The Queen of Flowers and Roots

by Io

  We descended from the Elysian fields, to the caves that were the entry to the Avernus. There it was cold, and I wrapped myself up in my cloak, pulling up the hood to cover my crown, because I did not want to freeze the tips of my ears. I had to put closed shoes on, and for good measure also wore a woolen scarf, over the veil.

  Despite his impassivity, as he took his helmet – he never left the Elysian fields without it – Hades raised an eyebrow at seeing me so wrapped up; he thought I’d now become used to the climate in his realm. But he had the good sense not to comment, and gave me his arm on entering.

  The cave where the ruler of the afterlife entertained guests at a banquet from the kingdom of the living was supported by columns of stalactites and stalagmites, which over the millennia had fused together. The ground was paved with smooth stones, unevenly shaped, fitted together, and the light was so dim but I was used to it by now. It was the noise of life, the noise of the chairs being moved, the vibrant voices of the men around the table, as long as the room, I had lost the ear; I clutched on to Hades’ arm, frightened. I was happy to be covered up almost to my eyes.

  Theseus was as good as he was from the legends, and Pirithous unquestionably resembled my father, from his piercing eyes to the dark curly beard. Men in their escort had all respectfully left their swords at the door, but they, as sovereign, had the right to keep theirs at their side. I found them a little arrogant, especially because Hades had respectfully not worn his armor of eternal ice. They were however courteous. They got up when they saw us enter, bowed to my husband, were polite to me, so I lost a little of the fear and untied the veil, so as not to appear too surly.

  When the dim light of the Avernus illuminated the copper blond of my hair and the reflections in my blacks eyes, I caught a flash, in the eyes of Pirithous. He was holding a cup of wine, which remained suspended in mid-air. Theseus coughed loudly, Pirithous winced and drank.

  But he did not take his eyes off me.

  Uncomfortable, I gave up trying to take part in the conversation, although I wanted to ask about my mother. I wondered if Minthe and Leuka had managed to meet her. I feared not; Eleusis was far from the Elide, the region that my mother, by now, had to detest with all her being. It was difficult that Demeter had gone there.

  The most likely theory, every time I thought about it, was that I believe she thought I was the helpless victim, a prisoner of my executioner, which would have caused her great suffering. If she had disowned me, I supposed that Hades would not have had any scruples about telling me, and he would indeed have been able to make me believe this. I wanted to see her again, but I dared not approach the subject, not yet. Perhaps that visit was intended to assess my situation, I told myself to shake off my anxiety.

  The guests were talkative. I was so used to Hades’ significant silences, after ten minutes, I felt a headache pounding my temples, while I tried to follow the thread of the story about their exploits: Calydon’s hunt, battles against the centaurs, indeed the account of their first meeting was amusing, when Pirithous had stolen the herds from Theseus at Marathon. He had gone down into the field to get them back, Theseus had proved then and for all the wonderful hero he was – here Pirithous made a theatrical gesture, to show off his friend next to him – and the mutual praise caused them to swear eternal friendship. They had come down to Erebus together, because together they would always have followed their undertakings.

  Hades listened without a word. Several times he had brought his cup of wine to his lips, when his guests did so, but I realized that he did not drink at all.

  “And what business leads you to my realm?” he asked flatly.

  Pirithous spread his hands. “Is there a company more glorious than to sit at a banquet with you, the sovereign of the Avernus? Your hospitality is on par with the conquest of the Golden Fleece, divine Hades!”

  I tried to smile, but even to me the words seemed forced, false as the merriment that our guests flaunted. Even calling him by name sounded strange, as they were mortals. Every desire that I had to ask about the surface completely vanished.

  Theseus gave him his support, “Your greatness equals that of our fathers. We are relatives, and our desire to meet with you, at least once, can any fault be found with that?”

  “No.” Hades said, and spoke no more. The guests seemed momentarily disoriented. Then the servants returned to serve them, and they regained their good humor.

  But Hades remained sullen. The crown of obsidian thorns projected long shadows on his pale face, and his helmet was on the table in front of him. The engravings, on the black leather hardened by work, depicting the same Hades who destroyed the weapons of the Titans: an auspicious omen, because the helmet was made by the Cyclops because the lord of the Avernus had succeed in that enterprise. I touched it to feel protected, even if it had to be worn, to become invisible in the eyes of gods and mortals.

  “Veil yourself.”

  He told me in a low voice, with a sharp tone like glass. I obeyed without delay, taking it not as an order, but as an excellent idea that he had thought of before me. Pirithous I saw that he was aware of his command and my immediate acquiescence. He also realized that I was watching him, and raised the cup to address me.

  “Divine Persephone,” he began, “the legend that speaks of you does not even remotely reflect the reality. No one, god or mortal could withstand the darts of Eros, in the face of such charm that would arouse the envy of Aphrodite herself.”

  Orpheus had said something very similar, and had flattered me; but those words spoken by Pirithous only upset me. I looked away without answering, while Hades cut the meat on his plate, so violently as to scratch the terracotta.

  “Please, divine one, give us the honor of sharing this feast with us,” continued Pirithous, “your royal pallor speaks of a long period of imprisonment in this kingdom of shadows. Don’t you want to see the light of the sun, and fields blessed by Demeter your mother?”

  I winced at such impudence, but I had no time to think of an answer, because I felt that Hades was moving. Before he got up and cast out his nephews like dogs, at the risk of coming to fight with Zeus and Poseidon, I grabbed his hand under the table and squeezed with all the strength I could muster. He controlled himself, so well that no one noticed anything.

  To avoid his speaking, I did,

  “I greatly miss my mother, noble Pirithous. I was hoping that you would have news of her, or that you had heard of her.”

  “Everyone has heard of the divine Demeter, my lady,” was the reply, “she pines because of your absence, like any mother when she suddenly loses her daughter.”

  “I hope to see her again soon.” I replied, cautiously. I really was hoping, in fact I wanted to very much, but I sensed that it was not a subject that I could talk about with those particular guests. For some reason I distrusted them, the way they looked at me, the words they spoke.

  Hades released my hand and went back to pick up his knife, with which he speared a piece of meat.

  “So you came to visit your cousin and sister?”

  Theseus bowed his head as a sign of respectful assent, but Pirithous continued to look at me. He said,

  “That is so, sire. Everybody talks about the divine Persephone, who was able to enchant the Lord of the Underworld, with one glance on the shores of Lake Pergusa. Myths were born from a lot less, you know.”

  “Undoubtedly.” Answered Hades drily. He sat on a high chair, solid wood held together with studded metal straps, while I was sitting more comfortably on a padded seat, the only one in the hall. The long benches reserved for the escort were simple planks supported by sawhorses, while the seats Theseus and Pirithous sat on were similar, though less grand, than the throne at the head of the table. They were beautiful, but were not comfortable, and the guests were starting to be annoying. In the long run, the studs became embedded in the flesh, and they had to change position often, so as not to feel the pain. Theseus and Pirithous could not sit still, and it occurred to me, with a
certain malice, that certainly Hades wanted just that, so as to get rid of the guests quickly.

  Not for nothing was the lord of hell capable of creating a different punishment for every one that was damned.

  “Persephone,” he suddenly said to me, “our relatives would like to meet up with a cousin and sister who they never got to meet before. They will definitely want to stretch their legs, before the main course.”

  “But what are you...”

  I immediately closed my mouth. A similar request from Hades, was so senseless that I quickly realized he knew exactly what he was doing. I feigned a slight cough and quickly modified my protest:

  “I’m afraid that my company as much as the afterlife is not of great interest to our guests, sire.”

  Pirithous pounced on my words like a cat on a mouse: “Not at all, oh divine one: it would be an honor for us, to admire the reign of our noble uncle, so much the better to do so in your company!”

  With his complete calm, Hades put the meat in his mouth, chewed and swallowed.

  “Go, Persephone,” he said icily, “it is right that they have a chance.”

  I hated when he spoke with implied meanings. “As you command.”

  I wrapped myself very carefully in my cloak, for the embarrassment of passing in front of the soldiers, I left the table followed by Theseus and Pirithous. The servants looked at me, but Hades watched them, and they dared not follow me.

  “This place is cold,” said Theseus, when we were out of the room, “I’m not surprised you’re so pale and wan, cousin.”

  I didn’t answer, but I thought to call me ‘cousin’ was, at the very least, bold. As Hades had said, his brothers sowed offspring everywhere. I was full of ‘cousins’.

  “Where does this corridor lead?” Pirithous asked, looking at the dark way, carved in stone, as if he was looking into a collapsed well. “It seems to go to the Underworld.”

  Briefly, I explained that it led to the thousand steps to the interview room, while the other direction was the way out. It was not so simple, but Hades did not want to speak of the Underworld. Also, I had no wish to converse with them.

  Pirithous turned to me, giving his back to the dark.

  “Then, my dear sister, I beg you to accompany us to the light, if you please.”

  They moved without delay, but I stayed where I was.

  “I cannot go there,” I said, “I am forbidden from returning to the surface.”

  “You don’t want to see the sun, perhaps?”

  Most of all, at that time I wanted to go back to be beside Hades. Alone with the two men I felt exposed, unsafe. I promised myself to explain a thing or two to the Lord Erebus, about the concerns he should have about his own wife...

  “I think they are serving the main course at the banquet: maybe you should go back to your men, sire Pirithous.”

  “Therefore, the fear is so great that the ruler of the Avernus strikes in you?”

  “Oh, don’t you fear him?” I asked, with sweetness pregnant with sarcasm. I stepped back, away from the exit. “Noble sirs, it is not good to make the lord of the house wait. We will go back.”

  I turned and almost slammed against Theseus, who was barring my way. He smiled apologetically, but did not move.

  “You are so afraid that you dare not even ask about your mother,” he remarked, while Pirithous went around behind me, “What have they done to you, cousin?”

  “You’ve given me news of my mother,” I replied, “and when you are gone, you will bring my own to her, so stop whining. There is nothing more to say, king Theseus.”

  I tried to pass him, but he again attempted to stop me.

  “You don’t know what is happening on the surface,” he told me, when I raised my outraged eyes, “the divine Demeter is trying in every way to bring you back, neglecting her duties. The crops are scarce...”

  I tried to dodge. Pirithous took me by the shoulders from behind, to hold me.

  I struggled furiously. “Don’t you dare!” ”Listen, Persephone...” ”Your Majesty,” I interrupted, in sharp tones that I had never used before to anyone, “and just out of the respect for the sacred laws of this house, we will return to the banquet, and will not say anything to my husband. I think you have misunderstood me, gentlemen.”

  With deep consternation, I saw that Theseus and Pirithous exchanged a look of understanding, over my shoulder. Neither allowed me free passage.

  With a sigh, Theseus said,

  “Well, it seems that we can not count on her collaboration...”

  And, before I could realize the meaning of those words, Pirithous grabbed me, lifting me off the ground.

  I cried out and kicked, but Theseus took my legs, tightening his grip on them. I found myself suspended between the two men, who began to move toward the exit as fast as they could.

  “Let me go, cowards! Let me go!”

  Instead of releasing me, Pirithous pressed his hand to my mouth to prevent me from calling out. I bit him immediately, as hard as I could. With an angry curse, the hero hit me with a slap, splitting my lip. I felt the salty taste. I was frightened, but then came the anger: such a rage that, in a sense, I was seriously alarmed, because I had never been able to get angry in that way. How dare they?

  They took me away, between bumping and taken me with such violence that they bruised me. They ran over the stalactites, similar to the primordial fangs of a huge beast.

  Hit them! Your queen commands you!

  With an earthquake-like tremor, stalactites broke away and came down. Theseus and Pirithous avoided them with a leap, by a hair.

  “Damn witch!”

  Now they ran: they knew they didn’t have much time to reach the entrance of the cave, they knew they were still in his realm. I twisted in their grip, like a cat, and out of the stony soil emerged long roots, pale tentacles that clung to my captors’ legs. They made them stumble, Pirithous fell to his knees, but he did loose his grip on me. I planted my nails into his arms, scratched and bruised, only to be slapped again.

  “Like it or not, we shall return to the land of the living!”

  And how long do you think we can stay, before having to return here, and forever?

  Here, where I am queen and thou a wicked man who has committed hubris...

  I was afraid, in realizing the ease with which I could destroy him. He believed he could possess me, using violence? It was I who possessed him. His soul was mine, in the Underworld as on the surface. I blessed the shoots, I had the shades of the Avernus prostrate at my feet.

  I was afraid of my power, that time. I was not ready to unleash it. The time, including the dark, would come soon enough. But I did not want it to be like that.

  Before they could silence me, with a gag or with such severe beatings by stunning me, I threw back my head and shouted:

  “Hades! Help! Save me, Hades!”

  “Keep quiet!” Pirithous swung me a blow on the head with his fist. White exploded in my head and blinded me, leaving me confused.

  I had no understanding of what happened in those moments. I did not understand that I fell, I could not cushion the blow with the rocks of the cave, and the pain made me scream again. Everything was white, except for a red bud at the center of my body that blossomed and gleamed and shone and glittered. For a moment, I could almost understand it...

  Then, Hades lifted me up and I escaped the icy touch of the stone.

  Still confused, I was almost unable to see him, I threw my arms around his neck and clung to him, hard. The scent of magnolia, and beneath it the smell, of man and of a god, made me burst into tears.

  ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

  “Not you.” His voice made me come to my senses immediately.

  I raised my eyes while he put on his helmet, and between the white marks that still danced before my eyes, I saw the hard curved line of his mouth, the wild flaring of his nostrils. The eyes were of the Erebus that rotated within his sunken orbits.

  I was
afraid. That anger was not directed at me, but it scared me. I went back to hide my face against his chest, full of pain all over, feeling worse than I had ever before. The blow to the back of my head made me feel nauseous.

  “I allowed you to come into my house,” said Hades, angrily, “I allowed you to sit at my table. I gave you the chance to reflect on what you were doing.”

  He groaned, because he pressed his hand on my neck, making the pain explode all over again. He immediately removed his hand, and later I learned that he had seen the blue ichor on his fingers. Pirithous had hit me hard enough to kill a mortal, just to be safe.

  “Now you will pay.”

  His words echoed and faded into silence. They were handed over to eternity of the Avernus.

  I admit it: they were brave. I heard the sound of metal slipping against leather, when they drew their swords. I felt they were preparing to fight. I felt them reply to the accusations, as if Hades would be even remotely aware of what they had to say.

  “You can not marry her, if her mother does not agree!” I heard Pirithous proclaiming, and his voice echoed in my head again and again, so that I turned to face him, “Don’t talk about my mother, you coward!”

  “She wants you back,” said Pirithous, who had his sword in his hand and his friend at his side and hadn’t the slightest regret that he had attacked me, for having struck at me, “in every way, she is trying to get you back. She cares nothing about your disgrace, and rather than be grateful, you...”

  Coldly, Hades interrupted him:

  “Demeter had promised her as your wife, if you had taken her back, right?”

  In response, Pirithous raised his sword and lunged. Theseus did the same on the other side.

  Although they could do no more, at the point they were, I almost laughed: they thought they really could defeat the lord of the Avernus, god of the souls of the dead, with their swords?

  Hades pushed me toward the support of a stalagmite that was as thick as a man. I swallowed the salty taste that filled my mouth while I held the porous column and the ground shook, all around us. Theseus and Pirithous staggered; in an instant their swords became cherry-colored, began to smoke. They cried out as they let go of them. I saw that their palms were burned, an angry red that had already blackened.