Aidonian's blog

Persephone, Daughter of Zeus, blessed
Only begotten, gracious Goddess, receive this good offering,
Much honoured, you, overpowered by Pluto, you are beloved and lifegiving,
You hold the doors of Hades under the depths of the earth;
Transactor of Justice, your beloved hair the sacred olive branch of the enemy
Mother of the Eumenides, Queen of the Underworld, You, maiden from Zeus through secret begetting.

Mother of loud-shouting, many-shaped Bacchus.
Playmate of the moving seasons, lightbringing, of beautiful form,
Holy, ruler of all, maiden, showering fruits,
Radiant, horned, you alone are longed for by mortals.
You are Spring, delighting in fragrant meadows
Your sacred body appears to us in growing fruits and branches.

Raped into your marriage bed in the late autumn
You alone are life and death to distressed mortals.
Persephone. You are forever the nourisher and the death bringer.

Listen, blessed Goddess and send up fruits from the earth
In peace, flourishing in health from your soothing hand;
And, in life abundance, leading to richness of old age
Then to your realm O Sovereign, and to powerful Pluto.

Translated. A. P.Long.

Mother of Eumenides

This hymn makes mention of the abduction of Kore by Plouton which turned her into Persephone and that Persephone is the mother of both the Eumenides (the Erinyes/Furies) and Zagreos/Bakkhos. Most sources list the Erinyes or Euemenides as they were called to appease Them, as daughters of Nyx. It is not uncommon for this to happen as it would tie the Erinyes to the dynasty of Zeus. Although other sources list that the Erinyes came into being when Kronos castrated his divine Father Ouranos and when the blood splashed unto the Earth, the Erinyes were born from it.

Mother of Zagreos/Bakkhos

Persephone being the mother of Bakkhos is not uncommon. Many Orphici list Persephone as the mother of Zagreos, one incarnation of Dionysos. As Sannion pointed out, there were people who thought that there were at least 5 different Dionysi. In itself it is weird and i wonder how the ancient Romans and Hellenes merged this with the rest of their beliefs. In that sense, Dionysos is a very unique and strange deity.

The rest of the hymn is talking about Her association with life and death and her place within the seasons. When Persephone descends into the Hades to take up Her mantle as Queen of Hades, fall and winter descens upon the Earth and during spring, when Persephone leaves Hades to join Her divine mother Demeter, life returns to the Earth. The hymn makes mention that Persephone softens Plouton’s resolve who can be very strict. It was mostly because of Her that Orpheos was allowed to bring his wife Eurydike back to the living again, but Plouton put in a safeguard to state that throughout the whole journey Orpheos could not look back. When he almost arrived at the entrance of Hades, he couldn’t resist himself and looked back and saw his wife being dragged back.

Persephone is also called Despoina, Kore, Thea (in Eleusis), Proserpina by the Romans, but these are just names of the same Goddess, and not other Persephone’s like with Dionysos.