Hi Isabel! For the ask game, I'm struggling to pick my favourite mythical story or figure, but I really love the story of Demeter, Persephone and Hades. They are so tragic. <3
Oh my god, you’re so right about that. I could wax poetic forever about this one, and as a huge fan of Hadestown, I can say with complete confidence that their story really is a tragedy.
Since I got two asks for Persephone, we’ve got two different approaches. For this one, I’m telling the myth of her and the Underworld (similar to what I did for the Part 3 intro). To see Persephone generally as a goddess, you can go see the other ask here!
It was Persephone who brought the spring.
The young goddess led a good life, quiet in the routines of agriculture brought on by her mother Demeter. She had a great many friends, her cousins and aunties providing her with a love so deep that she never felt alone.
She spent countless hours with them, gathering flowers in vast fields with the sun shining down bright. Though she never strayed far, her mother always kept a loving, watchful eye on her, ensuring she would always be safe.
Demeter had only looked away for a minute. The world would never be the same.
Hades had been watching Persephone, falling in love with the young goddess as she spent her days on the land up above. But he grew jealous of the sun, for it was the world of the living which she inhabited.
And Hades was the King of the Underworld. He was not a part of that life.
So while Persephone’s mother was distracted, her focus elsewhere, he snatched up the young goddess and took her to the Underworld for himself. To be his queen.
When Demeter saw her daughter was gone, she fell into a grief so deep that the world wept with her. As she searched the earth for Persephone, her desperation distracted her from tending to the crops, and every single plant on the planet wilted and died.
It soon became clear to Demeter that her daughter was not in the world as she knew it. And in the absence of the land’s growth, the other gods became equally desperate for Persephone’s return so that the earth could be restored.
Eventually, Persephone was found in the Underworld with Hades. And miraculously, the god of the dead agreed to let his love go back to her mother.
But not before he offered her a pomegranate.
The young goddess, hungry from going months in the Underworld without food, eagerly accepted the offering. She did not know there would be consequences. She couldn’t have known she’d just condemned herself as she swallowed the seeds.
For no one was allowed to eat the fruits of the Underworld and walk completely free.
In the wake of her seemingly innocent snack, a deal was struck between Hades and Demeter that would seal Persephone’s fate for the rest of time. The girl would spend half of the year on the earth with her mother, and the other half in the Underworld with her husband.
The world rejoiced at Persephone’s return. Demeter resumed her godly duties, and the crops grew tall and plentiful again.
But when Persephone was with one, the other mourned her loss.
And so when the young goddess was back in the arms of her husband, the land fell right back to where it had been the first time she was gone. The earth died again and again with the piece of Demeter that loved her daughter.
But now, when Persephone left for the Underworld, she always came back.
And every year at her homecoming, the planet welcomed her back with new growth, new crops, new life.
The sun shone brighter, the water ran clearer.
All while Hades sat in misery, waiting for the harvest that would signal her long-awaited return to him once again.
Now, as for which Pedro boy I’d pair with this for a story? Well, if we’re keeping in line with what I’ve put in place with The Cupid Seller—that the gods exist in today’s world and are separate from the characters—I’d have to go with Javier Peña.
I’m picturing something where he’s struggling to balance his two lives in Laredo and Colombia. He’s back in Texas at the beginning of Season 3 and he loves the peace and safety of being home, but he knows he has to go back. I could so see Persephone showing up to help him with this since she knows all too well what it’s like to live torn between two worlds. And especially if he has someone he loves waiting for him back in Colombia—well, that would just complete the parallels, wouldn’t it?
Send me an ask for The Cupid Seller Valentine’s Extravaganza!
