Michelle Cameron 1

Dr. Wasdin
Section 0109
Visual analysis
Persephone’s Elusive Spring

Introduction
Persephone is the Greek goddess of spring and fertility, born from Zues and Demeter.

Unlike her mother Demeter, who takes a more maternal form in being the goddess of fertility and

harvest, Persephone is associated with a naivety often seen in teenage girls or young women.

Physically and mentally smaller than her mother in this sense, Persephone is described as

Demeter’s “slim-ankled daughter” in the Homeric hymn to Demeter (Trzaskoma 170).

Analogous to her interest, the world stood in awe at how Persephone “bloomed” like a flower

(Trzaskoma 170). Her tragedy is the fragility of her ethereal state of spring-like, flowery beauty:

Wandering around a garden on one day, Persephone was plucked like a petal by Hades, the

fleetingness of spring represented in the goddess’s abduction. This exhibit aims to visually

chronicle the Goddess of spring and fertility’s story and symbols to further explore what she

represented.

Image 1: Obverse, the ascension of Persephone from the underworld.

The vase is a bowl for the mixture of wine and water, fittingly with handles on each side

and a wide, semi-spherical form. Suggested by the title, the vase is a “grandiose representation”

of Persephone’s rise from the underworld to meet her mother Demeter (Persephone Painter). For

half of each year Persephone is banished by Zues and Hades as a “gift” from the former to take

in eternal marriage in the underworld, to her mother’s dismay (Trzaskoma 170). Upon her

daughter suddenly taken, Demeter felt a “sharp pain” in her heart after Hades “drove her

weeping off her golden chariot” (Trzaskoma 170). In some versions, Persephone was poisoned,

while in other such as the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hades more vaguely snatched Persephone

when Demeter was about to take her daughter into her arms.
 Demeter’s motivations grew after she manipulated the people at Eleusis to create a

temple and sacrifice in her name, first in disguise and then allowing them to behold her presence

(Trzaskoma 175). Demeter starved the lands, withdrawing the fertility in harvests in her “desire”

for Persephone; in this time she caused “dread and terrible of years” in memory (Trzaskoma

175). Using this as leverage Demeter pleaded to Zeus to get her daughter back, and hence the

compromise on the vase came to be: Persephone is kneeling on the left, rising from the rocky

hearth in long robes, overseen by the escort God Hermes, as well as Hecate and Demeter on the

far right. Hecate’s presence on the vase is notable as she is the moon goddess, representing magic

and dark things; the invocation of Persephone from the underworld and the agreement is a dark

story for all three gods. As Hecate lights the path up to the mortal world, Demeter begins the

“renewal of life” which her daughter’s presence creates (Persephone Painter).

Demeter’s majesty is personified in the large staff she holds, in contrast both to

Persephone’s shorter stature and the youthful tiara she wears (Persephone Painter). The transfer

to the mortal world being such an operation, with all three other gods watching as Persephone

rises from the earth in the vase is a remark on Persephone’s remaining naivety which limits her

power in comparison to those next to her (Persephone Painter).

Demeter’s sorrow at her daughter, the goddess of spring’s absence is what was said to

have caused the winter cold, dryness, and the infertile soil, shown by the vase’s rocky ground

surface under Persephone. The black background of the vase could be a comment on the veil of

darkness brought over the land when Persephone is absent (Persephone Painter). Demeter’s

power to create harvest is deprived by Persephone’s hiatus every year, representing the need for a

new bloom every year in spring.

Image 2: Figure 2. red-figured amphora with cover: Hades, Persephone and Hermes;

below, Eros and woman. On the other side, offerings at stele.

The second vase is an amphora, which can hold olive oil or wine, interpreting Persephone

and Hades’ life together in the underworld, while also serving partially as a tribute to the spring

goddess. The top third of the container again draws on youthful symbols to depict the goddess

Persephone: Again wearing a tiara, along with earrings, a necklace, and neckline embellishments

on her robes, the extravagance is a symbol of Persephone’s outward beauty which ultimately

contributed to her abduction. Persephone’s head is surrounded by large blooming flowers and

branches, with swirly artful patterns. Persephone herself seems to bloom here, instead of breasts

having a flower-shaped structure her neckline manifests out of.

The center of the amphora beholds Hades on a thrown with Persephone standing before

him. She holds a wreath, which could be used to symbolize victory. The flowers or plants

making up the wreath could be a promise of commitment Persephone shows towards her

husband Hades. A sword and helmet float between the two, above a container Hades holds (The

Patera Painter). The fully clothed Persephone and Hades in duality with the figure on the far

right, as well as Aphrodite pictured on the bottom of the vase suggests the forced courtship

which resulted form an arrangement between Zeus and Hades and subsequent abduction by the

latter.

The sword, helmet, and the wreath which the two divinities have between them are all

symbols of victory and a fight, which suggests some underworld dilemma solved by the couple,

or one is about to put the fighting clothing on, more likely Hades.

Compared to the first vase, Persephone appears more regal as she rules over the

underworld as Hades’ consort, while she remains the shadow of her mother Demeter in the
mortal realm (Persephone Painter). Persephone’s dynamic role as a major goddess in the

underworld but merely the daughter of her more important mother and Zeus in the mortal world

brings question to the narrative that Persephone gained nothing from living in the underworld:

The freedom she gained turned her into a more powerful goddess without the vessel of her

mother’s overprotectiveness to stop her. The abduction was tragic for Demeter, but Persephone’s

perspective was left undiscussed in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, who’s motherly love might

have been too overbearing to a point where her daughter was taken away in retaliation.

Image 3: Initiation of Heracles and the Dioscuri into the lesser mysteries at Agrae (or

Eleusis).

The bell krater was used for mixing wine and water. As the title suggests, the bell krater

is an interpretation of Heracles’ and Dioscuri’s initiations into the mysteries at Eleusis. As

formerly stated, the temple at Eleusis was the result of Demeter’s coaxing into creating a place of

more sacrifice for her, which in turn gave her the motivation to get Persephone into the mortal

world for six months of the year.

Demeter’s divinity was witnessed by mortals, which caused them to make a temple about

the fateful story of Persephone, Hades, and Demeter. Heracles holds a torch on the vase’s left

(Pourtalès Painter). The Greek Hero appears small next to Persephone’s great form. Persephone’s

divinity is further portrayed by her bright, white skin in contrast to nearly every other figure in

the painting, upholding the idea that this temple is a place of worship for her (Pourtalès Painter).

Demeter told her mysteries at Eleusis to “Triptolemos, Polyxeinos, and Diocles” who

appear to surround her in the figure (Trzaskoma 176). Heracles looks back and up, likely gaining

some spiritual experience from his initiation. The black background and wandering columns

painted in the background of the painting once again symbolize the darkness, magic, and mystery
surrounding the temple and the exact experience which initiates go through: There is a novelty to

the myth surrounding Persephone and Demeter because it is a unique one playing into questions

of fate, mortality, as well as familial issues.

Conclusion

Persephone, a young goddess considered minor under Demeter’s maternal shadow, turned

into the queen of the underworld after a happenstance abduction by Hades. The vases portray

aspects of this myth: Demeter awaiting her daughter’s return on the earth’s rocky winter hearth in

anticipation of resulting spring, Persephone’s comparative mightiness in the underworld in

reflection to her suppressed power in the mortal one, and the powerful legacy of Persephone’s

fatal myth which affected philosophers as well as heroes like Heracles. Persephone’s persona

upholds the worldview that without darkness there cannot be a light spring bloom, that gods

have a dark side, and that immoral actions can lead to both pros and cons.
 Appendix

Figure 1.Obverse, the ascension of Persephone from the underworld. (Persephone Painter)
Figure 2. red-figured amphora with cover: Hades, Persephone and Hermes; below, Eros and
woman. On the other side, offerings at stele. (The Patera Painter)
Figure 3. Initiation of Heracles and the Dioscuri into the lesser mysteries at Agrae (or Eleusis).
(Pourtalès Painter)
 Works Cited

Patera Painter. The British Museum,

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1867-0508-1334. Accessed 27
Sept. 2022.

Persephone Painter. Terracotta Bell-Krater (Bowl for Mixing Wine and Water) Obverse, the
ascension of Persephone from the underworld. Reverse, libation scene, New York
City, 44n.d., https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/252973. Accessed
24 Sept. 2022.

Pourtalès Painter. The British Museum,

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1865-0103-14. Accessed 28
Sept. 2022.

Trzaskoma, Stephen, et al. Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation,

Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, Indianapolis ; Cambridge, 2016.