As a maiden, Persephone was snatched by Hades, god of the underworld, and brought to his dark realm, where he, smitten by her, held her captive and wed her. Her mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest, was so utterly heartbroken that she wandered the earth in search of her daughter, letting the crops wilt and the landscape wither in her sadness. The people starved, and Zeus had to do something to intervene, so he bade Hades return Persephone to her mother, but not before Hades lured Persephone into eating pomegranate seeds (whether it was one seed, four seeds or six seeds varies by legend). Because she ate from the pomegranate, she was made to split her time above ground with her mother and below ground with her dark lord husband. Each year when winter comes and the earth withers, Persephone is underground and her mother mourns. Hence, Persephone is the reason for the seasons. 

Persephone’s story is such a dark tale, but it is her multidimensionality that makes her so unique. She is a goddess who dies, unlike the other gods, and she rises from the dead. After being abducted, she is never again the carefree maiden she once was; she is forever somber. She is often depicted as sympathetic for her deceased constituents, as in the case of Orpheus and Euridyce. “But in their grief and at the hour of death,” Edith Hamilton wrote in Mythology, “men could turn for compassion to the goddess who sorrowed and the goddess who died,” speaking of Persephone and Demeter. 

The Persephone Necklace features a handmade bronze pomegranate cast with glittering red, round-cut cubic zirconia stones representing the seeds Persephone ate. The pomegranate charm is hand-cast bronze, approximately 1 1/4 inches long, and the stones are set by hand and cast directly into the metal. Because these charms are completely handmade, the exact position of the “seeds” varies in each pendant. The chain is 14K gold-filled, 20 inches long and ends in a spring clasp. This necklace is available in .999 fine silver upon request. 

The Persephone Necklace is deigned to pair with the garnet variety of the Gemstone Gold-Filled Hoop Earrings. The name “garnet” comes from the Latin word “granatus” for seed because of its deep red color that echoes that of the pomegranate.

Because of the unique nature of handmade jewelry, each piece of bronze or silver jewelry may be have very slight variations. This jewelry is handmade in my North Little Rock, Arkansas, studio.