows near Enna
Enna
Enna is a city and comune located roughly at the center of Sicily, southern Italy, in the province of Enna, towering above the surrounding countryside...
. The Eleusinians mentioned the Nysaean plane in Boeotia
Boeotia
Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...
and said that Persephone had descended with Hades into the lower world at the entrance of the western Oceanus. Later accounts place the rape near Attica
Attica
Attica is a historical region of Greece, containing Athens, the current capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea...
or at Erineus
Erineus
Erineus may refer to:* a synonym for the rove beetles genus Clidicus* Erineus , one of the four Greek cities of the Doric Tetrapolis* the ancient name for the river Erineo in Sicily, south of Syracuse...
near Eleusis. The Cretans thought that their own island was the scene of the rape.[16] Demeter searched desperately with torches for her lost daughter all over the world. In some versions she forbids the earth to produce, or she neglects the earth and in the depth of her despair she causes nothing to grow. Helios
Helios
Helios was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...
, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened and at length she discovered the place of her abode.
Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate
Pomegranate
The pomegranate , Punica granatum, is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing between five and eight meters tall.Native to the area of modern day Iran, the pomegranate has been cultivated in the Caucasus since ancient times. From there it spread to Asian areas such as the Caucasus as...
seeds, (four or six according to the telling) which forced her to return to the underworld for a period each year. The seeds correspond to the dry summer months in Greece, usually one third of the year (four months) when Persephone (Kore
Kore
Kore is an energy drink distributed by GNC in 250 mL cans.-Ingredients:Water, Sugar, Dextrose, Citric Acid, Taurine, Sodium Citrate, Glucuronolactone, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Caffeine, Sodium Benzoate, Inositol, Caramel Color, Potassium Sorbate, Niacin, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine...
) is absent. In some versions, Ascalaphus
Ascalaphus
In Greek mythology, two people share the name Ascalaphus/Askalaphos .#Son of Acheron and Orphne. Askalaphos was the orchardist of Hades. He told the other gods that Persephone had eaten a pomegranate in Hades. He was punished by being changed into an owl...
informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. When Demeter and her daughter were reunited, the Earth flourished with vegetation and color, but for some months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm. This is an origin story to explain the season
Season
A season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution...
s.
In an earlier version, Hecate
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
rescued Persephone. On an Attic red-figured
Red-figure pottery
Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 530 BC and remained in use until the late 3rd century BC. It replaced the previously dominant style of Black-figure vase painting within a few decades...
bell krater of ca 440 BC in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Persephone is rising as if up stairs from a cleft in the earth, while Hermes stands aside; Hecate, holding two torches, looks back as she leads her to the enthroned Demeter.[29]
The tenth-century Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
encyclopedia Suda
Suda
The Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often...
, s.v. "Macaria", introduces a goddess of a blessed afterlife assured to Orphic mystery initiates. This Macaria
Macaria
Macaria or Makaria is the name of two figures from ancient Greek religion and mythology. Although they are not said to be the same and are given different fathers, they are discussed together in a single entry in both the 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia the Suda and by Zenobius.-Daughter of...
is asserted to be the daughter of Hades and Persephone, though there is no previous mention of her.
Examples include:
- The Rape of Persephone in the vault of the Piccolomini Library, Duomo, Siena, by PinturicchioPinturicchioBernardino di Betto, called Pintoricchio or Pinturicchio was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He acquired his nickname, Pintoricchio , because of his small stature, and he used it to sign some of his works....
- The Rape of ProserpinaThe Rape of Proserpina (Bernini)The Rape of Proserpina is a large baroque marble sculptural group by Bernini executed between 1621 and 1622. Bernini was only 23 years old at its completion...
by Gian Lorenzo BerniniGian Lorenzo BerniniGian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect... - The Return of Persephone by Frederic Leighton (1891)