Editing Persephone (section)

==== Variations ====
[[File:Head of Persephone. Earthenware. From Sicily, Centuripae, c. 420 BCE. The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, UK.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Head of Persephone. Earthenware. From Sicily, Centuripae, {{circa|420&nbsp;BC.}} The [[Burrell Collection]], Glasgow, UK]]

According to the Greek tradition a hunt-goddess preceded the harvest goddess.<ref>{{harvnb|Pausanias|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D30%3Asection%3D2 2.30.2]}}</ref> In [[Arcadia (region)|Arcadia]], Demeter and Persephone were often called ''Despoinai'' ({{lang|grc|Δέσποιναι}}, "the mistresses"). They are the two Great Goddesses of the Arcadian cults, and evidently they come from a more primitive religion.<ref name="Nilsson463" /> The Greek god [[Poseidon]] probably substituted for the companion (''Paredros'', {{lang|grc|Πάρεδρος}}) of the [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] [[Mother goddess|Great goddess]]<ref>{{harvnb|Nilsson |1967|p= 444}}</ref> in the Arcadian mysteries. In the Arcadian mythos, while Demeter was looking for the kidnapped Persephone, she caught the eye of her younger brother Poseidon. Demeter turned into a mare to escape him, but then Poseidon turned into a stallion to pursue her. He caught her and raped her. Afterwards, Demeter gave birth to the talking horse [[Arion (mythology)|Arion]] and the goddess [[Despoina]] ("the mistress"), a goddess of the Arcadian mysteries.<ref>{{harvnb|Pausanias|loc=[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Paus.+8.25.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 8.25.5] –[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D25%3Asection%3D7 8.25.7]}}</ref>

In the [[Orphism (religion)|Orphic]] "Rhapsodic Theogony" (first century BC/AD),<ref>{{harvnb|Meisner  |2018|pp=1, 5}}</ref> Persephone is described as the daughter of [[Zeus]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]]. Zeus was filled with desire for his mother, Rhea, intending to marry her. He pursued the unwilling Rhea, only for her to change into a serpent.[[File:Dionysos and Cora-Hermitage.jpg|thumb|220px|Persephone and Dionysos. Roman copy after a Greek original of the 4th–3rd century B.C. marble, [[Hermitage Museum|Hermitage]]]]

Zeus also turned himself into a serpent and raped Rhea, which resulted in the birth of Persephone.<ref name=":meis">{{harvnb|Meisner  |2018|p=134}}</ref> Afterwards, Rhea became [[Demeter]].<ref>[[Proclus]], ''Commentary on Plato's Cratylus'' 403 e (90, 28 Pasqu.) {{harvnb|Kern |1922| page=145}}; {{harvnb|West|1983|p=217}}; {{harvnb|Kerenyi|1976|p=112}}. Demeter was usually said to be the daughter of [[Cronus]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]].</ref> Persephone was born so deformed that Rhea ran away from her frightened, and did not breastfeed Persephone.<ref name=":meis"/> Zeus then mates with Persephone, who gives birth to [[Dionysus]]. She later stays in her mother's house, guarded by the [[Korybantes|Curetes]]. Rhea-Demeter prophecies that Persephone will marry [[Apollo]].

This prophecy does not come true, however, as while weaving a dress, Persephone is abducted by [[Hades]] to be his bride. She becomes the mother of the [[Erinyes]] by Hades.<ref>{{harvnb|West|1983|pp=73–74}}</ref> In [[Nonnus]]'s ''[[Dionysiaca]]'', the gods of Olympus were bewitched by Persephone's beauty and desired her. 

[[Hermes]], [[Apollo]], [[Ares]], and [[Hephaestus]] each presented Persephone with a gift to woo her. Demeter, worried that Persephone might end up marrying Hephaestus, consults the [[Astrology|astrological]] god [[Astraeus]]. Astraeus warns her that Persephone will be ravished and impregnated by a serpent. Demeter then hides Persephone in a cave; but Zeus, in the form of a serpent, enters the cave and rapes Persephone. Persephone becomes pregnant and gives birth to [[Zagreus]].<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/208/mode/2up?view=theater 5.563]&ndash;[https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/225/mode/2up?view=theater 6.165]</ref>

It was said that while Persephone was playing with the nymph Hercyna, Hercyna held a goose against her that she let loose. The goose flew to a hollow cave and hid under a stone; when Persephone took up the stone in order to retrieve the bird, water flowed from that spot, and hence the river received the name Hercyna.<ref>{{harvnb|Pausanias|loc= [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D9%3Achapter%3D39%3Asection%3D2 9.39.2]}}</ref> This was when she was abducted by Hades according to Boeotian legend; a vase shows water birds accompany the goddesses Demeter and Hecate who are in search of the missing Persephone.<ref>{{cite book |title = The Mysteries | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=qMP1-m1cTMMC&pg=PA54 54] |last1 = Campbell | first1 = Joseph | publisher= [[Princeton University Press]]| date= 1955| isbn =0-691-01823-5}}</ref>