i had some Thoughts about Hades, and started writing again, so here’s something
Hades and Persephone are both stuck. In duties, in cycles, and in love but so out of tune it hurts. The seasons turn in a cycle, and Persephone is bound to the passing of time, always leaving and returning, leaving and returning. Like a circle, like a wheel, their lives turn, controlled by something they can’t touch, even as gods. Like clockwork, every six months, Hades stands on a train station and watches Persephone walk away.
At first, the parting was mutually heartbreaking, a naked longing still etched in Persephone’s face, still turned to face him until she couldn’t anymore. Time passed and years passed, and arguments grew. Bitterness and anger and fights, loneliness turning to a fever pitch. The Underworld churned with Hades’ longing and somewhere along the way, the burning bright force of their love began to fizzle. Now, Persephone swept away from him, rarely sparing a glance back, and Hades wondered where exactly it had gone wrong. The image of her back turned, head held high and vanishing into a crowd, seared itself in his mind, and he tried to push the thought away that someday he might step off the train and she would no longer be there.
The cycle continued, and Hades and Persephone dropped further into a bitter spiral, neither really knowing how to stop. Hades brooded and Persephone glared. The Underworld shook with machinery, their fights, and all the things that still went unsaid. The earth kept turning, the seasons kept changing, Persephone kept leaving, and Hades stared at the ceiling and wondered if things would be better if he could just go with her.
Orpheus and Eurydice are young, a reflection of Hades and Persephone in a multitude of ways, like a fragmented mirror. Times are hard, and the winter is harsh above, and Eurydice, cold and hungry and struggling, makes a choice.
Eurydice is stuck now, but she made her choice and signed the contract, and Hades stubbornly pushes away any guilt he might feel when he remembers the wary hopeful look she had given him when he made his offer. He has a realm to run, and all his workers wanted something he could give them, and he doesn’t have the time to waste feeling sorry for people who walked here willingly, when he’s still bound to the turning of the seasons.
When Orpheus comes stumbling into the Underworld, Hades sees idealism, naivete, and foolishness. He’s dismissive and maybe a little impressed that the young man managed to walk the whole way, but mostly he’s resentful. Because Orpheus is a young man who watched his love walk away from him, who had to stand and face the knowledge that he got left behind, and who managed to find a way to follow her.
Orpheus saw Eurydice go where he shouldn’t be able to follow, but he said ‘no’, he said ‘wait, I’m coming too’, and Hades wants so badly to do the same. Hades sits and waits and wonders and hurts, and Orpheus got to come after Eurydice. And everything familiar that reflects back to him from this young couple stings like Persephone pulling away. Bitterness and jealousy roll in his chest and he stays as unyielding as the wall he’s building before even his wife’s pleas.
But Orpheus opens his mouth and captures every heart that hears him, and Hades is not immune. Love found its way to the land of the dead, and for a moment, the harsh neon lights look like sunlight in a garden, and Persephone only has eyes for him once more.
They take each others hands and dance, and Hades thinks, holding Persephone so close, that they’ve been stuck for too long. With Orpheus and Eurydice, perhaps the cycle can end. Hades knows how this can go, how this story might turn out, but for now, there’s a song and a dance and old love unfurling like flowers in the spring.
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