Jupiter lay with Ceres and from their union came Proserpina, the maiden whose abduction by Pluto would plunge her mother into grief so fierce that all the world's grain withered until the gods brokered her return.
Pluto abducted Proserpina and made her his queen in the underworld. Jupiter brokered a compromise allowing her to spend part of each year above ground with Ceres.
The Italian goddess Libera was gradually identified with Proserpina as Greek influence grew, merging Libera's fertility associations with the Greek Persephone myth under the name Proserpina.
Pluto received the Underworld by lot when the three brothers divided the cosmos after the Titanomachy, and Proserpina reigns beside him as queen of the dead, half the year bound to the realm below.
Phersipnai, Persephone, and Proserpina are the Etruscan, Greek, and Roman queens of the underworld — Phersipnai sits enthroned beside Aita in the Tomb of Orcus at Tarquinia, her name deriving directly from the Greek Persephone.
Minerva and Diana were gathering flowers with Proserpina in the meadows of Enna when Pluto burst from the earth and seized the maiden, dragging her down to the underworld before either goddess could intervene.
Ceres searched the world with blazing torches for her abducted daughter Proserpina. Their annual separation caused winter's barrenness, and Proserpina's return each spring restored Ceres's joy and the earth's fertility.
Proserpina claimed Dido's soul after Iris cut her hair to release it. Because Dido died before her fated time by suicide, the queen of the underworld's intervention was required to complete her passage to the realm of the dead.
Hecate heard Proserpina's cries during the abduction and later helped Ceres search for her daughter, becoming an attendant of Proserpina in the underworld.
Jupiter sent Mercury to the underworld to negotiate Proserpina's release from Pluto, and Mercury's embassy secured the compromise that allowed her to spend part of each year above ground with Ceres.
Psyche descended to the underworld and petitioned Proserpina for a portion of her divine beauty, which Proserpina granted in a sealed box, as the final task imposed by Venus.
The Sibyl instructed Aeneas that the Golden Bough must be offered as a gift to Proserpina, queen of the underworld, whose sacred grove concealed the branch and whose favor alone permitted the living to return from the dead.
Venus conspired to bring Proserpina under the power of love, declaring that not even the underworld's queen should remain untouched by desire. Her plot through Cupid's arrow led to Pluto's seizure of Proserpina and the creation of the seasons.
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