“’Tis he! ’tis he! he comes to us
From the depths of Tartarus.
For what of evil doth he roam
From his red and gloomy home?”
--_Barry Cornwall._
Pluto, the king of Hades, stole Proserpine from her mother, Ceres,
while she was playing in the flowery fields and bore her away to reign
with him as his queen in the gloomy regions of the dead. For days the
sorrowing mother wandered far and wide searching for her dearly loved
child. The earth which had so long obtained her favors was neglected.
The cattle died, the seed failed to germinate, there was drought,
thistles and brambles were the only growth and famine threatened the
people.
One day a water nymph, who heard the lament of Ceres, told her that as
she had passed through the lower parts of the earth in her endeavor to
escape from a too ardent lover, she had seen Proserpine reigning as the
bride of the monarch there.
Ceres hastened to Jupiter and implored him to restore her daughter,
promising that when she beheld her again the earth should be restored
to fruitfulness, and
“At last Zeus himself
Pitying the evil that was done, sent forth
His messenger beyond the western rim
To fetch me back to earth.”
--_Lewis Morris._
But the release of Proserpine was not complete. Jupiter’s law must be
obeyed, but Pluto, before he let her go, persuaded her to eat a morsel
of pomegranate by which he cast upon her a spell that would oblige her
to return to him, for half of the year, while the other half she could
spend with her mother. As soon as Proserpine returned to earth Ceres
cheerfully and diligently attended to her duties and all was blessed
with plenty. But when six months were gone all nature mourned and wept,
for Proserpine left the bright world and returned to the darkness of
Hades.