Spring in mind

One of the most beautiful legends of Greek mythology telling a tale as to why the seasons change, is the story of Persephone, daughter of Demeter and Zeus with whom the god Hades fell in love with and kidnapped to the Underworld. According to the  myth, Demeter, the goddess of fruitfulness and fertility who was responsible for the good harvest and prosperity of nature, had gave birth to Persephone with the god Zeus.

But one day, the young woman was picking flowers along with the goddess Athena, Artemis and the Oceanids nymphs, when suddenly the Earth opened and Hades appeared with his dark chariot and grabbed her before anyone could come to her rescue. Her screams were only heard by Hecate and the Sun. After losing her daughter, Demeter, consumed with rage and sorrow, demonstrated her anger by punishing the earth’s inhabitants with bitter cold and blustering winds. Unless Persephone was returned to her mother’s side, the earth would perish.

 Persephone, after much protest, came to love the cold blooded king of the underworld and Hades was reluctant to part from his beloved. He agreed on a settlement according to which Persephone would spend eight months of the year on earth with her mother and the remaining four months in the Underworld with Hades. On the 10.509 line of Odyssey , homer mentions

“When giving Odysseus instructions on how to find the entrance to the Underworld, Kirke  told him to look for the Groves of Persephone with willows and poplars growing near the shore of Okeanos"

Demeter never quite reconciled herself to this decision and so, each year when Persephone must depart for the Underworld for her three- month stay Demeter again lets nature figuratively “die” for the three months we know as winter. When Persephone returns from the land of the dead, nature is reborn and Persephone is hailed as the goddess of Spring.

The Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated at Eleusis and centered around the tale of Persephone and nature being rescued from the Underworld by Demeter. These Mysteries were exclusively for women the way that various dead and resurrected male deities became the central figure of Mysteries reserved exclusively for men.