Persephone.

“The poems circle the same question: how one’s soul could possibly endure when life’s beauty vanishes from reach.”
― Victoria Lee, A Lesson in Vengeance

Every winter I dream of Spring. And while I enjoy Autumn, it always leaves me a bit sad. Persephone had to spend a part of each year in the Underworld with Hades. She was the Queen of the Underworld and the wife of Hades, and as such, spent the fall and winter with the dead.

At the beginning of the tale, the world is always bountiful with crops growing and flowers blooming throughout the year. One day though, Hades opens up a hole from his realm and kidnaps Persephone. He thinks he loves her, but as is true with all tales of love at first sight, he doesn’t understand anything about love and is reacting to the desire to possess who he imagines she seems to be. He is to be forgiven this though because he rarely leaves his domain and his only company is a 3-headed dog named Cerberus. He doesn’t know much about women or life. The gods are not without faults. Their faults generate most of the drama of the myths. Reality television has more rules than the Greek Gods. Hades discovers that Persephone is not so easy to keep, even when caught.

In the upper world, Persephone’s mother – Demeter – reacts just as most mothers would. Unable to find her daughter she refuses to carry on as if nothing is wrong. Demeter is the goddess of agriculture, harvest, fertility, and sacred law and she forbids the upper world to produce anything until her daughter is returned to her. Eventually she discovers that Persephone was kidnapped by Hades. She goes to Zeus for justice. The world and its inhabitants are starving and Zeus demands that Demeter fix it. Demeter demands Hades returns Persephone. Zeus tells Hades, under no uncertain terms, that he is to return Demeter’s daughter immediately. Hades has to comply but he doesn’t want to release Persephone. So in true Greek God fashion, he tricks Persephone into eating the seeds of a pomegranate grown in the Underworld. Thus Persephone is now obligated to spend at least part of each year with Hades in the Underworld. Her time away from her mother is when Demeter stops the world from producing so we have Fall and Winter and when Persephone returns from the Underworld, Demeter celebrates, causing the world to turn from Winter into Spring and then Summer. The myth of the return of Persephone and the loss of Persephone is said to be why the world has 4 seasons.

But as a simple telling of the myth doesn’t explain why I would want to be Persephone, a little more explanation might help. First of all, I respect Persephone as a character. She doesn’t just go blithely along with Hades when he shows up. She puts up a serious fight. Shepherds report a young girl in a driverless black chariot disappearing into the ground. Statues depict her as fighting against her captor. Once she’s taken to the Underworld the story remains somewhat vague but if Hades has to trick her to eat the pomegranate that means that she is standing up to him even as her whole world seems forever out of her reach. Throughout the struggles, the trickery, and the challenges of the situation Persephone manages to respect herself and keep her boundaries with both her mother and Hades. She appears in most accounts to come to love Hades and be respected in both worlds.

When Winter holds her in its dark stillness under the Earth, she rests and dreams of Spring. When Spring arrives she ventures out into the world above without holding the bitterness of Winter in her heart. At the height of Summer she lives in the present moment refusing to dwell on what lies ahead once again. As Fall settles in, she gathers the harvest. She says farewell to the friends of Summer and faces the coming darkness without fear. Her faith that Spring will return anchors her spirit as she once again returns to the darkness of the Underworld.This is the way I choose to live my life. The cycles of relationships and the world may not be as steady in their timing as the seasons but they’re quite similar. Hard times will always get better. Good times never last. If grieving is required today, then grieve. If a celebration is at hand, then participate. Change is the only constant I heard, or read, somewhere. It appears to be true.