Perdita is the long-lost daughter of Leontes and Hermione. When Leontes falls into a jealous rage in the opening act, he initially orders the newborn child to be burned alive. After Paulina’s strenuous pleas on the child’s behalf, Leontes instead orders Paulina’s husband, Antigonus, to take the baby to Bohemia and leave her in the wilderness. Antigonus executes the king’s terrible command, and in the process, he’s eaten by a bear—but not before he pins to the child a note with her name, meaning “lost one,” which Hermione told him in a dream vision. Meanwhile, a humble shepherd and his son come upon the defenseless child and take her in. Sixteen years later, Perdita has grown into a young woman of astonishing beauty and poise. Her deep horticultural knowledge and her role as mistress of the annual sheep-shearing event make her the symbolic heir of Proserpina, Roman goddess of the spring rebirth. Eventually, when she’s revealed to be Leontes’s lost daughter, her supreme beauty and grace mark her as her mother’s true heir. And with the “finding” of her “lost one,” Hermione is miraculously restored to life.