Humans are scared of what they don’t understand, and so in a way to try and
understand the world around them, humans made up gods. Gods are a simple way of
answering any question, and humans all throughout history have made up gods
and/or supreme beings such as the Greeks did. The ancient Greeks developed a
religion and beliefs about the world that we now call Greek Mythology. Mythology
is a body of myths for a particular culture, and the study and interpretations
of such myths. Myths though can be defined as a narrative that through many
retellings has become an accepted tradition in a society. By this mythology may
include all traditional tales, such as creation of the world and about the gods
that rule the world. One such god was Persephone the queen of the under world,
married to Hades the god of the under world. Persephone is the daughter of
Demeter (god of agriculture) and Zeus (the king God). She is a very beautiful
young girl with pale white skin and blond hair. She is so beautiful that many of
the gods wished to have her as their wife. She does not smile much though and is
very sorrowful when she is in the underworld with her husband, but she is very
happy and joyful when she is on earth with her loving mother Demeter. As I
mentioned earlier, mythology is all about myth or stories about the gods. One
story that involves Persephone is the story about how she became queen of the
underworld. Demeter loved Persephone so dearly that she always had her at her
side, and whenever Demeter visited the earth Persephone would follow. She would
go about the fields dancing and wherever her light feet touched the ground
flowers would emerge. Hades, though, soon noticed her and fell in love with her
immediately. He knew though that Demeter would never allow it because she would
not be able to bare to part with her dear daughter. Hades though found another
way to get her as her wife. He planned to abduct her one-day when she was about
dancing and singing. When that day came, Persephone had drifted away from her
mother when all of a sudden a great chasm opened up in the ground, out came
Hades on a chariot with four great black stallions. He grabbed the terrified
girl and pulled her back under with him through the hole in the ground. They
were followed by a herd of pigs that belonged to a little swineherd who wept
over the lose of his pigs, after the great chasm swallowed them and closed just
as suddenly as it had opened. Hades raced back down into his dark cold palace
were he seated the weeping girl on a throne of black marble. He offered her a
substantial amount of crowns and jewels, but the wealth brought her no happiness
she wanted to be up on the earth’s surface with the sunshine and flowers.
Around Hades’ palace grew several gardens that were home to whispering poplars
and weeping willows. There were no flowers and no birds to sing in the branches.
There was one tree though that bore fruit. It was a little pomegranate tree. The
caretaker of the garden offered the tempting pomegranates to the queen, but she
declined. For she could never eat the food of the dead. She walked wordlessly
with her new husband and slowly her heart turned cold and she already missed the
day when she would dance in the sun with her mother. Back on earth Demeter was
searching franticly for her daughter, and as she grieved so did the land. The
flowers all wilted and died, the trees became naked, and all the fields were
covered in a pale white snow, and as long as the goddess of agriculture wept so
would the land. Nothing could sprout or grow in the new cold barren lands. The
people were starving as the land suffered, and the gods begged her to let the
land grow but she refused until she found her daughter. In grief Demeter went to
the field were she lost her daughter. There she found a small youth named
Triptolemus. He told her how his brother was there that day and he lost a herd
of pigs that fell into a great break in the ground and how he also heard a
girl’s scream from within it. With this new knowledge Demeter now understood
what happened that day. She was now angry. She called to Zeus and told him what
had happened and vowed that she would not lift the snow from the ground unless
he made Hades return Persephone to her. Because Zeus could not let the world
perish he was forced into sending Hermes (the messenger god) down to Hades and
to tell him of Zeus’s bidding. Because Zeus was the king god he had no other
choice but to let his queen go. As soon as Persephone heard of the news she
leaped to her feet and started for the surface with Hermese. As they were
leaving though the gardener pointed out to Hades that lost in joy Persephone had
eaten the pomegranate. Hades grinned. He knew that his bride had to return
because no one who ate the food of the dead was permitted to leave his palace.
As soon as Demeter saw her daughter she leaped to her feet and with all her joy
the earth returned to its warm green environment. Flowers bloomed, the trees
were full of great green leaves, and the birds sang in the wind. But because of
the fruit that Persephone ate she could not stay on the surface. Zeus though
could not allow the earth to return to the state that it has been in. So he
ruled that she must return to Hades for as many months as the number of fruit
she had eaten. This meant that she had to return to Hades for three months every
year. Every year when Demeter's daughter returns to her husband Demeter grieves
and the world becomes winter, but when she is again reunited with her the world
returns to summer. Mythology was a major part of the Greek culture and for many
other cultures. Myths are still around today. Ancient mythology is not practiced
anymore. The beliefs are still taught throughout the world today, and this paper
proves that.

BibliographyD’Aulaire, Ingri and D’Aulaire, Edgar. Book of Greek Myths. New York:
Dell Publishing, 1992. Larousse. World Mythology. New York: O.G.A.M Publishing,
1965. Leeming, David Adams and Leeming, Margaret Adams. Creation Myths. New
York: NY Publishing “Perseohone” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. CD-ROM.
Washington, Microsoft Inc., 1999 “Encyclopedia Britanica Online”, http://www.search.eb.com,
Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999 “Greek Mythology Links”, http://www.hsa.brown.edu/maicar/,
Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999 “The Gods of Greek Mythology”, http://vickib.simplenet.com/gods/gods.htm,
Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999 “Persephone” http://www.messagenet.com/myths/bios/persephone.html
Friday, Nov. 5, 1999