Demeter and Persephone, the Seasons of Time

by I.M. Richardson

A retelling of the ancient Greek story of the vegetation goddess, her kidnapped daughter, and the origin of the seasons

32 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Marquise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty accurate retelling of the Hades & Persephone myth that follows the story as we know it, even though I believe the narration could've been better. The artwork compensates for that, though, it's done with watercolours and is stylish, and the artist does make an effort to give his illustrations an Hellenistic imagery to fit the story.

The curious detail here is, I think, that Hades is drawn to look a tad too sexy in this interpretation, which makes it a bit incongruous with the text that has been simplified to the point it reads like adapted for children.

[Persy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations accompany this classic Greek myth!

I loved this storybook as a child and I’m so happy to have saved it to pass on to my own children!

[Megan Piero · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a Greek myth that explains the cause of the seasons. The story tells about the day Eros and Aphrodite shot an arrow at Hades, lord or the underworld, that caused him to fall in love with Persephone, daughter of Demeter. Hades knows that Demeter will not let Persephone be his bride in the underworld so he tricks Persephone by planting a mysterious flower by her home. When she gets close enough to look at it, he kidnaps her and takes her to the underworld. Demeter, Goddess of the harvest, is in so much grief, she refuses to bless the crops so everything on earth begins to die and people begin starving. Zeus realizes that if everyone on Earth dies, there will be no one left to worship them so he orders Hades to send back Persephone. However, before he sends her back, Hades makes Persephone eat a pomegranate. She returns to Earth but when Demeter finds out she has eaten the pomegranate,she knows that her daughter will have to return to the underworld because she has eaten the fruit of the dead. Zeus decides that she ate the fruit against her will, she must only return during parts of the year. When she is home during spring and summer, Persephone's mother Demeter grants her blessing on earth and plants grow and are plentiful. However, during fall and winter when Persephone must return during to the underworld, she does not give her blessing and everything begins to shrivel up and hibernate.

I did not like the way that this story was written. It was very boring and hard to follow sometimes, especially for people who may not be familiar with Greek mythology. As a teacher, I do not see much value in this book because to me, this is the type of book I hated to read as a child. I would not use this in my classroom.