|
|
|
|
|
Portable Apps
Persephone
Under the island of Aetna lies Typhoeus the Titan, in punishment for his share in the rebellion of the giants against Zeus. Two mountains press down on his right and left hands while Aetna lies over his head. As Typhoeus moves, the earth shakes; as he breathes, smoke and ashes come up from Aetna. Hades was terrified by the rocking of the earth, and feared that his kingdom would be laid open to the light of day. He mounted his chariot with the four black horses and came up to earth to look around. While he was thus engaged, Aphrodite, sitting on Mount Eryx playing with her son Eros, saw him and said: "Eros, take your darts, and send one into the breast of Hades. Why should he alone escape the power of love? Even in Olympus some despise our power. Athena the wise, and Artemis the huntress, defy us; and there is that daughter of Demeter, who threatens to follow their example. Lets nip this problem in the bud and get those two crazy love birds together!" The boy unbound his quiver, and selected his sharpest and truest arrow; then, straining the bow against his knee, he attached the string, and, having made ready, shot the arrow with its barbed point right into the heart of Hades.
In the vale of Enna there is a lake embowered in woods, which screen it from the fervid rays of the sun, while the moist ground is covered with flowers, and spring reigns perpetual. Here Persephone was playing with her companions, gathering lilies and violets, and filling her basket and her apron with them, when Hades saw her from his chariot, loved her, and carried her off. She screamed for help to her mother and her companions; and when in her fright she dropped the corners of her apron and let the flowers fall, childlike, she felt the loss of them as an addition to her grief. The ravisher urged on his steeds, calling them each by name, and throwing loose over their heads and necks his iron-colored reins. When he reached the River Cyane, and it opposed his passage, he struck the river bank with his trident, and the earth opened and gave him a passage to the Underworld.
Demeter searched for her daughter all the world over. Bright-haired Eos, when she came forth in the morning, and Hesperus, when he led out the stars in the evening, found her still busy in the search. But it was all unavailing. At length, weary and sad, she sat down upon a stone and continued sitting nine days and nights, in the open air, under the sunlight and moonlight and falling showers. It was where now stands the city of Eleusis, then the home of an old man named Celeus. He was out in the field, gathering acorns and blackberries, and sticks for his fire. His little girl was driving home their two goats, and as she passed the goddess, who appeared in the guise of an old woman, she said to her, "Mother," and the name was sweet to the ears of Demeter, "why do you sit here alone upon the rocks?" The old man also stopped, though his load was heavy, and begged her to come into his cottage, such as it was. She declined, and he urged her. "Go in peace," she replied, "and be happy in your daughter; I have lost mine." As she spoke, tears or something like tears, for the gods never weep fell down her cheeks upon her bosom. The compassionate old man and his child wept with her. Then said he, "Come with us!" "Lead the way," said she, and went with them.
As they walked he told her that his only son, a little boy, lay very sick, feverish and sleepless. She stooped and gathered some poppies. As they entered the cottage they found all in great distress, for the boy seemed past hope of recovery. Metanira, his mother, received her kindly, and the goddess stooped and kissed the lips of the sick child. Instantly the paleness left his face, and healthy vigor returned to his body. The whole family were delighted that is, the father, mother, and little girl, for they were all; they had no servants. They spread the table, and put upon it curds and cream, apples, and honey in the comb. While they ate, Demeter mingled poppy juice in the milk of the boy. When night came and all was still, she arose, and taking the sleeping boy, moulded his limbs with her hands, and uttered over him three times a solemn charm, then went and laid him in the ashes. His mother, who had been watching what her guest was doing, sprang forward with a cry and snatched the child from the fire. Then Demeter assumed her own form, and a divine splendor shone all around. While they were overcome with astonishment, she said, "Mother, you have been cruel in your fondness to your son. I would have made him immortal, but you have frustrated my attempt. Nevertheless, he shall be great and useful. He shall teach men the use of the plough, and the rewards which labor can win from the cultivated soil." So saying, she wrapped a cloud about her, and mounting her chariot rode away.
Demeter continued her search for her daughter, passing from land to land, and across seas and rivers, till at length she returned to Sicily, whence she at first set out, and stood by the banks of the River Cyane, where Hades made himself a passage with his prize to his own dominions.
The river-nymph would have told the goddess all she had witnessed, but dared not, for fear of Hades; so she only ventured to take up the girdle which Persephone had dropped in her flight, and waft it to the feet of the mother. Demeter, seeing this, was no longer in doubt of her loss, but she did not yet know the cause, and laid the blame on the innocent land. "Ungrateful soil," said she, "which I have endowed with fertility and clothed with herbage and nourishing grain, No more shall you enjoy my favors" Then the cattle died, the plough broke in the furrow, the seed failed to come up; there was too much sun, there was too much rain; the birds stole the seeds, thistles and brambles were the only growth. Seeing this, the fountain Arethusa interceded for the land. "Goddess," said she, "Don't blame the land. I saw Hades take your daughter into the underworld to make her his queen. This land could not resist the God of the dead, and was opened by force!"
Demeter stood bumb-founded for a while. Then she turned her chariot towards heaven, and hastened to present herself before the throne of Zeus. She told the story of her bereavement, and implored Zeus to interfere to procure the restitution of her daughter. Zeus consented on one condition, namely, that Persephone should not during her stay in the lower world have taken any food; otherwise, the Fates forbade her release. Accordingly, Ares was sent to demand Persephone of Hades. The wily monarch consented; but alas! the maiden had taken a pomegranate which Hades offered her, and had sucked the sweet pulp from a few of the seeds. This was enough to prevent her complete release; but a compromise was made, by which she was to pass half the time with her mother, and the rest with her husband Hades.
And so it came to pass that as Persephone spends half the year in the underworld, the world grows cold and barren with Demeter's discontent. And as Persephone returns, the world springs to life with Demeter's Joy.
Demeter remembered Celeus and his family, and her promise to his infant son Triptolemus. When the boy grew up, she taught him the use of the plough, and how to sow the seed. She took him in her chariot, drawn by winged dragons, through all the countries of the earth, imparting to mankind valuable grains, and the knowledge of agriculture. After his return, Triptolemus build a magnificent temple to Demeter in Eleusis, and established the worship of the goddess, under the name of the Eleusinian mysteries, which, in the splendor and solemnity of their observance, surpassed all other religious celebrations among the Greeks.
