THE TEMPTATION

She was answered by Persephone, the most beautiful:

—So then, Mother, I shall tell you everything, without error. When the messenger came to me, the swift Argos-killer, with the news from my father, the son of Kronos, and from the other dwellers in the sky, that I should come from Erebos, so that you may see me with your own eyes and let go of your wrath and terrible mênis against the immortals, then I sprang up for joy, but he, stealthily, put into my hand the berry of the pomegranate, that honey-sweet food, and he compelled me by biâ to eat of it. But when the earth starts blossoming with fragrant flowers of springtime, flowers of every sort, then it is that you must come up from the misty realms of darkness, once again, a great thing of wonder to gods and mortal humans alike. But what kind of ruse was used to deceive you by the powerful one, the one who receives many guests?

(Hymn to Demeter, 389-404)