Persephone

Persephone

Chapter 10

      In the space of three hundred years, my life had certainly been fulfilling. I had been captured and brought to the Underworld, fallen in love and married my captor and had two children. Macaria, who became Goddess of Blissful Death, always went above and beyond her role, by escorting and comforting the souls of the Islands of the Blessed, a heart very much like her mothers, (so her father says). Melinoe, my youngest daughter, born just six short years later and got the title of Goddess of Propitiation (the offerings from the dead), and had a heart much more like her father, she is very vigilant and likes to travel to Earth at night with a chain of ghosts at her tail, no doubt scaring every living creature she may happen to run into (definitely her fathers daughter).
      Lately it seems like I am being forgotten by my family. Macaria seems to spend most of her time in the Islands of the Blessed, I cannot fault her for doing so, I am actually extremely proud that she is so dedicated to her role. Melinoe likes her own space, when she is not out haunting the living she throws herself into her work. Then there is Hades. We hardly spent a moment apart, only when I would go to my mother, which I stopped doing shortly after Melinoe’s birth, simply because we both had our duties to attend to. Now I hardly see him and when I do, it’s like his mind is somewhere else. This place almost doesn’t feel like home anymore.
   
*****

      The water gently lapped against her back. Her blond hair flowed loose behind her in the water, she looked up into his cobalt blue eyes, desire filling her own. “Touch me”, she whispered in her melodic voice. He put an arm around her waist and stroked a hand down the back of her hair. She put her arms around his neck and kissed his lips and as he deepened the kiss, she leaped into him, wrapping her naked body around his. “Take me now Hades, I’m ready”, she moaned in his ear. He returned her moan and began to kiss down her neck as she threw back her head, offering herself to him. A rustling noise came from somewhere off the bank of the lake. He raised his head, looking for the source of the noise, but all was still. “What was that?”. He asked aloud.
“Take me, I beg you… I can wait no longer!”. She exclaimed, pulling his head back to face her. She began eagerly kissing down his chest, not stopping when her head dipped under the water. “Hades?”, whispered a sweet voice from the bank. He whipped his head round quickly to find Persephone standing next to his chariot with his discarded clothes in her hand.

*****

      I stood there looking at him just standing in the water. He stared at me through sad eyes. Then I saw her. Her head came up from under the water, slowly kissing up his body. Her long gold hair clung to her young naked body. I couldn’t get my eyes to look away from the scene, even though every second I I watched broke my heart into pieces. Hades pushed her away from him and turned to me, she put her hand to his chest to stop him, then she saw me. “Persephone, I am so sorry”, he said as he splashed his way toward me. I dropped his clothes and fell to my knees. My body was shaking, my vision blurred and my head was spinning. I shut my eyes tight and covered my ears with my hand, trying to block out the block it out. The scene replayed in my head behind closed eyes. I opened my eyes to look at him, I tried to speak, to ask why, to shout, anything. But words failed me. I only shake my head, trying hard to make sense of the world. “I’m so sorry, please…”. He must have felt the power run within me because he looked to her, then me.
      My head was just filled wit her. The way she kissed my husband, the perfect curve in her back, the gold of her hair, the perfect skin. Every little detail of her was filling me more and more with rage. She was a nymph. One of thousands, and here she was seducing my husband. How dare she even think she is worthy of touching a God! My mind screamed. I could feel the tingle of his power trying to restrain mine. She was now out of the water and standing just yards from me she dared not lift her eyes to meet mine as she stood breathing heavily. “Persephone, don’t. You have a good heart don’t punish her for my weakness…” But it was too late. The power had built up and surged through my veins, blocking out all thought, and exploded through my fingertips. We watched as the wave ran over to the girl, and in an instant she had disappeared and in her place stood a small lonely plant.
      There was a silent stillness that was broken by Hades, “how… how did you do that?”. I knew he had tried to restrain me, I had felt his power yet I still managed it. I crumpled down into sobs hardly believing what my anger had made me do. And that was when I realised that I had become more powerful than Hades.

      The days drifted by eventless, my daughters were off else where as usual. I had little interest to be around my husband, on the seldom occasion he tried to talk to me I found myself leave the room. I couldn’t bare to have him touch me, it makes me sick to think that he had those hands on her. What made me feel worse was that if I hadn’t interrupted them they would most likely have made love, and she could have possibly bore him a son. I began to weep again, It was driving me mad. “Mother?”, came the quiet voice from the corner of the courtyard. I wiped my tears before turning to her. “Hello Melinoe”. She sighed and came over to me.
“You’re crying again? What’s wrong?”, she asked a little awkwardly, she was such a man when it came to emotions. “It’s nothing child, come to me”, I told her. She knelt by my side and I put my arms around her. Her head was in my lap and I stroked her long dark hair, the way I did when she was a child. “Did Aphrodite have a child?”, she asked, changing the subject of my tears (thankfully). “Not recently, Hermes would have mentioned it. Why do you ask?”.
“She is inside with a baby”, she answered.
      We both went inside to find out why Aphrodite had even ventured into the Underworld, Hades, as far as I was aware was no acquaintance of hers, and I had barley spoken to her myself. Nobody ever came here, and I am quite sure she had never been to the Underworld before now. She stood in the front foyer of the palace in all her greatness. I couldn’t help but envy her. The Goddess of Love, Beauty and Sexuality. I looked at Hades, chatting and laughing with her and my tempered started to rise. I pushed open the doors and stormed in. “Aphrodite, to what do we owe the pleasure?”, I asked politely whilst glaring at Hades for flirting with her. “Actually Persephone, it is you I have come to speak to”.
“Oh. Okay then, lets go to the courtyard to talk.”, and snidely added, looking at Hades,  “The atmosphere is so much better out there”. A noise came from the basket that was sitting at her feet which I hadn’t noticed until now. Hades walked out and left me and Aphrodite standing in awkward silence. I walked over and peered into the basket, and there, laying sleeping was a baby. A mortal baby. Confused I looked back up to Aphrodite. “That’s what I want to talk to you about.
      We sat down in the courtyard away from everyone, who might be lurking around spying or eves dropping in on our conversation. Aphrodite cradled the baby in her arms, who still lay peacefully sleeping. “He needs someone to look after him”, she began.
“Where are his parents?”
“They’re both dead”, she seemed reluctant to go on but I quietly waited, “The Queen of Cyprus had claimed that her mortal daughter, Myrrha, was more beautiful than me. They were becoming ever more disrespectful to all the Gods, and so, I cursed the girl with a never ending lust for her father. Of course after several failed attempts to seduce him she disguised herself as a prostitute and presented herself to the King. When she had seduced him, he discovered it was his own daughter and was repulsed by what had happened, he chased her from the palace with a knife in hand, intending to kill her. She ran from him, praying to the Gods for mercy, hearing her plea they gave her the form of a tree so that her father would not find her. When he finally gave up the search he took his own life”. She paused. “It was just by chance that I found Adonis”. She looked down at him lovingly and brushed his cheek. “You see, Myrrah was pregnant and managed to morph into her human form to give birth. I had got there just in time to see her make the transition back into the tree and found this little one. I couldn’t leave him, so innocent and helpless. If I could, I would raise him myself, but you know he cannot enter Olympus, he needs a mother”. I looked at the child and knew straight away what my answer would be.
      “Can I hold him?”. She gently passed him into my arms. His eyes slowly opened and found my face. “He looks like a God”. The colour of his eyes reminded me of a fur tree, the deepest colour of green. I had never seen eyes his colour before. “He can stay here”, I confirmed.
“Thank you Persephone”, Aphrodite said as she stood up and kissed his head. “I must go back now. Take good care of him”. Then she was gone.
“Little sweet Adonis, welcome home”.