Persephone's Pomegranates from the Mythical Fruit Series (Medium)

Jo's inspiration for the Pomegranate glass works
Who would have thought that these simple wonders from the earth could carry so many stories across so many cultures. From China, Iran, Greece, and Norway through to Christianity - fruit has often represented abundance, fertility, and plenty as well as earthly pleasure, overindulgence, and temptation.
Specific kinds of fruit have acquired their own meanings in world mythology: Persephone and the Pomegranate - a Greek myth.
Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and Zeus, the king of the gods. One day, while she was picking flowers, she was abducted by Hades to the underworld. When her father, Demeter, finally got her back he asked her if she had eaten anything while she was there. Persephone admitted that she had eaten a pomegranate seed at the urging of Hades just before she left. This was a trick by Hades - anyone who ate his food was required to remain in the underworld. Because of this, Persephone was required to spend one-third of each year in the underworld as the wife of Hades, and two-thirds of the year with her mother Zeus. While Persephone is with Demeter and Zeus on Olympus the ground is fertile and the crops grow - Spring and Summer. When she returns to the underworld, the ground becomes colder and less fertile until her return - Autumn and Winter. So according to the myth, it was a one pomegranate seed that sealed Persephone’s fate as Queen of the Underworld and the ushering in of Autumn and Winter, when the seeds lie underground awaiting again the fertile warm months of Spring and Summer.

Lampworked (Torchworked) Glass
Size Medium 9cm dia