Hades' Second Chance

Persephone

As truth may have it, the daughter of Demeter by Zeus was in a meadow, and kidnapped by the great lord Hades.

He tried everything to win her favor, but to no avail. She refused to be courted by him.

Demeter fought to regain Persephone from the underworld, hoping and praying that it would work. She had to try and strike a deal with her brother.

Persephone yet prevailed against Hades attempts to court her, and found herself in a garden, constructed entirely for her. She found, growing upon the trees, dark and fragrant pomegranates.

She knew that to eat the fruit upon the trees would mean that she would be trapped in the underworld, but she could not help herself.

"Perhaps... one bite would be alright." Persephone mused.

She found the juiciest and ripest of the fruit, and gingerly plucked it off the tree, then glanced around, then broke it in half, taking a large bite out of it, about a third.

Too late, a voice behind her cried, "No!"

Persephone, daintily wiping the juice off their lips, turned to see Hermes, Zeus' messenger, standing under another of the trees, with Hades by his side, trying not to look pleased.

"I'd come to take you back, but if you've eaten the fruit that grows here, I cannot. You are bound to the underworld." Hermes shook his head, saddened.

Hades coughed. "I am very sorry, love."

Hermes frowned, looking at the fruit in her hand. "Perhaps... you didn't eat the entire pomegranate... only a third. Perhaps, Lord Hades, she could stay in the underworld as your bride for a third of the year, in autumn, and the rest she could spend with her mother."

Hades sighed. "I will take what I can get."

Thus, Persephone remained in the underworld, and when she left, the air turned cold and the flowers wilted until her return, marking the beginning and end of autumn.