Pomegranate

Click image(s) to see the larger version(s).This tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Ragz1138 and is licensed under Creative Commons.This tattoo was inked by Ragz Rejected of Katalist Konsepts out of Fort Collins, Colorado. (Also home to the beloved Mez Love whose work has been and will be featured here many times!)30 September marks the ancient Roman holiday in which Meditrina, goddess of medicines, is given fruit offerings. The pomegranate, however, is also a key element of the myth of Prosperpine (Roman) or Persephone (Greek) and the ancient explanation of the seasons. Persephone was the daughter of Zeus, chief of the Greek pantheon, and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. The story goes that while she was out gathering flowers in a field Hades, god of the underworld and one of her many admirers, caused the Earth to open up so that he could rise up and grab her. Her mother Demeter was in such distress after she went missing that she neglected her duties. The crops began to fail and the people began to starve. Eventually the other gods interceded and Hades promised to release Persephone but only after giving her a pomegranate. When she ate of the fruit it caused her to be forever tied to the Underworld which meant she had to stay there at least one third of the year. During this time her mother Demeter refused to let any plants grow which created the season of winter.

Credit: pagan-magic.blogspot.com