Persephone Is in the Underworld During the Summer, Not the Winter

For those of us who live in the northern hemisphere, winter will soon be upon us. The ancient Greek myth of the goddess Persephone, who spends one third of the year in the underworld and the remaining two thirds of the year with her mother Demeter, is a well-known etiological myth (i.e., a myth that explains how things came to be the way they are) for the changing of the seasons.

Most modern people who know the myth of Persephone think that the ancient Greeks believed that she was in the underworld during the winter and with Demeter for the rest of the year. Even many professional classicists think this. I, however, like some other scholars, am convinced that this is incorrect. The surviving ancient sources for the myth are unclear about which part of the year Persephone spends in the underworld and it makes far more sense given everything we know about the ancient Greek agricultural and religious calendars to conclude that the Greeks believed that she was in the underworld during the summer, not the winter.

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter

In ancient Greece, the myth of Demeter and Persephone was the foundation story for the Eleusinian mysteries, which were a set of secret initiations and rituals that took place at the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis, which is located southwest of Athens. The main ancient source for the myth is the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, a Greek narrative hymn in dactylic hexameter verse, which most likely originated out of oral tradition and probably became fixed in something resembling the form in which we know it today sometime in the seventh or sixth century BCE.

In the hymn’s telling of the myth, Persephone is the daughter of Zeus (the king of the gods) and Demeter (the goddess of agricultural fertility). With Zeus’s permission, Hades, the god of the underworld, forcibly abducts Persephone against her will, takes her to the underworld, and forces her to marry him.

Some modern retellings of this myth change Persephone’s agency to make it so that she is in love with Hades and goes to the underworld with him willingly, but, as I discuss in this post I wrote back in February 2020, all the surviving ancient sources for this myth, including both literary accounts of it and artistic depictions, are absolutely emphatic that Hades abducts Persephone against her will.

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter in particular repeatedly emphasizes Persephone’s lack of consent. It describes Hades as riding up in a golden chariot, seizing her, and carrying her away, with her crying and desperately screaming at the top of her lungs for her father to rescue her (Hom. Hymn 2.17–21):

“τῇ ὄρουσεν ἄναξ Πολυδέγμων
ἵπποις ἀθανάτοισι, Κρόνου πολυώνυμος υἱός.
ἁρπάξας δ᾽ ἀέκουσαν ἐπὶ χρυσέοισιν ὄχοισιν
ἦγ᾽ ὀλοφυρομένην: ἰάχησε δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὄρθια φωνῇ,
κεκλομένη πατέρα Κρονίδην ὕπατον καὶ ἄριστον.”

This means, in my own translation:

“The lord Receiver of Many [i.e., Hades] rushed at her
with deathless horses, the many-named son of Kronos.
And he seized the unwilling girl upon his golden chariot
and carried her off as she was crying. And she really screamed things shrill in sound,
calling out for her father, the son of Kronos, the highest and best.”

Zeus, of course, does not rescue Persephone, because he’s the one who gave Hades permission to abduct her in the first place.

ABOVE: Detail of a fresco from Tomb I of the Great Tumulus at Aigai (Vergina) in northern Greece, dating to around 340 BCE, depicting Hades abducting Persephone in a chariot to take her to the underworld, now displayed in the Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai

Zeus and Hades, however, have not informed Persephone’s mother, Demeter, about their arrangement and, when she finds out about it, she is absolutely furious. She causes a terrible famine to strike the whole earth, making it so that no crops can grow and threatening to wipe out all life. Consequently, Zeus orders Hermes, the messenger of the gods, to retrieve Persephone from the underworld and bring her back to her mother.

Before Persephone returns to the world of the living, however, Hades puts a pomegranate seed into her mouth and forces her to swallow it against her will. (The poem again explicitly emphasizes that Hades forces her to do this, despite her not wanting to.) Because of this, Zeus decrees that Persephone must spend one third of each year in the underworld with Hades. During this time, Demeter, mourning for the loss of her beloved daughter, causes the land to be infertile and makes it so that crops cannot grow. Persephone, however, is allowed to return from the underworld and reunite with her mother for the remaining two thirds of the year, during which time Demeter causes the land to be fertile.

In the hymn, Demeter’s mother Rhea explicitly describes this arrangement to Demeter in an attempt to console her, saying to her in lines 460–469:

“δεῦρο τέκος, καλέει σε βαρύκτυπος εὐρύοπα Ζεὺς
ἐλθέμεναι μετὰ φῦλα θεῶν, ὑπέδεκτο δὲ τιμὰς
[δωσέμεν, ἅς κ᾽ ἐθέλῃσθα] μετ᾽ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσι.
[νεῦσε δέ σοι κούρην ἔτεος π]εριτελλομένοιο
[τὴν τριτάτην μὲν μοῖραν ὑπὸ ζόφον ἠ]ερόεντα,
[τὰς δὲ δύω παρὰ σοί τε καὶ ἄλλοις] ἀθανάτοισιν.
[ὣς ἄρ᾽ ἔφη τελέ]εσθαι: ἑῷ δ᾽ ἐπένευσε κάρητι.
[ἀλλ᾽ ἴθι, τέκνον] ἐμόν, καὶ πείθεο, μηδέ τι λίην
ἀ[ζηχὲς μεν]έαινε κελαινεφέι Κρονίωνι.
α[ἶψα δὲ κα]ρπὸν ἄεξε φερέσβιον ἀνθρώποισιν.”

This means, in my own translation:

“Child, loud-thundering wide-eyed Zeus calls you to go forth
among the race of deities, and he promises to give you honors
which you desire among the deathless deities.
And he assures that your daughter will spend one third
of the circling year in the murky gloom below,
but she will spend two [thirds of it] with you and the other deathless ones.
Just so, truly, he was saying that he would fulfill it, and he nodded his head.
But come, my child, and obey, and don’t
be unrelentingly angry with the dark-clouded son of Kronos.
But, straightaway, nourish the life-giving fruit for human beings.”

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter was composed for an audience of ancient Greeks who already knew well which part of the year Persephone must spend in the underworld and which parts of the year she is allowed to return to Mount Olympos and be with her mother. As a result of this, the hymn does not specifically clarify this point. Other surviving ancient Greek accounts of the myth similarly do not specify which part of the year she spends in the underworld and which parts she spends with Demeter.

Most people who live in northern Europe and North America today in the twenty-first century CE are accustomed to the idea that farmers plow their fields in spring, that crops grow over the summer, that farmers harvest their crops in autumn, and that fields are fallow in the winter, since this is the agricultural calendar in the countries where we live today. It is therefore natural for people to assume that winter is the fallow period when Persephone is in the underworld and the rest of the year is when she is with Demeter in heaven.

This calendar, however, is not universal to all cultures in all parts of the world throughout all of human history. Importantly, all surviving evidence suggests that the Greeks of the Archaic and Classical Periods did not follow this calendar.

ABOVE: Side A of an Attic red-figure bell-krater attributed to the Persephone Painter, dating to around 440 BCE depicting Persephone’s return from the underworld and reunion with Demeter, now held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (photo from Met Museum official website)

Seasons in Greece

In order to understand the ancient Greek agricultural calendar, it is important to understand Greece’s seasonal weather patterns. Greece has a Mediterranean climate with four distinct seasons. Winters there are typically chilly and rainy. Daytime temperatures in Athens in the month of January (the coldest month) usually hover around the mid 50s°F (around 12°C) and the average nighttime low is usually somewhere around 45°F (7°C).

Northern mainland Greece experiences light to moderate snowfall in winter most years, but southern mainland Greece and the Greek islands typically only experience snow every few years and, when they do receive it, they usually don’t receive very much.

By around mid-to-late February, thanks to the winter rains, most of Greece is quite verdant. In March, April, and early May, temperatures are cool, rain is relatively common, the grass and plants are green, and wildflowers bloom. One can see this flourishing clearly in photos of ancient sites taken during this time of year; the sites are covered with bright green grass and wildflowers.

ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons showing the ruins of the Library of Hadrian in central Athens on March 26th, 2022. Notice all the lush green grass and flourishing plants.

ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons showing the Pompeion, which is part of the Dipylon Gate archaeological site, in Athens on March 1st, 2021

ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons showing the tholos temple of Athena Pronaia on March 4th, 2015

ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons showing the Lykourgan enclosure wall of the Sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis on April 2nd, 2019

Starting around late May, though, all of this dramatically changes. Summers in Greece are intensely hot and dry. The average daytime temperature of Athens in July (the hottest month) is around 81°F (around 27°C), but the average high temperature is around 90°F (32°C) and temperatures can reach much hotter. This is especially true in recent years due to climate change. On July 22nd of this year, the temperature in Athens reached as high as 108°F (42°C) during the peak afternoon.

Throughout the summer months of June, July, and August, most parts of Greece receive almost no rain and are basically in a state of continual drought. I was in Greece this summer throughout most of the months of June and July, I traveled all over the country, and, during the whole time I was there, it barely rained at all in any of the places I was at. I think it rained maybe two times the entire time I was there in June and not at all for the entire time I was there in July.

Due to the heat and lack of rain, during the summer, in most parts of Greece, only plants that flourish in hot, dry conditions are able to keep growing. By around mid-June, most of the grass in most parts of the country has turned brown. Wildfires are a major concern, especially during the months of July and August, when the heat and drought are at their peak.

ABOVE: Photo I took inside the ruins of the Library of Hadrian in Athens when I was there on July 23rd, 2023 during the height of the summer drought. Notice all the dead, brown grass.

ABOVE: Photo I took through the fence of the Dipylon Gate archaeological site, which is near the Pompeion shown in the photo above, in Athens on July 22nd, 2023

ABOVE: Photo I took of the tholos Temple of Athena Pronaia from above when I was there on July 13th, 2023

ABOVE: Photo I took of the Lykourgan enclosure wall at Eleusis when I was there on June 26th, 2023. Notice that the grass is not completely dead yet, but, if I had gone back a few weeks later, it probably would have been.

Gradually, starting around mid-September, as autumn sweeps in, temperatures become cooler and autumn rains start to fall, alleviating the summer drought and allowing plants to start growing again. Many places in Greece actually become much greener in late September through November than they are in late May through early September, as one can observe in the comparison shots below. Although deciduous trees do lose their leaves and prepare for winter dormancy during this time, many trees in Greece are evergreen and keep their leaves through the whole winter. Thus, as strange as it may sound, autumn in Greece is a time of natural rebirth after the desolation of the dry summer.

ABOVE: Photo I took of the ruins of the gymnasion in the Akademia in Athens when I was there on July 22nd, 2023

ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons that someone else took of the same site from nearly the same angle on September 25th, 2018

ABOVE: Photo I took of the site of Kolonna on Aigina when I was there on July 21st, 2023

ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons that someone else took of the same site from the same perspective on November 17th, 2021

ABOVE: Photo I took at the archaeological site of Kolonna when I was there on July 21st, 2023

ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons showing the same site from the same perspective on November 3rd, 2021

The agricultural year in Archaic Greece

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter originates from the Archaic Period of Greek history, which lasted from around 800 to around 490 BCE. Scholars actually know quite a lot about the agricultural year in Greece during this period because it is a main topic of one of the main surviving works of literature from this period: a didactic poem known as the Works and Days, which, like the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, is in dactylic hexameter and most likely developed out of oral tradition.

The Works and Days most likely became relatively fixed in something resembling the form in which we know it today sometime in the first half of the seventh century BCE, but it probably wasn’t written down in its entirety until around the late sixth century BCE.

The speaker and traditional author of the poem is Hesiodos of Askre, who is most likely a literary persona rather than a historical person. He is an entertainingly colorful (although not entirely likeable) character: a farmer who is shrewd, hardworking, and experienced, but also rather cantankerous, cynical, and bitterly misogynistic. The framing device of the poem is Hesiodos giving over eight hundred lines of unsolicited advice about life and farming to his brother Perses, whom he repeatedly characterizes as a lazy, good-for-nothing scoundrel.

Hesiodos spends a substantial part of the poem’s over eight hundred lines talking about the agricultural year, lecturing Perses about when the proper time to plant crops is and when the proper time to harvest them is. Significantly for our purposes, Hesiodos tells Perses that the proper time to plow and plant grains is in the autumn (WD 448–492) and that the time to harvest them is in the late spring around April or May (WD 571–581). He even specifically tells him that, during the summer months, he should let the grain fields lie fallow (WD 462–464):

“ἦρι πολεῖν: θέρεος δὲ νεωμένη οὔ σ᾽ ἀπατήσει.
νειὸν δὲ σπείρειν ἔτι κουφίζουσαν ἄρουραν:
νειὸς ἀλεξιάρη παίδων εὐκηλήτειρα.”

This means:

“Turn over the soil in spring; summer’s land left fallow will not cheat you.
But sow the fallow land when the soil is still light [i.e., still dry].
Fallow land is a guard against death and a nourisher of children.”

Thus, Hesiodos indicates that the Greek agricultural calendar for grain during the period in which the Homeric Hymn to Demeter was composed was the exact opposite of the agricultural calendar throughout much of the western world in the twenty-first century; for the Archaic Greeks, winter was when the grain was growing and summer was the fallow period.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a bronze portrait head discovered in the Villa of the Papyri in Pompeii, believed to be a fictional representation of the poet Hesiodos

The agricultural year in the Classical Athens

The Greeks did not just follow the calendar Hesiodos describes in the Archaic Period, however; the Greeks of the Classical Period (lasted c. 490 – c. 323 BCE) continued the practice of planting grain in the fall, letting it grow over the winter, and harvesting it in the spring.

In fact, the Athenian philosopher Platon (lived c. 429 – c. 347 BCE) in his philosophical dialogue Phaidros 276b portrays his teacher, the philosopher Sokrates, as invoking the image of a farmer who tries to grow crops in the heat of summer as an archetype of foolish short-sightedness:

“ὁ νοῦν ἔχων γεωργός, ὧν σπερμάτων κήδοιτο καὶ ἔγκαρπα βούλοιτο γενέσθαι, πότερα σπουδῇ ἂν θέρους εἰς Ἀδώνιδος κήπους ἀρῶν χαίροι θεωρῶν καλοὺς ἐν ἡμέραισιν ὀκτὼ γιγνομένους, ἢ ταῦτα μὲν δὴ παιδιᾶς τε καὶ ἑορτῆς χάριν δρῴη ἄν, ὅτε καὶ ποιοῖ: ἐφ᾽ οἷς δὲ ἐσπούδακεν, τῇ γεωργικῇ χρώμενος ἂν τέχνῃ, σπείρας εἰς τὸ προσῆκον, ἀγαπῴη ἂν ἐν ὀγδόῳ μηνὶ ὅσα ἔσπειρεν τέλος λαβόντα;”

This means:

“Would a farmer who has sense plant seeds, which he cares for and wants to bear fruit, in earnest in the heat of summer as gardens of Adonis and rejoice when he sees them become beautiful in eight days? Or would he do these things for the sake of play and amusement, when he even does them? But, when he was in earnest, using the agricultural art, he would plant them in the appropriate place and love it when, in the eighth month, the things which he planted reached completion?”

The underlying assumption of this description is that crops planted in the heat of summer will quickly sprout, but will wither and die soon afterward due to the heat and lack of water.

ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons of a Roman marble portrait head of Sokrates, based on an earlier bronze made by the Greek sculptor Lysippos in the fourth century BCE

The date of the major Athenian festivals of Demeter and Persephone

Further evidence that the ancient Greeks believed that Persephone was in the underworld during the summer, not the winter, comes from the time of year when the Athenians celebrated their major festivals in honor of Demeter and Persephone: the Greater Eleusinian Mysteries and the Thesmophoria.

Athens and Eleusis are both located in a region of Greece known as Attikē or Attica. In antiquity, the people living in this region of Greece used a calendar known as the Attic calendar. Unlike the Roman calendar (which is the calendar used throughout the western world today), which is a strictly solar calendar, the Attic calendar was a lunisolar calendar, similar to the Hebrew calendar, meaning that the months corresponded to the cycle of the moon and therefore sometimes fell at slightly different times over the course of the solar year.

The Greater Eleusinian Mysteries took place at Eleusis from the fourteenth to the twenty-third days of the month of Boēdromiōn, which was the third month of the Attic calendar. This month usually began sometime during the Roman calendar’s month of September and ended sometime during the month of October, although the exact dates would have varied depending on the moon, meaning that the Greater Mysteries would have typically been celebrated around late September or early October.

The second major festival in honor of Demeter and Persephone, the Thesmophoria, took place from the eleventh to the thirteenth days of the month of Pyanepsiōn, which was the fourth month of the Attic calendar. This month usually began sometime in the Roman calendar’s month of October and concluded sometime in the month of November. Thus, the Athenians would have typically celebrated the Thesmophoria in around late October or early November.

If the ancient Greeks believed that Persephone was in the underworld during the winter and that she was reunited with Demeter in the spring, then we would expect them to celebrate the major festivals of Demeter and Persephone in the spring. Instead, both of the major Attic festivals honoring the two goddesses took place in the autumn. This suggests that the people of Attikē regarded the autumn—not the spring—as the time when Persephone returned from the underworld and was reunited with her mother.

ABOVE: Photo from Wikimedia Commons of Side A of the Eleusinian Mysteries Hydria, an Attic red-figure hydria dating to between c. 375 and c. 350 BCE, depicting the reunion of Demeter and Persephone, now held in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon