PERSEPHONE (Iltperepdrn), or PERSEPHONEIA. (Tirperscpbtra), called by the Romans PROSERPINA, Wad the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. (Hesiod. Theog.' 913.) She was carried off by Pluto while gathering flowers in the Nysian plain (Homer, ' Hymn in Dernet.;l7),and made the queen of ,the regions of the dead. Demeter, inconsolable for the loss of her daughter, afflicted the world with sterility ; till at length Zeus consented to the return of Persephone to her mother; but as she had eaten food in the regions below, she was obliged to spend one third of the year with Pluto, and was allowed to pass the other two thirds with Demeter. The tale of the rape of Persephone is related at length la the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, and by Ovid and Claudian. The last two writers state that Proserpina was gathering flowers near the city of Enna in Sicily, when she was carried off by Pluto. In Homer, Persephone is mentioned as the goddess of Hades (` Od.,' xi.
217) ; but her rape by Pluto is not mentioned either in the ' Iliad' or ' Odyssey.' Persephone is frequently called Kora (K6pa), that is, the Maiden,' by the Attie writers. This goddess and her mother Demeter were also worshipped under the name of the ' Great Goddesses ' (al seydAai eta, Pausan., viii:31, § 1.) [Thistezzir.] Representations of Persephone are very numerous in Greek art. The most common In pure Greek sculpture are in connection with her mother ; several are mentioned under Demeter. Later she is perhaps most commonly represented as being carried off by Pluto : this was a very favourite type on Graeco-Roman sarcopluagi, referring to the grief caused by the untimely or unexpected carrying away of a beloved one by Death. Sometimes Persephone is seen enthroned beside Pluto. She appears as a younger Demeter, but is of a graver and more severe countenance : the Hem of the lower regions.