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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 the regeneration of life.
Jebb comments here that νάρκισσος is the flower of imminent death with its fragrance being νάρκη or narcotic, emphasised by its pale white colour. Just as Persephone reaching for the flower heralded her doom, the youth Narcissus gazing at his own reflection portended his death. [31] θάλλει δ ουρανίας υπ άχνας
These sorts of symbols were often incorporated into vanitas paintings, a variety of early still life. Certain animals such as crows, cats, owls, moths, vultures and bats are associated with death; some because they feed on carrion, others because they are nocturnal. [3] Along with death, vultures can also represent transformation and renewal. [3]
Proserpine is the Latin spelling of Persephone, a goddess married to Hades, god of the underworld. According to some accounts, she had a garden of ever blooming flowers (poppies) in the underworld. The Greek and Roman festivals honoring her and her mother, Ceres, emphasized Proserpine's return to the upper world in spring. According to the ...
The Naiad nymph Minthe, daughter of the infernal river-god Cocytus, became concubine to Hades, the lord of the Underworld and god of the dead. [9] [10] In jealousy, his wife Persephone intervened and metamorphosed Minthe, in the words of Strabo's account, "into the garden mint, which some call hedyosmos (lit. 'sweet-smelling')".
After Hades abducted Persephone and kept her in the Underworld, Persephone consumed some pomegranate seeds without anyone's notice. Ascalaphus, a resident of the Underworld, witnessed that, and informed the other gods, forcing Persephone to spend a portion of the year in the Underworld. For this Persephone turned Ascalaphus into a short-eared owl.
The plants are hardy herbaceous perennials with narrow tufted radical leaves and an elongated stem bearing a handsome spike of white or yellow flowers. Asphodelus albus and A. fistulosus have white flowers and grow from 45 to 60 centimetres ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 –2 ft) high; A. ramosus is a larger plant, the large white flowers of which have a ...
The story also provides an etiology for Aphrodite's associations with certain flowers. [41] Reportedly, as she mourned Adonis's death, she caused anemones to grow wherever his blood fell, [32] [41] and declared a festival on the anniversary of his death. [32] In one late account, his blood transformed into roses instead. [43]