Demeter is the goddess of fertility, and the mother of the harvest. For she, after inventing the grain in the island of Sicily, was the first to gather, prepare, preserve it, and the first to instruct mankind how to sow it.
Demeter's darkest moment came when Hades carried off her daughter Persephone while she was gathering flowers and took her to the Underworld; for then Demeter went about seeking her all over the earth with torches
by night and day.
And yet, they say, it was Love who caused everything. Love is Eros and Eros is Love.
For Aphrodite feared that Persephone, following Athena and Artemis, would also remain a virgin. That is why she instructed her son Eros to join the young girl to her uncle. And Eros selected the sharpest among his many arrows, and with it smote Hades through the heart; and since when this happens nothing can be done, Hades abducted Persephone when she was playing and gathering flowers in a grove. At the time, she was so girlish and innocent that she is believed to have felt more pain for the loss of the flowers that fell out of her loosened tunic when Hades seized her, than fear for being captured; but she nevertheless called on her mother and companions while Hades galloped away.