What is "persephone"

wife of Hades, queen of the netherworld, identified with Kore, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, from Greek Persephone (see person).

In Greek mythology, Persephone (, ; ), also called Kore or Cora (; "the maiden"), is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess Demeter, and is the queen of the underworld. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic princess of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. Persephone was married to Hades, the god-king of the underworld. The myth of her abduction represents her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she is also associated with spring as well as the fertility of vegetation. Similar myths appear in the Orient, in the cults of male gods like Attis, Adonis and Osiris, and in Minoan Crete.

Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon and promised the initiated a more enjoyable prospect after death. Persephone is further said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus, Iacchus, or Zagreus, usually in orphic tradition. The origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on very old agrarian cults of agricultural communities.

Persephone was commonly worshipped along with Demeter and with the same mysteries. To her alone were dedicated the mysteries celebrated at Athens in the month of Anthesterion. In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades.

In Roman mythology, she is called Proserpina, and her mother, Ceres.

Persephone is a Greek goddess. See also Proserpina, her Roman equivalent, and Proserpina (disambiguation).

Persephone may also refer to:

• Persephone Books, an independent publisher of mostly women's writing in London
• The Persephone, a salvage ship in The Beachcombers

Persephone is a fictional character in The Matrix franchise. She is portrayed by Monica Bellucci. In the films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Persephone is the wife of the Merovingian. She seems bored with her existence in the Matrix, and is disaffected by her husband (possibly because of his adultery).

The Persephone is an analog fingerboard synthesizer from the year 2004 in the tradition of the first ribbon controlled instruments from the 1920s. Beyond its vintage look, the Persephone allies sensors technology and digital controls to a pure analogue generation of sound.

With its analogue oscillator, the Persephone can generate notes with a range of 10 octaves, which goes from a deep and resonant cello tone to a nearly human voice. And on the highest pitches, it can reach very high frequencies. Its ribbon virtual control surface allows all kind of glissando a Theremin or an Ondes Martenot would allow. The Persephone's ribbon can be scaled from 1, 2, 5 to 10 octaves. The ribbon responds to changes in voltage or resistance caused by changing the finger position along its surface. The Persephone ribbon controller is also able to record pressure or velocity.

The ribbon is a linear potentiometer that generates different control voltages depending on where it is touched. Thus, the modern ribbon on the Persephone replaces the nickel-chrome resistance wire used as a variable resistor to control the pitch of the trautonium. These changes in voltage are applied to the voltage-controlled oscillator and the filter. The voltage fluctuations are also translated into binary data and used to control digital modulation. With MIDI in/out and CV, it can also be used as a MIDI controller.

References: 1. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Volume 2, Apr. 1954, p. 149

Persephone is an outdoor sculpture by artist Armand Toussaint created ca. 1840. The work sits within the center of a pool in Holcomb Gardens on the grounds of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The sculpture depicts the Greek goddess Persephone. In 1993 the sculpture was examined by the Save Outdoor Sculpture! program produced by the Smithsonian Institution.

Perséphone ( Persephone) is a musical work (mélodrame) for speaker, solo singers, chorus, dancers and orchestra with music by Igor Stravinsky and a libretto by André Gide.

It was first performed under the direction of the composer at the Opéra, Paris on 30 April 1934 in a double bill with the ballet Diane de Poitiers by Jacques Ibert. The premiere was staged by the ballet company of Ida Rubinstein, with Rubinstein herself dancing and speaking the part of Persephone and the tenor René Maison singing Eumolphe.

It was also premiered at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires under Stravinsky himself in 1934, and then in Rio de Janeiro. Victoria Ocampo, an important intellectual from Argentina, was present at the premier in Buenos Aires. It was reprised at the Colón in 1995 with China Zorrilla under Pedro Ignacio Calderón.

Other choreographed versions have included those of George Balanchine, Kurt Jooss (1955), Frederick Ashton (1961), and Pina Bausch (1965). ( Martha Graham's "Persephone," ironically, is accompanied by Stravinsky's Symphony in C.)

It was recorded by Stravinsky himself with Vera Zorina and also under André Cluytens (with Nicolai Gedda, 1955, Paris), Sir Andrew Davis (with Paul Groves, London) and Michael Tilson Thomas (with Stuart Neill, 1999, San Francisco).