Chapter V: The Rape of Persephone

The goddess Demeter had a daughter named Persephone, who lived in the island of Sicily. Her mother had given her several maidens to be her playfellows, and she herself often came down from Mount Olympus to see her daughter. The maidens played and danced together, or wandered about over the hills and valleys looking for beautiful flowers, and were as happy as the days were long. One day whilst they were all scattered about looking for flowers, it happened that Persephone strayed away from the others and was quite alone. Then suddenly the earth opened beside her, and out of it there came a chariot drawn by fierce coal-black horses, in which was a man with a pale face and a black beard and a golden circlet round his hair. He put out his hand and took hold of the beautiful Persephone, and drew her into the chariot beside him. She screamed out to her companions, but it was of no use, for the man with the pale face and the black beard held her fast, and the horses ran like lightning till very soon they had disappeared under the earth and she could no longer be seen or heard. Her companions had heard her cries and they ran to look for {17} her, but they could not tell what had become of her.

Now when Demeter found that her daughter had been carried off she was very much distressed, and she lighted a torch and wandered all over the world trying to find her. She lit up every cranny and cavern with her torch, and climbed all the highest mountains, asking gods and men if they had seen her child, but no trace of her could she find.

I must tell you that the pale dark man was the god Pluto, the king of the Lower World. It was so dismal down there that no woman would consent to be his wife, so he made up his mind to carry off the beautiful Persephone by force, and Zeus had given him leave to do this, but he did not tell Demeter about it. Demeter wandered about for a whole year, growing every day sadder and sadder, till at last the sun-god, Helios, took pity on her. Helios could see everything that happened on the earth, and he had been looking on when Pluto ran away with Persephone, so he told Demeter that her daughter was in the Lower World, and that the gods knew all about it and allowed it. Then Demeter was angry with Zeus and the other gods for having given her so much pain, and she refused to live with them any longer, but remained on earth among men.

The gods were sorry for this, for they honoured and loved Demeter, so after a little while Zeus proposed that a council of all the gods should be held, and that they should judge between Demeter and Pluto. A day was appointed, and they all came together, Demeter and Pluto among the rest; and it was decided that if {18} Persephone had as yet eaten nothing since she left the earth she should return to her mother, but that otherwise she should remain in the Lower World. Now Persephone had been so sad in the Lower World that during all this time she had neither eaten nor drunk anything but once. This was one day when, as she was walking by the side of the river that flows through the Lower World and came to some pomegranate trees laden with beautiful red fruit, she plucked a pomegranate and ate it; and Pluto told this in the assembly of the gods, hoping that it would make good his claim to keep her. But the gods decreed that as she had eaten nothing but a pomegranate in the Lower World she should not remain there altogether, but only for a third of the year, and that during the remaining two thirds she should be allowed to live on the earth. So it was arranged in this way: as long as the ears of corn were below the ground, Persephone had to remain in the Lower World with her husband, but as soon as the blades appeared above the soil, she too came up into the sunlight to her mother.

At this time corn was already growing upon the earth, for Demeter had created it for the use of men, and she often wore a wreath of wheat-ears round her head. But when she was wandering over the earth looking for her daughter, she found that no one understood the best means of making it grow, and as she knew that men would be more peaceful and friendly if they cultivated the ground and surrounded themselves with beautiful plants, she determined to teach them how to do so. Demeter loved all men, but most of all a man named Triptolemus, and she gave him a {19} chariot drawn by two winged dragons, and put into his hand a quantity of corn, which she told him to strew over the earth. Triptolemus flew through the air in his chariot, scattering the grains of corn as he went; and then there fell a gentle rain which made them sink into the ground, so that they became firmly rooted, and soon shot forth little blades. The people were much pleased when the corn grew up and ripened, and Triptolemus taught them all that he had learnt from Demeter about the best way of cultivating it and turning it to good account. Soon there were fields of waving corn all over the earth, and instead of always going out hunting, men tilled the ground and waited for the harvest. When it was ripe, they raised altars of earth and green grass, and laid the fresh ears upon them us a thank-offering to the gods for having sent rain and sunshine to make the corn grow. Demeter especially was held in great honour, and they prayed to her when they sowed their crops.

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