There are worse things than death, worse
people too.
The "talk" was bad enough, but
how many teens get told that they're a goddess? When her mom tells her,
Persephone is sure her mother has lost her mind. It isn't until Boreas, the god
of winter, tries to abduct her that she realizes her mother
was telling the truth. Hades rescues her, and in order to safely bring
Persephone to the Underworld he marks her as his bride. But Boreas will stop at
nothing to get Persephone. Despite her growing feelings for Hades, Persephone
wants to return to the living realm. Persephone must find a way to defeat
Boreas and reclaim her life.
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Excerpt
The
branch crashed in front of me, scraping my legs. I ran for the parking lot as
fast as I could. The frost closed in, surrounding me. I’d never been
claustrophobic, but as the frost cut off my escape path with a solid white
wall, I panicked.
Fog rolled in, like cold death,
cutting off my view of the park. It curled around me, brushing against my face,
arms, and legs. I turned back to the tree and ran faster, my dress tangling
between my legs as the fog and icy wind blew against my skin.
The
parking lot is the other way! my mind screamed. The other way was cut off
by a mountain of ice. I felt as if I was being herded. By ice?
I slipped on the icy ground, falling
face first into the frost. Ice crept up my toes and along my legs. I thrashed
and screamed. I felt the fog becoming a solid mass above me, pinning me to the
ground. The ice piled around me. Am I
going to be buried alive?
I dug my nails into the frigid snow in
front of me and tried to claw my way out of the frosted death trap. I was so
panicked I didn’t feel it when my nails broke against the impenetrable wall of
ice, leaving red crescents of blood welling up on sensitive skin. An hysterical
sob worked its way out of my throat as I gouged red lines into the ice. The ice
was above my knees, snaking its way up my thighs. I shivered.
Shivering’s
good, I reminded myself. It means your body hasn’t given up…yet. The cold
was painful, like a thousand little knives pricking my skin. A violent tremor
went up my spine, sending waves of pain through me.
“Help me!” I screamed, knowing it was
futile. I was going to die here.
Except I couldn’t die. Could I? Mom
said I was immortal, but was that all-inclusive? Did I have a weakness? Was
snow my Kryptonite? If I got hurt, would I heal or would I be trapped in an
injured body in pain forever?
I suddenly didn’t know if immortality
was a good thing or a bad thing. The cold hurt. I was kicking, screaming, and
clawing my way out of the frost, but for every inch I gained a mountain piled
around me. I thought I heard a man’s laughter on the wind, the sound somehow
colder than the ice freezing me into place.
The ground before my outstretched hand
trembled. The shaking increased. The earth lurched beneath me. The surface
cracked and the sound was so loud that for a moment all I could hear was
high-pitched ringing in my ears. The ground split into an impossibly deep
crevice. My voice went hoarse from screaming as I peered into the endless
abyss, trapped and unable to move away from the vertigo-inducing edge.
Persephone
Myth:
In the original Persephone myth, Kore,
the goddess of Spring, was a beautiful goddess and would have had many suiters
had her mother, Demeter, goddess of agriculture, not kept her hidden away from
the other gods. One day Kore went to a meadow to pick narcissus flowers,
lilacs, poppies, or some other flower depending on the source with some nymphs
when Hades, God of the Underworld spotted her and decided he wanted her for his
wife. He burst through the earth (in some versions, Gaia, goddess of Earth
assists him) in his creepy black chariot of death, and dragged Kore into the
Underworld. After her rape/marriage, Kore became known as Persephone, the Queen
of the Underworld.
Demeter, goddess of Agriculture and
Persephone’s mother, searched frantically for her daughter, neglecting her
duties as a goddess and plunging the earth into famine. Helios, god of the sun,
or in some versions Persephone’s nymph friends, tell Demeter what happened and
Demeter begged Zeus to rescue their daughter.
At first Zeus told Demeter she should be
pleased to have such a high ranking son-in-law, but eventually he relented
since too many people were starving to worship him properly, and sent Hermes to
liberate Persephone so long as she had not consumed food or drink in he
Underworld.
Meanwhile, Persephone was tricked into
eating 3-7(depending on the version) pomegranate seeds by the god Ascalapus,
Hades’ gardener. Ascalapus got turned into a screech owl in retribution for his
crime, and Persephone was forced to return to the Underworld for a month every
year for each seed she ate. While she is home with her mother, plants grow, but
during her time in the Underworld every year they die. This myth is considered
an explanation for winter.
Why did her name change?
Changing a gods name to reflect a change
in their divine role was not uncommon. In Persephone’s case she doesn’t even
get a name until she’s important. Kore translated to girl, or maiden.
Persephone
has a variety of other names and titles within her cult the Eleusinian
Mysteries.
Why a pomegranate?
The pomegranate is known as the fruit of
the dead as well as a symbol for fertility, and thanks to the little crown on
the top of a pomegranate is a symbol of royalty. So it’s easy to see why it was
chosen as symbol in the Persephone myth. You’ve got royalty for the new Queen
of Spring/fertility of the dead. When you cut it open is naturally divided into
three to six sections depending on the fruit. It is full of tiny little seeds
covered in a blood red juice.
While the Persephone myth is the most
well known example of using a Pomegranate for symbolism, way back when, this
weird little fruit found its way into a variety of stories across cultures.
Why does it matter what flower Persephone
was picking?
The flower chosen in the myth kind of
sets the tone for the whole story. The narcissus flower for instance is commonly
seen as a phallic symbol, and a symbol of unrequited love, and as a portent for
death, so you’ve got some foreshadowing, and loss of innocence going there.
Other flowers symbolize different things that the story teller may be trying to
get across.
What did I change?
I tried to stay true to the spirit of
the original myth in my version of the story. Several of the key elements
remained, but framed differently. My version is set in modern day. Persephone
believes she’s a normal, somewhat sheltered, girl. She discovers she’s a
goddess after catching the attention of a sadistic deity named Boreas, the God
of Winter (winter winds, technically). Hades rescues her by taking her to the
Underworld.
The idea that Hades may not have been
the bad guy has been toyed with in popular culture throughout my entire life
(Beauty and the Beast anyone?) so it’s logical, and certainly not original, to
consider that Hades may have just been misunderstood. Choosing Boreas as the
antagonist made sense because there is a very similar story in Greek mythology
involving Boreas abducting a Greek princess. In my mind, it fit really well.
Boreas is a repeat offender, AND he’s strongest during the winter. It made
complete sense for Persephone to have to hide during those months.
I made other changes as well, the
Underworld is a pretty nice place, and Persephone is free to come and go as she
pleases. Orpheus is a rock star. Small things to add layers to a world where
many of the myths we know so well haven’t happened yet.
Why rewrite the Persephone myth?
That myth has never really vanished or
fallen out of fashion. It resonates with us for some reason. If you studied any
mythology at all in school, you learned the Persephone myth. I think part of it
is, if you take the myth at face value, it’s unspeakable. We want to fix this
poor girl’s fate. Another draw is that the Persephone myth seems incomplete. In
other myths you get a bit of characterization for the key players. Zeus’s
personality and wants and needs come across crystal clear in every single myth
he’s a part of. But Hades and Persephone both are ambiguous in this myth. We
learn a lot about Demeter, and her devotion as a mother, but not so much about
Persephone. I wanted to know what happened down there. So I wrote my own version.
Bio:
Kaitlin Bevis spent her childhood curled up with a book, and a pen. If the ending didn't agree with her, she rewrote it. She's always wanted to be a writer, and spent high school and college learning everything she could so that one day she could achieve that goal. She graduated college with my BFA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, and is pursuing her masters at the University of Georgia.
Her young adult series "Daughters of Zeus" is available wherever ebooks are sold. She also writes for truuconfessions.com and Athens Parent Magazine.
Email: kaitlinbevis@gmail.com
Twitter: @kaitlinbevis
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Persephone: 07/06/12
ISBN 13: 978-1-61937-243-6
AISN: B008HYPD58
203 Pages
58,876 words
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