The beautiful Persephone was the daughter of the earth goddess Demeter.  Demeter taught the people how to plant and how to grow food so that they may live, and helped them in the gathering of their harvests.  For all that Demeter did for the people they loved her dearly as they did her daughter Persephone.

Wherever Persephone would go the birds would sing for all that had the breath of life loved her dearly.  It was said that wherever Persephone was their was light and happiness.  

One day Persephone went to collect flowers by the sea.  She gathered all the flowers she could and made a beautiful wreath that she placed in her long flowing hair.  Persephone then gathered as many flowers as she possibly could in an apron to bring them back to her mother.

Persephone saw a beautiful flower in the distance and decided that she would go and get it.  As she approached the flower she could see that it was the Narcissus flower.  She grasped the flower and tried to pull it out of the ground.  As she pulled the flower an opening in the ground appeared.

The opening in the ground became larger and larger and out of it came Pluto god of the underworld, riding a chariot led by four black horses.  He grabbed Persephone and placed her in the chariot.  Persephone's flowers fell from her apron as Pluto led her into the underworld.

Pluto told Persephone that he had been very lonely in the underworld and he would take her as his wife, offering all his riches and power.  He took her into his palace and she ate in hunger even though she knew that whoever ate in the underworld could never return to the living world.

Persephone wept for her mother as did her mother for her.  Demeter stopped all her tasks in her sadness and lost her beauty becoming a haggard old woman.  The flowers fell from the trees and death had fallen on the world for the first time.  Demeter would no longer help in the planting nor in the harvesting all she would do is weep.

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