Some may say that love is the root of all things good and all things painful and dark. But is so for Hades and Persephone?
This story is one of many love stories within ancient Greek mythology, often retold in different versions throughout time. Every story has a beginning, and for these two Gods it begins with a walk through earth, and a change in seasons.
Hades the god of the underworld sought time alone and wandered up to earth for a stroll, where he saw, and instantly fell in love with Persephone, a goddess in his eyes whose beauty could be unmatched. And so he went to Zeus his brother and God of for council and permission to marry the lovely goodness. Zeus agreed all along knowing full well that Persephones' mother Demeter, goodness of harvest and Fertility would never agree.
Soon the two brothers devises a plan to take Persephone and waited until Demeter left Persephone under the care of the nymphs to go and tend to the earth.
The brothers had set a flower in the garden knowing that Persephone would be all to eager to pick it.
Once Persephone was found the flower, the ground opened and out came Hades and his charity and took her away to the underworld as his bride.
Demeter who had finally finished tending to the earth and found her daughter gone, in a fit of rage he cursed the nymphs into scales creatures who were later called sirens. She moaned for her daughter, neglecting her work on the earth.
In the underworld Hades had made sure that his new wife was treated with kindness and respect, he had made a lovely garden only for her, and they in time grew closer to one another.
Fearing the end of mankind due to Demeter's sadness and her not being able to carry out her duties, Zeus decided to mend all.
Fearing that his wife would leave and never return, Hades gave Persephone pomegranate seeds to eat, because of this she was forced to live a third of each year(winter) in the underworld and the rest with her mother, thus creating the seasons.
There are so many versions of this story but only one constant. The changes in seasons happened because of love.
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Nice story