The goddess of Spring in ancient Greek mythology, Persephone was the beloved daughter of the goddess of the Harvest, Demeter.

In the beginning, the world was perpetually in a state of agricultural fertility. The mother and daughter goddesses spent their days in the fields and forests, happily enabling plants to grow, bloom and fruit.

Persephone became the object of desire of Hades, god of the Underworld. She was kidnapped to his realm of the afterlife and tricked into eating 6 pomegranate seeds which prevented her return to the realm of the living.

The separation from her daughter caused Demeter so much distress that she refused to do her duty and the world grew cold and hostile to growth: plants withered and mortals began to starve.

A deal was struck so that Persephone could spend a month for each seed she consumed with Hades and the other half of the year with her mother. Spring began when she stepped foot on Olympus and reunited with Demeter and Autumn when she again returned to the Underworld. And so, it was Persephone's abduction and marriage to Hades, her yearly journey between life and death, that brought seasons to the world.

🍃🌸🍃🌸🌸🌸🍃🌸🌸🍃🌸🍃

This piece is a 1/1 edition by Maneki Neko. It was created through months of experimentation with the AI tool Stable Diffusion to synthesize distinctive and stylized portraits from hundreds of combinations of prompts and settings to produce thousands of images. The best of these images were curated and used to initiate the generation of six variations from which the best parts were collaged. To bring out even more details, the piece was upscaled in multiple versions which were also collaged, fixed for any aberrations and finished with color and fine detail editing in Photoshop. Don't forget to zoom in!

Digital image, 6155x8000 px

Year Minted: 2022

Extended Editorial License:

The image this NFT verifies may be used to display privately, or in commercial and non-commercial settings, or in groups with an unlimited number of participants. The license includes unlimited use and display in virtual or physical galleries, documentaries, and essays by the NFT holder. Provides no rights to create commercial merchandise, commercial distribution, or derivative works.