What was the purpose Persephone's story?

Answer 1

The story of Persephone serves to explain the changing seasons in Greek mythology. Persephone's abduction by Hades and eventual return from the underworld correlates with the cycle of life, death, and rebirth seen in nature. It also highlights themes of transformation and the duality of life.

Answer 2

Demeter's daughter, Persephone, was abducted by Hades to be his queen of the underworld. Demeter went looking for her and neglected her duties: to see crops grow. People and animals complained to Zeus, who asked Hades to give Persephone back. Hades told Zeus that Persephone had eaten while with him (if only a piece of a pomegranate) and so had her home in the underworld. But Hades agreed to a compromise: Persephone was to return to her mother for one half of the year. During this part of the year Demeter is happy, during the other halv she grieves and nothing grows on the earth. (You may find small variations of this story.)

Answer 3

From Wikipedia:

In the later Olympian pantheon of Classical Greece, Persephone is given a father: according to Hesiod's Theogony, Persephone was the daughter produced by the union of Demeter and Zeus. "And he [Zeus] came to the bed of bountiful Demeter, who bore white-armed Persephone, stolen by Hades from her mother's side". Unlike every other offspring of an Olympian pairing of deities, Persephone has no stable position at Olympus. Persephone used to live far away from the other deities, a goddess within Nature herself before the days of planting seeds and nurturing plants. In the Olympian telling,[6] the gods Hermes, Ares, Apollo, and Hephaestus, had all wooed Persephone, but Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the Olympian deities. Thus, Persephone lived a peaceful life before she became the goddess of the underworld, which, according to Olympian mythographers, did not occur until Hades abducted her and brought her into the underworld. She was innocently picking flowers with some nymphs-, Athena, and Artemis, the Homeric hymn says-, or Leucippe, or Oceanids- in a field in Enna when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth; the nymphs were changed by Demeter into the Sirens for not having interfered. Life came to a standstill as the devastated Demeter, goddess of the Earth, searched everywhere for her lost daughter. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened. Finally, Zeus, pressured by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, could not put up with the dying earth and forced Hades to return Persephone. But before she was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds, (seven, eight, or perhaps four according to the telling) which forced her to return to the underworld for a season each year. In some versions, Ascalaphus informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. When Demeter and her daughter were united, the Earth flourished with vegetation and color, but for four months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm. This is an origin story to explain the seasons.

Answer 4

Greek myths often served several purposes, not just one. In this case, it had a CULT purpose, associated with the Eleusian Mysteries which honored both Demeter and Persephone (as well as [Dionysos] Zagreus, the son of Persephone by either Hades or Zeus, depending on the version of the myth you have). It also had an etiological purpose, to explain the turning of the seasons. But remember, winter in Greece is quite mild, and the earlier version of the myth had her eat only 3 pomegranite seeds, not 6. 3 months was about all winter consisted of! Last, the myth probably also served a purpose as social commentary/illustration, about the natural fears young girls faced upon marriage by presented a sort of "worst-case scenario." In the myth, Hades speaks to Zeus for permission to marry Persphone, which was the way things were done -- the groom spoke to the bride's father. The father wasn't required to include the mother or girl in negotiations, although usually he told them before the marriage! Not here. So when Hades comes to steal away Persephone, both the girl and her mother are quite startled. By removing her from her mother and her beloved earth (she's a flower/spring goddess, remember) -- all she's familiar with -- she "dies" ... even if she wasn't going to the underworld. Her husband is much older, stern, etc. She "wilts" (like a dying flower) in the underworld until the compromise is reached. So while Persephone's taking is typically described as "The Rape of Persephone," or "The Abduction of Persephone," that's not entirely true. Hades had permission to marry her. Zeus is (as often the case!) the chief culprit here. In any case, Persephone's marriage may have given mythical voice to the fears of many a young girl approaching marriage.

An interesting final footnote ... most of the Greek (male) gods were notorious philanderers, married or not. Hades alone isn't. While this makes sense for the god of the dead (he's sterile), it's also interesting that he's one of only two "great gods" who was faithful to his wife. (The other is Dionysos to Ariadne.)

Answer 5

Persephones was kiddnapped by Hades and forced to marry him. Well persephones was missing her mom (Demeter ) the goddess of agiculture gave up her jobs. So Zeus made a deal Persephone was to stay with Hades hlf of the yer and with Demeter henceforth We have the seasons.

Answer 6

Persephone (daughter of Demeter) was stolen by Hades to be his wife. Demeter searched the world and when she found out Persephone was in the Underworld she was mad. She went to bring her daughter back but she had eaten the fruit of the Underworld so she couldn't leave. They made a deal that for some of the year she'd be with Hades and for the rest she'd be with Demeter. That formed the seasons. Fall and Winter with Hades and Spring and Summer with Demeter.

Answer 7

The story of Persephone is meant to explain why there are different seasons. A moral of the story could be to be wary when on one's own.

Answer 8

Between Autumn and Spring: Winter.