On a beautiful day, Persephone was frolicking around in the gardens and felt a little mischievious. She quietly crept away from her mother, Demeter, and the rest of the attending nymphs, and strayed away to a patch of flowers that were so gorgeous that she couldn't resist. As Persephone was playing in the gardens, Hades sat in his palace in the underworld. Hades was a very lonely man, and yearned for a wife to be the queen of the underworld. He spotted the stunning Persephone, and instantly knew that he wanted her to be his wife. Hades made a plan to burst out from the ground and quickly grab her. While Persephone was busy choosing the best flowers to pick for her mother, she didn't realize what was happening. All of a sudden, the ground trembled fiercely and cracked open. From inside the crevice, out came Hades with his steeds. He swiftly captured Persephone and zoomed back into his palace in the underworld. A herd of swine squealed in surprise and fell into the crevice too. Persephone's pitiful cries for help drifted away as she was captured and carried away into Hades' palace in the underworld. While Hades and Persephone were in the underworld, a swineherd stood and sobbed over the pigs he had lost. Hades raced his speeding steeds down away into his underworld palace, with Persephone in his arms. They arrived at his palace and Hades led her inside and sat her beside him on a throne of dark black marble. Persephone dreamed for the warm sun and the blossoming meadows, and most of all, her mother. All the nature around Hades' palace were poplars and weeping willows, with no flowers and no fruit in their branches. There was only one tree that bore frut, a small pomegranate tree. The gardener of the underworld showed Persephone the pomegranates, but she refused to consume the food of the dead. Up on the earth, Demeter continued to search for her daughter, while all of nature withered. Humans and animals perished without food and they pleaded Demeter to bless the earth, but she refused. Demeter soon turned into an old woman. She went back to where Persephone had been playing in the meadows when she had disappeared, and asked if the sun had seen what had happened to her poor daughter. But unfortunately, he said no because gloomy clouds hid his view that day. Demeter wandered some more throughout the meadows, and came upon young man named Triptolemus. Triptolemus informed her that his brother, the swineherd, had seen his pigs vanish into the ground and had also heard frightened screams of a young girl. Demeter soon understood that Hades, her brother, had kidnapped her daughter. Demeter's grief soon turned to fury and she called her brother Zeus and said that she would never turn the earth green again if he did not command Hades to return Persephone. Zeus knew he could not let the world starve, so he told Hermes to go down to the underworld and make him free Persephone. Hades was forced to obey the order of Zeus, and he sadly let Persephone go. But, the gardener told Hades that Persephone, lost in thought, had eaten six pomegranate seeds. Hades smiled and watched Hermes carry away Persephone, but he knew that she must return to him, for Persephone had ate the food of the deceased. When Persephone arrived back on the earth, Demeter was so joyful that she turned back into a radiant goddess. All flowers bloomed and all the fields were again healthy and filled with ripened grains. But just as everything was settling back to normal, Persephone confessed that she had eaten the food of the deceased and must return to Hades. But, Zeus knew that the world would be perished forever if Persephone left, and that mother and daughter could not be seperated forever either. Zeus decided that Persephone must stay in the underworld for every seed she ate. Every year when Persephone said goodbye to Demeter to go to the underworld, Demeter grieved and nothing sprouted from the ground. But, Demeter was a loving goddess. She knew she couldn't let mankind suffer when Persephone was gone, so she lent her chariot, caked with grain, to Triptolemus. Triptolemus then scattered all of the grain on the soil. Demeter also told him to teach the humans how to sow the grain in the spring and how to harvest in the fall, and finally how to store it in the winter. And as soon as Persephone returned, all of nature smiled again and Demeter was again merry.
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