Editorial: The Return of Persephone

Dear readers,

While there is no sign from nature that Autumn is coming in Singapore, we are still excited to have this "Special Autumn" week we're having! While we're on the topic, let's discuss how autumn originally came about.

In Greek Mythology, the daughter of the sky and thunder god, Zeus, and the harvest goddess Demeter, Persephone is the queen of the underworld. Also known as Kore, Persephone was exceptionally beautiful which led her to be abducted by the underworld-god Hades, one day while she was collecting flowers from a field. In the haste to find her daughter, Demeter searched all over the earth with Hectate’s torch. In the depth of her despair, she forbids earth to produce causing absolutely nothing to grow!

Helios, the sun, who saw everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened. Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone.

Hades agreed however, he tricked Persephone to eat pomegranate seeds and because she tasted food in the underworld, she was obliged to spend a third of each year (the winter months) there, and the remaining part of the year with the gods above. At the beginning of the autumn, when the seeds of the old crop are laid on the fields, Kore ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter, for at that time the old crop and the new meet each other. For the initiated, this union was the symbol of the eternity of human life that flows from the generations which spring from each other.

Hence, the arrival of Persephone bring with itself happiness creating Spring and her return to the underworld bringing great sorrow indicating the commencement of autumn, the season often associated with melancholia.

So now that you know the history of the ultimate autumn celebration, I'd like to invite you to read all of our articles that we have specially made for you!

Happy Autumn!

Aditi Srivastava

Senior Writer

Cover Photo: Syaza Sophie