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~ PERSEPHONE ~

Queen of the Underworld, "Destroyer", and Kore were all personae of Persephone, who represents the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess Demeter. The myth of these Goddesses is so intertwined that they were often confused and came to be considered the same Goddess. As the fable is most well known, Pluto abducts Persephone to rule with him in the underworld, however this was a later invention. She was Queen of the Underworld long before there was a masculine counterpart.

Orphic mystics worshipped her as Goddess of the blessed dead, to whom they addressed formula prayers: "And now I come a suppliant to the Holy Persephone, that of her grace she received me to the seats of the Hallowed." Persephone replied, "Happy and blessed one, thou shalt be god instead of mortal." She kept the keys to both heaven and hell, or Elysium and Tartarus.

She was considerably older than the Eleusinian myth of classical writings, which told of her descent into the underworld and her annual return to the earth each spring. Persephone was really another name for Hecate, or Hel. It may be that the origin of PersephoneÕs name came from the Etruscan name, Persipnei. Romans called her Proserpine. It was under this name that she passed into Christian tradition as a Queen of She-Demons, however, She was the Death-Goddess from the beginning.