God of My Dreams (Greek Heroes #1) ✅ Completed

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Only Thing Worse than Not Knowing is Knowing

The Only Thing Worse than Not Knowing is Knowing

Gwen-Stacey stared out across the balcony and the sight of the wondrous garden outside her room did nothing to ease the dread settling deep inside her. She had no idea which was more unnerving – the fact that people were telling her she was dead, or that she somehow wound up in the Underworld of Greek mythology.

She wasn’t even Greek! The closest she’d even come to the country was adding extra Feta cheese on her salad. Now here she was, hanging out with Lord Hades of all people, one of the Big Three.   

It had come to her slowly. After Cassiae escorted her back to her room, leaving a small tray of fruit, cheese and bread, she’d sat on her bed and wondered if she was really going crazy. She was hearing voices, gorgeous men were declaring themselves Greek gods, and even the cheerful Cassiae was telling her she was dead as a doornail. It made for the most stressful day of her supposed after-life.

And that was another thing – how could it still be daytime?

She was sure hours had passed by now, but the sun (or what passed for the sun here) never seemed to move or dip below the horizon. It was as if time didn’t really pass here, although that seemed to be on the low end of the crazy meter for the moment.

As Gwen sat alone on her bed, chewing on several of the more disturbing parts of her lunch with Lord Hades as she absently snacked on a cracker, a name had popped into her head:

Persephone.

Who was Persephone?

The answer came to her very slowly, as if developing like an old photograph inside her mind. First she got a few random names: Zeus, Demeter, Cyane but not much else. After she thought long and hard about each name, the rest of the story came to her in large chunks.

Persephone was the Greek goddess of spring, daughter of Demeter and Zeus. Zeus was the ruler of all the gods, while Demeter was the goddess of the Harvest. According to the myth, Hades had taken one look at the young goddess and fallen madly in love. Unable to control himself, he forcibly dragged her back to Underworld to be his queen. No one witnessed the kidnapping except for a lone water nymph, Cyane, who rose from her place in the lake to stop Hades. Ignoring her pleas, Hade struck the ground with his mighty trident and stole Persephone. Cyane was so distraught, she wept until her blood turned to water and she dissolved from her grief. When Demeter sought Cyane in her search for her missing daughter, all the mute water nymph could do was hold Persephone’s lost girdle up on the surface of the water.

Demeter was inconsolable. She refused to fulfill her duties while her daughter was missing. People went hungry as everything sank into a frozen wasteland of death and decay, forcing Zeus himself to interfere. However, according to the myth, the rule was anyone who ate food or drink from the Underworld was cursed to become part of it for eternity. By the time he’d convinced Hades to return Persephone to her mother, she’d already eaten six pomegranate seeds and was destined to spend six months out of the year with Hades in the Underworld. At this point Gwen-Stacey immediately put down the remaining half of her cracker, grateful she wasn’t a goddess. Persephone hadn’t been so lucky however.

Ancient Greeks once believed this was the origin of the nature cycle – for six months out of the year, it was Spring and Summer because Demeter was with her daughter. Fall marked the time of Persephone’s return to the Underworld, flowing into winter as Demeter grieved for her missing daughter. Upon her return, Demeter would resume her duties with renewed vigor, heralding the time of growth, rebirth, and new life.