Queen of the Underworld

—Persephone’s *Real* Story

PERSEPHONE: You’ve heard the story of my “abduction” from my mother’s standpoint. Now, let me tell you the true story. (pause) I wasn’t a child when this happened; I was a young woman. I had begun to dream of the handsome lover who would sweep me up into his arms and carry me off. My mother, Demeter, couldn’t see this. To her, I was still her little girl, a child who needed to be sheltered from everything harsh, or sexual. As if she could! I mean, hello! Zeus is both my father and my uncle – yeah, figure that one out. And Uncle Daddy isn’t exactly celibate. I’d seen his antics with any good looking mortal he fancied. And I’d seen the animals come together, and other gods frolicking...like I said, I wasn’t a child.

DEMETER: You’ll always be my child.

PERSEPHONE: Mother, please.... At any rate, I was out in the fields that day, with my friends. They were nymphs, and dryads, not goddesses as I was. That’s important to know. (pause) We were picking flowers, and playing games, and singing – our ancient version of “hanging with my peeps.” I guess we were making a lot of noise.

HADES: You certainly were, my love. I could hear you all the way down in the Underworld, where I sat on my throne. Laughter and singing isn’t something often heard in the Underworld, and I wanted to know what was going on. So I gathered my “peeps,” and came riding up to the world, to see what was happening.

PERSEPHONE: And I saw you come charging across the field, on that huge horse of yours, and I dropped my flowers to watch. You weren’t the handsomest man I’d ever seen, darling, but you had that whole “bad boy” thing going on. Kind of like the Fonz....

DEMETER: The Fonz?

PERSEPHONE: (aside to Demeter) Old television show, Mom. (turns back to Hades) Anyways, I watched you come riding up, and our eyes met –

HADES: – and I knew I wanted you, I had to have you –

PERSEPHONE: – and I could see that in your eyes. I knew who you were. I knew what you were going to do – you were planning on an abduction. But is it really an abduction when I was willing – no, more than willing – to be abducted?

DEMETER: Persephone!

HADES: (laughing) No, my love, it certainly wasn’t an abduction, or at least not one I’d ever seen before. As I rode up and reached down to grab you, you jumped up and grabbed ME! I was so startled, I almost fell off my horse!

DEMETER: Persephone! You didn’t!

PERSEPHONE: I did, Mother. I looked at him, and realized that this was the man – excuse me, god – I was meant to spend my life with. (turns to audience) It wasn’t just him. I had heard the cries of the souls trapped in the Underworld. If I went with him, became his Queen, I could help them. I could have a reason for my existence. You have the world’s plants to tend to; Helios has the sun; Athena has Athens. What did I have? What role would I play in the world? There had to be a reason I was born!

DEMETER: His Queen? You were pretty sure of yourself. He might not have married you.

HADES: (laughing harder) Oh, Demeter, you don’t know your daughter! She made it clear to me, as we rode back to the Underworld, that she would be my wife or she would have nothing to do with me. And I was already in love with her beauty, her laughter, her bravery...there was nothing I wouldn’t do for your daughter.

PERSEPHONE: (to Hades) And I was halfway in love with you, Hades, at that point, just from your commanding attitude, your “take what you want” way...something in you called to me, and I answered. (To audience) My friends saw all this; they saw me leap up onto Hades’ steed, they heard me laugh with excitement as he carried me off. They KNEW I had gone willingly. But when you came charging up, Mother, demanding to know where I was, they got frightened. They weren’t goddesses, like us. They knew if they told you the truth, you’d be furious, and blame them; and they knew that if you chose to harm them, none of the other gods or goddesses would stop you. So they lied to you. They told you I was abducted, that I screamed as I was carried off. And knowing that Hades wouldn’t take it kindly if they told you WHO had abducted me, they told you they didn’t know who it was, only that it was a god. They didn’t want you to take out your anger on the first hapless mortal who wandered by; they figured you wouldn’t be able to harm another god.

DEMETER: Those lying hussies! They should have told me the truth! I—

PERSEPHONE: You what, Mother? You wouldn’t have believed them. You would have accused them of lying. You couldn’t believe your little girl would do such a thing.

DEMETER: Probably not....I loved you, Persephone. I didn’t want to be parted from you, ever....

PERSEPHONE: Oh, Mother, I know that; and I love you, too. But the time had come for me to make my own life; and after that first look at Hades, I knew what it had to be.

HADES: I took her to my kingdom, the land of the Underworld; and there and then, I took her as my wife. I made her my Queen, my equal in my kingdom. Oh, gods, how I loved her – and still do....

PERSEPHONE: (to Hades) And I, you, my husband. I have never stopped loving you.... (to audience) And so, I took up my abode in the Underworld. I comforted the souls of the deceased, I helped them to adjust to death, I took messages to their loved ones through oracles and through whispers in the night. And when the day was done, I lay in the arms of my husband, who I grew to love more and more each day. (pause) I didn’t eat in the Underworld. There was no need for me to eat; I am a goddess, immortal. And there was nothing there to tempt me to eat.

HADES: We were happy, Persephone and me. We lived in my kingdom, and paid no attention to the outside world.

DEMETER: Didn’t you miss me? Didn’t you want to see me?

PERSEPHONE: Oh, Mother! Of course I did! But, you see, you were a more powerful goddess than I was. I was afraid, if I came back to see you, you wouldn’t let me leave again; that you would insist that I stay with you forever. And I couldn’t do that. I had to find my own life.

DEMETER: How could you let me suffer like that? I mourned for you! I thought I would never see you again!

PERSEPHONE: I tried to tell you, to send you messages....but you couldn’t hear them. You were so angry, especially when you found out from Helios that I was with Hades in the Underworld, that you no longer listened to the songs of the birds, who sang of my happiness with my husband. I tried to send you flowers, but in your anger you no longer looked after the plants, and my messages withered and died. But I didn’t know that, and so I thought you had abandoned me.

HADES: I comforted your daughter, Demeter. I told her you would never abandon her forever, that you were probably just angry, and once your anger cooled, you would send a message to us, giving us your blessing.

PERSEPHONE: Instead, you got Uncle Daddy Zeus to tell Hades that he had to let me go. Uncle Daddy wouldn’t listen to the fact that we were married – I had to leave. No one was listening to what I wanted. And so, knowing that if I had eaten anything while in the Underworld, I wouldn’t be allowed to leave, I found a pomegranate, and ate some of the seeds. And I appeared before the gods, defiant, with the pomegranate juice staining my lips. But when I saw you, Mother, and saw how sad you were, I knew I couldn’t let you mourn like that. I couldn’t let you punish the living by withholding your gifts of plants and food from them. But what could I do? I loved my husband, too. And just as you could never be happy living with us in the Underworld, he could never be happy living in the outside world –

HADES: Rain, snow, hurricanes; the hot sun burning down....who would want to live there, instead of my climate-controlled kingdom?

PERSEPHONE: So when the Fates decreed that since I had eaten during my stay in the Underworld, I would have to spend half of each year there, and the other half with you, it seemed like a good compromise. I spend half the year being Queen of the Underworld, with all that entails, and half the year vacationing with you. I love you both, and so I am happy with whichever one I am with, knowing that I will soon see the other one again. And so, if I am missing my husband a little too much, I can cut my visit a little short with you, Mother, to get back to him; and if I am feeling too sad in the Underworld, Hades sends me up to you a little early. And the world goes on.......