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

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

The actor and singer star enters Broadway’s “Hadestown,” the brooding 2019 Tony Award-winning musical about the underworld, which intertwines the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 20, 2023

She also took inspiration from Greek mythology and its characters, such as Persephone and Eurydice, who are often the victims of betrayal.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2023

But presently I gave command to my officers to flay those sheep the bronze cut down, and make burnt offerings of flesh to the gods below—to sovereign Death, to pale Persephone.

From "The Odyssey" by Homer

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