Archetype of Persephone (There are many of these out there. In Goddesses in Every Woman, by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., there is a very good (and very long) archetype of Persephone.)

Persephone

Queen of the Underworld, daughter of Demeter, wife of Hades.

Archetype: Young, beautiful, sad.

City, Temples: unknown

Symbols: Pomegranate, poppy, bat, narcissus.

Contemporary relevance: duality, working mother. (I think that there are better ones, personally, and that this person is ignoring the Underworld queen and just working on the Underworld captive.)

Cf.: Kore < abduction,

Myth: Spends two thirds of her year in Olympus (conscious) and one third in Hades (Underworld or the unconscious). Her mother's mystery cult pertains to the 'higher Self' or collective unconscious.

From Cruising for Goddesses

I think that it would also be intersting to do the Maiden-Mother-Crone with Greek characters...wouldn't it?

Maiden: Artemis. Artemis begs her father, Zeus, to be forever a maiden. Though she helps the young things of the forest, she is never a mother. She is modest (turns a man into a stag for seeing her naked) and always young. She is always pictured in the woods.

Mother: Hera. Hera was never a child. She was swallowed by Chronus as soon as she was born and emerged fully grown. The queen of the heavens, children, and marriage, Hera makes a wonderful mother character in all ways except that she never seems to like her own children. Poor Hera.

Crone: Hecate. Hecate is not known (correct me if I'm wrong) to have children, and is an Underworldly Goddess, as well as the Goddess of magic, incantations, and purifications.

Maiden-Mother: Athena. Athena is the only maiden Goddess who in some stories has children. (she has a son with Hephastus...he rubed against her, she wiped off where he had touched her, threw it to the ground, and out popped Erichthonius who Athena accepted as her own son.) She also was "mother" to Athens, her city, and to the heroes who she diligently helped.

Maiden-Crone: Persephone. Though the maiden as the Kore, she becomes crone and guide to the mysteries of the underworld after being abducted by Hades.

Mother-Crone: Demeter. Though mother of the earth, she becomes the destroyer after Persephone is abducted by Hades. She then destroys and mourns, taking the disguise of an old woman.

Maiden-Mother-Crone: Gaea, the earth. She is forever young and beautiful, and produces all. (Well, except the children of Nox and Erebus) as well as takes all back. She cycles through the seasons, and, no matter who may rule the heavens, exsists.

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