Demeter decided to leave Olympus and renounce her divine duties until such a time as her daughter was returned to her. The godess's exile made the earth barren and Zeus demanded that Hades give back Persephone. She, however, had already eaten a few seeds from a pomegranate, and this bound her forever to the underworls. A compromise was nonetheless reached: Persephone would rise up into the world above with the first growth of spring and return to her subterranean home when the seed was sown in autumn.
When Aphrodite fell in love with Adonis she concealed him in a chest which she entrusted to Persephone. Persephone refused to give Adonis back, however, as she too had fallen in love with the young man. Zeus meditated in the quarrel and it was decided Adonis would spend one third of the year with one, one third with the other and a third with whomever he chose.