The advanced drapery study shows a figure and folds which remained largely unchanged in the subsequent painting, The Return of Persephone (Leeds City Art Gallery). The figure is Persephone herself, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter who in Greek myth rendered the earth fruitful, before being abducted by the God of the underworld. The hand around her back is that of Hermes, who in Leighton's final painting returns Persephone to her mother in the sunlight world above. But after having been tricked whilst in the underworld, Persephone was thereafter bound to return there for one season a year, bringing barren winter to the earth.