Queen of the Underworld

Do not weep for me for I have not gone.

I am the wind that shakes the mighty Oak.

I am the gentle rain that falls upon your face.

I am the spring flower that pushes through the dark earth.

I am the chuckling laughter of the mountain stream. Do not weep for me for I have not gone.

I am the memory that dwells in the heart of those that knew me.

I am the shadow that dances on the edge of your vision.

I am the wild goose that flies south at Autumns call and I shall return at Summer rising.

I am the stag on the wild hills way.

I am just around the corner. Therefore, the wise weep not.

But rejoice at the transformation of my Being. -Anon

I cannot bring a complaint against the gods like some have before me, as I am one. I cannot bring a complaint against Zeus, or Hades, or against their wrath and judgement, as most do. However, I can bring a complaint against my mother, the goddess Demeter. My story has been told for me, has been told as if her weeping was the most important part, my own voice silenced, even though I was the one taken away and married. So I put it before you to be the judge of whether my sentence to stay with my mother, to live with her months out of the year instead of in my own home with my husband is fair. If the complaints of a tired, controlling woman are worth listening to over the pleas of her sheltered child.

When I was a child, my mother was a joyful woman. She was the goddess of abundance, of harvest. She would call me Koré and take me out into the fields. With a wave of her hand, the wheat would turn golden. As she passed through vineyards, the grapes would form in bunches, waiting to be plucked. The grateful mortals would bow to her and wave, thankful. She taught me to be wary of strangers, and to be kind and fair to those I could try to help. I played in the flowers at her feet on the rare occasion Zeus would visit. My father. The one man she let anywhere near me. The parent who saw me and encouraged me to grow in learning.

I watched as the girls who would serve her grew up and married, starting families of their own. They would be replaced shortly later, and I was always passed over as my mother made it known that he who dared even to look at me would suffer. His crops would fail, his house would be overrun with weeds and all kind of poisonous plants. I took care not to pay any specific attention to anyone lest my mother's jealousy burn and they be cursed. It was a lonely life.

My mother kept me near her side as I grew older and as we walked in the fields, flowers would grow under my feet. I would often wander, tending patches of wildflowers. It was a charmed life for many, my mother and I among the few strong enough that Hera would leave us alone even though her husband had strayed. Even though he had sired a child with another. The world needed Demeter's good graces, her joy and bounty to survive. It needed her travels across the earth and the food and harvests that sprung up in her wake. The earth had accepted her and opened the secret knowledge of its bounty to her.

As I grew older, my mother grew jealous, suspicious, and unyielding. I was not allowed to leave her side, and her resentment towards anyone who showed me attention beyond herself had no bounds. The only person she could not refuse my affection was Zeus, and he came as he could to take me away for times spent alone. He never came often enough, but his encouragement to wonder about the world around me and care for its inhabitants never wavered. It was under Zeus I learned how to rule the land as he cared for the mortals all over the earth we would roam together.

It was on a rare visit from my father that I was introduced to Hades. He came out of the ground and I fought the urge to hide myself completely behind my father as he approached us. He was a tall skinny young man, and looked not much older than myself. Hades had been given the responsibility of ruling the Underworld and the strain of it showed on him. His face was pale and skin almost translucent like one who never saw the sun, and he looked mussed and covered in dirt as if he had been working and not seen a bathroom in a week.

Hades had come to the land of the light to appeal for Zeus's aid. A blight had taken the Underworld, and the dead were fading away. The systems to manage the souls of the dead were failing, his industries in the land below which provided for much of the glamour of Mount Olympus were grinding to a halt. As the men debated the issue I listened and held my peace. It became clear to me that Hades needed an aide, someone to delegate to and help him judge the souls that came to him to appeal their sentence, as well as a manager to help him with the production of materials for Olympus. I mentioned this quietly, expecting both of them to push me away, to call me foolish or slap me across the face as my mother had often done before. Instead, Zeus smiled proudly and Hades stared at me like I had hung the moon.

Thus began a new friendship that I was determined to keep hidden from my mother. Whenever Zeus came we would slip away to find Hades. He teased me about it, my father, but he aided our friendship, often following behind us as we walked, or sitting to the side to allow me conversations with another person, someone who was not afraid of my mother, who saw me as brilliant, who wanted my opinion. We passed many months with this arrangement. I watched as Hades grew worse despite the evident cheerfulness he had as soon as he saw me, and the attempt to brush aside his worries about his realm. Finally, as we left him one night, I turned to my father and asked what the reality of his situation was.'I am afraid I have given him too big a task for one so young.' Zeus looked after the young man sadly. 'His blight has not dissipated and in fact is now worse.'

I absorbed this and tucked the knowledge back away as we returned home. Demeter was not pleased that we had been out so late. She was not pleased that I rejoiced so at the time I was spending with Zeus, and though she could not fight him on his visits, she did everything she could to poison my view of my father, often going on acidic rampages before he came and after he left. Her jealousy of me knew no bounds, and my resolve to never mention to Hades only strengthened.

The next time I saw him, Hades truly looked like death. His vigor was gone, and even though he tried to hide the weariness, it clung to him. His clothes hung off of his skin, ill-fitting. When I took his hand to sit him down, I could feel all of the individual bones in his hand. It made me want to weep. I saw in his eyes the powerlessness that I felt deeply in my soul. I resolved then that if I could solve his powerlessness, I would give up everything of mine.

As Hades watched, I turned to Zeus and told him that I Hades was ill and I would be taking him home. Not to my own, no. To his. That I would go with him to the Underworld and do what must be done to save him and his people. That I could not stand by any longer and watch. Zeus nodded, and I suddenly knew he had been waiting for this declaration for a while. That he had seen what I was too shy to. That Hades would protest to. I was in love with him.

Hades of course protested to bringing me down to the Underworld. He could not believe that I would give up sunshine, give up life, clean air to join him. He ranted and yelled, reminding me that I would be surrounded by the dead, that I would live in the dark. That it was the land of the diseased. I simply nodded and held his cold hand and waited until he talked himself tired. Then I firmly informed him that I was coming and there was nothing he could do about it. That I was choosing to pick him up when he fell, that I would fight to make him well, that I would support him as he led his people. That I knew exactly what I was sacrificing and that I would do it anyway.Finally his shoulders dropped in a kind of defeat. He stood up and after hugging my father goodbye and one last look around, we went off to the Underworld.

The ground split open beneath our feet and instead of falling we walked along a path into the darkness. After all of the months of hearing him talk about his home, I had not realized how dark the world was without the sun and the moon. After we had gone deep enough for Hades to close the way behind us, he looked at me once more to confirm that I was insisting on this choice. I nodded at him once more, squeezing his hand. I would resign myself to total darkness for this man and the plight of the souls that had died. Some of those deaths had been my own fault through my mother's jealousy.

As soon as the opening behind us closed, the world lit up. It was dim, but it was there. The ceiling glowed with tiny pinpricks of blue light. Hades saw my question and told me they were glowworms. He led me carefully to the edge of a rushing black river and helped me into a boat that appeared in the mist that covered the river. 'It's the Styx,' he said. 'The river of oaths.' He held me in his arms as we crossed, careful not to get me wet. In the middle I made a silent vow to protect this man, his land, and serve him at all costs. A weight of purpose settled on my shoulders and I knew that my oath was final, nothing would save me from it.

We alighted on the other side of the river, Hades' strength beginning to return. I stared in wonder at the world around me. It was magic, albeit diseased. At our feet crystals lit up as we walked by, lighting our path. It was magic. I looked around in wonder as he shyly led me through his domain, quietly showing me all the places we had talked about; the Fields of Elysium, the Asphodel Meadows. We wandered through it all, and he guided me away from Tartarus and to his palace. As soon as we stepped into the gardens, he started coughing. I was with him, supporting him, holding him up, in an instant. I looked around the garden to see the blight all over it. The death I was surrounded by frightened me, the disease surrounding me odd and persistent.

When Hades looked up at me, his coughing subsided, his face was haggard. He begged me to leave, to return to the land above, to go back to my mother's table, to my father's side. I shook my head, kneeling in front of him and clasping my hands in his. I quietly assured him that I would stay, that I didn't miss the sun, and that I would see him better. He picked me up to my feet and stopped arguing.

Instead he led me the rest of the way to his palace. It was a grand building, full of dark marble with precious stones and glowing crystals embedded into the walls. He led me through it, passing souls in his service as we went. As we went, they said nothing to either of us, if occasionally nodding to their Lord. And so I passed my first night in the Underworld.

Time was hard to track in the world below. However, for what felt like the next several months, I worked from the time I woke until the time I laid down to sleep. I was out in the palace gardens, desperately tending it in an effort to fight the decay. I was in the fields of Asphodel, touring the Isle of the Blessed, visiting Cerberus at the gates to pet him and calm him down. Slowly, consistently, I quietly worked my way through the entire Underworld, not resting until I had seen it all and knew it's state. Hades spent most of his time working on getting goods out to Olympus, and I allowed it.

The only plant that sprouted after I tore the garden to shreds was the pomegranate trees. They alone grew rapidly, and so I planted row upon row of them. I hoped that the more I planted the more the ground would recover. The more life I could bring in to combat the disease, the better. And as I worked, it seemed to be succeeding. As I passed, wherever I went, a little more life seemed to bloom. The souls of the dead seemed to take attention and started nodding to me as I passed. Hades started spending more and more time with me in the evenings, and we would often stay up late talking. And so I spent my days, until the first pomegranate ripened on the trees.

Zeus came the day I harvested my first fruit. Until that time I had not eaten, not a morsel had passed my lips. I did not trust that the food was not the thing making Hades so ill and spreading the blight. My father seemed surprised when he found me in the garden, surprised at the world around him. He exclaimed and I flew to him, excited to show him it all. He stopped me, looking around. 'It is so bright and alive.' I was confused by his words.

Zeus did not, however, come bearing good news. Hades came to see us and when we were together, Zeus told us that he would be taking me back with him. How my mother had desolated the earth in my absence, how she had spent the time neglecting the people and weeping bitterly. I stared at him in panic. Go back? Go back to my mother who was controlling and manipulative? Leave the man I loved, leave all the progress I had made, never to return? I stared at him in disbelief.

Hades looked at me, his expression unreadable. I had been so excited to show him the garden, to show him all the improvements, all the work I had done. Instead, he just looked at me, and then looked at my father and nodded once. He passed me off to him and turned to walk away. I turned to my father helplessly, watching the man I had sacrificed it all leave me without a word. Zeus opened his arms to me and I fell into them, sobbing. He offered to stay for the night and we could leave on the morrow. I could not offer him food and he did not ask for any. Instead he said it was good I had eaten nothing, as the food of the Underworld prohibited those who ate it from leaving.

My father’s words spun around in my head all night. I thought about the fruit I had harvested, the fruit I had wanted to share with Hades, to show him that I had promise, that I could support him in his efforts. The fruit now sat on my bed in front of me, mocking me all night. As what would be morning began, I got out of bed and dressed myself. I went to find Hades, walking through the maze of walls that was our palace. I found him in the garden, waiting for me and Zeus before we would leave to return me to our mother.

'It is good that you go.' It was all he said when I arrived. I broke then. For the first time since I had arrived I broke completely and crumpled, sobbing. I asked him why he would say that, what I had done so to offend him. Why he would not let me stay, not ask me even. 'Because I love you.' Came the answer, quietly. I lifted my head to stare at him. To stare at the man I had followed down here, and studied him truly. He had grown strong during my time here. His health had returned as I weeded out the blight and did what I could to take tasks from him. His eyes, however, had never stopped holding pain.

'How can you love me and send me away?' I demanded, leaping to my feet and going to him, clasping his cold hands. They almost felt warmer than they had. He smiled at me, tears in his own eyes. Gently he tugged me into his chest, kissing my forehead.

'My darling, I send you away because I love you. I cannot bear the thought of you forced to live down here in the darkness. You deserve the light things, to run and play in the cool earth above. You deserve the sun warming you in the day and the moon kissing your skin at night.' Hades shook his head and stepped away. 'I can offer you none of those things. All that I have here are rocks that glow.'

'But I love you.' I tried to step into his embrace again. 'My place is here with you as long as you allow me to stay. No matter what happens on the surface, no matter what my mother says.'

'You never ate the food.' Hades shook his head. 'I thought you hated it.'

'The food was diseased.' I pulled the pomegranate out of my pocket. 'I did not trust it, but this, Hades. This I was going to share with you last night when my father came. I want this, I want you.'

I split open the pomegranate and held out half for him. He took it slowly. I scooped out a few seeds and ate them, their taste tart and tangy on my tongue. The juice reddened my lips. I had only eaten six seeds before Zeus came and joined us. He saw the pomegranate in my hand, the juice staining my fingers. He looked into my eyes and saw the fierceness in them.

'What shall I tell your mother?' He asked, looking from one of us to the other. 'Koré, you have to go back so the crops will grow.'

'And so she shall.' Hades nodded. I stared at him in disbelief. I had just-he had just. He stepped forward and wrapped his arm around my waist. 'She will go with you now. For six months, as she ate the six seeds. And then at the end of it, she will return here, to me, for the other six. And so it shall be, forever. For let none come between this woman who has fought so hard to be here and serve this place, to serve me, and her prize.'

Zeus nodded in satisfaction, looking between us with a smile, nodding his agreement. 'So it shall be done.' He turned away from us for a moment, and Hades hugged me tightly, kissing the top of my head. I lifted my face and kissed him. He smiled at me. 'I will be back and waiting when you return, my love.'

And so I followed my father back into the land of the living. And I was there for six months, living with my mother once more. I had outgrown the land of the living. I longed for Hades and the Underworld, longed to get back to my home, to get back to the man who had claimed my love. My oath tugged at me but I stayed and kept the harvest intact. The ground above that had been barren bloomed. As I walked the earth with my mother, flowers bloomed around my feet as I moved. I had brought the spring.

My mother? Demeter? For all the tears she shed when I was gone, for all of the weeping and sadness she had exhibited, she did not care that I was with her. She simply had needed my presence to reassure herself that she had control of something. That she would forever be more grand than I, forever have power over me and my life. I did nothing to dissuade her illusions. She no longer tried to hit me, so I said nothing, patiently waiting for the time I could leave.

When enough time had passed, I went back to the underworld. I walked to the bank of the Styx, and out of the mist he came in his boat. He picked me up from the bank and carried me back across the river. We landed and as soon as my feet touched the earth, the crystals glowed brighter. The ground turned green with grass. I stared at it in amazement, looking at Hades. He just smiled.

'The Underworld recognizes its queen. And Koré you are no longer. From this day on you must be Persephone, as you are no longer a maiden, and are instead the one to judge the destruction of souls.' A crown appeared from somewhere and he placed it on my head before scooping me up into his arms which had never been stronger. And so I brought spring and life to the Underworld.

So then shall you weep for me? Shall you forget that I come to you and bring the spring? Do not believe all you hear of Persephone, for I am strong, and I am never too far.

Works Cited

Anonymous. “Do Not Weep for Me - Funeral Poems & Readings.” Ford Mears, fordmears.uk/funeral-poems/do-not-weep-for-me/. Accessed 14 Dec. 2024.