A maiden clothed in white gazed with tear-dimmed eye across an
endless plane. Sulfurous fumes rose from boiling liquid ponds
dotting that dread surface. Manlike creatures, yet men no more,
staggered blindly from place to place. In their ceaseless walk
they fell hapless into the open pits and screaming in agony
clambered out, only to resume their endless wandering.
With a sob the maiden turned to her companion. Hideous though
the manlike creatures were, the visage of her comrade was more
hideous still. A body twisted, scaly, not of this world,
well-suited to this dark and gloomy clime, supported the
grotesque head.
"Have you no pity? Is there nothing to be done for these, the
suffering?"
A voice between whine and growl responded. "They chose, while
on the earth, their own brand of eternity. I am but the keeper.
Yet, for the kindness of your soul, shall their pain be eased
for a brief moment. I shall give them sleep. I can do no more."
"And for me? I who would choose another world, I who have not
yet passed through death's portal - what have you to offer me?"
"I offered you a goblet from the River Lethe. That would have
soothed your tears, and washed away all memory of yesterday, and
of all yesterdays. Sadly, you would not drink. Perhaps it is
better." He spoke musingly, as though unsure.
"You know full well that you are to abide with me until once
more the sun pass through one half his journey. Then may you
return to your mother's lodging, to green grass and gardens, for
a time. Were it within my power the confines of Hades would be
such a garden, that here you might too find beauty. It cannot
be!"
The creatures of the nether region lay quiet now, a short
respite from their eternal pain. Tears welled from the eyes of
Persephone. Where they fell bloomed sweet violets, even bloomed
in Hades.
But too quickly they wilted and died.