Gifts of Hades

As winter turns to spring, we think of Persephone returning to her mother, Demeter, whose joy at receiving her daughter brings life anew to the earth. Before Hades returns Persephone from the Underworld to be reunited with Demeter, he feeds her the honey-sweet pomegranate, ensuring that she will always return to him and the Underworld for a third of every year.

And while you are here, you shall rule all that lives and moves and shall have the greatest rights among the deathless gods:

-from the Homeric Hymns

This highly detailed oil painting is framed in an antique black, gold-lined museum plein air frame.