Terracotta fragment of a votive relief
Hades abducting Persephone
When Hades, the god of the underworld, carried Persephone to his kingdom of the dead, Demeter, her mother, brought all growth on earth to a standstill until Persephone was allowed to return to the earth for part of each year. Since antiquity, this myth has been understood as an allegory for the seasonal cycle of vegetation.
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