The Mythos of Persephone Queen of the Underworld is a tale of tragedy, mourning and separation yet cults have been erected in relation to the Goddess’s tale long before the playwrights. Homer’s The Odyssey was written late 8th to early 7th century BCE, likewise with Hesiod’s Theogony. Later re-iterations of the story comes from Ovid, Euripides, Apollodorus, Orpheus, Pausanias, Clement of Alexandria, Cicero and more. Diodorus Siculus even is said to include traces of the supposed Sicilian version of the tale. I’d like to explore Persephone’s story through a different lens. A lens that isn’t written by dramatists but recorded in the archaeology of female initiatory cults in ancient times, as told by women themselves instead of a man and by Mother Earth herself.
Join me for this short preview of Mythos Astrology featuring Persephone, a class I will be teaching November 18, 2024 at Anima Mundi in Brooklyn. If you’re interested in the class click this link to sign up: https://animamundiherbals.com/products/mythos-astrology
Persephone, Queen of the underworld: Abduction or initiation?
Arguably, the tale of the infamous Goddess is both; a tale of abduction and initiation. Most likely alluding to the politics around womanhood during the time of ancient Greece. However, Persephone is a Goddess which pre-dates the ancient Greeks. Proto-Persephone who was celebrated by ancient Silicians aka Sicels dates back possibly as early as 4000 BCE – 2500 BCE. Essentially, Persephone has been with humanity since the Paleolithic and Neolithic times. Many scholars believe the cult most likely started in Enna, Sicily which is the site of Persephone’s ‘abduction’. It isn’t clear yet if the Goddess statues found at the archaeological site of Cozzo Matrice be of Persephone, Demeter or both. I believe the differences between the Goddesses and their duties can be a helpful reference point.
Persephone is recognized as a Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld. Persephone is also the very reason which the seasons change, an embodied totality of the life-death-life cycle. It is likely the original Goddess of Lake Pergusa/Enna was an earlier form of Kore/Persephone. This is a time in history when people venerated nature itself as embodiments of deities. A time in humanity when there was a gratitude for the presence because of the reliance of self-seeding and parthenogenesis, of the wildish nature. There were no expected fruits of one’s labor. A time when it was an honor to be alive and not an entitlement. Demeter is a Goddess of agriculture, a technology which was developed later.
Girlhood to Womanhood
According to Sicilian scholar Giuseppe Martorana, ancient descriptions of Enna/Pergusa refer to the pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer epoch in the history of the island. Ovid describes Enna/Pergusa as a place where “flowers continually bloom” and “spring smiles eternally”. If so, religious activity at the lake would take place earlier than 6000 BCE. This is the documented time when Sicilians started domesticating crops. So, the flowers of Persephone/Kore are replaced by the grains of Demeter; the religion of the self -fertilizing ‘virgin’ to the ‘mother’ is born.
As a Goddess of Springtime and flowers, the symbolism of flowers is tied to Persephone. Just like Persephone’s ‘bleeding lake’ Pergusa, part of female initiation is found in the blood mysteries. A glimpse into the female blood mysteries of ancient Greece can be see in Minoan religion. In the archaeological site of Akrotiri, Thera frescoes can give us a story. What was practiced by young girls becoming women?
Dating to the Late Bronze Age, you can see several depictions of young girls being crocus/saffron gatherers. The trek of climbing the hills barefoot is gruesome and can cause one to bleed. As seen in photo below by the young girl in the center is a testament to blood and womanhood. Simply put, to know one’s blood via menarche (the first bleed), the menstrual cycle and childbirth. In another frescoe you can see a young woman offering the crocus/saffron to an enthroned Goddess. A remnant of the time of matriarchal religion; woman celebrating, leading religious treks honoring the feminine and the life-giving and taking attributes of the womb.
Sources
Persephone/Kore Oxford Classical Dictionary
The Myth of Persephone: Body Objectification From Ancient to Modern
Persephone’s Sacred Lake and The Ancient Female Mystery Religion in the Womb of Sicily
Female Blood Rites in Ancient Times (my tumblr blog)
Marinatos, Nanno, “Minoan Religion: Ritual, Image, and Symbol“: University of South Carolina (1993)