Persephone

This soap is inspired by Persephone’s flower bouquet. Persephone was the Greek goddess of spring and queen of the underworld. She was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter: the goddess of the harvest.

One day, she was playing with her nymph companions in a flower-filled meadow when Hades abducted her and took her to the underworld as his bride. Just before her abduction, she picked one last bouquet of flowers, including roses, lilies and violets. Her mother Demeter was distraught and searched the entire world for her daughter, accompanied by the goddess Hecate carrying blazing torches. When she discovered that Zeus had helped with the abduction, she refused to let anything bloom until Persephone returned. Zeus agreed to her return, but because Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds in the underworld, she was condemned to spend part of each year with her husband in the underworld.

Her annual return to Earth in spring was marked by blooming meadows and sprouting grain. Her return to the underworld brought the winter season, when nothing bloomed. Thus Persephone became both queen of the underworld and goddess of spring: a symbol of death and rebirth, darkness and bloom.