Persephone

**Persephone**, also known as **Proserpina**, is the Goddess of Springtime, Fertility, and the Underworld from Greco-Roman mythology. She is the niece and wife of Hades, making her the Queen of the Greco-Roman Underworld.

## Overview

**Persephone**, also known as **Kore** (lit. "The maiden"), is the goddess daughter of Zeus and Demeter in Greek mythology. She is the goddess of vegetation that was said to be kidnapped by Hades, leading to her becoming a goddess and queen of the underworld.

There are many variations on the myth about what happened, but most have her playing with the Oceanids until the earth cracked and Hades appeared to kidnap her and take to the underworld. Persephone's mother refused any deity that wanted to be with Persephone and kept them away from her, and it was said that Zeus gave her to his brother Hades.

After eating the food of the underworld, which is believed to have been pomegranate seeds, she would be forced to return to the underworld as all those who eat the food must return there. For this reason, Persephone spends one-third of the year with Hades and the rest with her mother. In some depictions, she willingly went with Hades to the Underworld and so ate the pomegranate seeds so she could stay with her husband.

In Roman myth, she is called **Proserpina** and her mother is Ceres.

## Appearance

Persephone appears as a beautiful woman in her 20s, with flawless skin and a voluptuous body. She has long, straight dark-brown hair and purple eyes. She is said to have a calm and serene aura.

She wears a black-and-redd dress decorated with beautiful roses and white ruffles, black fishnet stocking, and designer high-heeled shoes. She also wears a crown formed from roses and a golden necklace encrusted with a bright-red jewel.

When she first appeared, she wore a dress that shimmered with colors and flower patterns which changed and bloomed - roses, tulips, and honeysuckles.

## Personality

Persephone is a well-known goddess from mythology for her kind, caring, and generous personality, most famous for her marriage with Hades, her uncle and the God of the Dead. She is clever, and is an extremely fair and just ruler to the souls of the deceased, especially to those belonging to her domain of Haides.

She is a very gracious and welcoming hostess who is always opening her arms to help those who are in need of her help. She is also described as someone extremely polite, with impeccable manners befitting for her status as the Queen of the Underworld. However, she can be easily angered if her guests aren't treating her with the same respect she has shown them, even to the point of cursing them right at the spot without any sign of remorse.

She has a strong maternal instinct through her nature as a Mother Earth Goddess and a Fertility Goddess, and will go to great lengths for the safety of her children. She also has a habit of claiming young children she encountered to be her new children, which often cause many problems with their parents.

Despite this, she is an incredibly shy and cunning individual. She has shown to have no problem sacrificing servants and allies alike as long as it means advancing her own plans and further polishing her family's safety and reputation. She is also mentioned by her siblings to be extremely ruthless in her actions, having neither care nor mercy toward those who could endanger her and her family.

As the first Second-Generation Olympian, being born to Zeus and Demeter during the beginning of the Titanomachy, she isn't unfamiliar to war and violence. She has a cruel and sadistic streak of her own on the battlefield, one great enough to be feared among the monsters and immortals of Greco-Roman mythology.

According to Ares, her younger half-brother, she was someone who the younger gods are all terrified of, saved for a collective few such as the Elder Olympians or her children, and to be under her wrath is said to be a fate worse than death.

### Roman Form

Persephone can change her appearance into her Roman counterpart of **Proserpina**. As Proserpine, she becomes more disciplined, warlike, and militaristic. The Greeks believed Persephone's return from the Underworld signified the rebirth of crops, whereas the Romans thought that Proserpine preserved their seeds during the winter.

## History

### Pirithous' Punishment

After becoming widowed, both Pirithous and Theseus came to the brilliant realization that for "great heroes" such as them, only the daughters of Zeus would be worthy of becoming their wife.

First, Theseus chose princess Helen of Sparta, and together, they kidnapped her when she was 13 years old and decided to hold on to her until she was old enough to marry, not wanting to anger the King of Olympus. Pirithous, however, chose a more dangerous prize: Persephone herself. They then left Helen with Theseus' mother Aethra at Aphidnae and traveled to the underworld for Pirithous' new "bride".

Upon arriving at Haides, the two were warmly welcomed by Hades to sit with him at his table for a meeting, making them think the god didn't have any clue of their plan. However, the moment they sat down, watery serpents from the river Lethe erupted from the seats and bound them at the place, slowly stealing away all of their memories and personal identities. Hades then returned to his private chamber to finish his work while waiting for his wife, and by then, it was still in the middle of summer.

Years later, when Heracles entered Haides to finish his final quest of capturing Kerberos, he was welcomed by his half-sister and uncle, and was treated to a lavish feast entertained by some of the Underworld's greatest musicians. In the meal, Zagreus let slip that Theseus and Pirithous were the last heroes to enter the realm, which led to him becoming intrigued and urged the prince to tell him the story. After hearing about their imprisonment, Heracles begged his intoxicated uncle to release him from their prison, which he begrudgingly agreed, as long as he could do it without angering Persephone.

Later on, after he had finished subduing Kerberos, he sneaked back into the cavern nearby the Lethe where the two were captured to save them, however, when he had ripping Theseus out of his seat and prepared to free Pirithous, the earth shook violently alarming that Persephone had found out about his intention, prompting him to escape the Underworld as fast as possible, leaving Pirithous behind for eternity as he had committed too great of a crime for barden.

### Menippe and Metioche

When King Creon of Thebes refused to allow the burial of the dead warriors of the army of the Seven Against Thebes, Persephone became angered by such show of clear disrespect against her husband and inflicted Boeotia with a deadly plague. Fear for the people, officers were sent to consult Apollo's oracle at Gortyne, who told them that the only way for the goddess to cease her anger was for two willing maidens were to be sacrificed to her and her husband.

However, when the answer was delivered back to Aonia, not one of the maidens in the city complied until a servant reported the answer to Menippe and Metioche, daughters of the famed Orion. When they heard the news, they were still working at their loom, though they quickly accepted death on the behalf of their fellow citizens before the plague epidemic had smitten them too. They cried out three times to the chthonic gods saying that they were willing sacrifices, before thrusting their bodkins into themselves at their shoulders and gashed open their throats, killing themselves instantly.

Pitied the two maidens, Hades and Persephone turned them into the comets, and since then they are known as the *Parthenoi Koronides* (Maidens of the Curving Tail). All the Aonians then set up a notable temple for these two maidens at Orchomenus in Boiotia, where, every year, young men and young women would bring propitiary offerings to them.

## Weaknesses

### Harming, Trapping, & Banishing

* **Witchcraft**: As witchcraft is a form of magic wielded by witches to oppose those of heavenly nature, pagan gods such as Persephone are susceptible by witchery. There are many witchery spells and rituals that can be used to trap, weaken, and hurt her, with some rituals rumored to be capable of even killing immortals such as the pagan gods.
* **Celestial Weapons**: Weapons made out of sacred metals, such as Celestial Bronze or Imperial Gold, can be used against the majority of supernatural beings, including pagan gods such as Persephone.
* **Lack of Worship & Offerings**: As a pagan goddess, Persephone gains more power from the prayers, offerings, and sacrifices from mortal devotees, and is dependent on it to maintain her immense divinity. If she stops gaining offerings from her loyal followers, her powers may become immensely weakened. Due to her essence being tied to the Western Civilization, she can gain power from those associated and symbolized by her divine domains, or associated with her or the myths surrounding her.
	+ Due to her status as a chthonic goddess, she can maintain and even strengthen her divinity by absorbing the spiritual energy of the souls of the deceased or of the Realm of the Dead itself.

### Killing

* **Divine Weapons**: The divine weapons of the gods, which are crafted from sacred metals and are imbued with their wielders' divinity, can be used to kill or injure fellow immortal gods like Persephone. However, due to her immense power, only a principal god’s Symbol of Power is capable of killing her.
* **Enochian Weapons**: Persephone can be killed using weapons made out of Enochian metals.
	+ **Longinus**: As the Longinus are Sacred Gears made out of Enochian metals of the highest-ranking, forged by Heavens' forges with the highest-quality Enochian technology and are imbued with fragments of the Biblical God's divinity, those with enough skills and experience can absolutely and permanently killed Persephone, to the point where she can never be reborn or resurrected again.
* **Faustian Weapons**: Persephone can be killed using weapons made out of Faustian metals.
* **Primordials' Weapons**: Weapons created and wielded by primordial entities can be used to permanently and absolutely obliterate every and any being in existence but other primordial entities, erasing their entire existence from the worlds so that they can never be reborn, or resurrected again without being saved by God's omnipotence.

## Trivia

* *Kore* is another name for Persephone, meaning "girl" or "maiden".
* Her name can mean "female thresher of grain" or "bringer of destruction".
* Her sacred plants are the pomegranate, asphodel, narcissus, willow, lily, and mint.
* Her sacred animals are black rams, bats, monkeys, and parrots.
* She likes pomegranates, good-quality alcohol (especially wine), and gardening.
	+ She hates smoking and being restrained.
* According to Artemis, she isn't a natural brunette and her original hair color is strawberry-blonde.
* Her divine aura is comparable to the "scent of the earth after the first rain in spring".
* She is the only daughter Zeus is afraid of.
* She is considered a triple goddess, representing the maiden, alongside Demeter and Hecate.
* Homer describes Persephone as the venerable queen of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead.
* In Ovid's version of the myths recounted in his Metamorphoses (Book V), Aphrodite saw Hades riding in his chariot and tasked her son Eros to shoot one of his arrows into Hades' heart and make him fall in love with Persephone.
* The 26 Proserpina is named after her Roman form, Proserpina.
	+ The 399 Persephone is also named after her.
	+ Kore, one of Jupiter's moons, is named after her.
* In Roman myth, she's depicted as the wife of the god Liber and is associated with the goddess Libera.