According to legend, the goddess Demeter had a young daughter, Persephone. Persephone's father was Zeus the Thunderer. Zeus gave her as a wife to his gloomy brother Hades, the ruler of the kingdom of shadows and the dead, and Persephone had to live with him in the darkness of the underworld.

It happened in the following way. Once Persephone, along with her friends, frolicked in a flowering valley. Hades saw how Persephone was frolicking, and decided to kidnap her right there. He begged the goddess Gaia (Tellus) to grow a flower of extraordinary beauty. Persephone saw the flower and held out her hand to it. But as soon as she plucked a flower, the earth opened up, and a gloomy Hades appeared on a golden chariot. He grabbed the young Persephone and carried her away in a chariot harnessed by "snoring horses", hiding in the bowels of the earth. Only Persephone managed to scream. No one saw how Hades kidnapped the girl, only the god of the sun - Helios. Demeter heard the cry of Persephone. She began to look everywhere for her daughter, but she did not find it anywhere. For nine days she wandered the earth, shedding tears, and on the tenth day she came to the god Helios and began to pray to him to tell her who kidnapped Persephone. Helios told the grieving mother about everything. Demeter was angry because Zeus gave Persephone to wife Hades without her knowledge. She left Olympus and took the form of a mere mortal.