Persephone's Bio

Hello. I am Persephone, queen of the Underworld. I am the daughter of Demeter and Zeus and I became Hades’s wife after he kidnapped me. My mother loved me very much and always hid me when Hermes, Ares, Apollo, and Hephaestus tried to bring me gifts. She was terribly devastated when Hades kidnapped me and brought me to the Underworld, and she is too busy looking for me to care for life on Earth. Zeus eventually forced Hades to return me to my mother, but Hades tricked me into eating a magic pomegranate seed. Because I ate this seed, I have to return to the Underworld for one-third of the year every year, and stay on Earth with my mother for the other two-thirds of the year. My mother is still very upset when I leave her and the Earth is bare during my time in the Underworld.

Hades and I are the only rulers of the Underworld. While people tend to fear Hades more than they fear me, I am known as the Queen of the Dead. Many believed it was not safe to say my name aloud, so they commonly called me “the Maiden” or “the Iron Queen”. I was known to show no mercy over the dead, and only once did I make an exception to this. After I was married, I was still the object of much affection. When Pirithous pursued me, Hades made snakes coil around his legs to keep him seated forever! Even though Hades had kidnapped me, I still got jealous when he went after a nymph, so I turned her into a mint plant. My abduction story is looked at with sadness, but my life as queen of the Underworld is fearsome. I am mentioned in many stories about death, but never showed sympathy, except in the form of a deal with Orpheus.