Persephone

See also: Persephonë and Perséphone

English

Alternative forms

• Persephonë

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Περσεφόνη (Persephónē).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˈsɛfəni/
• (US) IPA^(key): /pɚˈsɛfəniː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Proper noun

Triptolemus and Persephone (1)

Persephone

1. (Greek mythology) A minor deity, the queen of the Underworld/Hades, and goddess of the seasons and vegetation. Originally named Kore/Core, she is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter; and the wife of Hades. Her Roman counterpart is Proserpina.
2. (astronomy) 399 Persephone, a main belt asteroid.
3. (rare) A female given name from Ancient Greek.
   • 2008, Gaynor McGrath, Lemniscate, Transit Lounge Publishing (2011), →ISBN (e-book), chapter 23, 376:

     ‘My name is Persephone’ she says, ‘but in England everyone calls me Seph.’

4. (science fiction) The tenth planet, orbiting beyond Pluto.

Translations

Greek goddess

• Albanian: Persefonía f
• Bengali: পার্সিফোন (parśiphōn)
• Breton: Persefone
• Bulgarian: Персефона f (Persefona)
• Catalan: Persèfone f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 珀耳塞福涅 (Pò'ěrsāifúniè)

• Coptic: ⲡⲉⲣⲥⲉⲫⲟⲛⲏ (persephonē)
• Czech: Persefona f
• Danish: Persefone
• Dutch: Persephone
• Esperanto: Persefono
• Finnish: Persefone
• French: Perséphone (fr) f
• German: Persephone (de)
• Greek: Περσεφόνη (el) f (Persefóni)

  Ancient: Περσεφόνη f (Persephónē)

• Hebrew: פרספונה
• Hindi: पर्सिफ़ोनी (parsifonī)
• Hungarian: Perszephoné (hu)
• Irish: Peirsifiné f, Peirséifiné f
• Italian: Persefone
• Japanese: ペルセポネー (Peruseponē)
• Korean: 페르세포네 (ko) (pereusepone)
• Latin: Persephonē f
• Latvian: Persefone
• Lithuanian: Persefonė f
• Luxembourgish: Persephone
• Marathi: पर्सेफनी f (parsephnī)
• Norwegian: Persephone
• Polish: Persefona (pl) f
• Portuguese: Perséfone (pt) f
• Romanian: Persefona f
• Russian: Персефо́на (ru) f (Persefóna)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Персефона f

  Roman: Perzefona (sh) f

• Slovak: Persefona f
• Spanish: Perséfone f
• Swedish: Persefone
• Thai: เพอร์ซิโฟเน
• Turkish: Persephone
• Ukrainian: Персефо́на f (Persefóna)

female given name

• Albanian: Persefoní f, Persefonía f
• Greek: Περσεφόνη (el) f (Persefóni)
• Marathi: पर्सेफनी f (parsephnī)

Latin

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek Περσεφόνη (Persephónē).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /perˈse.pʰo.neː/, [pɛrˈs̠ɛpʰɔneː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /perˈse.fo.ne/, [perˈsɛːfone]

Proper noun

Persephonē f sg (genitive Persephonēs); first declension

1. (Greek mythology) Persephone (Greek goddess)
2. (transferred sense) Death (personified)

Declension

• The regularized genitive Persephonae occurs in later Latin.

First-declension noun (Greek-type), singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	Persephonē
Genitive	Persephonēs
Dative	Persephonae
Accusative	Persephonēn
Ablative	Persephonē
Vocative	Persephonē

Synonyms

• (Persephone [Greek goddess]): Prōserpina (Roman counterpart)

References

• “Persĕphŏnē”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Persephone”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Persĕphŏnē in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 1,159/1.
• “Persephonē” on page 1,354/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)

Portuguese

Proper noun

Persephone f

1. Archaic spelling of Perséfone.