Persephone was the beautiful daughter of Zeus and his sister and consort Demeter.

Persephone was gathering flowers in the vale of Nysa, when the earth opened up and Hades dragged her down into the Underworld.  The griefstricken Demeter searched everywhere for her daughter, and neglected her duties as goddess of the harvest so that a worldwide famine struck the earth. 

Zeus intervened and ordered Hades to return Persephone to the land of the living.  But before Persephone left she ate a pomegranate seed, and this bound her to the underworld forever.  Persephone thus spent eight months of the year with her mother, and four months with Hades.

The earth was barren when Persephone was in the underworld.  Some scholars argue that Persephone’s time below ground represents the summer months, when Greek fields are parched and bare; others argue that she disappears during the winter and reappears with the spring flowers.  Either way, Persephone’s story explains the cycle of growth and decay with the changing seasons.