persephomne:

greek deities and their roman counterparts persephone // proserpina

persephone was the greek goddess of spring and the queen of the underworld. she was the daughter of zeus and the harvest goddess demeter. homer described her as the formidable, venerable majestic princess of the underworld, who carried into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. persephone was abducted by hades, the god-king of the underworld. the myth of her abduction represented her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she was also associated with spring as well as the fertility of vegetation.

proserpina was an ancient roman goddess whose cult, myths and mysteries were based on those of the greek goddess persephone. the romans identified her with their native fertility goddess libera, daughter of the grain and agriculture goddess ceres and wife to liber. in 204 bc, a new “greek-style” cult to ceres and proserpina as “mother and maiden” was imported from southern italy and was installed in ceres’ temple in rome. the new cult and its priesthood were actively promoted by rome’s religious authorities as morally desirable for respectable roman women, and may have partly subsumed the temple’s older, native cult to ceres, liber and libera; but the new rites seems to have functioned alongside the old, rather than replaced them. her name was probably derived from proserpere (“to emerge, to creep forth”), with respect to the growing of grain.