PERSEPHONE’S POMEGRANATE
I
by JAYNE COHEN
t was the time before time when every day was summer soft, each one melting into the next like sugar into water...when moist furrows stretching to the horizon swelled with waves of barley and the sweet smells of ripe apricots and almonds were everywhere...when Demeter, goddess of all that grew on earth, lavished her dominion with a mother’s love and made the world her eternal garden where everything would bloom at once. But greater still was Demeter’s devotion to her own beloved daughter, the slim-ankled tender beauty Persephone. Ever protective, Demeter kept her under watchful eye, away from predatory gods and jealous goddesses, leaving the girl with the graceful nymphs, daughters of Oceanus, as her sole companions. On that day Persephone and her friends were picking flowers, a gift for Mother Demeter. But even as the maiden goddess gathered armfuls of roses and sweet violets, crocuses, lilies and fragrant hyacinths, a giant exotic bloom pulled Persephone lodestar-like just beyond and ever ahead. At last she reached it: a gorgeous narcissus, the stalk swollen with a hundred blossoms. Enveloped in its powerfully seductive fragrance, she laughed and reached out to pluck it. Suddenly the earth cracked apart and a golden chariot burst from the unknown depths below. The driver grabbed the girl and carried her off. And yes, Persephone did scream for her mother for she recognized her abductor as the formidable god of the underworld, Hades. The air grew colder and colder still during the chariot’s headlong descent into the netherworld. Hades saw his captive’s fragile body shiver and he drew his voluminous cape protectively around her. Finally entering his realm, they sped past the roiling pools and inky rivers until the fearsome steeds pulled up before the somber palace. Hades brought the frightened goddess into a night-dark room filled with couches and soft pillows and bade her make herself comfortable. Then he knelt before her. And he murmured that during his infrequent trips to the world above, he would watch her dance joyfully with the daughters of Oceanus. “Afterwards I would dream that same vital spark might one day light up my dark kingdom. Because one day you would greet the new arrivals here and rule over the dead souls of the netherworld with me.” And, then he confessed, he went to Zeus, his brother and father to Persephone, and told him of his desperate loneliness and melancholy. “At last Zeus relented and devised a plot. It was Gaia, the Great Mother of All, who planted the marvelous narcissus to entrap you. “So now I ask but humbly for your forgiveness. I love you: that is my only defense. Persephone, be my partner and share my kingdom with me. And one day I hope you will consent to be my bride.” By now she was weak with hunger, her bones aching from the dank underworld cold. Yet still Persephone was mesmerized by the room where Hades led her next. He knew she loved her flowers in the 28
