The Anthesphoria was one of the religious festivals held in

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

in honor of

Persephone In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Persephone ( ; , classical pronunciation: ), also called Kore ( ; ) or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the Greek underworld, underworld afte ...

's return from the

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

.Osek, Ewa. “Ritual Imitation During the Thesmophoria at Syracuse: Timaeus of Tauromenium’s History of Sicily.” The Many Faces of Mimesis: Selected Essays from the 2017 Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of Western Greece, edited by Heather L. Reid and Jeremy C. DeLong, vol. 3, Parnassos Press – Fonte Aretusa, 2018, pp. 279–92. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvbj7g5b.24. Accessed 2 Oct. 2024. According to mythological tradition, Persephone's husband,

Hades Hades (; , , later ), in the ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the Greek underworld, underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea ...

, tricked her into eating four

pomegranate The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punica, Punicoideae, that grows between tall. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, it is thought to have o ...

seeds when

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

ordered him to let her return to her mother after he had kidnapped her. Because she ate the seeds, Persephone was then forced to spend one-third of the year in the Underworld and only allotted two-thirds of the year aboveground. This festival was held in Sicily and several other regions throughout the ancient world, with each one having distinct customs and rituals.

References

Ancient Roman festivals Festivals in ancient Greece Festivals of Persephone {{AncientGreek-reli-stub