{"product_id":"persephone-and-the-screech-owl","title":"PERSEPHONE and the screech owl","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePERSEPHONE was the \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theoi.com\/greek-mythology\/underworld-gods.html\" style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003egoddess\u003c\/a\u003e queen of the underworld, wife of the god \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Khthonios\/Haides.html\" style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003eHaides\u003c\/a\u003e. She was also the goddess of spring growth, who was worshipped alongside her mother \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Olympios\/Demeter.html\" style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003eDemeter\u003c\/a\u003e in the Eleusinian Mysteries. This agricultural-based cult promised its initiates passage to a blessed afterlife.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePersephone was titled Kore (the Maiden) as the goddess of spring's bounty. Once upon a time when she was playing in a flowery meadow with her Nymph companions, Kore was seized by Haides and carried off to the underworld as his bride. Her mother Demeter despaired at her dissappearance and searched for her the throughout the world accompanied by the goddess \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Khthonios\/Hekate.html\" style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003eHekate\u003c\/a\u003e bearing torches. When she learned that \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Olympios\/Zeus.html\" style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003eZeus\u003c\/a\u003e had conspired in her daughter's abduction she was furious, and refused to let the earth fruit until Persephone was returned. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eZeus consented, but because the girl had tasted of the food of Haides--a handful of pomegranate seeds--she was forced to forever spend a part of the year with her husband in the underworld. Her annual return to the earth in spring was marked by the flowering of the meadows and the sudden growth of the new grain. Her return to the underworld in winter, conversely, saw the dying down of plants and the halting of growth.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #ff0000;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e Her sacred bird is the screech owl as well, and it is this bird she is willing to choose for you. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e","brand":"secretsensations","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":6218344516,"sku":"","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0954\/6522\/products\/tumblr_lq2zm4kDaW1qc6j5yo1_500.jpg?v=1444506906","url":"http:\/\/www.secretsensations.org\/products\/persephone-and-the-screech-owl","provider":"secretsensations","version":"1.0","type":"link"}