by Io
From the end of the corridor the screams began.
Theseus, belatedly noble, looked that way, and asked, “Save our men!”
Hades didn’t even answer. The screaming continued, rose to a desperate level, then, all together and suddenly fell silent. The silence became deafening.
I went back to wrap myself in my cloak, turning me into a dark figure, among the stalagmites that protected me. With dark eyes, I saw the lord of the underworld turn back towards my captors. The word ‘mercy’ stuck in my throat, unexpressed, and vanished from my thoughts.
Hades, burning like his armor, passed sentence: “Now, nephews, you will pay for your actions.” He advanced. Night submerged the cave, unfolding her black wings filled the whole world. I felt her touch my face, as she passed me to reach the king.
I repeat: they were brave. Until the end, until the moment of damnation, they managed not to scream.
But after they cried, like all the damned. For eternity.
The Divine Thread
“Don’t take revenge on my mother.”
He knew that I would end up asking him, so I saved time and said it immediately, as soon as I saw him coming, passing the closed drapes. The nymphs had isolated the bedroom itself, because in the larger room there was a bustle of footmen and courtiers, it was not appropriate for them to assist the queen at her bath. Even the windows had been blacked out because the multi-formed winged creatures of the realm of Hades were unclear about the concept of privacy (they didn’t have any idea really, to be entirely accurate).
He entered, he saw me in the steaming water with medicinal herbs, and passed, without answering. Despite the heat rising in wisps of steam, I felt cold.
The nymphs were quick to pull the curtains behind him, and I caught only a glimpse of billowing robes, feet moving. I thought I saw a shoe decorated with small white wings.
Then, the definitive voice of Hades asked me if I was better.
“I’m fine,” I replied, and moved over in the bath, to be closer to him, “Panacea’s ointment has made me feel even better than before.”
Hades had to go to his writing desk, but he hesitated a moment. He looked at me, and if in my previous life I would have thought that I would be the same, by then I had lost all innocence, and I knew exactly what he saw: loose hair, scattered around me on the water strewn with petals, my young smooth body, the droplets collected in the hollow of the throat, between the breasts. Nakedness, distorted by the small waves on the water, certainly did not conceal me.
I raised an arm to brush the wet hair away that hid my body, and I repeated:
“Don’t take revenge on my mother.” I beg you!
He watched, doing nothing to hide himself. I was his bride. I belonged to him. He had no need to hide the thoughts that were aroused in him by my legs stretched out on the marble, as I leaned on the edge of the tub, like a Naiad nymph.
Before he answered – or he refused – I added, quickly,
“You look tired, my husband. Come and refresh yourself also, you are in need.”
He shook his head, even though I wanted to think that he did so with some regret.
“I have some letters that require immediate response, and others that I must begin immediately. Nobody, not even the seed of my brethren, can insult me so badly in my house.”
I had no doubt that if my father had been Poseidon, after some threat, more to save face than anything else, the dead could not have been let go. After all, they had not lost more than a bastard each of their numerous offspring. They had many children, but that brother was unique.
No sane person would have antagonized Hades. Now I knew.
“Don’t take revenge on my mother.” Please don’t do this to me.
I tried to speak with light tones, meekly.
“Then I’ll wait, I was advised to stay as much as possible, because the liniment will have work better. They were very hard blows. “
In a low voice, Hades said, “If I had imagined they would have attacked you like that, I would not have sent you away on your own, Persephone. For no reason.”
They had all the effects of excuses, and I don’t think they were offered to anyone before; but they were offered to me without looking away and without escaping humiliation – it was really humiliating for him, perhaps worse than being devoured by Cronus, before the revolt of Zeus.
He had failed in his duty to protect me. Intolerable. His own pride tore at him, rose up against him and made him feel unworthy of himself.
I think, at least in part, the need to remedy what he considered to be his own culpable lack guided his actions, in what was to take place. The god of the Avernus is relentless with everyone, including himself.
But at that time I knew nothing of this, and I could only answer him, as gently as I could, that I knew. No one would have imagined such an insult from a guest. Even among mortals it would have been unforgivable.
I asked one of the nymphs of the aromatic salt, to end the matter, and told him, with a little malice to end the drama, that he was a fool to refuse my invitation.
I could not imagine what I would do, if he decided to destroy my mother. I could not think of it.
Hades went off to write his letters. For a while. the slight scrape of the stylus was the only sound in the room, excluding the voices and the steps on the other side of the curtains; then even those thinned and eventually faded away. I leaned against the marble edge of the tub and closed my eyes, thinking that if I could hear him busy writing that was better than knowing he was otherwise occupied. While he sat to draft dispatches, as fiery as he was, my mother would not face any danger.
I was afraid, very. The consequences of what happened were unpredictable, at least for me. The possibilities were endless, and all were unknown to me.
But it should not be by force: you’re the queen of the Avernus, remember? If you want to know what will happen, you have no choice but to go and see.
Go see the threads...
“My lady?”
I blinked. In the fragrant warmth of the water, supported by the steps and by the massive edge of the bath, I did not realize that I had fallen asleep. I could no longer hear the stylus, and saw fleetingly someone left the room, disappearing behind the curtains. He went quickly, too, too fast for the mortal eye to see. I had only the time to seize a heel decorated with a tiny white wing, and before the nymph continued, “You want to get out, majesty? The king wants to retire.”
I sprinkled a little water on the face, to clear my head. At least, the pain brought on my Pirithous’ blows had completely vanished, as well as the injuries. The waters of the Styx would have had the same effect, but a warm and fragrant bath in the oils of Panacea, daughter of the healer Asclepius, was much better.
“No,” I said, “you can go. My husband needs to rest.”
They laid the towels next to the door, bowed and left, without question. What would happen between Hades and me, from then on, certainly did not concern them.
He was sitting in front of the fire, whose flame burned unquenchable, although I had never seen anyone feed it or revive it: it was just a fire, orange edged in yellow, which flickered toward the obsidian ceiling, no smoke and no overflow from the square hole within which it was confined. The fire did not become agitated, not even when the windows were open and the breeze of the Elysian fields cooled the skin.
At that moment, the fire drew strange shadows on Hades’ face, and I could not guess his thoughts. I had never felt so helpless as when I had raised myself to sit on the edge of the tub, gathering my hair over one shoulder and combing it with my fingers.
The water was running over me, and the gentle sound was enough to redeem me. He turned his head toward me, but his face was still full of shadows.
I struggled to find a smile for him,
“So, now you have time for a bath? My vanity is tired of hearing you refuse.”
“You’re provoking me, Persephone?” I kept smiling, “Is it working?” He walked over t
o the tub, looked down at me.
He was wearing a red tunic so dark that it appeared to be black, and his cloak over one shoulder, a sign that he had not spent the hours following at the ‘banquet’ sitting and waiting for events to unfurl. After he had carried me to the palace he had disappeared somewhere without telling me anything, but I could easily assume that he did not spend those hours dispensing amnesties and access to paradise.
I was very, very, very scared. Unable to go on pretending, I burst out, “I can not feel clean, even in the water. They put their filthy hands on me, and I dare not think about what they would have done, if...”
“There is no if,” he interrupted dryly, a sign that I had touched a nerve, “believing that they could have reached the surface is offensive to me, Queen.”
“Don’t talk about being offended! That Pirithous looked at me like I was a piece of fresh meat, like...” I swallowed, because my voice had begun to tremble. “They would not have dared if they could not count on powerful help, I know, I’m not so naive. The protection of Mother Earth can make anyone daring, but ... but ...”
Sending all my ideas of self-control up in smoke, to keep the situation in hand, before he escaped me, I miserably burst into tears.
“Please, please, please, don’t take revenge on my mother. I beg you, at least please do not add wrong to wrong, please!”
Hades was incredulous: “Demeter had promised you to a mortal, and you are defending her?”
“She is my mother!”
“She would have taken you away from me,” his voice became deeper, he was loosing his temper, “she promised to protect two mortals, to take you away from me. She insulted me.”
And when did you insult me? When you kidnapped me, instead of overpowering me? When have you chosen your pride, rather than my love?
But I did not say that. I swear I wanted to save Mother Earth, not to anger him even more. I held his foot in my hands, like a supplicant. Someone had to put aside pride, and I knew that, if it was not I, no one would.
“She is your sister, doesn’t this count for anything?”
“My brothers have lost their sense of reason seeing the breast of our sisters, not me.”
“I see that well,” I replied coldly, “it is to their daughters that they are turning their eyes, and not with too much concern. I thought that I had suffered the wrong.”
Hades lowered himself, resting one knee on the marble edge where I was sitting. Even though his eyes were dark, his expression grim, it was my nakedness he saw. I did not know if it was pride – they had tried to take me from him, but I was still there, and still belonged to him – or if he felt a little tenderness for my vulnerability, but it was not the time to argue.
I began to untie the laces of his sandals, and he did not prevent me.
“What did you think, that I would run away with them? It’s your name I called when I realized they wanted to kidnap me. I did not call my mother: I called you. Does this matter so little?”
With such a dry voice, that it could cut, “Even you are unable to be so optimistic as to believe that you can escape me, Persephone.”
“Of course,” I said ironically, “no one escapes death, as mush as you may want to. You’re so used to imposing your will you don’t understand when it is time to share, my husband.”
Brazenly – what did I have to lose? – I raised myself to untie the golden cord that held the tunic at his hips. Hades allowed me, and in his eyes I saw the sparkle of embers, of lust while I studied his face. I shivered, because I felt his desire had not such different roots than what had unleashed the aggression of Pirithous and his friend, but I drew back. He was not Pirithous, he was Hades. I dropped the cord on the marble edge and lost interest.
“I will always come back to you,” I said, “no matter what happens, I’m your wife. What are you afraid of, lord of the Avernus?”
I got out of the water, shivering because of the change in temperature, and held myself to him, as wet as I was. I kissed him on the corner of his jaw, where it joined his neck, pressed my lips to his earlobe.
“You have punished the wicked,” I whispered, as he tried to tell me that I was the seducer, not the seduced, “you’re already avenged. You’ve already avenged me...”
Without warning, Hades took me by the hips, rolled me over beneath him, trapped me with his weight. Now he smiled, but it was a smile without warmth, hard as the obsidian that crowned him, and as equally dark.
“How you’ve changed, sweet Persephone,” there was derision in his voice, “where is the little girl picking flowers that you did not forget to offer even to the Lord of the Underworld?”
“She has grow up,” I replied, “and loves her husband, as she loves her mother. If she loses one, I cannot condemn the other.”
Mockery became sarcasm: “Why, is it you who has to forgive?”
“Don’t do this to me!”
I grabbed his wrists, not to push him away, but so that he would not reject me, and I cried out,
“I’ve never annoyed you by asking to see her again, I’ve never even asked to have news of her, but that you cannot refuse me! Don’t spark the Underworld against my mother!”
I caught my breath, hoping not to burst into tears again, but a sob escaped me when Hades put his hand on my breast. He held it tight, though not enough to hurt me. I bit my lip and turned my head, feeling deeply humiliated: on contact with his palm, my nipple hardened.
Hades dropped his head to the place between my breasts, to lick the drops of water with his tongue. Where he touched me, the skin glowed, and did not cool. I let go of his wrists, took hold of the clasps that closed his tunic, opened them. It could have been much worse than this, I told myself. Hades lifted himself enough to rid himself of his tunic and cloak, again he held me by the hips, pulled me on to the steps of the bath, where they were under water. I had to hold on to him for support. With my lower back blocked by the slope of the marble boarder, I welcomed his assault feeling him push into me, all the way, with such a rush that I cried again. The pleasure was piercing almost painful: I was not prepared for the fact, of feeling his thrusts even into my throat, of having to hold on to his arms to absorb the tension that was centered at the top of my thighs, where he saw himself disappear inside me. I wrapped my legs around his waist, not to lose anything, nothing. I saw his jaw contract, tense all his muscles until the spasm, and I felt my body falling apart, in the height of pleasure. It seemed to go on forever, then he rested his hands on the marble behind me.
For my part, I did not let go. I passed my hands through his hair, buried my face in his shoulder, I told him that I loved him. I had always been afraid to tell him, but now the fear was too much, in and out of me, and I didn’t care who knew it.
“I love you, and I would kill myself with your sword before marrying someone else. Why can’t you understand?”
Hades pulled himself up, withdrew from me. I felt like crying, but I managed to control myself.
“I never thought you’d willingly marry Pirithous, Persephone. “It’s not that.”
So what is it? If I am yours, if I want be yours, what else could there be?”
Hades immersed himself in the water.
“Yes, you’ve changed a lot.” His voice was calm again, without that depth of the wrath of a volcano that did not want to reveal itself. I looked at him, not daring to hope.
Calmly, he washed his face, brushed back his black hair and then said, with that colorless tone when he enunciated a fact:
“I will not avenge myself on Demeter. You have my word.”
The word of a god who presides over oaths, condemning anyone who breaks them. I jumped, but before I could throw myself into his arms and squeeze and kiss him, he raised his hand.
“But there will be consequences that are as serious and this does not depend only on me. This you have to accept.”
“Certainly, I understand,” I said anxiously, “as soon as I have explained to my mother...”
&nbs
p; “Do you think you can speak only under duress, not to mention that, after her plan, it is beyond me to trust her enough for you to meet her.”
Do you want to separate me from my mother forever? I had no intention of allowing that, but it was not the time to reignite this argument. I would deal with that problem as soon as I had solved the most pressing.
I thought as quickly as possible.
“Then could I speak directly to Zeus, as you have done you, and...”
“No. On the Styx, I would imprison you in Tartarus, before allowing you to do so!”
Speechless, I was in shock to hear him attack me as well. Hades was forced to hold himself back, but his voice was still snarling:
“You will not talk to Zeus, or meet him. You will not be alone with him, for any reason. Is that clear?”
He was beginning to irritate me for his pretensions: “I have all the right to appeal to the Allfather. He is my father.”
“Of course,” he replied sarcastically, “and this makes you safe from his lust, no doubt.”
I looked at him in disgust. “It’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever...”
“Oh, since when did you find incest repugnant?”
I blushed: “The gods do not follow the rules of mortals, and still to marry a niece is not even remotely comparable to lie with his daughter!”
Dry and definitive:
“Precisely. No, Persephone.” I renounce revenge, seeing that this is so important to you, but on my terms.”
His logic was as unassailable as his pride, and I could not help but comply.
In fact, I was almost incredulous about having convinced him, and I wondered if, after all, he had not decided to adapt himself in this way from the start. He knew, I assumed that if he had taken revenge on Demeter it would have broken my heart, not to mention the consequences of a feud between Mother Earth and the Underworld. The whole of Olympus would have descended into the field, in a war such as had not been seen since the war of the Titans.
