Demeter and Persephone were the goddesses associated with the fertility of nature and humankind.
Legend has it that Persephone, Demeter’s daughter, was kidnapped by Hades and taken to the realm of the dead. Despaired by her disappearance, Demeter managed to get her daughter back, but since she had eaten a pomegranate seed in the underworld, Persephone was eternally condemned to return there.
Furious at this deception, Demeter decreed that Persephone’s journeys would bring about the changing of the seasons: when she was in the kingdom of the living, the earth would flourish; when she was in the kingdom of the dead, nature would fall asleep.
