Hades, King of the Underworld, looked with envy at his brothers Zeus and Poseidon: no goddess or mortal would ever knowingly set foot in his kingdom.
So he devised a plan: to kidnap Kore, a very young Goddess, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter.
One day while the young Goddess was collecting flowers with the nymphs, Hades sprouted from a crack in the ground and kidnapped her.
When the news was heard, Demeter, grieving, set out to find her daughter. He went as far as Eleusis, where the Eleusinian mysteries were founded in honor of Demeter and Kore.
Hecate, goddess of magic, who had heard Kore’s screams as she was kidnapped, revealed to Demeter the identity of the kidnapper.
So Zeus ordered Hades to free the young Goddess.
One of Hades' servants, Ascafalus, pointed out to the gods that the maiden had eaten six grains of pomegranate. The pomegranate was the fruit of the underworld: those who ate it were condemned to remain in the kingdom of Hades.
Thus the Gods established that Kore, who from that moment took the name of Persephone, would spend six months in the Underworld with Hades, during which Demeter would forbid Earth to bear fruit (Autumn, Winter) and six months on Earth (Spring, Summer).
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