Proserpina

Proserpina, goddess of the underworld, was married to Pluto, god of the underworld, by whom she was abducted. Her mother, Ceres, and her father, Jupiter, demanded that Pluto return her to earth. He agreed, but offered Proserpina a pomegranate, knowing that those who have eaten the food of the dead cannot return to the world of the living. She ate a handful of seeds, and the myth goes that she was then forced to spend part of the year (winter) with him. In her grief and anger, her mother (goddess of agriculture) stops everything growing in these months while she waits for her daughter to return.

The first of my series of photographs portraying Roman gods and goddesses.