Greek Personology: Personification Of The Death Of Persephone

Personification of Death

It is said in Greek mythology that when Persephone lives with Hades in the underworld as his bride, Persephone’s mother Demeter the Goddess of Seasons, goes into mourning and the earth experiences winter. When Persephone returns to the upper world, Demeter rejoices and the earth experiences Summer.

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The defeated old man tainted grey and condemned by the world breathes his last breath and escapes his worldly torment. Beside him a young, starry-eyed girl grips the mourning bedding and weeps into his haggard, lifeless arm. The four posters of the bed stand as soldiers, stolidly guarding the vulnerable girl. The scene is stained a meek melancholic hue.

Donned in forlorn black the new Lady of the house rests in the

Suddenly the blissful world she was in a moment ago disintegrates. As she escapes with frantic haste Eliza espies a group of dying flowers rotting away in silence with the once dazzling petals wilting in desperation, overtaken by a russet plague. The trees she once admired so are taken over by hosts of mites who have infiltrated the internal organs of the giant. A bird lands on a windowsill with a squirming worm in its beak and proceeds to enact nature’s order by calmly devouring the thing while the worm desperately battles a losing campaign as the bird’s comrades virtuously chorus a lullaby, calling for it to sleep.
Even the most beautiful of scenes have death.

Slamming the door behind her in haste Eliza peers out the stained-glass window depicting Jesus’ lifeless body tethered to the cross. She surveys the garden for a sign of the threatening stranger. There is nothing there. The figure had faded away and disappeared.

Eliza Dawson makes a mental note to ask the staff about the unfamiliar character and to find out who let him into the