Persephone bit her bottom lip to curb her pain and boiling anger. Then she rose up and with another stream of unstoppable tears, she quickly dashed out of the room.
When Persephone was gone, Hades felt a rising anguish and rage in her chest.
She resented herself for ruining everything. Her meager of hope for Persephone's affection all went up in a smoke. In a mad self-loathing fury, the goddess paced about the room then whirled around and hurled the food table to its side, sending everything to the floor. The brazier and torches in the hall burst into bright frenzy flames. Then the fire all went out one by one, leaving Hades alone in the dark empty gloom.
CHAPTER Six:
the great famine
Wasting her strength with the yearning for her blossoming daughter, Demeter paid no heed to the earth. The lands grew bare as she ceased to tend it, fruit withered on the vine, plenteous fields grew fallow, and the pleasant winds ceased to blow. Gradually, the lands grew cold and barren for the goddess accused the whole wide world — ungrateful, not deserving her gift of grain.
Demeter knew not how to reach her girl Persephone, who had been abducted by the Goddess of the Dead to the odious Underworld, and she put on a black cloak of mourning and sealed herself in a cavern for a long time.
While Zeus was napping in his chamber, a great wind began to blow like a sound of waves beating wildly on a rocky shore. He found his sleep being disturbed by a wailing of lamentation. He rose and peered down upon the earth. And that was what he saw, a grievous sight of the world. Nothing of lustrous colors grew. The fields were blasted and parched. Trees were stripped of leaves, standing blighted with the blazing sun beating down.
Zeus was surprised to see there was no green place anywhere. The soil was hard and cracked, covered with the shriveled brown husks of wheat and corn and barley killed in the bud. The people were starving. The king finally realized that Demeter, who was resolved to win her daughter back from Hades, had caused the most dreadful and cruel year for mankind and the all-nourishing earth.
The King of Gods spotted the farmers in the fields and the oxen drew many a curved plough in vain and much white barley was cast upon the land without avail. The hunters could find no game and were dying of starvation. Thus a great wailing and lamentation arose as the people lifted their faces to Olympus and prayed for Zeus's help.
It was true that the ground would not make the seed sprout as long as the rich-crowned goddess was grieving.
At last, the son of Cronos was alarmed and marked this issue in his heart. Demeter would soon destroy the whole race of man with a cruel famine and rob the gods, who dwelled on Olympus of their glorious right of gifts and sacrifices. As the mortals had nothing to offer in their temples, the deathless Olympians would lose their golden sheen from their skin and power be drained from their ichor.
"O Demeter," he groaned to himself. "You surely know how to damn the gods."
At once, the king sent forth the golden-winged Iris to search for Demeter. She obeyed the dark-clouded thunderer and sped with swift feet across space between worlds.
But Iris returned with empty hands, no news of where Demeter was residing. Zeus sent out Hermes instead then Apollo and Artemis. Even the armor-clad Athena also joined the search.
Meanwhile, all the fruits of the earth were cursed and perishing and the human race was dying, no god knew where Demeter was. Until Pan, the goat-god of nature, roamed from mountain to mountain and came at last upon Mount Elaios and found the goddess of grain.
During his journey, Pan had noticed streams of fire let loosed by the enraged Demeter to rid all the grain-fields of Sicily, which no man could approach. As she groaned throughout her grief over the lost maiden, the tragedy had now reached the mortals, beloved of Zeus; and they were perishing without the wheat and corn.
Pan was shocked to see the state Demeter was in and the ragged clothes she wore. The goddess had grown old and shrinking, losing her ethereal radiance and fair form from sorrows.
"O Lady Demeter, why are you hiding your blessed self here while the world is crying for you?" Pan said as he came kneeling before the earth goddess on his furred hind-legs.
Demeter looked up from under her ragged shawl and spoke in a hollow bleak voice.
"My child was stolen, Lord Pan. Which of you has my Persephone wronged even in her slightest word? None, and yet the gods stood by doing naught," she said sourly, "I will not answer to their calls until Zeus learns what a grave mistake he has made by betraying me."
"But this is a hostile deed to all, my lady, you're the most generous of all the great Olympian goddesses, have some mercy!" Pan tried to reason, his fingers curling around his reed pipe nervously.
"As long as Persephone is in the hand of the cold-hearted goddess, living in the Kingdom of the Departed, I shall remain here. If Zeus does not right his wrong and decrees my daughter's return, the world can burn to ashes for all I care."
"Demeter!" Pan gasped with fear. "This is outrageous!"
"Lord Pan, you know none of the grief that strikes a mother's heart," Demeter said with a mad look in her eyes, "If you couldn’t help me get my daughter back, at least leave me alone to my sadness."
Pan had no wits to respond. He realized that in retaliation the lady of grain and growth intended to bring a deadly starvation to the race of man and punish the gods.
At last, Pan retreated and left the goddess there in the cavern. However, he decided to bring the news of Demeter's hiding to Zeus, the loud-thunderer, at his council.
~*~
In the meantime, Persephone's heart still clenched in bitterness. She refused to accept Hades's apologies. After the night of impetuous haste and brutality, Hades began to treat her very kindly and with great gentleness.
The dark goddess gave her jewelry of red-gold and pale silver crusted with rubies, sapphires, slitted yellow tiger eyes and diamonds. She had sent her the finest velvets and damasks patterned in such sparkling colors that at first glance they looked like gems or serpent's scales. Hades even offered her a throne of the finest ebony and gave her a beautiful crown of black pearls.
But Persephone would not speak to her and said she would never forgive her. Persephone still demanded to go back home, and that she hated Hades and always would.
Whenever Hades paid her a visit in the hope to mend her heart, the maiden would launch these tirades at her. She threw all her gifts away and tossed her chin in disdain. Yet instead of bursting into a black rage as expected, the dark goddess just stood there and listened and merely frowned. She waited while Persephone went on with her tongue-lashing and hateful words.
When the angry maiden had nothing left to hurl at her and flounced away, slamming the door shut, Hades would go and find her another gift.
Secretly, though, so secretly that she didn't even tell it to herself, Persephone was rather enjoying the change. She did miss the sunshine and flowers, but secretly she gloated upon her power over this most fearsome goddess, the pitiless and callous Hades. Secretly, she fancied her gifts and her effort to please her. The maiden marveled at the way she was obeyed.
Although she never forgot how the grim monarch had mistreated her, she admired the subtle beauty of that black-robed figure, the gracile yet majestic shoulders, the long beautiful night-black hair and those gloomy black eyes.
But Persephone knew that part of her power over the goddess was disdain, and so she kept flouting and abusing her this way, refusing to let a crumb of food pass her lips and thus made Hades gloomier than ever.
Nevertheless, Persephone was unsure how long she could hold on. She was a goddess, immortal and ageless, but she was not immune to hunger, and so it seemed the great famine had befallen her as bad as the world above.
CHAPTER seven:
the adventures
Hades stood, looking out the palace window. The stone sill was cold beneath her hands. Stretching before her were the black hills and valleys and mountains of the borderless Underworld.
The goddess watched
all the dark shades of the dead flickering beyond the palace's ground. She saw her servants soaring through the Erebus fields, herding the dead to their trail by Minos.
She knew that soon she would have to decree their punishment or grant their rewards. But now, her mind seemed to have a knack of wandering off to a certain maiden. Persephone, who locked herself in her chamber all day, had refused every gift from Hades's proffering hands. She would not eat and remained unchanged with her persistence. Her contrary demeanor only caused Hades more sadness and distraught.
How she wished the maiden of her heart would accept her and all that existed in her world as her own. Hades had never felt so lost and helpless like she was now. She did not know what else to do to make the young goddess happy. It seemed as though she was being stuck inside her father's gut once again — unable to move or breathe. But now it was worse than ever since Hades had to endure the weight of this hopelessness all alone.
Then she heard someone coming to her chamber. The goddess turned from the icy stone window to find a nymph, who was tasked to look after Persephone.
She had come to report about her beloved maiden.
"Lady Persephone wishes to venture outside the palace, Hades," the nymph said in a respectful voice. "Do you allow it?"
The dark goddess was surprised to hear the request and also gladdened by the sudden change. A tiny smile crept its way onto her lips. Hades turned back to the window again, looking over her dark sprawling domain.
"Let her," Hades said, "Let her go and explore her new kingdom. She has to know that it's also hers."
~*~
Through the Field of Asphodel where the dead who had done neither good nor bad roamed, Persephone were greeted with twittered thin glee like bats giggling. The goddess was glad that she was finally able to go out.
Persephone was dying of boredom. Every day, she awoke to the cold dark place, with no sunlight, no green things in sight. Whenever she looked out the window, all she saw was a starless dome of blackness. She missed the birdsongs and the blooming buds on the ground, but she was also curious about what was out there in this gloomy realm.
She had ordered the maids to leave her alone. They had heeded her words since Hades had warned them not to upset her young maiden.
As she was wandering aimlessly, Persephone saw only black ground and rock and dark mist drifting like flocks of crows.
There were dancing green and blue fire-orbs lying all over the mysterious land. They were burning away from the stream of natural gas while raw minerals sparkled along the path.
When she raised her face up, the vastness of the black empty space made her dizzy. Persephone wondered how Hades could spend countless eons in the darkness of this world. But maybe the goddess was made for such isolation and gloom. That would explain why Hades was the way she was.
Somehow, within her stubborn heart, Persephone pitied the goddess.
When she passed a hillside, she saw a funny man trying to roll a huge block of stone uphill only to have it falling down again. She watched him start over and over until she decided to help him.
When they both rolled the stone to the hilltop, this time, it did not roll back. The man heaved out an exhausted sigh and dropped to the ground from fatigue.
"Thank you, my lady," he spoke between loud breaths. "I haven't had a moment of rest for a very long time."
"Who are you?" Persephone asked. "Why must you perform such a meaningless labor?"
"I am Sisyphus, my lady, and this is my punishment."
"Hades is so cruel to do this to you," Persephone said out of innocent pity.
"No, it's Zeus who punished me. Hades only carries out the torment."
Persephone had no word to respond to that. Sisyphus's suffering was from a horrible crime he had committed by releasing the mountain rocks over innocent travelers who reached his dominions. Persephone didn't know how to help any more than she already did and after a while, she bade goodbye to Sisyphus and continued on her away.
When she was gone, the stone rolled off the summit to the plain below once again.
Persephone walked passed a stream and encountered Tantalus, who was condemned by her father to eternal punishment for killing his own son and serving him up to the gods.
He was tied to a rock and plunged to the chin in water, which, as he stooped to drink, always receded from his parched lips. Tall trees with spreading branches laden with delicious fruits hung temptingly over his head, but as soon as he raised himself to grasp them, the branches rose beyond his reach.
Persephone pitied the starving man, for she understood his hunger and thirst. The maiden then cupped some water in her hands and gave it to him to drink and fed him some fruit.
Tantalus thanked her in a deep sad voice. But after she left, he knew his torment would return ten folds, and this one flash of hope made the ordeal worse than ever.
Along the way, she met the Danaïdes, who were the fifty daughters of the king of Argos. By the command of their father, who had been warned by the oracle that his son-in-law would cause his death, they killed their husbands all in one night.
Their punishment in the Underworld was to fill with water a vessel full of holes— a never-ending and useless task. Persephone helped them fill the vessels and the water stayed unleaked. But they would empty as soon as she was gone.
Persephone went on with her adventure, and she chanced upon a field where spirits danced and sang in merriment. Persephone had heard of the Elysian Fields.
All noble heroes and just kings were blessed to stay there. This blissful region was replete with all that could charm the senses and please the imagination. The air was balmy and fragrant, rippling brooks flowed peacefully through the smiling meadows, and they glowed with the varied hues of a thousand flowers and more. The groves resounded with the joyous songs of birds.
Persephone was delighted by the sight. It was the closest thing to her home back on earth.
A few of the spirits saw the goddess and invited her to join their party. Their lyre music and songs about the land battles and the sea battles moved her and the playful jests and merriment dispelled the homesickness and caused her to laugh and smile in spite of herself. For once, Persephone found herself enjoying the moment in the Underworld.
"You must have done a great deed," one of the heroes spoke to her. "That's why you are here with us."
Persephone realized they didn't know she was a goddess. The maiden blushed in embarrassment.
"No, I have done nothing neither am I dead," she told them honestly.
"This has never happened before!" The spirits cried in surprise. "No one has entered the Underworld without a touch of death."
"Tell us your story, young one," the others said, "how you come to this realm?"
She dropped her gaze to the ground and her smile faded from her lips.
"Hades took me down here," she said. "I did not come on my own will."
Persephone felt her heart grow heavy like a stone, sinking deeper into sadness.
"You must be special!" one of them said.
But Persephone did not wish to be special. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She covered her face with her hands then got up and ran off from the field before anyone could say another word.
Persephone miraculously found her way back to the palace after several wrong turns later. She did not care if she would get lost. She was already lost in a sense.
When she entered the hallway, Hades was there to greet her with that steady black gaze of hers. The dark goddess gingerly walked over, afraid to frighten the maiden again. Persephone was so tired from her wandering that she didn't have the heart to put up her rebellious front.
"I was waiting for you to return, Persephone," the goddess said to her. "You took so long I was starting to get worried."
"There are so many people you have subjected to torments. If you think I tried to run away, you could easily punish me among them."
Persephone was upset, and her hunger made her even more
irritable. Hades's brows knitted as she looked at the maiden for a long silent moment. Then the goddess stepped towards her, causing the chaos to stir up in Persephone's heart once again. Hades held up both hands to cage her against the wall. Their bodies faintly brushed one another. The tall goddess drew her face closer to Persephone's until their noses almost touched. Her cold breath fanned her face like a fragrant breeze.
Persephone gazed back into those deep stirring black eyes, seeing Hades's thick lashes shadowed her pale cheeks. But she was shocked to find the internal anguish, longing and tantalizing needs in her intense stare.
"I wish you could see the torment you have placed upon me," Hades whispered, her gaze lowered to the maiden's plump lips then back to her eyes again. "I rule over this kingdom, but you are the one who rules my heart."
Hades could have dipped in and joined their mouths then, and Persephone would have allowed it though willingly or not, but the Goddess of Souls simply pulled herself away from her.
And after a few heartbeats of awkward silence, Persephone watched the black-robbed goddess turned her rigid self around and walked away before disappearing at the corner. Not until then that Persephone realized her heart was throbbing, and she had been holding her breath the whole time. When Persephone returned to her chamber again, she sat down slowly on her soft fleecy bed, all stunned and dazed. She did not recognize this feeling, it was so new and wild and yet so intriguing. She then lay down and closed her eyes, but she was awake for the longest time with the look of Hades's face on her mind.
CHAPTER eight:
Hades’s gift
Persephone's efforts to stave off intruding thoughts of Hades were fruitless. While she was in her present condition, she could sense that her time in the Underworld was not going to be short and easy, even more so that she had no one to whom she could turn to for advice or sympathy.
Hades: Goddess of the Underworld (Lesbian Version) Page 4
