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| Cult |
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The chthonian (see
etymology) Poseidon's cult was spread all over ancient Epirus, where
it had been introduced by the first Greeks, towards 2000 b.C., under the
species of the Horse-Deity, bridegroom of Demeter (the local fertility
Goddess). Hereupon the name:
from 
(bridegroom) and 
(earth).
So the two deities, Demeter and Poseidon, became the couple of hell Gods.
When Mycenaen colonists, coming
from western Peloponnese, settled down in Ephyra in the 14-th century b.C.
or when, in the 8-th century b.C., Eleans built up Pandosia, east of the
Nekromanteion, the two local deities, Horse-Poseidon and the Goddess of
fertility, were identified with the correspondent deities of the western
Peloponnese, Aidoneus or Hades and Persephone.
Persephone, as the Goddess
ruling over the Underworld beside her consort Hades, presents a menacing
attitude announcing death and destruction but, at the same time, is an
agrarian deity and, as such, strictly connected with her mother, Demeter,
in which case she preferably assumes the name of Core.
The Persephone's myth is well
known: daughter of Demeter, who begot her in the union with Zeus, Persephone
had been abducted and Demeter in despair run nine days over land and sea
looking for her, before learning she had been taken by Hades with Zeus'
permission. After such terrible news, Demeter withdrew into herself while
earth became sterile, until Zeus was not induced to allow Persephone back
to the earth for six months every year, between spring and autumn. Demeter,
appeased, took her seat again in Olympus, from where she was again dispenser
of fecundity and fertility for the earth.
Between the 5-th and the 3-rd century, Persephone passed into the Roman religion under the name of Proserpine.
