Persephone

American

[per-sef-uh-nee] / pərˈsɛf ə ni /

noun

Classical Mythology. Also Proserpina Proserpine a daughter of Zeus and Demeter, abducted by Pluto to be queen of Hades, but allowed to return to the surface of the earth for part of the year.
a female given name.

Persephone British

/ pəˈsɛfənɪ /

noun

Roman counterpart: Proserpina. Greek myth a daughter of Zeus and Demeter, abducted by Hades and made his wife and queen of the underworld, but allowed part of each year to leave it

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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Persephone

Thor for thunderstorms, shrieking Sirens to explain shipwrecks, the abduction of Persephone the reason behind the bleakness of winter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

There is a timelessness to Mitchell’s work, thanks in large part to the ancient source material, the myths of Orpheus, Eurydice, Hades and Persephone.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

From Demeter mourning Persephone to the harvest holidays of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, we’ve always marked time through the land.

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2025

And so they did, with DiFranco singing the part of Persephone.

From New York Times ● Jan. 6, 2024

He and not Persephone became the center of the belief in immortality.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023