Greek Mythology Gods and Goddesses | Persephone, Hades and Demeter, The Story Behind Seasons

There was a Greek goddess named Demeter who is goddess of the harvest. She is responsible for the fertility of the soil and growth of crops. This is much like how Poseidon, the god of sea, controls the tides and quakes at sea either helping the sailors or drowning. Here too goddess Demeter could control whether humans on Earth can grow crops successfully.

The daughter of Zeus and Demeter was Persephone. She was beautiful. And so Hades who is a god of the underworld, desired to marry this beautiful goddess.

Hades went on to carry away Persephone when she was out alone collecting flowers in a garden. Zeus, her father, and Helios, the sun, had noticed this. No one else knew what happened.

Persephone and Hades (click to see picture)

Demeter’s heart was broken with this. She searched for her daughter all over the earth but couldn’t find her anywhere. She became very angry and stayed alone thereafter. Due to this the crops failed on earth and also their fertility is lost.

Zeus intervened and asked Hades to release Persephone. Hades, though unwillingly, agreed to release her. Before she can go back to her mother, Hades gave the seeds of a pomegranate from the underworld.

Persephone returning to mother Demeter

The rule is that if Persephone eats that fruit, she will be bound to stay in the underworld forever. Unsurprisingly she ate the fruit. So she had to stay in the underworld atleast for one-third of the year. The rest of the year she stayed with her mother, Demeter.

During that part of the year when Persephone is with her mother, Demeter allowed the earth to blossom and crops to grow well. But when she left to underworld with Hades, Demeter did not let anything grow on earth. This is how she created winter on earth for one-third of a year.

The Greek Mythology thus tells how the seasons are created by the departure and arrival of Persephone on earth.

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