Welcome to the Friday Afternoon Challenge! My humble offering today: The Pose of the Art!

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47. #2: Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Persephona

For whatever reason, pomegranates seem all the rage these days. Indeed, the juice-packed seeds contained in this fruit carry quite the punch, and the removal of the seeds from the membranes is an experience quite unlike any other. While the fruit itself is growing in popularity (apparently it has a plethora of health benefits), for many the religious significance of the pomegranate is still relatively unknown.

Obviously, with the hundreds of blood red seeds contained within, the pomegranate has often been a symbol of fertility. In Greek mythology, Persephone was kidnapped by the God Hades and taken away to the Underworld to live as his wife. Demeter, the mother of Persephone and the goddess of the Harvest, became so saddened by the loss of her daughter that all vegetation on earth ceased to grow. Zeus, not about the let the earth die, commanded Hades to return Persephone. According to the rule that governed the universe, those who ate or drank while in the underworld were doomed to spend eternity there. While Persephone attempted to avoid food, Hades tricked her into eating six pomegranate seeds. Because of this, she was condemned to spend six months in the Underworld every year. Every year, during the six months that Persephone joins her husband in the Underworld, Demeter returns to mourning and the earth is no longer fertile. This Greek myth became the explanation for the change in seasons. Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting Persephona depicts Persephone holding the fatal fruit:

http://causafinitaest.blogspot.com/2010/12/pomegranates-from-persephone-to-jesus.html