Then Persephone took from the king the pomegranate and ate it, for the grim Hades had made her truly a queen and had done honors to her. But she was glad to return to her mother and the blessed light of the day. She mounted the chariot. Hermes took the reins and the whip, and the horses flew over the stony road that led from Hades. On and on they went until they reached the Eleusinian plains and the temple of Demeter.
There they emerged from the cave close to the temple, and a fig-tree burst into budding as they came. Demeter stood with outstretched arms at the mouth of the cave to receive her daughter. Hermes helped her from the chariot and Persephone sprang into her mother’s arms as the flowers of May spring forth on the bosom of earth with the early showers.
No one can describe Demeter’s joy as she beheld once more her beloved child, and pressed her to her heart, covering her with kisses. The whole earth smiled and burst into verdant growth. The fields were covered with grain. The meadows bloomed with gay flowers. The birds sang and the people rejoiced.
THE RETURN OF PERSEPHONE.
(Lord Leighton.)
Demeter drew her daughter into the holiest sanctuary of her great temple and they talked over all that had happened during Persephone’s long absence. She told her mother how Hades had stolen her away from the meadows while she gathered flowers, and how he had treated her while she stayed with him in the lower world. She had only words of love and honor for the dread King of the Dead.
A whole day mother and daughter passed in an affectionate embrace and in exchanging words of love, each pitying the other on account of the long separation. Then Zeus sent Rhea to bring Demeter and Persephone to Mount Olympos. And he told them that Persephone might remain with her mother until the winter months came back again.
To this Demeter seriously objected, for she dreaded the separation and the loneliness. But Zeus replied: “If thy daughter hath eaten of the pomegranate she is truly wedded to Hades the King of the Dead, and must go back to him to stay during the winter. For the pomegranate is the apple of love, and having shared it with him, he hath part in her affection and can claim her as his wife. But if she hath not eaten of the fruit she shall remain with thee and go no more to the gloomy realms below.”
Demeter was satisfied with these terms and promised that Persephone should return to her honored husband during the winter months, for Persephone had told her that she had eaten with him of the pomegranate and that she loved him in spite of his gloomy surroundings. Then Demeter forgave Zeus for his part in allowing the abduction of Persephone, and the mother and daughter descended once more to Eleusis to bestow blessings upon the inhabitants, and from that time on the earth was clad in flowers and foliage as long as Persephone stayed with her mother. But it was brown and barren when she returned to the regions of the Dead. And the good Hades warmed the earth from below by virtue of his divine power, helping it to produce more abundantly the precious grains and the fragrant flowers.