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| Persephone was a
young goddess who lived in ancient Greece. Her mother, Demeter,
made plants grow -- the grapes, the wheat, the trees -- all across the world. One day, as Persephone played alone in a field of flowers, the ground opened with a rumble and out came a chariot drawn by dark horses. It was Hades, god of the Underworld. |
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He captured Persephone and took her to the
Underworld to be his wife. As the earth closed up behind them, Persephone's belt fell to the earth. When she didn't come home Demeter searched everywhere for her. As the months passed, Demeter grew so sad she forgot to make things grow. The warm, green earth turned brown and cold. Earth's first winter had come. |
| One day a shepherd gave Demeter the belt he'd
found in a meadow, near an opening to the Underworld. Demeter guessed what had happened. She went to Zeus, King of the Gods, and told him that if he didn't tell Hades to let Persephone go, the earth would stay brown, cold and lifeless forever. |
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Zeus ordered Hades to free Persephone. Demeter
went to fetch her, but quickly discovered something terrible had happened. Persephone had
eaten a few pomegranate seeds while in the Underworld. According to the law, if a person ate pomegranate seeds, she could not leave the Underworld. |
| Demeter refused to make anything grow, and so
the gods made a promise: for every seed Persephone had eaten, she must spend one month a
year below ground with Hades. Demeter agreed. Persephone returned to the earth with her mother and Demeter's happiness returned. The earth flowered and grew warm again. The gentle months of spring and summer passed. |
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But then, because of the pomegranate seeds,
Persephone had to visit Hades. Demeter grew sad without her daughter. Leaves fell from the
trees. Another winter returned, cold and lifeless. So according to the old storytellers of Greece, winter melts away as Demeter and Persephone run together in the meadows each SPRING. |
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