Persephone is a Greek goddess who is known for her role as the goddess of spring and vegetation. She is also the queen of the underworld and the wife of Hades, the god of the underworld. Persephone was born to Zeus, the chief god, and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. Her mother passed on to her extraordinary skills in bringing forth new life and sustaining growth, which made her associated with fertility and passion. Persephone was also called Kore, which means "maiden". She was abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld, which led to her new role as the queen of the underworld. Her mother, Demeter, was so devastated by her disappearance that she became unconcerned with the harvest or the fruitfulness of the earth, causing widespread famine. Zeus intervened and commanded Hades to release Persephone to her mother, but because she had eaten a single pomegranate seed in the underworld, she had to remain one-third of the year with Hades and spent the other two-thirds with her mother. Persephone was also worshipped in ancient agrarian cults of agricultural communities and was the central figure of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised the initiated a happy afterlife.