21| persephone

the greek god of fertility.

"as she was gathering flowers with her playmates in a meadow, the earth opened and Pluto, god of the dead, appeared and carried her off to be his queen in the world below... torch in hand, her sorrowing mother sought her through the wide world, and finding her not she forbade the earth to put forth its increase. so all that year not a blade of corn grew on the earth, and men would have died of hunger if Zeus had not persuaded Pluto to let Persephone go. But before he let her go Pluto made her eat the seed of a pomegranate, and thus she could not stay away from him for ever. so it was arranged that she should spend two-thirds of every year with her mother and the heavenly gods, and should pass the rest of the year with Pluto beneath the earth. ... as wife of Pluto, she sent spectres, ruled the ghosts, and carried into effect the curses of men."

i came across the name yesterday, overhearing a conversation between two women at the coffee shop. in addition to being a really interesting myth, it's also a planet in firefly {geekdom} and a musical work by stravinsky. furthermore, one of the women said that the girl went by the nickname percy. who could go wrong with that name?

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