According to greek mythology, Persephone is the goddess of the underworld, daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She was so beautiful that everyone loved her and Hades wanted her to himself. As legend goes, one day as persephone was collecting flowers the earth opened up and Hades rose up and abducted her. Demeter wandered the earth, looking for her daughter until Helios revealed what had happened. She was so angry that she withrew herself in lonliness and the earth ceased being fertile. Knowing this couldnt continue Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to make him release Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed, but before she went back he gave Persephone a pomegranate, which when she later ate, bound her to underworld forever. Because of this, she now spends one-third of each year in the underworld as the wife of Hades, and two-thirds of the year with her mother. While Persephone is in the underworld, her mother mourns and refuses to allow crops to grow until she gets her daughter back again. And -that- is what we know as winter.
