Demeter was most often kind and generous, but she could be very hard when crossed. Two stories illustrate this point very well. The first is the story of Hades kidnapping her daughter Persephone. She stopped her duties of helping the crops grow for almost a year. It was not till Zeus made a deal with her that she allowed the crops to grow. Zeus had to make this deal before the human race was wiped out because of the crop failure she caused.