Editing Persephone (section)

== Titles and functions ==
The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as [[chthonic]] and vegetation goddess. The surnames given to her by the poets refer to her role as queen of the lower world and the dead and to the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. Her common name as a vegetation goddess is Kore, and in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]] she was worshipped under the title [[Despoina]], "the mistress", a very old chthonic divinity,<ref name="SmithPersephone" /> title also used as the name given to her half-sister who she's been conflated with in later times. [[Günther Zuntz]] considers "Persephone" and "Kore" as distinct deities and writes that "no farmer prayed for corn to Persephone; no mourner thought of the dead as being with Kore." Ancient Greek writers were however not as consistent as Zuntz claims.{{sfn|Bennett|Paul|Iozzo|White|2002|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=R7PP3wNr4zMC&pg=PA83 83]}}

=== Goddess of spring and nature ===
[[Plutarch]] writes that Persephone was identified with the spring season,<ref>Plutarch, ''[[Moralia]]'' ([https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Isis_and_Osiris*/E.html ''On Isis and Osiris'', Ch. 69] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210100801/http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Isis_and_Osiris*/E.html |date=10 February 2023}})</ref> and [[Cicero]] calls her the seed of the fruits of the fields. In the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]], her return from the underworld each spring is a symbol of immortality, and she was frequently represented on [[sarcophagi]].

In the religions of the [[Orphism (religion)|Orphics]] and the [[Platonism|Platonists]], Kore is described as the all-pervading goddess of nature<ref>''Orphic Hymn'' 29.16</ref> who both produces and destroys everything, and she is therefore mentioned along with or identified as other such divinities including [[Isis]], [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]], [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], [[Demeter]], [[Hestia]], [[Pandora]], [[Artemis]], and [[Hecate]].<ref>Schol. ad. Theocritus 2.12</ref> In the Orphic tradition, Persephone is said to be the daughter of Zeus and his mother Rhea, who became Demeter after her seduction by her son.<ref>{{harvnb|Kern|1922|loc=[https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/16/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 58]}}; [=[[Athenagoras of Athens|Athenagoras]], ''[[Athenagoras of Athens#Legatio Pro Christianis|Legatio Pro Christianis]]'' 20.2]; {{harvnb|West|1983|p=73}}; {{harvnb|Meisner|2018|loc=https://books.google.com/books?id=ethjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 134]}}.</ref> The Orphic Persephone is said to have become by [[Zeus]] the mother of [[Dionysus]] / [[Iacchus]] / [[Zagreus]],<ref name="SmithPersephone" /> and the little-attested [[Melinoe]].{{efn|In the ''Hymn to Melinoe'', where the father is ''Zeus Chthonios'', either Zeus in his chthonic aspect, or [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]].<ref name="Edmonds-2011">{{harvnb|Edmonds III|2011|p=100}}</ref>}}

=== Queen of the underworld ===
In mythology and literature she is often called dread(ed) Persephone, and queen of the underworld, within which tradition it was forbidden to speak her name. This tradition comes from her conflation with the very old chthonic divinity Despoina ("[the] mistress"), whose real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated into her mysteries.<ref>{{harvnb|Pausanias|loc=[https://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias8C.html#5 Book 8, Ch. 37, sect. 9] }}</ref> As goddess of death, she was also called a daughter of Zeus and [[Styx]],<ref>{{harvnb|Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheca''|loc=[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.3.1 1.3.1]}}</ref> the river that formed the boundary between Earth and the underworld. In [[Homer]]'s epics, she appears always together with [[Hades]] in the underworld, apparently sharing with Hades control over the dead.<ref>{{harvnb|Gantz|1996|p=64}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Homer, ''Odyssey''||loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+10.491&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136 ''Book 10'', ln. 494]}}.</ref> In Homer's ''[[Odyssey]]'', Odysseus encounters the "dread Persephone" in [[Tartarus]] when he visits his dead mother. Odysseus sacrifices a ram to the chthonic goddess Persephone and the ghosts of the dead, who drink the blood of the sacrificed animal. In the reformulation of Greek mythology expressed in the ''[[Orphic Hymns]]'', Dionysus and Melinoë are separately called children of Zeus and Persephone.<ref>''Orphic Hymn 26'', ''71''</ref> Groves sacred to her stood at the western extremity of the earth on the frontiers of the lower world, which itself was called "house of Persephone".<ref>{{harvnb|Homer, ''Odyssey''||loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+10.491&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136 Book 10, ln. 491, ln. 509]}}</ref>

Her central myth served as the context for the secret rites of regeneration at Eleusis,<ref>{{harvnb|Kerenyi|1967|loc=passim}}</ref> which promised immortality to initiates.

=== Nestis ===
In a [[classical Greek|Classical period text]] ascribed to [[Empedocles]], {{circa|490–430&nbsp;BC,}}{{efn|Empedocles was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher who was a citizen of [[Agrigentum]], a Greek colony in [[Sicily]].}} describing a correspondence among four deities and the [[classical element]]s, the name ''Nestis'' for water apparently refers to Persephone:
: "Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: Enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus, and Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears."<ref>{{harvnb|Kingsley|1995}} {{pages needed|date=December 2024}}</ref>

Of the four deities of Empedocles' elements, it is the name of Persephone alone that is [[taboo]] – ''Nestis'' is a euphemistic cult title{{efn|Kingsley 1995 identifies ''Nestis'' as a cult title of Persephone.}} – for she was also the terrible Queen of the Dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was [[euphemism|euphemistically]] named simply as ''Kore'' or "the Maiden", a vestige of her archaic role as the deity ruling the underworld. ''Nestis'' means "the Fasting One" in ancient Greek.<ref>{{cite web |title=Nestis Meaning in Bible - New Testament Greek Lexicon (KJV) |url=https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/kjv/nestis.html |publisher=Bible Study Tools |website=biblestudytools.com |access-date=19 March 2023}}</ref>

=== Epithets ===
:''See [[:Category:Epithets of Demeter]]''
[[File:Lycosoura-group.jpg|thumb|right|340px|From L-R, Artemis, Demeter, Veil of Despoina, Anytus, Tritoness from the throne of [[Despoina]] at [[Lycosura]]. [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens]]]]As a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically friendly names.<ref name="Rhode206">{{harvnb|Rohde|1961|loc=''Psyche'' I, pp. 206–210}}</ref> However, it is possible that some of them were the names of original goddesses:
* '''[[Despoina]]''' (''dems-potnia'') "the mistress" (literally "the mistress of the house") in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].
* '''Hagne''', "pure", originally a goddess of the springs in [[Messenia]].<ref name="auto">{{harvnb|Nilsson |1967|pp= 478–480}}</ref>
* '''Melindia''' or '''Melinoia''' (meli, "honey"), as the consort of [[Hades]], in Hermione. (Compare [[Hecate]], [[Melinoe|Melinoë]])<ref name="Rhode206" />
* '''Malivina'''<ref name="Rhode206" />
* '''Melitodes'''<ref name="Rhode206" />
* '''Aristi cthonia''', "the best [[chthonic]]".<ref name="Rhode206" />
* '''[[Praxidike]]''', the [[Orphic]] Hymn to Persephone identifies Praxidike as an [[epithet]] of Persephone: "Praxidike, subterranean queen. The [[Erinyes|Eumenides]]' source [mother], fair-haired, whose frame proceeds from Zeus' ineffable and secret seeds."<ref>[[Orphic]] Hymn 29 to Persephone</ref>
As a vegetation goddess, she was called:<ref name="auto" /><ref name="Nilsson463">{{harvnb|Nilsson |1967|pp=  463–466}}</ref>
* '''[[Auxesia (Greek mythology)|Auxesia]]''', as the goddess who grants growth and prosperity to the fields.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|1873|loc= [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D57%3Aentry%3Dauxesia-bio-1 Auxesia]}}</ref>
* '''[[Azesia]]''', similar epithet of a growth and harvest nature
* '''Kore''', "the maiden".
* '''Kore Soteira''', "the savior maiden", in [[Megalopolis, Greece|Megalopolis]].
* '''Neotera''', "the younger", in [[Eleusis]].
* '''Kore of Demeter Hagne''' in the [[Homeric hymn]].
* '''Kore memagmeni''', "the mixed daughter" (bread).

[[Demeter]] and her daughter '''Persephone''' were usually called:<ref name="Nilsson463" /><ref name="Nilsson478" />
* '''The goddesses''', often distinguished as "the older" and "the younger" in [[Eleusis]].
* '''Demeters''', in [[Rhodes]] and [[Sparta]]
* '''The thesmophoroi''', "the legislators" in the [[Thesmophoria]].
* '''The Great Goddesses''', in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].
* '''The mistresses''' in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].<ref name="Pausanias515">{{harvnb|Pausanias|loc= 5.15.4, 5, 6}}</ref>
* '''Karpophoroi''', "the bringers of fruit", in [[Tegea]] of Arcadia.