Pomegranate
The pomegranate is the fruit that binds Persephone to the underworld in Greek myth, eaten during her captivity under Hades and cited by ancient versions of the story as the reason she cannot return permanently to her mother Demeter and the world above.
Sections on this page
In Practice
Because the underworld's rule holds that anyone who eats its food belongs there, the single detail of what and how much Persephone ate becomes the hinge on which the entire myth of the seasons turns. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the oldest and most authoritative surviving version, gives the scene as a single unnumbered seed: Hades secretly gives Persephone a pomegranate seed to eat just as she is about to leave with Hermes, and Persephone later tells her mother she was forced to taste it against her will, while the narrator describes Hades acting in secret to make sure she could not stay away. Either way, in this version the fruit is something Hades deliberately gives her at a specific, decisive moment. Ovid's Metamorphoses tells a noticeably different scene rather than simply a different number. In his account, Persephone is wandering the underworld's gardens on her own and plucks and eats seven grains from a pomegranate herself, with no indication that Hades put it in front of her or urged her to eat it. She is caught by Ascalaphus, a minor underworld figure who witnesses the act and reports it, ending any chance she might have returned entirely to the world above. Where the Hymn makes Hades the active party in a moment of departure, Ovid makes Persephone's own unsupervised curiosity the cause, discovered by an informer rather than declared outright, and Ovid's version specifies a number, seven, where the Hymn gives none at all. The pomegranate's associations outside this one myth reinforce its symbolic weight: ancient art frequently shows Persephone holding a pomegranate as her identifying attribute, and the fruit's abundant seeds made it a broader symbol of fertility and marriage in Greek culture well beyond the underworld story, which is part of why a single piece of fruit could carry the entire burden of explaining why winter happens every year.
Why does eating the pomegranate trap Persephone in the underworld?
Ancient tradition holds that anyone who eats food grown in the underworld becomes bound to it, and Persephone's act of eating disqualifies her from a full, permanent return to the world above no matter how much her mother Demeter grieves or how much pressure the other gods put on Hades. The rule functions as an absolute condition in the story, not something that can simply be negotiated away once broken.
Homeric Hymn to Demeter 398-403
How many pomegranate seeds did Persephone eat?
Sources disagree, and not only on the number. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the oldest surviving version, mentions a single unnumbered seed that Hades secretly gives her as she is about to leave. Ovid's Metamorphoses gives an entirely different scene in which Persephone plucks and eats seven grains herself while wandering the underworld's garden, with no number at all appearing in the earlier Greek account.
Homeric Hymn to Demeter 370-374; Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 5
Did Hades trick Persephone into eating the pomegranate, or did she eat it herself?
It depends on which ancient version is followed. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter has Hades secretly give her the seed at the moment of her departure, and Persephone separately tells her mother she was forced to taste it against her will. Ovid's account removes Hades from the moment entirely: Persephone eats the fruit on her own initiative while wandering the underworld's gardens, and is caught only because a witness, Ascalaphus, sees and reports her.
Homeric Hymn to Demeter 405-415; Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 5
Who was Ascalaphus, and why does he matter to the pomegranate story?
Ascalaphus is a minor figure in the underworld, born of the nymph Orphne and the river Acheron, who witnesses Persephone eating the pomegranate seeds in Ovid's version of the myth and reveals what he saw, closing off any possibility that she could return to the surface without restriction. Persephone's mother punishes him for the betrayal by transforming him into an owl, tying his fate directly to the pomegranate scene he exposed.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 5
Does the number of seeds Persephone ate decide how long she stays in the underworld?
Not directly, and the two details come from different parts of the tradition. The length of Persephone's stay, a third of the year in the oldest account, is set out separately in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter as Zeus's negotiated compromise, independent of how much fruit she ate. Modern retellings sometimes link a specific seed count to a specific number of months, but this connection is a later simplification rather than something the ancient sources themselves state.
Homeric Hymn to Demeter 398-403
Why is the pomegranate Persephone's identifying attribute in art?
Vase painting and sculpture frequently show Persephone holding a pomegranate as a quick visual signal of who she is and what happened to her, similar to how Heracles is shown with a lion skin. The fruit's abundant seeds also made it a broader ancient symbol of fertility and marriage independent of the underworld myth, which reinforced rather than conflicted with its use as Persephone's attribute.
Where Accounts Differ
- one unnumbered seed vs. seven seeds
- Hades gives it vs. Persephone eats it herself
- Seed-count variant: the Homeric Hymn to Demeter gives Persephone a single unnumbered pomegranate seed, secretly handed to her by Hades at the moment of her departure. Ovid's Metamorphoses gives an unrelated scene in the underworld's garden where Persephone eats seven grains on her own initiative, witnessed by Ascalaphus.
- Agency variant: the Hymn keeps Hades as the active party who gives her the seed, and Persephone separately says she was forced; Ovid removes Hades from the moment and has Persephone eat unprompted, discovered rather than declared.
Where This Appears
Sources
- Homeric Hymn to Demeter 370-415
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 5