Chapter 6: The Great Famine

Wasting her strength on the yearning for her deep-bosomed daughter, Demeter paid no heed to the earth. The lands turned bare for she ceased to tend it - fruit withered on the vine, plenteous fields grew fallow, and the pleasant winds ceased to blow. The lands grew cold and barren. The goddess accused the whole wide world as ungrateful, not deserving of her gift of grains.

She knew not how to reach her girl Persephone, who had been abducted by the goddess of the dead. She put on a black cloak of mourning and sealed herself up in a cave for a long time.

While Zeus was napping in his chamber, a great wind began to blow with a sound like waves crashing ferociously on a rocky shore. He found his sleep being disturbed by wailing of lamentation. He arose and peered down upon the earth. What he saw was that of a grievous sight of the world. Nothing of lustrous colors grew. The fields were blasted and parched. Trees were stripped of leaves, standing blighted with the blazing sun beating down.

Zeus was surprised to see there was no green place anywhere. The scorched soil was hard and cracked, covered with the shriveled brown husks of wheat, corn, and barley killed on the spikes. The people were starving. The king finally realized that Demeter, who was resolved to winning her daughter back from Hades, had caused the most devastating and cruel year for mankind all over the once nourishing earth. The ground could not make the seeds sprout for the rich-crowned goddess was grieving.

He also spotted farmers in the fields with their oxen tilling many curved rows in vain and copious amount of white barley grains was cast upon the land to no avail. The hunters could find no games and were dying of starvation. Thus a great wailing and lamentation arose as the people lifted their faces up towards Olympus and prayed for Zeus's help.

At last, Zeus, the king of gods, was alarmed and marked this issue in his heart. Demeter would soon destroy the entire race of man with cruel famine and rob the gods, who dwelled upon Olympus, of their glorious rights to the gifts and sacrifices. As the mortals had nothing to offer in their temples, the deathless Olympians would lose their golden sheen from their skin and their power would be drained from their ichor.

"O Demeter," he groaned to himself, "you surely know how to damn the gods."

At once, the king sent golden-winged Iris on a search for Demeter. She obeyed the dark-clouded Son of Cronus and sped off with swift feet across space between worlds. But Iris returned empty-handed with no news of where Demeter was at. Zeus sent out Hermes next, then Apollo and Artemis; even Athena also joined the search.

Meanwhile, all the fruits of the earth were cursed and perishing. The human race was dying, yet no god knew where Demeter was until Pan, the goat-god of nature, roamed from mountain to mountain and came at last upon Mount Elaios and found the goddess. During his journey, Pan had found streams of fire let loosed by an enraged Demeter to rid of all the grain-fields in Sicily, where no man could approach. As she groaned throughout her grief over the loss of the maiden, the tragedy had now reached the mortals, beloved of Zeus. They were perishing without the wheat and corn.

He was shocked to see the state she was in and the clothes she was wearing. Demeter had grown old and shrinking, losing her ethereal radiance and aura due to her sorrow.

"Lady Demeter, why are you hiding your blessed self here while the world is crying for you?" Pan said to her as he came kneeling before the earth goddess on his furred hind-legs.

Demeter looked up from under her ragged shawl and spoke in a hollow bleak voice.

"My child was stolen from me and the gods stood by doing naught," she said sourly, "I will answer to no calls until Zeus learns what a grave mistake he has made by betraying me."

"But this is a hostile deed to all, my lady. You are the most generous of all the great Olympian goddesses. Please have some mercy!" Pan tried to reason, his fingers curling around his reed pipe nervously.

"As long as Persephone is in the hand of the cold-hearted goddess and living in the Kingdom of the Departed, I shall remain here. If Zeus does not right his wrong and decrees for my daughter's return, the world can burn to ashes for all I care."

"Demeter!" Pan gasped in fear. "This is outrageous!"

"Lord Pan, my dear old friend, you know none of the grief that strikes a mother's heart," Demeter said with a mad look in her eyes, "If you could not help me get my daughter back, at least leave me alone to my sorrow."

Pan had no wit to respond. He realized that in retaliation the lady of grain and growth intended to bring a deadly starvation to the race of man to punish the gods.

At last, Pan retreated and left the goddess there in the cavern. However, he decided to bring the news of Demeter's hiding to Zeus, the loud-thunderer, at his council.

~*~

In the meantime, Persephone's heart still clenched in bitterness. She refused to accept Hades' apologies. After that day of impetuous haste and brutality, Hades began to treat her very kindly and with great gentleness.

The dark goddess gave her jewelry of red-gold and pale silver crusted with rubies, sapphires, slitted yellow tiger eyes, and diamonds. She had sent her the finest velvets and damasks patterned in such sparkling colors that at first glance they looked like gems or serpent's scales. Hades even offered her a throne of the finest ebony and gave her a beautiful crown of black pearls.

But Persephone would not speak to her and said she would never forgive her. Persephone still demanded to go back home. She insisted on hating Hades and always would.

Whenever Hades paid her a visit in the hope of mending her heart, the maiden would launch these tirades at her. She threw all her gifts away. Instead of bursting into a rage as expected, the dark goddess just stood there, listened, and merely frowned. She waited patiently while Persephone carried on with her tongue-lashing and hateful words.

After the angry maiden had nothing left to hurl at her, she flounced away, slamming the door shut. Then Hades would go and find her another gift.

Secretly, though so secretly that she didn't even tell it to herself, Persephone was rather enjoying the change. She did miss the sunshine and flowers but secretly she gloated about her power over this most fearsome goddess - the pitiless and cold-hearted Hades. Secretly, she fancied her gifts and her efforts to please her. The maiden marveled at the way Hades obeyed.

Although she never forgot how the monarch had mistreated her, she came to admire the subtle beauty of that black-robed figure - the gracile yet majestic shoulders, the long beautiful jet black hair, and those gloomy black eyes. Persephone knew that part of her power over the goddess was her disdain. She kept flouting and abusing her this way, refusing to let a crumb of food pass her lips, which made Hades gloomier than ever.

However, Persephone was unsure how long she could keep up. She was a goddess, immortal and ageless, but she was not immune to hunger, thus it seemed the great famine had befallen her as bad as the world above.