Zeus (the Heavens) and Demeter (the Earth). Various legends are related
of her, one of the later and most beautiful being that, when young, she
was carried off by Pluto (ruler of the spirits of the dead), and by him
made Queen of Hadës (the nether world). Her mother, in agony at her
loss, searched for her all over the earth with torches, until at last
she discovered her abode. The gods, moved by the mother’s distress,
sent a messenger to bring Persephoné back, and Pluto consented to let
her go on condition that she returned and spent a portion of every year
with him. From this, Persephoné became among the ancients the symbol of
Spring, her disappearance to the lower world coinciding with winter,
and her reappearance in the upper world bringing back vegetable life
and beauty.
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