Proserpina’s mother, Ceres, searches for her daughter worldwide, but to no avail. As Ceres walks the earth, the sun sinks, darkness falls, and with each step, the growth of crops halts, creating a desert. Jupiter sends Mercury to order Pluto to free Proserpina, but she has eaten “several” of the pomegranate seeds from the underworld; those who have eaten the food of the dead cannot return to the world of the living. Pluto insists that she had willingly eaten his pomegranate seeds and, in exchange, she must stay with him for half the year. When Ceres welcomes her daughter’s return to the world of the living, the crops grow, flowers blossom, and in summer, all growing crops flourish to be harvested in autumn (Wikipedia Contributors).