84-453: Corey is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a masculine version of name Cora, which has Greek origins and is the maiden name of the goddess Persephone . The name also can have origins from the Gaelic word coire , which means "in a cauldron" or "in a hollow". As a surname, it has a number of possible derivations, including an Old Norse personal name Kori of uncertain meaning, which
168-463: A boar; Aphrodite descended into the Underworld to take him back. But Persephone, smitten with him, would not let him go until they came to an agreement that Adonis would alternate between the land of the living and the land of the dead each year. After a plague hit Aonia , its people asked the oracle of Apollo Gortynius, and they were told they needed to appease the anger of the king and queen of
252-419: A serpent. Demeter then hides Persephone in a cave; but Zeus, in the form of a serpent, enters the cave and rapes Persephone. Persephone becomes pregnant and gives birth to Zagreus . It was said that while Persephone was playing with the nymph Hercyna, Hercyna held a goose against her that she let loose. The goose flew to a hollow cave and hid under a stone; when Persephone took up the stone in order to retrieve
336-409: Is reborn with the exhumation and spreading of the grain. Bruce Lincoln argues that the myth is a description of the loss of Persephone's virginity, where her epithet koure signifies "a girl of initiatory age", and where Hades is the male oppressor forcing himself onto a young girl for the first time. Adonis was an exceedingly beautiful mortal man with whom Persephone fell in love. After he
420-589: Is taboo – Nestis is a euphemistic cult title – for she was also the terrible Queen of the Dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was euphemistically named simply as Kore or "the Maiden", a vestige of her archaic role as the deity ruling the underworld. Nestis means "the Fasting One" in ancient Greek. As a goddess of the underworld, Persephone was given euphemistically friendly names. However, it
504-460: Is Kore, and in Arcadia she was worshipped under the title Despoina , "the mistress", a very old chthonic divinity. Günther Zuntz considers "Persephone" and "Kore" as distinct deities and writes that "no farmer prayed for corn to Persephone; no mourner thought of the dead as being with Kore." Ancient Greek writers were however not as consistent as Zuntz claims. Plutarch writes that Persephone
588-619: Is a rhyming verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme. An example is found in the first lines of the Divine Comedy by Dante , who originated the form: Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita (A) mi ritrovai per una selva oscura (B) ché la diritta via era smarrita. (A) Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura (B) esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte (C) che nel pensier rinnova la paura! (B) In ottava rima , each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme, following
672-768: Is a couplet), as well as long prose passages, so that at ~1.8 million words it is roughly twice the length of Shahnameh , four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa , and roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. Famous examples of epic poetry include the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh , the ancient Indian Mahabharata and Rāmāyaṇa in Sanskrit and Silappatikaram and Manimekalai in Tamil,
756-504: Is a goddess of marriage and childbirth in this region. Her name has numerous historical variants. These include Persephassa ( Περσεφάσσα ) and Persephatta ( Περσεφάττα ). In Latin, her name is rendered Proserpina . She was identified by the Romans as the Italic goddess Libera , who was conflated with Proserpina. Myths similar to Persephone's descent and return to earth also appear in
840-415: Is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces , gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to oral tradition , epics consist of formal speech and are usually learnt word for word, and are contrasted with narratives which consist of everyday speech where the performer has
924-641: Is as follows: Old English, German and Norse poems were written in alliterative verse , usually without rhyme . The alliterative form can be seen in the Old English " Finnsburg Fragment " (alliterated sounds are in bold): Ac on w acnigeað nū, w īgend mīne e alra ǣ rest e orðbūendra, But awake now, my warriors, of all first the men While the above classical and Germanic forms would be considered stichic , Italian, Spanish and Portuguese long poems favored stanzaic forms, usually written in terza rima or especially ottava rima . Terza rima
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#17327722912021008-491: Is evidence of sacred laws and other inscriptions. The Cult of Demeter and the Maiden is found at Attica, in the main festivals Thesmophoria and Eleusinian mysteries and in a number of local cults. These festivals were almost always celebrated at the autumn sowing, and at full-moon according to the Greek tradition. In some local cults the feasts were dedicated to Demeter. Epic poetry An epic poem , or simply an epic ,
1092-683: Is found in Scandinavia and England, often meaning curly haired. As an Irish surname it comes from Ó Comhraidhe (descendant of Comhraidheh). Notable people or fictional characters named Corey include: Persephone In ancient Greek mythology and religion , Persephone ( / p ər ˈ s ɛ f ə n iː / pər- SEF -ə-nee ; Greek : Περσεφόνη , romanized : Persephónē , classical pronunciation: [per.se.pʰó.nɛː] ), also called Kore ( / ˈ k ɔːr iː / KOR -ee ; Greek : Κόρη , romanized : Kórē , lit. 'the maiden') or Cora ,
1176-509: Is her name in the Ionic Greek of epic literature. The Homeric form of her name is Persephoneia ( Περσεφονεία , Persephoneia ). In other dialects, she was known under variant names: Persephassa ( Περσεφάσσα ), Persephatta ( Περσεφάττα ), or simply Korē ( Κόρη , "girl, maiden"). On 5th century Attic vases one often encounters the form ( Φερρϖφάττα ). Plato calls her Pherepapha ( Φερέπαφα ) in his Cratylus , "because she
1260-400: Is not a complete biography of Roland, but picks up from the plot of Orlando Innamorato , which in turn presupposes a knowledge of the romance and oral traditions . Epic catalogues and genealogies are given, called enumeratio . These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context, such as the catalog of ships . Often,
1344-408: Is perhaps Catullus 64 . Epyllion is to be understood as distinct from mock epic , another light form. Romantic epic is a term used to designate works such as Morgante , Orlando Innamorato , Orlando Furioso and Gerusalemme Liberata , which freely lift characters, themes, plots and narrative devices from the world of prose chivalric romance . Long poetic narratives that do not fit
1428-562: Is possible that some of them were the names of original goddesses: As a vegetation goddess, she was called: Demeter and her daughter Persephone were usually called: Persephone's abduction by Hades is mentioned briefly in Hesiod 's Theogony , and is told in considerable detail in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter . Zeus, it is said, permitted Hades, who was in love with the beautiful Persephone, to abduct her as her mother Demeter
1512-435: Is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter . She became the queen of the underworld after her abduction by her uncle Hades , the king of the underworld, who would later also take her into marriage. The myth of her abduction, her sojourn in the underworld, and her cyclical return to the surface represents her functions as the embodiment of spring and the personification of vegetation, especially grain crops, which disappear into
1596-550: Is the most popular. In Serbian poetry, the decasyllable is the only form employed. Balto-Finnic (e.g. Estonian, Finnish, Karelian) folk poetry uses a form of trochaic tetrameter that has been called the Kalevala meter. The Finnish and Estonian national epics, Kalevala and Kalevipoeg , are both written in this meter. The meter is thought to have originated during the Proto-Finnic period. In Indic epics such as
1680-401: Is therefore mentioned along with or identified as other such divinities including Isis , Rhea , Ge , Hestia , Pandora , Artemis , and Hecate . In Orphic tradition, Persephone is said to be the daughter of Zeus and his mother Rhea, who became Demeter after her seduction by her son. The Orphic Persephone is said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus / Iacchus / Zagreus , and
1764-426: Is trapped underground within the realm of Hades. In the beginning of the autumn, when the grain of the old crop is laid on the fields, she ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter. This interpretation of Persephone's abduction myth symbolizes the cycle of life and death as Persephone both dies as she (the grain) is buried in the pithoi (as similar pithoi were used in ancient times for funerary practices) and
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#17327722912021848-487: Is wise and touches that which is in motion". There are also the forms Periphona ( Πηριφόνα ) and Phersephassa ( Φερσέφασσα ). The existence of so many different forms shows how difficult it was for the Greeks to pronounce the word in their own language and suggests that the name may have a Pre-Greek origin . The etymology of the word 'Persephone' is obscure. According to a recent hypothesis advanced by Rudolf Wachter ,
1932-601: The Iliad ) or both. Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, particularly as they pertain to heroism . In the proem or preface, the poet may begin by invoking a Muse or similar divinity. The poet prays to the Muses to provide them with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero. Example opening lines with invocations: An alternative or complementary form of proem, found in Virgil and his imitators, opens with
2016-641: The epyllion (plural: epyllia), a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme . The term, which means "little epic ", came into use in the nineteenth century. It refers primarily to the erudite, shorter hexameter poems of the Hellenistic period and the similar works composed at Rome from the age of the neoterics ; to a lesser degree, the term includes some poems of the English Renaissance , particularly those influenced by Ovid . The most famous example of classical epyllion
2100-505: The Metropolitan Museum of Art , Persephone is rising as if up stairs from a cleft in the earth, while Hermes stands aside; Hecate, holding two torches, looks back as she leads her to the enthroned Demeter. Before Persephone was abducted by Hades, the shepherd Eumolpus and the swineherd Eubuleus saw a girl in a black chariot driven by an invisible driver being carried off into the earth which had violently opened up. Eubuleus
2184-494: The Neo-Sumerian Empire . The poem details the exploits of Gilgamesh , the king of Uruk . Although recognized as a historical figure, Gilgamesh, as represented in the epic, is a largely legendary or mythical figure. The longest written epic from antiquity is the ancient Indian Mahabharata ( c. 3rd century BC –3rd century AD), which consists of 100,000 ślokas or over 200,000 verse lines (each shloka
2268-456: The Ramayana and Mahabharata , the shloka form is used. The primary form of epic, especially as discussed in this article, is the heroic epic , including such works as the Iliad and Mahabharata . Ancient sources also recognized didactic epic as a category, represented by such works as Hesiod 's Works and Days and Lucretius's De rerum natura . A related type of poetry is
2352-653: The performative verb "I sing". Examples: This Virgilian epic convention is referenced in Walt Whitman 's poem title / opening line "I sing the body electric". Compare the first six lines of the Kalevala : These conventions are largely restricted to European classical culture and its imitators. The Epic of Gilgamesh , for example, or the Bhagavata Purana do not contain such elements, nor do early medieval Western epics that are not strongly shaped by
2436-535: The river Cocytus who became mistress to Persephone's husband Hades . Persephone was not slow to notice and, in jealousy, she trampled the nymph, killing her and turning her into a mint plant . Alternatively, Persephone tore Minthe to pieces for sleeping with Hades, and it was he who turned his former lover into the sweet-smelling plant. In another version, Minthe had been Hades's lover before he met Persephone. When Minthe claims Hades will return to her due to her beauty, Persephone's mother Demeter kills Minthe over
2520-528: The 16th century the Spenserian stanza and blank verse were also introduced. The French alexandrine is currently the heroic line in French literature, though in earlier literature – such as the chanson de geste – the decasyllable grouped in laisses took precedence. In Polish literature, couplets of Polish alexandrines (syllabic lines of 7+6 syllables) prevail. In Russian, iambic tetrameter verse
2604-461: The ABABABCC rhyme scheme . Example: Canto l'arme pietose, e 'l Capitano Che 'l gran sepolcro liberò di Cristo. Molto egli oprò col senno e con la mano; Molto soffrì nel glorioso acquisto: E invan l'Inferno a lui s'oppose; e invano s'armò d'Asia e di Libia il popol misto: Chè 'l Ciel gli diè favore, e sotto ai santi Segni ridusse i suoi compagni erranti. The sacred armies, and
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2688-550: The Arcadian mysteries. In the Orphic "Rhapsodic Theogony" (first century BC/AD), Persephone is described as the daughter of Zeus and Rhea . Zeus was filled with desire for his mother, Rhea, intending to marry her. He pursued the unwilling Rhea, only for her to change into a serpent. Zeus also turned himself into a serpent and raped Rhea, which resulted in the birth of Persephone. Afterwards, Rhea became Demeter . Persephone
2772-400: The Arcadian mysteries. In the Arcadian mythos, while Demeter was looking for the kidnapped Persephone, she caught the eye of her younger brother Poseidon. Demeter turned into a mare to escape him, but then Poseidon turned into a stallion to pursue her. He caught her and raped her. Afterwards, Demeter gave birth to the talking horse Arion and the goddess Despoina ("the mistress"), a goddess of
2856-465: The Greek tradition a hunt-goddess preceded the harvest goddess. In Arcadia , Demeter and Persephone were often called Despoinai ( Δέσποιναι , "the mistresses"). They are the two Great Goddesses of the Arcadian cults, and evidently they come from a more primitive religion. The Greek god Poseidon probably substituted for the companion ( Paredros , Πάρεδρος ) of the Minoan Great goddess in
2940-520: The Homeric epics, the earliest works of Western literature, were fundamentally an oral poetic form. These works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. Nearly all of Western epic (including Virgil's Aeneid and Dante's Divine Comedy ) self-consciously presents itself as a continuation of the tradition begun by these poems. In his work Poetics , Aristotle defines an epic as one of
3024-671: The Mongols , the Kyrgyz Manas , and the Malian Sundiata . Epic poems of the modern era include Derek Walcott 's Omeros , Mircea Cărtărescu 's The Levant and Adam Mickiewicz 's Pan Tadeusz . Paterson by William Carlos Williams , published in five volumes from 1946 to 1958, was inspired in part by another modern epic, The Cantos by Ezra Pound . The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral history poetic traditions. Oral tradition
3108-1152: The Persian Shahnameh , the Ancient Greek Odyssey and Iliad , Virgil 's Aeneid , the Old English Beowulf , Dante 's Divine Comedy , the Finnish Kalevala , the German Nibelungenlied , the French Song of Roland , the Spanish Cantar de mio Cid , the Portuguese Os Lusíadas , the Armenian Daredevils of Sassoun , the Old Russian The Tale of Igor's Campaign , John Milton 's Paradise Lost , The Secret History of
3192-482: The ancient Greeks told the myth of Persephone to explain the origin of the four seasons . The ancient Greeks believed that spring and summer occurred during the months Persephone stayed with Demeter, who would make flowers bloom and crops grow bountiful. During the other months when Persephone must live in the underworld with Hades, Demeter expressed her sadness by letting the earth go barren and covering it with snow, resulting in autumn and winter . According to
3276-434: The bird, water flowed from that spot, and hence the river received the name Hercyna. This was when she was abducted by Hades according to Boeotian legend; a vase shows water birds accompany the goddesses Demeter and Hecate who are in search of the missing Persephone. The abduction of Persephone is an etiological myth providing an explanation for the changing of the seasons. Since Persephone had consumed pomegranate seeds in
3360-546: The caste system of Indian society and the life of the lower levels of society, such as cobblers and shepherds, see C.N. Ramachandran, "Ambivalence and Angst: A Note on Indian folk epics," in Lauri Honko (2002. p. 295). Some Indian oral epics feature strong women who actively pursue personal freedom in their choice of a romantic partner (Stuart, Claus, Flueckiger and Wadley, eds, 1989, p. 5). Japanese traditional performed narratives were sung by blind singers. One of
3444-495: The central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries , which promised the initiated a happy afterlife . The origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on ancient agrarian cults of agricultural communities. In Athens, the mysteries celebrated in the month of Anthesterion were dedicated to her. The city of Locri Epizephyrii , in modern Calabria (southern Italy ), was famous for its cult of Persephone, where she
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3528-653: The classical traditions, such as the Chanson de Roland or the Poem of the Cid . Narrative opens " in the middle of things ", with the hero at his lowest point. Usually flashbacks show earlier portions of the story. For example, the Iliad does not tell the entire story of the Trojan War, starting with the judgment of Paris , but instead opens abruptly on the rage of Achilles and its immediate causes. So too, Orlando Furioso
3612-417: The context for the secret rites of regeneration at Eleusis, which promised immortality to initiates. In a Classical period text ascribed to Empedocles , c. 490–430 BC, describing a correspondence among four deities and the classical elements , the name Nestis for water apparently refers to Persephone: Of the four deities of Empedocles' elements, it is the name of Persephone alone that
3696-501: The cults of male gods, including Attis , Adonis , and Osiris , and in Minoan Crete . In a Linear B Mycenaean Greek inscription on a tablet found at Pylos dated 1400–1200 BC, John Chadwick reconstructed the name of a goddess, *Preswa , who could be identified with Perse , daughter of Oceanus , and found speculative the further identification with the first element of Persephone. Persephonē ( Greek : Περσεφόνη )
3780-582: The ears of corn", i.e., a "thresher of grain". The name of the Albanian dawn-goddess, goddess of love and protector of women, Premtë or P(ë)rende , is thought to correspond regularly to the Ancient Greek counterpart Περσεφάττα ( Persephatta ), a variant of Περσεφόνη ( Persephone ). The theonyms have been traced back to the Indo-European *pers-é-bʰ(h₂)n̥t-ih₂ ("she who brings
3864-409: The earth when sown, sprout from the earth in spring, and are harvested when fully grown. In Classical Greek art , Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades. Persephone, as a vegetation goddess , and her mother Demeter were
3948-521: The earth with Hecate 's torches. In most versions, she forbids the earth to produce, or she neglects the earth and, in the depth of her despair, she causes nothing to grow. Helios , the Sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened and at length she discovered where her daughter had been taken. Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. When Hades
4032-453: The epic as received in tradition and add to the epic in their performances. Later writers like Virgil , Apollonius of Rhodes , Dante , Camões , and Milton adopted and adapted Homer's style and subject matter , but used devices available only to those who write. The oldest epic recognized is the Epic of Gilgamesh ( c. 2500–1300 BCE ), which was recorded in ancient Sumer during
4116-563: The first element in the name ( Perso - ( Περσο- ) may well reflect a very rare term, attested in the Rig Veda (Sanskrit parṣa- ), and the Avesta , meaning 'sheaf of corn' / 'ear [of grain]'. The second constituent, phatta , preserved in the form Persephatta ( Περσεφάττα ), would in this view reflect Proto-Indo-European *-gʷn-t-ih , from the root *gʷʰen- "to strike / beat / kill". The combined sense would therefore be "she who beats
4200-499: The forms of poetry, contrasted with lyric poetry and drama (in the form of tragedy and comedy). Harmon & Holman (1999) define an epic: Harmon and Holman delineate ten main characteristics of an epic: The hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat them in their journey, and returns home significantly transformed by their journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by
4284-459: The ghosts of the dead, who drink the blood of the sacrificed animal. In the reformulation of Greek mythology expressed in the Orphic Hymns , Dionysus and Melinoë are separately called children of Zeus and Persephone. Groves sacred to her stood at the western extremity of the earth on the frontiers of the lower world, which itself was called "house of Persephone". Her central myth served as
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#17327722912024368-503: The godly knight, That the great sepulchre of Christ did free, I sing; much wrought his valor and foresight, And in that glorious war much suffered he; In vain 'gainst him did Hell oppose her might, In vain the Turks and Morians armèd be: His soldiers wild, to brawls and mutines prest, Reducèd he to peace, so Heaven him blest. From the 14th century English epic poems were written in heroic couplets , and rhyme royal , though in
4452-412: The importance of line consistency and poetic meter. Ancient Greek epics were composed in dactylic hexameter . Very early Latin epicists, such Livius Andronicus and Gnaeus Naevius , used Saturnian meter. By the time of Ennius , however, Latin poets had adopted dactylic hexameter . Dactylic hexameter has been adapted by a few anglophone poets such as Longfellow in " Evangeline ", whose first line
4536-421: The insult done to her daughter. Theophile was a girl who claimed that Hades loved her and that she was better than Persephone. Once, Hermes chased Persephone (or Hecate ) with the aim to rape her; but the goddess snored or roared in anger, frightening him off so that he desisted, hence her earning the name " Brimo " ("angry"). The hero Orpheus once descended into the underworld seeking to take back to
4620-494: The land of the living his late wife Eurydice , who died when a snake bit her. So lovely was the music he played that it charmed Persephone and even stern Hades. So entranced was Persephone by Orpheus' sweet melody that she persuaded her husband to let the unfortunate hero take his wife back. Sisyphus , the wily king of Corinth managed to avoid staying dead, after Death had gone to collect him, by appealing to and tricking Persephone into letting him go; thus Sisyphus returned to
4704-430: The land of the living, he is said to have offered a myrtle plant to Persephone in exchange for Semele. On a neck amphora from Athens Dionysus is depicted riding on a chariot with his mother, next to a myrtle-holding Persephone who stands with her own mother Demeter; many vases from Athens depict Dionysus in the company of Persephone and Demeter. Persephone also convinced Hades to allow the hero Protesilaus to return to
4788-414: The license to recontextualize the story to a particular audience, often to a younger generation. The English word epic comes from Latin epicus , which itself comes from the Ancient Greek adjective ἐπικός ( epikos ), from ἔπος ( epos ), "word, story, poem." In ancient Greek , 'epic' could refer to all poetry in dactylic hexameter ( epea ), which included not only Homer but also
4872-400: The light of the sun in the surface above. When Echemeia , a queen of Kos , ceased to offer worship to Artemis , the goddess shot her with an arrow. Persephone, witnessing that, snatched the still living Euthemia and brought her to the Underworld. When Dionysus, the god of wine, descended into the Underworld accompanied by Demeter to retrieve his dead mother Semele and bring her back to
4956-418: The light through"). A popular folk etymology is from φέρειν φόνον , pherein phonon , "to bring (or cause) death". The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as chthonic and vegetation goddess. The surnames given to her by the poets refer to her role as queen of the lower world and the dead and to the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. Her common name as a vegetation goddess
5040-414: The little-attested Melinoë . In mythology and literature she is often called dread(ed) Persephone, and queen of the underworld, within which tradition it was forbidden to speak her name. This tradition comes from her conflation with the very old chthonic divinity Despoina ("[the] mistress"), whose real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated into her mysteries. As goddess of death, she
5124-552: The lower world at the entrance of the western Oceanus. Later accounts place the abduction in Attica , near Athens , or near Eleusis. The Homeric hymn mentions the Nysion (or Mysion) which was probably a mythical place. The location of this mythical place may simply be a convention to show that a magically distant chthonic land of myth was intended in the remote past. After Persephone had disappeared, Demeter searched for her all over
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#17327722912025208-506: The most famous, The Tale of the Heike , deals with historical wars and had a ritual function to placate the souls of the dead (Tokita 2015, p. 7). A variety of epic forms are found in Africa. Some have a linear, unified style while others have a more cyclical, episodic style (Barber 2007, p. 50). People in the rice cultivation zones of south China sang long narrative songs about
5292-477: The mother of the Erinyes by Hades. In Nonnus 's Dionysiaca , the gods of Olympus were bewitched by Persephone's beauty and desired her. Hermes , Apollo , Ares , and Hephaestus each presented Persephone with a gift to woo her. Demeter, worried that Persephone might end up marrying Hephaestus, consults the astrological god Astraeus . Astraeus warns her that Persephone will be ravished and impregnated by
5376-706: The poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members. Examples: In the Homeric and post-Homeric tradition, epic style is typically achieved through the use of the following stylistic features: Many verse forms have been used in epic poems through the ages, but each language's literature typically gravitates to one form, or at least to a very limited set. Ancient Sumerian epic poems did not use any kind of poetic meter and lines did not have consistent lengths; instead, Sumerian poems derived their rhythm solely through constant repetition and parallelism , with subtle variations between lines. Indo-European epic poetry, by contrast, usually places strong emphasis on
5460-518: The regeneration of life. In another interpretation of the myth, the abduction of Persephone by Hades, in the form of Ploutus ( πλούτος , wealth), represents the wealth of the grain contained and stored in underground silos or ceramic jars ( pithoi ) during the Summer seasons (as that was drought season in Greece). In this telling, Persephone as grain-maiden symbolizes the grain within the pithoi that
5544-489: The society the epic originates from. Many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native cultures. In the Indian mahākāvya epic genre, more emphasis was laid on description than on narration. Indeed, the traditional characteristics of a mahākāvya are listed as: Classical epic poetry recounts a journey, either physical (as typified by Odysseus in the Odyssey ) or mental (as typified by Achilles in
5628-568: The traditional European definition of the heroic epic are sometimes known as folk epics. Indian folk epics have been investigated by Lauri Honko (1998), Brenda Beck (1982) and John Smith, amongst others. Folk epics are an important part of community identities. The folk genre known as al-sira relates the saga of the Hilālī tribe and their migrations across the Middle East and north Africa, see Bridget Connelly (1986). In India, folk epics reflect
5712-630: The underworld becomes half the year. It was explained to Demeter, her mother, that she would be released, so long as she did not taste the food of the underworld, as that was an Ancient Greek example of a taboo . In some versions, Ascalaphus informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. As punishment for informing Hades, he was pinned under a heavy rock in the underworld by either Persephone or Demeter until Heracles freed him, causing Demeter to turn him into an eagle owl . In an earlier version, Hecate rescued Persephone. On an Attic red-figured bell krater of c. 440 BC in
5796-406: The underworld by means of sacrifice of two willing maidens. Two maidens, Menippe and Metioche (who were the daughters of Orion ), were chosen and they agreed to be offered to the two gods in order to save their country. After the two girls sacrificed themselves with their shuttles, Persephone and Hades took pity on them and turned their dead bodies into comets . Minthe was a Naiad nymph of
5880-467: The underworld, she was forced to spend four months, or in other versions six months for six seeds, with Hades. When Persephone would return to the underworld , Demeter's despair at losing her daughter would cause the vegetation and flora of the world to wither, signifying the Autumn and Winter seasons. When Persephone's time is over and she would be reunited with her mother, Demeter's joyousness would cause
5964-460: The vegetation of the earth to bloom and blossom which signifies the Spring and Summer seasons. This also explains why Persephone is associated with Spring: her re-emergence from the underworld signifies the onset of Spring. Therefore, not only does Persephone and Demeter's annual reunion symbolize the changing seasons and the beginning of a new cycle of growth for the crops, it also symbolizes death and
6048-478: The wisdom poetry of Hesiod , the utterances of the Delphic oracle , and the strange theological verses attributed to Orpheus . Later tradition, however, has restricted the term 'epic' to heroic epic , as described in this article. Originating before the invention of writing, primary epics, such as those of Homer , were composed by bards who used complex rhetorical and metrical schemes by which they could memorize
6132-485: The world of the living for a limited period of time to see his wife. Socrates in Plato 's Cratylus previously mentions that Hades consorts with Persephone due to her wisdom. Persephone was worshipped along with her mother Demeter and in the same mysteries. Her cults included agrarian magic, dancing, and rituals. The priests used special vessels and holy symbols, and the people participated with rhymes. In Eleusis there
6216-620: The year with Aphrodite. Alternatively, Adonis had to spend one half of the year with each goddess at the suggestion of the Muse Calliope . Of them, Aelian wrote that Adonis' life was divided between two goddesses: one who loved him beneath the earth,and one above, while the satirical author Lucian of Samosata has Aphrodite complain to the moon goddess Selene that Eros made Persephone fall in love with her own beloved, and now she has to share Adonis with her. In another variation, Persephone met Adonis only after he had been slain by
6300-484: Was also called a daughter of Zeus and Styx , the river that formed the boundary between Earth and the underworld. In Homer 's epics, she appears always together with Hades in the underworld, apparently sharing with Hades control over the dead. In Homer's Odyssey , Odysseus encounters the "dread Persephone" in Tartarus when he visits his dead mother. Odysseus sacrifices a ram to the chthonic goddess Persephone and
6384-474: Was born so deformed that Rhea ran away from her frightened, and did not breastfeed Persephone. Zeus then mates with Persephone, who gives birth to Dionysus . She later stays in her mother's house, guarded by the Curetes . Rhea-Demeter prophecies that Persephone will marry Apollo . This prophecy does not come true, however, as while weaving a dress, Persephone is abducted by Hades to be his bride. She becomes
6468-405: Was born, Aphrodite entrusted him to Persephone to raise. But when Persephone got a glimpse of the beautiful Adonis—finding him as attractive as Aphrodite did—she refused to give him back to her. The matter was brought before Zeus , and he decreed that Adonis would spend one third of the year with each goddess, and have the last third for himself. Adonis chose to spend his own portion of
6552-638: Was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld, and his swine were swallowed by the earth along with her. This aspect of the myth is an etiology for the relation of pigs with the ancient rites in Thesmophoria , and in Eleusis. In the hymn, Persephone eventually returns from the underworld and is reunited with her mother near Eleusis. The Eleusinians built a temple near the spring of Callichorus, and Demeter establishes her mysteries there. Regardless of how she had eaten pomegranate seeds and how many,
6636-533: Was identified with the spring season, and Cicero calls her the seed of the fruits of the fields. In the Eleusinian Mysteries , her return from the underworld each spring is a symbol of immortality, and she was frequently represented on sarcophagi . In the religions of the Orphics and the Platonists , Kore is described as the all-pervading goddess of nature who both produces and destroys everything, and she
6720-429: Was informed of Zeus' command to return Persephone, he complied with the request, but he first tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds. Hermes was sent to retrieve Persephone but, because she had tasted the food of 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. With the later writers Ovid and Hyginus, Persephone's time in
6804-701: Was not likely to allow her daughter to go down to Hades. Persephone was gathering flowers, along with the Oceanids , and the goddesses Pallas Athena and Artemis , as the Homeric Hymn says, in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. In another version of the myth, Persephone had her own personal companions whom Demeter turned into the half bird sirens as punishment for failing to prevent her daughter's abduction. Various local traditions place Persephone's abduction in different locations. The Sicilians , among whom her worship
6888-630: Was probably introduced by the Corinthian and Megarian colonists, believed that Hades found her in the meadows near Enna , and that a well arose on the spot where he descended with her into the lower world. The Cretans thought that their own island had been the scene of the abduction, and the Eleusinians mentioned the Nysian plain in Boeotia, and said that Persephone had descended with Hades into
6972-455: Was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and importance. This facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it. Parry and Lord also contend that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance. Milman Parry and Albert Lord have argued that
7056-458: Was used alongside written scriptures to communicate and facilitate the spread of culture. In these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Early 20th-century study of living oral epic traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry and Albert Lord demonstrated the paratactic model used for composing these poems. What they demonstrated
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