Proserpine (in Latin Proserpina, a form of the Greek Persephone), daughter of Zeus and Demeter (Ceres). The story of her abduction by Pluto, god of the under-world, of her mother's unceasing search for her, and of her living part of the year above and part underground, is detailed under DEMETER. There can be little doubt that the myth is an expression of the revival of nature in spring after the death of winter. Proserpine was usually worshipped under the name of Korē ('maiden') along with her mother Demeter. The chief seats of her worship were Sicily and Magna Græcia; but she had also temples at Corinth, Megara, Thebes, and Sparta. The pomegranate is her symbol, and the pigeon and cock are sacred to her. In works of art she bears a cornucopia, or is represented with ears of corn and a cock.
See the works by Preller (1837), Förster (1874), and Overbeck in Griechische Kunstmythologie, 4th book (1878).