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Persephone Quotes

Browse 98 quotes about Persephone.

Persephone Quotes

“The older lady harrumphed. "I warned you, daughter. This scoundrel Hades is no good. You could've married the god of doctors or the god of lawyers, but noooo. You had to eat the pomegranate." "Mother-" "And get stuck in the Underworld!" "Mother, please-" "And here it is August, and do you come home like you're supposed to? Do you ever think about your poor lonely mother?" "DEMETER!" Hades shouted. "That is enough. You are a guest in my house." "Oh, a house is it?" she said. "You call this dump a house? Make my daughter live in this dark, damp-" "I told you," Hades said, grinding his teeth, "there's a war in the world above. You and Persephone are better off here with me." "Excuse me," I broke in. "But if you're going to kill me, could you just get on with it?”

“Hades smiled coldly. "Hello, Father. You're looking...young." "Hades," Kronos growled. "I hope you and the ladies have come to pledge your allegiance." "I'm afraid not." Hades sighed. "My son here convinced me that perhaps I should prioritize my list of enemies." He glanced at me with distaste. "As much as I dislike certain upstart demigods, it would not do for Olympus to fall. I would miss bickering with my siblings. And if there is one thing we agree on - it is that you were a TERRIBLE father.”

“My damnation stains me, Persephone, with you... with all of you. A crimson stain, a cursed badge I forever have to wear. My history is written in your world- it will always paint me as a monster until I become the very thing I have been pictured to be." His gaze moved gently over her. "Until I become what you think I am.”

“Sisyphus is dangerous, mother.” Persephone said as the Oneiroi lifted into the air and circled about them again. She reached out toward the circle of flames and pulled their destination closer. The walled citadel of Ephyra appeared before them in the widening pathway through the ether. The Queen of the Underworld took a step toward it and looked at her mother one last time. “But so am I.”

“Which category do you belong in? Are you a pawn in this game? Or a queen? Are you dark or light?" He raised his eyes to hers. "Are you good or evil?" She pulled the piece from his fingers, careful not to brush her skin against his, and placed it beside Hades. "I belong to the dark. I belong beside my king. And if you have forgotten that I am a queen, I have not.”

“Per? You can come out now." A figure slowly emerged from the shadows. "Are they gone?" "No one is here," he reassured her, his voice dropping to a new calm at the sight of her. She was exquisite. He loved everything about her, from the crown of silver flowers she wore in her black hair to the dark eyes that offset her tan skin. For the first time ever, he even noticed clothing. He couldn't help admiring how she favored cobalt blue for her gown over drab browns. Today's dress was clipped at her waist with a floral silver belt. "What did the Fates say?" she asked, sounding timid for the first time since he'd met her. She was anything but a wallflower. She was fiery. He loved that about her most of all. He glided over and put his arms around her. "I'm on my way to see them right now. I don't want you to worry. I thought you were going to go do that thing to take your mind off all that." "I am," she said with a smile. "You're going to love it." He doubted that, but he wanted her to be happy. "In any case, we'll make sure the future is in our favor. Even if we have to burn the whole world to the ground.”

“Minthe. Her name is a weighted feeling in my chest. I’ve been jealous before. Not like this. There is venom behind it. I wonder how long they’ve known each other. How did they meet? Do they go on dates? Does she own a hair comb identical to the one he gave me? I want to know, even though each answer would come with a sting. I could tell him the truth. Get her trouble. Maybe she would even get fired. …Would they break up? I don’t like feeling this way.”

“You think she survived because she was lucky? No. She survived because something in her refused to die. I have watched kingdoms burn and men beg for mercy, but the woman who has been betrayed, abandoned, underestimated, and still stands? She is more terrifying than any god. Persephone did not rise because the world was kind to her. She rose because it wasn’t — and she decided it would not swallow her whole. If you are still breathing after what tried to break you, understand this: you are not fragile. You are restrained power. And restrained power is far more dangerous than chaos.”

“The first flicker of dawn licked the eastern sky. The light grew stronger, revealing that the white larkspur had turned dark crimson overnight. Within her shrine, a new and beautiful light gray flower sprang from the ground, surrounding her. Asphodel. Kore touched the gentle flowers growing around her and shifted the coloring of her dress to a soft white, mimicking the color of the blossoms. How beautiful they were... like last night, like him, though she knew 'beautiful' was seldom applied to men, and was too soft a word for him anyway. Asphodel... she was the Maiden of the Flowers and knew that's what these were intuitively, but tried to remember where she had heard that name- and what their significance was. She had only ever seen asphodel as a gnarled dark gray weed. It was one of the few plants her mother would rip out of the fields wherever she had seen it. Kore had always trailed behind her, doing the same. She had never seen asphodel bud and and blossom. The white blooms were thin, veined with a centerline of crimson, six petals with bright filaments bursting from the center and ending in deep red anthers. They were beautiful and foreign.”

“When he saw narcissus flowers dappled with sunlight, he knew. Fates, he thought, why now? The dream, repeated throughout the aeons of his rule, hadn't manifested for centuries. But this past fortnight, every time he shut his eyes, there she was- lying entwined with him in a shaded grove, with flowers growing all around them. Her face was hidden- it was always hidden. He got teasing glimpses: a flash of russet hair, his hand on her flared hips, her flower-trimmed ankles brushing against his shins, her soft fingers dancing across his skin. Her hand brushed across his chest and down his stomach. He closed his eyes, felt her breath on his cheek, and heard her whisper his familiar name into his ear. Aidon... He turned and captured her lips in a kiss, tasting distant memories of sunlight and heady new life springing from the earth. He could not see her, but he knew it was her- his unknown betrothed- that haunted his dreams. It was her that inexorably drew him to this shaded bed of white and yellow-trumpeted flowers time and time again. Her fingers tangled in his hair and he carefully rolled over her... Aidon... His pulse quickened as she encircled him in her arms, drawing him closer and covering her supine body with his. He grew hungry for her, giving in to the delights of skin upon skin, his mouth upon hers. The dream was always like this. He would caress her, she would kiss him, their hands, their mouths demanding more. These motions were familiar- their dance repeated across the aeons. My lord husband, she said within his very thoughts. Come to me... Find me, Aidoneus.”

“I smooth my hands over the punch-stained ruffles, taking a deep breath. Persephone is still Persephone even in the winter, I remind myself. And I am still Lila even though my dress is stained. Even though I fell onstage. Even though I was banished because of it. I am still Lila. And as Lila, I descend. The crowd erupts in a roar. They holler and cheer and throw just as many flowers as they did for Roisin. Roses, marigolds, and violets hit the glossy marble steps like confetti. Their applause floods me, turning me full, just like it did when I took my final bows onstage after a show. I throw on my best smile, waving like the pageant queen I pretend to be. Roisin howls, screaming my name with the crowd. The praise goes to my head. It's like I'm the Queen of Hell, like Persephone herself. And, as I reach the final step, I re-emerge into spring.”

“In Europe life retreats out of the cold, and exquisite fireside myths have resulted—Balder, Persephone—but [in India] the retreat is from the source of life, the treacherous sun, and no poetry adorns it because disillusionment cannot be beautiful. Men yearn for poetry though they may not confess it; they desire that joy shall be graceful and sorrow august and infinity have a form, and India fails to accommodate them.”

“Take from my palms, to soothe your heart, a little honey, a little sun, in obedience to Persephone's bees. You can't untie a boat that was never moored, nor hear a shadow in its furs, nor move through thick life without fear. For us, all that's left is kisses tattered as the little bees that die when they leave the hive. Deep in the transparent night they're still humming, at home in the dark wood on the mountain, in the mint and lungwort and the past. But lay to your heart my rough gift, this unlovely dry necklace of dead bees that once made a sun out of honey.”

“I am Persephone" she said, her voice thin and papery. "Welcome, demigods. Nico squashed a pomegranate under his boot. "Welcome? After last time, you've got the nerve to welcome me?" I shifted uneasily, because talking that way to a god can get you blasted into dust bunnies. "Um, Nico-" "It's all right," Persephone said coldly. "We had a little family spat." "Family spat?" Nico cried. "You turned me into a dandelion!”

“I'm very nearly drunk enough to be transcendent," Calla said after a space. She was not the only psychic drinking, but she was the closest one to transcendence. Persephone peered dubiously into the bottom of her own glass. In a very small voice (her voice was always small), she said sadly, "I am not drunk at all." Maura offered, "It's the Russian in you." "Estonian,"Persephone replied.”

“I was thinking about framing, and how so much of what we think about our lives and our personal histories revolves around how we frame it. The lens we see it through, or the way we tell our own stories. We mythologize ourselves. So I was thinking about Persephone's story, and how different it would be if you told it only from the perspective of Hades. Same story, but it would probably be unrecognizable. Demeter's would be about loss and devastation. Hades's would be about love.”