Persephone/Kore
Persephone/Kore,goddess, Demeter's daughter by Zeus, Hades' wife and queen of the underworld. Her most important myth is that of her abduction by Hades, her father's brother, who carried her off when she was picking flowers in a meadow and took her to the underworld, Demeter's unsuccessful search for her daughter (which took her to Eleusis) and consequent withdrawal from her normal functions caused the complete failure of crops, and men would have starved if Zeus had not intervened. When Demeter did not respond to the persuasion of the divine messengers he sent to mediate, Zeus sent Hermes to persuade Hades to release Persephone, which he did; but Hades tricked Persephone and made her eat some pomegranate seeds, with the consequence that she could not leave Hades for ever, but had to spend part of the year with her husband in the underworld and part of the year with her mother...
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