* // life & death

persephone is regarded as a young goddess, something akin to a child in the pantheon despite her great power and position as queen of the underworld. most still see her as a soft and gentle, almost naïve kind of person. some are shocked to find that persephone is the one in charge of punishments for souls of the underworld. 

her birth name was kore and when they married hades, they changed her name to persephone. kore means maiden or innocent and she no longer felt as if that name was totally fitting for who they had become. her new name was regarded as their rebirth and she became “the bringer of death”. 

depending on who you ask it may also have meaning for “destroyer of light” and “destroyer of death”. the second one more closely relating to her spring time powers of rebirth and growth. 

uses both she / her + they / them pronouns interchangeably. does not mind he / him either though most tend to refer to persephone as the femme as they present as such. persephone is still referred to as “daughter” of demeter and that is fine and comfortable with them. the title goddess does not bother her either, but there is a bit of a pride swell when someone calls them “god of” instead. hades can use any title for persephone such as wife, partner, spouse, etc and it will not bother them at all. 

THE STORY OF PERSEPHONE.

the daughter of demeter and wife of hades. persephone had felt suffocated by their mother after so long of being by her side and wanted something more for herself. the plan had not been to marry hades, in fact they hadn’t planned on marrying anyone or losing their maiden goddess status. she had run away from demeter in a desperate attempt to find her own place in the world and unknowingly had run straight into the underworld. 

she had not expected to be met with such kindness from hades. she fell in love while they were there with him. demeter, unable to find her daughter, stopped tending to the earth and plunged the world into it’s first cold season (later named winter). eventually demeter learned of persephone’s hiding spot from hecate who had spied the young goddess with hades in one of her many trips too and from the underworld.

furious with hades for “kidnapping” her daughter, demeter began terrorizing the world and threatening to bring hordes to the underworld in order to bring back her daughter. zeus, aware of the goings on, stepped in and ordered persephone back to her mother. in a quick thinking, persephone ate six pomegranate seeds in a desperate attempt not to have to leave the underworld. upon learning they had done that, demeter spread the lies that hades had tricked her innocent maiden daughter into this. as a compromise, zeus stated that persephone was to spend six months with hades and six with demeter. 

now as persephone spends those months with her husband, demeter does not tend to the earth and the seasons formed. when persephone must leave the underworld, the earth grows new with her presence and the cold is melted as her mother’s love spreads the earth with warmth.

HAPPINESS GUARANTEED.

after marriage with hades, there was a lot that they had to adapt to. a different kind of life, people begin to see persephone as someone other than her mother’s daughter & respect started to be shown to the goddess. persephone was never used to a lavish or expensive lifestyle before meeting hades and afterwards took much convincing for her to exude that kind of power over other people in order to have such a life. she was always in the habit of doing for themself and because of it lacked the ability to order about or ask people to do something for them.

life in the underworld became just a little more lively with tthem around, her own aura of warmth and beauty extending into the realm of the dead. people coming to the underworld found kindness and graciousness within persephone and she was often the one to help heroes find their way out (though not easily but doable) of the world into the upper again. cruelness is not in persephone’s nature and even those punished within in depth of the underworld or even tartarus are only done so fairly and with as much respect as they can give the souls. as the goddess of both rebirth and now death, she holds particular ideals about how both the dead and the alive should be treated. 

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