Persephone, daughter of Demeter (goddess of the harvest), was a maiden of spring and light.

One day, while gathering narcissus flowers, she was abducted by Hades, god of the underworld, who had fallen in love with her. In her grief, Demeter let the earth wither, refusing to let anything grow until her daughter was returned.

Eventually, a deal was struck: Persephone would return to the surface for part of the year, but because she had eaten a few seeds of the pomegranate in the underworld, she was bound to return to Hades for a season each year. Her time above brought spring and summer; her descent ushered in autumn and winter.

Thus, Persephone became a symbol of duality—life and death, light and shadow, innocence and power.​​ She is the bridge between worlds—the bloom and the bite, the maiden and the monarch. Her story is one of transformation, power, and eternal return.