The Love of Hades

Chapter 1

On mount Cephiro there lived many gods and goddesses and lived happily together. Hikaru (Demeter) and Lantis (Zeus) had a daughter named Emeraude (Persephone). With two powerful gods as parents, it's not surprising that the little goddess grew up to be a beautiful maiden. Her mother loved the child more than anything else in the world and cringed at the idea of ever being apart from her.

After she had grown up and become a young goddess, Emeraude's beauty caught the eye of Zagato (Hades), the ruler of the underworld. Zagato fell in love at the very first sight of her. He knew he wanted to marry no one else. Overcome with love, Zagato went to Lantis, his brother. He said, "Brother, I'm in love with your daughter, Emeraude. Let me have your consent to marry her. I will make her the queen of my kingdom in the underworld."

Lantis thought that Zagato would be a good husband for Emeraude, Zagato was a fair and powerful god. However, Lantis also knew that Hikaru would never allow her daughter to marry Zagato and go to live far away in the underworld. If the goddess were to marry Zagato, the mother and daughter would be separated indefinitely. Lantis also knew that Hikaru, the goddess of growth and fertility, would never wish her daughter to live in the stark, bleak world of the dead where nothing ever grew. Although he was king of the gods, Lantis was wary of Hikaru's powerful influence over all the things that blossomed on earth. He didn't want to upset her.

Lantis pondered his dilemma for quite some time. He wanted to please his brother and allow the marriage, but he didn't wish to cause a conflict with Hikaru. Finally, Lantis found a clever way to grant his brother's request without actually saying so. Carefully wording his response, Lantis said. "Brother, I can't approve of a marriage between you and my daughter."

Lantis was telling Zagato that although he couldn't officially approve the marriage, he wasn't forbidding it either. Zagato understood Lantis's intention. He realized that Lantis was encouraging him to marry Emeraude without her parent's blessing. Zagato felt certain that if he acted in this prescribed manner, Lantis wouldn't be angry with him. He understood that Lantis was just trying to keep the peace by officially saying neither yes nor no to the marriage proposal. Satisfied, Zagato returned to the underworld to plan the details of exactly how he would go about kidnapping Emeraude.

One day Emeraude and her nymph friends where in a meadow when Emeraude had strayed someway from her companions, and was out of their sight when she was drawn to a place where a bank of narcissus blew in the breeze. Emeraude knelt to pick one up so that she can make a lovely flower crown with the narcissus in the center. When she was about to pick it up to her surprise that the roots were so deep that she could not wrench it out of the ground. Suddenly, as she tugged mightily on the flower, a huge hold appeared in front of her; too late Emeraude saw the dark god's approach. She sprang up in terror; tried to run, struggled as he seized her, dragged her into his chariot, and whipped up the horses. Emeraude screamed for her friends and they heard her, and from far off her mother, heard her too, but no one saw what had happened. Emeraude's friends had been frightened when their friend failed to return, but no one could tell where she had gone. Distraught, Hikaru roamed the earth for nine days and nights, searching in vain for her beloved daughter.

On the tenth day, Hikaru met Presea, a goddess who lived in a cave near the spot where Emeraude and her friends had been playing. Presea had indeed heard Emeraude's cries for help, but alas, she hadn't seen what had happened to the girl. Though she could offer on new information about Emeraude's disappearance, Presea offered to help Hikaru look for her daughter. Together, the goddesses set out on their search.

The next morning, the goddesses came upon Lafarga (Helios), the god of the sun. Lafarga could see everything from his lofty perch in the sky, so Hikaru begged him for information about her daughter's disappearance. Lafarga pitied Hikaru and promised to tell her everything he knew. He confessed that he had seen Zagato kidnap Emeraude, and that the girl felt unsure of her herself when she was made Zagato's bride. Lafarga was sorry for Hikaru's loss, but he hurried to point out that as ruler of the underworld, Zagato exerted power over a third of the world. He tried to console Hikaru by saying, "I know you are sad to be separated from your daughter, but the powerful Zagato is a good match for the fair goddess."

However, Hikaru wouldn't be consoled, she cried, "my beautiful daughter? Why should she be taken so far away among the sunless dead?" thinking about her daughter's situation all over again, Hikaru became so upset that she left Presea and Lafarga and began to shun her fellow immortals.

For the sorrow for her daughter, Hikaru started to mourn and the Earth was being untended and people started to starve.