Have you ever wondered why during the spring season the cities, in particular Rome, are colored with a thousand flowers and during a luxury shopping in the gold triangle or an exclusive tour of the most important places and monuments of Rome, (Via dei Condotti, Via Frattina, Via Borgognona) you can breathe and lose yourself with aromas and floral notes spreading in the air?
A legend will make you discover why…
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Proserpina, sweet and sweet, who loved flowers and to whom she devoted much of her time. Every day he went, together with other pretty girls, to the lake of Pergusa (Sicily) and collected them.
Suddenly there was a terrible roar that tore open the air. From the belly of the earth appeared in all his majesty Pluto on a golden chariot drawn by four black horses, he seized the girl and took her with him into the realm of darkness.
Proserpina screamed with all his breath, so strong that his desperate cry was heard by his mother Ceres all’Olimpo who began to look for her.
First of all he asked for help from Hecate, the only goddess able to freely cross the three worlds: Olympus, Earth and Hades. But there was nothing to be done and so he decided to turn to the Sun God who sees everything.
Ceres finally discovered that Proserpina had been kidnapped by Pluto, who fell in love with the eternal beauty of the girl and asked permission from her brother Jupiter (her husband) to take her with him to the Underworld.
For nine days and nine nights the goddess sought her daughter until, in despair, she decided to deny her power to men. Where before they grew fruits and plants in abundance, there was only desert. The mythical golden age, with rich harvest and harvest all year long, ceased, leaving the place first to drought, then to a death of cattle and men.
Mercury, driven by Jupiter, went to Pluto and convinced him to return the girl to his mother for at least part of the year, spring. For safety he made the young woman eat pomegranate grains which, in Greek symbolism, represented a link with her husband’s house. Proserpina ate six grains of pomegranate and for this Jupiter established that the young girl could have returned to the surface with her mother for six months a year (Spring and Summer), in the other six months she would have to return to Hades (Autumn and Winter) . So it was that the lawns again covered themselves with flowers and the fruits began to ripen on the trees.
It carries within itself a deeper meaning than the alternation of the seasons. Proserpine represents the seed that is sown, hidden in the earth during the winter, which blossoms in spring and returns to the surface, bringing with it the fruits and the harvest.
