Description

Set of Persephone Goddess and Pluto Hades Lord of the Underworld Statue

Persephone:
Height: 11.8 inches (30 cm)
Width: 4.4 inches (11.17 cm)
Depth: 3.8 inches (9.65 cm)
Weight: 1.85 lbs (842 gr)

Pluto Hades:
Height: 9.4 inches (24 cm)
Width: 6.5 inches (16.5 cm)
Depth: 4.5 inches (11.43 cm)
Weight: 2.02 lbs (919 gr)

In Greek mythology, Persephone (/pərˈsɛfəni/, per-SEH-fə-nee; Greek: Περσεφόνη), also called Kore (/ˈkɔəriː/; “the maiden”) or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess Demeter and is the queen of the underworld. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic princess of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. Persephone was married to Hades, the god-king of the underworld.[1] The myth of her abduction represents her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she is also associated with spring as well as the fertility of vegetation. Similar myths appear in the Orient, in the cults of male gods like Attis, Adonis, and Osiris, and in Minoan Crete.

Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon and promised the initiated a more enjoyable prospect after death. Persephone is further said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus, Iacchus, or Zagreus, usually in orphic tradition. The origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on very old agrarian cults of agricultural communities.

Persephone was commonly worshiped along with Demeter and with the same mysteries. To her alone were dedicated the mysteries celebrated at Athens in the month of Anthesterion. In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades.

In Roman mythology, she is called Proserpina, and her mother, Ceres.

Greek God of the Dead and King of the Underworld

Hades was the god of the underworld and the name eventually came to also describe the home of the dead as well. He was the oldest male child of CRONUS and Rhea.

Hades and his brothers ZEUS and POSEIDON defeated their father and the TITANS to end their reign, claiming rulership over the cosmos. They agreed to split their rule with Zeus becoming god of the skies, Poseidon god of the sea and Hades god of the underworld.

He was later known to the Greeks as Plouton, which the ROMANS pluralized to Pluto. The god of the underworld was married to PERSEPHONE, the daughter of DEMETER, whom he obtained through deception after abducting her to the underworld and giving her the forbidden fruit pomegranate, forcing her to remain in the underworld with him for one third of each year.