And that, dear Shmoopers, is where the seasons come from.The main allusion, which begins in the title, is the story of Persephone's abduction by Hades.Demeter reluctantly agrees with this, but says that when Persephone is in the underworld, nothing on earth will grow.(Note: the number of months is different in various myths, and sometimes it relates to the number of pomegranate seeds that Persephone eats.).It's decided that Persephone only has to spend part of the year with Hades in the underworld.
Hermes and Persephone then fly out of the land of the dead in Hermes's chariot.(Note: the number of seeds varies from myth to myth.).Hades agrees, but, before Persephone goes, he secretly slips some pomegranate seeds into her mouth.Seeing this, Zeus sends Hermes, the messenger god, down to the underworld to order Hades to let Persephone go.A terrible famine assaults the earth, and people are starving everywhere.Demeter vows that she won't set foot on Mount Olympus and that she won't let anything grow on earth until she sets eyes on her daughter again.She is even sadder than she was before, and she's furious with Zeus.The sun god tries to cheer Demeter up by pointing out that Hades is a good husband for her daughter after all he's a pretty important and powerful god.Helios ends up telling Demeter the whole deal – Zeus gave Persephone to Hades and Hades hauled her down to the underworld.Demeter decides to go ask Helios, the sun god, since he's up in the sky all day and sees pretty much everything.Eventually, Hecate shows up and tells Demeter that she heard the scream too, but that she doesn't know what happened either.The goddess is so upset that she doesn't eat or bathe while she's searching.Demeter wanders all over the earth with torches in her hands looking for Persephone.She asks all around, but nobody can tell her what happened. Demeter is terrified when she hears her daughter's scream.Her mother, Demeter, also hears her screams, but she's too far away to do anything about it.Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, and Helios, god of the sun, hear Persephone's cries.He grabs Persephone and starts dragging her down to the underworld.One day, Persephone is picking flowers with some nymph friends of hers when, all of a sudden, Hades bursts out of the ground, driving a chariot of black horses.(In some versions of this story, Cupid hits Hades with a love arrow and makes Hades fall for Persephone.).The king of the gods doesn't bother to tell Persephone or her mother, Demeter (or Ceres), goddess of agriculture, of his decision. Zeus decides it's a good idea to give his daughter, Persephone (or Proserpina), goddess of spring, as a bride to his brother Hades (or Pluto), god of the underworld.
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