PERSEPHONE
Real
Name:
Persephone (also spelled Proserpina)
Occupation:
Queen of the Underworld, goddess of spring
Legal
Status:
Citizen of Olympus
Identity:
The general populace of Earth does not believe in Persephone except as a
mythological deity.
Other
Aliases:
Core/Kore (Roman Name), Mania (Etruscan name), Libera (Thracian name), Dread Persephone, Persephoneia,
Phersephone, Persephassa, Phersephatta, Periphone, (In ancient times, she was
also confused with the goddess Hecate).
Place
of Birth:
Olympus
Marital
Status:
Married
Known
Relatives:
Zeus (father), Demeter
(mother), Hades (husband/uncle), Hercules,
Apollo, Ares,
Hephaestus,
Hermes, Dionysus,
Arion, Plutus, Philomelus
(half-brothers), Aphrodite,
Artemis, Athena,
Eris, Hebe,
Helen, Eileithyia, Despoena
(half-sisters), Poseidon, Chiron (uncles), Hera, Hestia (aunts),
Group
Affiliation:
The Gods of Olympus
Base
of Operations:
Mobile between Olympus and Hades
First
Appearance:
Avengers Annual #23
History:
Persephone is the daughter of Zeus, ruler of the Olympian Gods, and Demeter, the grain-goddess. The god Hades
fell in love with her and obtained permission from Zeus to take her as a bride
without telling Demeter. In fact,
Zeus is reputed to have suggested abduction to keep Demeter from knowing the
truth. Abducted while in the presence of her friends the Sirens, Persephone was
taken against her will to Tartarus where she pined for her mother and refused to
eat. Demeter mourned for her daughter for ten days before Hecate, looking to
make trouble for Hades, told her the truth.
Unfortunately, while in the underworld, Persephone fasted by eating three
pomegranate seeds. As Zeus
arbitrated the case, Persephone was required to spend parts of the year on
Olympus and Hades.
Demeter
also punished the Sirens by transforming them into birds and binding them to the
island of Anthemoessa near Sicily as punishment for not reporting the abduction.
In later years, Persephone played an active role in dissuading Hades' whims
against mortals as in allowing Queen Alcestis of Pherae to return to her
husband. Aphrodite also gave her a
coffin with Phoenician prince Adonis in it to hide for her, but she peeked
inside and fell in love with the youth for himself.
Zeus arbitrated their feelings over him and forced them to share him
separately.
Years
later, Peirithous, the king of the Lapiths, and his good friend, Theseus, King
of Athens, both made pacts to marry daughters of Zeus.
Theseus abducted the teenaged Helen (future spoil of the Trojan War) and
Peirithous resolved to abduct Persephone. Admiring
the courage of the two, Hades invited both of the heroes to sit down from their
long journey down into the underworld, but then they became captured in chairs,
which slammed shut around them. They remained bound like this until Hercules
arrived on his last labor to the underworld. Hercules rescued Theseus, but as
Hercules tried to unbind Peirithous, a thunderclap distracted him. Because he
had dared to capture Persephone, the Lapith ruler was condemned to stay behind
in the underworld.
Despite
her role as a goddess, Persephone was rarely invoked by mortal man. Aphrodite
involved her in the trials Psyche underwent to be worthy of being married to
Cupid. Years
after the Trojan War, Orestes, prince of Mycenae, invoked Persephone to send the
ghost of his father, Agamemnon, to watch the death of Aegisthus, his killer.
In
modern times, the Olympians were nearly snuffed out by their ancient enemy
Typhon, who had escaped Tartarus. They were rescued by Hercules and his modern team of heroes,
the Avengers. Zeus questioned Persephone about Hades, suspecting that he had
released Typhon himself, but she vouched for him, saying he had not departed her
sight. Unknown to Persephone, Hades
had actually granted the Asgardian god Loki with the power to free Typhon.
Persephone
continued to remain devoted to Hades, but while shopping on Earth disguised as
mortals, Hercules came to her and informed her that Hades was keeping more
mortals against their will in the underworld. Quickly returning to Tartarus,
Persephone issued an edict to Hades that forced him to allow the young wards of
the Fantastic Four to leave his realm unharmed.
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 310 lbs
Eyes: Black
Hair: Brown
Unusual Physical Features: In her role as Queen of the Underworld,
Persephone usually converts from her form as the blonde, blue-eyed goddess
of spring to the brunette, dark-eyed goddess of the dead.
Strength Level: Persephone possesses superhuman strength enabling her
to lift (press) 25 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Persephone possesses the conventional physical
attributes of the Olympian Gods. Like all Olympian Gods, she is immortal. She
has not aged since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any known conventional
means. She is immune to all known terrestrial diseases and is invulnerable to
conventional injury. If wounded, her godly life force would enable her to
recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that
it dispersed a major portion of her bodily molecules to cause him a physical
death. Even then, it might be possible for Zeus or a number of gods of equal
power working together to revive her. Persephone does have some superhuman
strength and her own Olympian metabolism gives him far greater than human
endurance in all physical activities. Olympian flesh and bone is about three
times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to Olympian superhuman
strength and weight).
Persephone also has undefined mystical abilities to cross dimensions, create
small electrical discharges and influence the growth and prosperity of flowering
plants. She also has limited medical skills to mystically cure mortals of
sickness or disease, but this ability does not extend to physical injuries.
Contrary to some beliefs, she cannot raise the dead once a mortal spirit has
departed their body. In ancient times, her name was used to invoke curses as well
as to send ghosts to Earth.
Comments:
Clarifications:
Persephone is not to be confused with:
Persephone of the Spinsterhood, @ Cosmic Powers Unlimited #3