Myth time! Time for the story of the kidnapping of Persephone.
TW//kidnapping
Persephone was Demeter and Zeus’s daughter, and the goddess of spring. She was young and very beautiful, and she caught the eye of Hades, god of the Underworld. He wanted to marry her, so he went to her father (and his brother) Zeus for permission. Zeus agreed to let Hades marry Persephone. (WITHOUT PERSEPHONE’S OWN CONSENT MIND YOU. HADES, ASK PERMISSION FROM THE BRIDE FIRST. JEEZ.) Persephone was picking flowers with her friends one day when Hades popped up from the Underworld and took Persephone back there with him. Persephone, ticked off, married Hades and was forced to stay in the underworld. Demeter had no clue what happened to her daughter, so she went to the sun god Helios to see if he knew what happened. He told Demeter that Hades had kidnapped her, and Demeter became very sad. She hid away and refused it do her job as the goddess of the harvest. This resulted in major famine around the world. The other gods agreed that Persephone had to come back so Demeter would do her job again, so they took Persephone back from Hades. However, the gods didn’t know that Hades had fed Persephone the seeds of a pomegranate, which meant that she was bound to the Underworld. Demeter and Hades fought over where Persephone would stay, and Zeus decided that Persephone had to spend 1/3 of the year in the underworld with Hades, and the other 2/3rds of the year with her mother. This was a great agreement, except for when Persephone is gone for a third of the year, Demeter gets sad. She refuses to do her work and the weather becomes cold and harsh, and winter happens.