Editing Persephone (section)

=== 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>}}