Well Know Myths
Demeter had a daughter, Persephone, with Zeus. Hades, Demeter's husband and god of the underworld, abducted her and took her to the underworld. Once there, he convinced Persephone to eat a piece of fruit. When someone eats a piece of fruit in the underworld, that means that they have to stay there. Therefore, when Demeter was finally reunited with Persephone, she was heartbroken to discover that Persephone must stay in the underworld with Hades for a third of the year. For the third of the year that Persephone was not with her mother, it is said that she refused to let the crops grow. This myth explains the seasons, the third of the year that Persephone is in the underworld is of course winter.