As a chthonian divinity she is accompanied by a snake; the myrtle, asphodel and narcissus (which Persephone was gathering when carried off by Hades) also are sacred to her.
At the same time the cult of Dionysus and Persephone (see LIBER AND LIBERA) was introduced.
It is at least remarkable that, except at Argos, Hera had little to do with agriculture, and was not closely associated with such deities as Cybele, Demeter, Persephone and Dionysus, whose connexion with the earth, or with its fruits, is beyond doubt.
Here are the grove of Persephone and the entrance of the underworld.
Forster, Der Raub and die Riickkehr der Persephone (1874), in which considerable space is devoted to the representations of the myth in art; W.
It was the last flower gathered by Persephone before she was carried off by Hades, and was sacred to Demeter and Core (the cult name of Persephone), the great goddesses of the underworld.
Those who were initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis found a deep meaning in the myth, which was held to teach the principle of a future life, founded on the return of Persephone to the upper world, or rather on the process of nature by which seed sown in the ground must first die and rot before it can yield new life (see Mystery).
According to this view, the prototypes of Demeter and Persephone are the corn-mother and harvest maiden of northern Europe, the corn-fetishes of the field (Frazer, Golden Bough, 2nd ed., ii.
Preller, Demeter and Persephone (1837); P. R.
Various religious innovations were made to propitiate the gods; in 496 the Greek worship of Demeter, Dionysus and Persephone was established in the city, and in 495 the Greek god Hermes was introduced into Rome under the Italian name of Mercurius (Livy ii.