Waking up one fine spring morning you go for a walk in the meadow where flowery perfume wafts on the warm breeze. You've escaped your mother's watchful eyes for just a fleeting moment, but a moment is all it takes.
He sweeps you up into his arms and on a magnificent steed he carries you away to his realm deep beneath the earth. Hades, the dark lord of the underworld embraces you with a great passion in this world beneath your consciousness. In this realm of dreams and the world of the afterlife he seduces you.
"I have loved you from afar for a very long time, Persephone," he whispers in your ear.
Thus begins one of the most beloved stories of all time. Why is it so enduring? Perhaps because at its heart it's a story of passion, a story of sacrifice to be with one we love, and a story of renewal.
A young maiden, taken down to the dark realms, finds love. While this may be a romanticized modern vision of the story, it rings true. One must face the darkness and accept the darkness to reemerge in the sunlight to flower in the springtime. Persephone knows the darkness and the light. She becomes the heroine who matures in the story and comes into her own fullness of womanhood and finds her loving husband. How do we know Hades loves her? We'll explore his side of the story in the next blog.
But the prize does not come without hardship. Her mother is grief-stricken and plagues the world with freezing desolation, refusing to let the crops grow until her daughter is returned. Persephone becomes a pawn between two powerful Olympians. A compromise is made whereby she will spend part of the year with her mother and part of the year with her husband.
Many women face this same sacrifice on a daily basis, struggling to find time to please both places of her heart. Persephone learns how to make this work. While she is Queen of the Underworld, she is also the harbinger of spring, the warm breeze perfumed with lilacs and lilies.
Persephone finds balance, something many people seek. She finds it through facing the darkest sides of both herself and her husband and coming out victorious.
Hades and Persephone's story is an enduring passion which lives on today in myth and lore. And in the end isn't that what we all crave, a loving partnership which will last forever?
What do you find intriguing about the Persephone and Hades story?