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Demeter and Persephone

Story summary

As part of a plan to gain control of Hades’ world, Aphrodite orders her son, Eros, to strike Hades with one of his arrows. As soon as he is struck, Hades looks up and sees Persephone, daughter of Demeter, picking flowers. He falls instantly in love with her. Persephone is swallowed by a great crack in the ground. Her mother, Demeter, sees what has happened and confronts Aphrodite over her greed for yet another world. Demeter asks Zeus to give back her child. He tells her the Fates have decreed that Persephone will see the sun again. Demeter threatens to make the world joyless and hopeless if her daughter is not returned to her. They reach a compromise – for half the year Persephone would live on earth with her mother bringing warmth, light and new life. For the other half, she would go to the underworld where she would be loved by the dead for bringing hope with her.