As with most of the Greek myths, the overriding moral is not to defy the gods. The gods are presented not as moral exemplars but as capricious and amoral tyrants, shamelessly using mortals to get what they want, whenever they want it. Yet however badly the gods behave, the divine will must always be obeyed, otherwise there will be serious consequences.

In the myth of Persephone, Demeter does what any normal mother would do in a similar circumstance and searches high and low for her abducted daughter. But Demeter is also a goddess, and as such she has no hesitation in wreaking revenge upon the mortal world, which she holds responsible for Persephone's disappearance.

Unknown to Demeter, however, her daughter has been abducted by Hades and spirited away to his underworld domain. Not only that, but this was all part of a plan cooked up between the god of the underworld and the mighty Zeus himself. As the father of the gods has so decreed that Persephone must yield to Hades, there is nothing that Demeter can do about it. Persephone has learned the hard way that the will of Zeus must always be obeyed, irrespective of the terrible consequences that sometimes follow. Bearing in mind also that Zeus is Persephone's father, we might also see the myth as reinforcing existing gender relations in ancient Greek society, where men were expected to exercise complete control over their wives and daughters.