People have always tried to understand why certain things happen. In early times, people lacked the knowledge to give scientific answers. They, therefore, explained natural events by stories about gods and goddesses. Such stories are known as myths. The following Greek myth explains why it gets cold in the winter and warm in the rest of the year.

Demeter was the goddess of the harvest, the gathering of ripe fruits and vegetables. People loved Demeter because she was kind and generous and gave them plenty of food. It was because of her that crops grew in the fields and the earth was green.

Demeter had a daughter, called Persephone, whom she loved very much. One day, when Hades, the god of the underworld, was riding his chariot over the earth, he saw Persephone. She was so beautiful and friendly ― as she was to everyone she met ― that he fell in love with her right there.

He asked her to marry him and come to his kingdom in the underworld and be his queen. However, Persephone loved her mother and the beautiful earth she lived on, so she didn’t want to go with him to the underworld.

Hades didn’t care. He wanted her to be with him, so he swooped her into his chariot and carried her down into the underworld. Persephone was scared and very unhappy. The underworld was dark and shadowy like a great cave that went on forever. Oh, how Persephone longed to be with her mother, and run across the bright green fields!

Soon her mother, Demeter, noticed she was gone, and raised a cry of alarm. Demeter searched and searched for Persephone, but she couldn’t find her anywhere. Demeter loved her daughter more than anything in the world, and she couldn’t bear to be without her.

She asked the other gods if they had seen her daughter. Apollo, the god of the sun, told her he had seen Hades carry Persephone off to the underworld in his chariot.

Demeter became very sad. She no longer went to the great feasts with the other gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. She no longer laughed or drank sweet nectar from golden cups beside her friends and sisters.

She no longer cared for her beautiful earth or the bright yellow grains that were her treasure. She went off by herself to weep for her daughter. Soon the earth became cold and bare. The golden corn died. The people everywhere became hungry, because they had no grain or fruit to eat.

When Zeus, the ruler of all the gods, saw what had happened, he told Demeter that she could get Persephone back from the underworld. He also told Hades that he would have to let Persephone go, so that the earth could be warm and fruitful again.

However, Hades loved Persephone and didn’t want to let her go. In order to keep Persephone, he gave her a magical fruit, a fruit red on the outside like an apple but full of small fruit- covered seeds on the inside.

Because Persephone ate part of the fruit, she had to stay in the underworld with Hades for part of the year. During these months, the earth gets cold, winter comes, and the plants retreat into the earth just like Persephone.

When Persephone returns from Hades, spring comes and flowers bloom, and Demeter makes the earth bright with her happiness. This, the Greeks thought, is why the earth is cold during the winter and warm in the rest of the year.