A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

she held most dear.
"Give me back my child!" she said. "Gladly I watch the sufferings of
men, for no sorrow is as my sorrow. Give me back my child, and the
earth shall grow fertile once more."
Unwillingly Zeus granted the request of Demeter.
"She shall come back," he said at last, "and with thee dwell on earth
forever. Yet only on one condition do I grant thy fond request.
Persephone must eat no food through all the time of her sojourn in the
realm of Pluto, else must thy beseeching be all in vain."
Then did Demeter gladly leave Olympus and hasten down to the
darkness of the shadowy land that once again she might hold, in her
strong mother's arms, her who had once been her little clinging child.
But in the dark kingdom of Pluto a strange thing had happened. No
longer had the pale-faced god, with dark locks, and eyes like the
sunless pools of a mountain stream, any terrors for Proserpine. He was
strong, and cruel had she thought him, yet now she knew that the touch
of his strong, cold hands was a touch of infinite tenderness. When,
knowing the fiat of the ruler of Olympus, Pluto gave to his stolen bride
a pomegranate, red in heart as the heart of a man, she had taken it from
his hand, and, because he willed it, had eaten of the sweet seeds. Then,
in truth, it was too late for Demeter to save her child. She "had eaten of
Love's seed" and "changed into another."
"He takes the cleft pomegranate seeds: 'Love, eat with me this parting
day;' Then bids them fetch the coal-black steeds-- 'Demeter's daughter,
wouldst away?' The gates of Hades set her free; 'She will return full
soon,' saith he-- 'My wife, my wife Persephone.'"
Ingelow.
Dark, dark was the kingdom of Pluto. Its rivers never mirrored a
sunbeam, and ever moaned low as an earthly river moans before a
coming flood, and the feet that trod the gloomy Cocytus valley were