Persephone embraced her mother. She had missed her; they had never before been separated. And she missed the sun too. The false lights of Elysium were nothing compared to the warm rays from Apollo’s chariot.

“Now,” Demeter continued, “since you’ve spent more than six months here already, I think it’s only fair you come up to the surface. We’ve got a lot to do, now.” She hesitated, remembering her brother. “Of course you’ll have things to organise. I’ll wait for you by the river. Don’t be long!”

Persephone turned to her husband and before he could speak, she threw herself into him, arms clinging tight around his waist. She held him there in the misty dark of their palace and told him how she loved him, and in between the kisses and sighs she said she would miss him, though he didn’t say a word. And then, in a flurry of gathered objects and awkward glances, she was gone, and Hades returned to his usual business.

Image by the author: Persephone and Hades (I’m quite pleased with this one, I have to say)

With Persephone by her side, Demeter returned to the earth and restored the crops. She kept her promise to Metanira and Triptolemos, for she taught the boy all the secrets of agriculture, of the soil and the mysteries of nature, and to thank the two goddesses, a great sanctuary was set up in Eleusis. After a time, there was even a shrine to Hades there, Persephone did rather worry about him not getting sacrifices. For six months, as ordered, she stayed above the surface helping her mother and the mortals called it “summer”, then on the seventh, she descended back to the Underworld and Demeter grew sad and crops withered in the cold and mortals called it “winter” as they huddled around the fire.

When heroes had to venture into the Underworld, the wisest would time their actions for the winter months, as everyone knew the terrible god of the dead was a little more lenient with the goddess beside him. So when the famous singer, Orpheus, lost his lover, Eurydice, and followed her down to the Styx, it was Persephone that first fell for his song and persuaded her husband to allow the couple a second chance, though they say that when Orpheus failed the task and Eurydice was sent screaming back into Asphodel with Orpheus wailing behind her, that this was the only time the king of the dead was seen to weep. Persephone’s beauty coaxed Theseus, king of Athens, into the Underworld with his friend Pirithous, who desired the beautiful goddess for himself, but Hades caught the pair of them. He didn’t dare kill them, these two men sons of gods, so he tricked them into chairs designed to hold the evilest souls in Tartarus. There they would have stayed, had the greatest and most famous of heroes, Heracles, not persuaded Hades to let his friends free, but Heracles’ story is another tale for another time.

Persephone was always loyal to her husband, a rare virtue among the gods, while Hades… During one particularly long summer, with loneliness hampering Hades’ work, Zeus coaxed him into seducing a nymph named Minthe who had a terrible weakness for glittering things and was dazzled by Hades’ chariot He would have succeeded had Persephone not caught him with his arms around the girl. Persephone was furious and turned the nymph into a mint plant, and although she forgave him, whenever she wanted to spite him or to warn him of going astray she would remind him of the mint plant at the steps of the palace, especially when she was leaving for the summer.

And that’s how it has been forever since. To this very day Persephone spends half her time on Olympus and the other down below. Though the Olympians’ lives have grown a little easier these days now that mortals have turned to other gods, in the Underworld Hades still toils, for the dead stay dead even when the minds of the living have turned away. All through the summer he works alone, keeping phantoms, punishments and paradise all in their proper place. But when summer turns to autumn and Persephone returns, well, a lot less work gets done. Hermes visits them sometimes, but Hermes was never the sort of god to spend much time in one place. So spare a thought, when you lounge in the summer sun, for Hades, way down there in the dark, waiting for the nights to draw in close again and draw his lovely wife back home.