For today’s post, I would like to take a look at the way in which two Goddesses are connected. Blodeuwedd is a Welsh Celtic Goddess of flowers and owls. Persephone is a Greek Goddess of the Spring and the Underworld. I have written about each of them in the past, and today I want to look at the ways in which we can view them as being connected!
Blodeuwedd and Persephone both are Goddesses that began associated with the light and the Spring. Blodeuwedd was literally created from flowers. Persephone was the daughter of the Goddess of the harvest. Flowers play an important part in the story of both of these Goddesses! Blodeuwedd was flowers, and Persephone had her relationship with Hades begin with her picking flowers in a meadow!
Blodeuwedd had her downfall due to love. She had been created by the magicians Math and Gwydion to be the bride of Lleu Llaw Gyffes. Their marriage was one of relative happiness until she met a hunting Lord by the name of Gronw, who was hunting within Lleu’s land when he was traveling. Blodeuwedd invited him to spend the night with her and did so on three consecutive nights. This was as good as making a commitment to Gronw as a future spouse in medieval Welsh culture!
Blodeuwedd was created to be the wife of Lleu, and she had betrayed him for true love. Together they plotted to murder her husband. That fateful choice would lead to Blodeuwedd being cursed into the form of an owl!
Similarly, for Persephone, her trip into the darkness was inspired by her love of Hades. In the case of this Goddess of the Underworld, she needed not to betray her husband for love. Instead, she became a Dark Goddess by truly giving in to her love for the man whom she had been tricked into marrying, in the most common versions of the myth!
Finally, both Goddesses are related to the turning of the seasons. The most common myth of Persephone is one that tells the changing of the seasons, and her time spent between the Underworld, and the Upperworld with her mother exemplifies this. When she returns to her mother she brings with her Spring, and when she departs to her husband Autumn and Winter reign! For Blodeuwedd we can see this in her suitors. When she is with Llew she is the Springtime flower bride, as he is an exemplar of a solar hero or Solar God. Later her choice of Gronw, her lover, is an example of the flower bride choosing the representative of Winter, for he is a dark Winter figure to be shown as the antithesis of Llew’s Summer solar figure. This is common in Celtic lore, having the flower bride fought over between the Lord of Summer and Lord of Winter, for whomever she chooses dictates the season of the year. All of this truly makes Blodeuwedd a Goddess of Seasonal Sovereignty, in addition to her being a flower and owl deity!
I hope you have enjoyed this comparison between the two great Goddesses Persephone and Blodeuwedd. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Persephone in her role as Queen of the Underworld. I found the image on https://aminoapps.com/c/smite/page/blog/persephone-queen-of-the-underworld/z66l_N22Fxu3pLzo3zl0Ya6oxVwrnRBmKZ.
Further Reading
- Persephone’s Pathway: Wisdom, Magick, & Growth by Jennifer Heather
- Flower Face: A Devotional Anthology in Honor of Blodeuwedd edited by Jhenah Telyndru
- Queen of the Sacred Way: A Devotional Anthology in Honor of Persephone from Bibliotheca Alexandrina
- Blodeuwedd: Welsh Goddess of Seasonal Sovereignty by Jhenah Telyndru
White Rose of Avalon 