‘To the Black-walled House of Persephone…’: Persephone’s Claim to Rule the Underworld in Early Greek Religion
particularly in the early 5th century and before, Persephone was the deity with direct influence over the dead, and this may be seen in a possible etymological heritage of her name: fe/rein fo/non; to bring or cause death. Although the image of the ‘Panhellenic’ goddess in nature – that which is depicted in the Homeric Hymn– may have become more widespread, worshippers would have retained knowledge of the goddess as the queen of the underworld. This is true even in situations in which she may be placed into the role of a helpless ‘victim’ such as at Eleusis.
Persephone’s strong personality in the Nekuia of Odyssey Book 11, coupled with the ambiguous rendering of Haides as a kind of place-god in the Iliad, presents the queen of the underworld as a strong figure who is directly involved in the shades of the underworld. There may be some evidence that she alone was the original underworld deity and Haides, rather than being her sometimes-dominant escort, was merely the name of her domain. This paper, therefore, aims to investigate the origins of the goddess in her predominant role as the authoritative death-related figure in order to elucidate the ways in which this goddess may have been utilised by the Greeks as an underworld figure.
Persephone’s strong personality in the Nekuia of Odyssey Book 11, coupled with the ambiguous rendering of Haides as a kind of place-god in the Iliad, presents the queen of the underworld as a strong figure who is directly involved in the shades of the underworld. There may be some evidence that she alone was the original underworld deity and Haides, rather than being her sometimes-dominant escort, was merely the name of her domain. This paper, therefore, aims to investigate the origins of the goddess in her predominant role as the authoritative death-related figure in order to elucidate the ways in which this goddess may have been utilised by the Greeks as an underworld figure.