Finding Inspiration in the strangest places

Last night, I was watching the newest episode of Caprica on the Syfy channel.  If you haven't seen it and you liked the reimagining of Battlestar Galactica, check this out.  In last night's episode, which you can watch on line, Joseph Adama was encouraged to honor his late wife and daughter in a traditional ritual from his home world of Tauron.  I was very impressed with the ritual itself.  The theology of the 12 colonies from both Battlestar Galactica and Caprica is based heavily on the Olympian Gods.  And clearly in this episode, there is also a nod toward the entire Hellenic pantheon including the Chthonic gods of the underworld.  They never said the names of the gods there - which may be consistent with how the ancients viewed them as well. 

I think sometimes about funeral rites.  Not that I am rushing to have a funeral or anything, but I do think about how to incorporate my own spiritual traditions with something that most of my friends and family can also take comfort in even though most of them are not Hellenic.  The main problem with pre-planning your own funeral is that once you're dead you really don't have a say in it any more. 

The ritual that the Adamas participated in during lasts night's episode was lovely.  And even though it comes from a pop-culture TV show based on a fictitious world with a Hellenic-like state religion, I don't feel the least bit weird saying that I would like to incorporate something like that into a funeral. 

In the episode, friends and family gather at their home for the ritual.  As the ritual begins, Joe and Willie Adama (future Bill Adama of Galactica) approach a priest that appeared to be a symbolic Charon, the ferryman who allows passage of souls across the River Styx in the underworld.  The priest asked them if they had a coin for him and they each handed him one - one for Shannon Adama and one for Tamera Adama.  Joe and Willie then asked if they would be granted passage and the priest replied yes, but then asked if they (meaning Joe and Willie) would be willing to let them go.  They both said yes.  Then someone in the background began to sing a song, presumably in the Tauron language, and the priest gave Joe Adama a tattoo - which are very symbolic in their culture. 

I really like the core of this ritual; the approaching Charon, the offering of coins and the granting of passage to the underworld.  I would never ask someone to get a tattoo for me, unless then wanted to of course.  I have also always wanted the poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay to be read for me and I think it would incorporate nicely into the ritual.

Be to her, Persephone,
All the things I might not be:
Take her head upon your knee.
She that was so proud and wild,
Flippant, arrogant and free,
She that had no need of me,
Is a little lonely child
Lost in Hell,—Persephone,
Take her head upon your knee:
Say to her, "My dear, my dear,
It is not so dreadful here."

Lectio Homerica: The Homeric Hymn To Demeter Part Three

This was a particularly difficult section to select, because it is a lot of wordy conversation between gods.  But here is the third installment of The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. 

Then for nine days queenly Deo wandered over the earth with flaming torches in her hands, so grieved that she never tasted ambrosia and the sweet draught of nectar, [50] nor sprinkled her body with water. But when the tenth enlightening dawn had come, Hecate, with a torch in her hands, met her, and spoke to her and told her news:


“Queenly Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of good gifts, [55] what god of heaven or what mortal man has rapt away Persephone and pierced with sorrow your dear heart? For I heard her voice, yet saw not with my eyes who it was. But I tell you truly and shortly all I know.”

So, then, said Hecate. [60] And the daughter of rich-haired Rhea answered her not, but sped swiftly with her, holding flaming torches in her hands. So they came to Helios, who is watchman of both gods and men, and stood in front of his horses: and the bright goddess enquired of him: “Helios, do you at least regard me, goddess as I am, [65] if ever by word or deed of mine I have cheered your heart and spirit. Through the fruitless air I heard the thrilling cry of my daughter whom I bare, sweet scion of my body and lovely in form, as of one seized violently; though with my eyes I saw nothing. But you —for with your beams you look down [70] from the bright upper air over all the earth and sea —tell me truly of my dear child, if you have seen her anywhere, what god or mortal man has violently seized her against her will and mine, and so made off.”

So said she. And the Son of Hyperion answered her: [75] “Queen Demeter, daughter of rich-haired Rhea, I will tell you the truth; for I greatly reverence and pity you in your grief for your trim-ankled daughter. None other of the deathless gods is to blame, but only cloud-gathering Zeus who gave her to Hades, her father's brother, to be called his buxom wife. [80] And Hades seized her and took her loudly crying in his chariot down to his realm of mist and gloom. Yet, goddess, cease your loud lament and keep not vain anger unrelentingly: Aidoneus, the Ruler of Many, is no unfitting husband among the deathless gods for your child, [85] being your own brother and born of the same stock: also, for honor, he has that third share which he received when division was made at the first, and is appointed lord of those among whom he dwells.”

So he spake, and called to his horses: and at his chiding they quickly whirled the swift chariot along, like long-winged birds.

I find a lot of the language in this translation from the Perseus Project to be very interested.  First and foremost, I was struck by the constant references to the torches held by both Demeter and Hecate, and both are referred to as "bright".  Demeter, of course, is not currently very bright having shrouded herself on her search for her daughter.  The torch, to me, symoblizes a great wisdom like the Hermit card in the Tarot deck.  A light in the dark.  Several of my friends like to quote Arlo Guthrie:  "You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in."  Maybe, deep in their hearts, both Demeter and Hecate know the truth about what is happening. 
 
However, the speech by Helios is very profound.  He explains to her that it was, in fact, Persephone's very own father that allowed Persephone to be betrothed to Hades - who is of course brother to both Demeter and Zeus himself.  Helios defends Hades as a mate for Demeter's fair daughter.  He implies that by the very nature of the division of the universe that Persephone will be a Queen of a third of all creation.  And then Helios rides off in his chariot of the sun to converse no more with the grieving mother and her handmaiden. He leaves them to ponder his words. 
 
I know that the story continues from here, that Demeter does not "cease her loud lament" but continues to search high and low for her daughter even though she knows precisely where she is at this time.
 
As I have mentioned before, I have my own filter for the myth of Persephone and in my heart of hearts I believe that she truly loves her husband and takes her role as Queen of the Dead very seriously.  I sympathize with Helios in this hymn.  He has been asked to share this information with a very upset mother who has been betrayed by her daughter's father.  At the very least, Zeus could have told Demeter what he had planned to do.  Helios doesn't believe that this is a fate worse than death, no pun intended.  He doesn't paint Hades as the bad guy or, gods forbid, Satan himself.  Helios, like me, believes that Hades is a worthy partner and that Persephone is a worthy Queen. 

When God Made Me Born a Yankee She Was Teasing

I have been beating the dead horse of "I am so ready for spring" since Christmas. I have also mentioned before that I sometimes equate my own journey from living in Michigan to living in Georgia to Persephone's own journey to the underworld and back - though I waffle as to which direction I go every time I think about it. 

There is this song by Indigo Girls. It is called "Southland in the Springtime".  I love the way it makes me feel.  Every time I listen to it I remember why I fell in love with the mountains in North Georgia and Western North Carolina.  This video is just an exerpt of the song, but my favorite part. 

Maybe we'll make Texas by the morning

Light the bayou with our tail lights in the night

800 miles to El Paso from the state line

And we never have the money for the flight

I'm in the back seat sleepy from the travel

Played our hearts out all night long in New Orleans

I'm dirty from the diesel fumes, drinking coffee black

When the first breath of Texas comes in clean

And there's something 'bout the Southland in the springtime

Where the waters flow with confidence and reason

Though I miss her when I'm gone it won't ever be too long

Till I'm home again to spend my favorite season

When God made me born a yankee he was teasin'

There's no place like home and none more pleasin'

Than the Southland in the springtime

In Georgia nights are softer than a whisper

Beneath a quilt somebody's mother made by hand

With the farmland like a tapestry passed down through generations

And the peach trees stitched across the land

There'll be cider up near Helen off the roadside

And boiled peanuts in a bag to warm your fingers

And the smoke from the chimneys meets its maker in the sky

With a song that winter wrote whose melody lingers

 

Percy Jackson and Persephone

I know you are all eagerly waiting to hear my review of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief. I finally saw it last night. I have to say, I very much enjoyed the books by Rick Riordan but the movie left a lot to be desired in my own opinion. Read on to see what I thought.

***SPOILERS AHEAD: DO NOT READ IF YOU AREN’T PREPARED TO BE SPOILED***



As I mentioned in this post, I thought that Riordan had portrayed Persephone and the Underworld in a very respectful way. However, the screenwriters did their damage and plucked Persephone out of mythology, placed her in an abusive marriage and moved her into Hell. Persephone didn’t even appear in the first book, but the movie added an entirely new storyline that involved her prominently, and I thought poorly.

We meet Hades early in the film and he appears as a fiery hell demon – wings and horns and everything you might expect from “Evil”. I was disappointed in that depiction especially since Riordan didn’t give you that image of him at all. In fact, as the books progress the character of Hades becomes much more complex. Later, Hades appears as a Mick Jaggar-esque rock star but reminds us that he can just as easily transform into Tim Curry’s character from Ridley Scott’s Legend.

On their way to the underworld to complete the quest, the children in the movie end up in Nashville Tennessee at the Parthenon there. At first I was very excited that the filmmakers decided to place part of the movie at this scale reproduction in the American South. However, once the children entered the building I was quickly disappointed. They were supposedly inside the Nashville Parthenon, but the statue of Athena there was not authentic. I was sure they were going to destroy the Parthenon in an action sequence, but why put a statue that doesn’t match the statue in the real building? It said to me that the filmmakers didn’t even do the research.

Eventually the heroes of the story reach the entrance of the Underworld. Once they were in the Underworld, the imagery turned to fire and brimstone. I really bristle when people take biblical images to describe the Greek Underworld. I do understand that they were making a movie for American kids that probably do not have a deep love or understanding of Greek Mythology. But I don’t think it gave the moviegoers a fair perspective on the stories of the ancients. In the movie, the story of Persephone is described at its very base – Persephone was stolen by Hades and kept in the underworld as a prisoner. She despises her husband and only wants to spend her time on Olympos. I was also confused by the filmmakers’ understanding of the myth. If they wanted to portray Persephone as the victim, why in the world was she still in the underworld the day before the Summer Solstice? Based on the general understanding of the myth, Persephone should be with her mother from the Spring to the Fall before returning again to her husband. If they are going to go cliché, they don’t even manage to get that entirely accurate.

Overall, I also had a big problem with the random aging of the main characters. In the book, Percy and his friends start out the series at the age of 11. In the movie Percy is somewhere around 15, 16, or 17 – they never specify. To me, the unexplained aging of the characters kind of ruined the integrity of the story. It didn’t make much sense to me why they were all at summer camp as older teenagers. I thought the plot was overly simplified (and rewritten for the most part) to reduce the story to the lowest common denominator. This is not a feeling I had from the books. Yes, they start out simple from the point of view of a very confused 11 year old, but as he ages throughout the series the story, the mythology and Percy’s own perception mature right along with him.

Spring Cleaning with Persephone

My partner and I have a mission this year of simplifying our lives.  This involves selling our too-big-for-us house and moving somewhere smaller.  This means that for the next two weeks we are vigorously cleaning and organizing to get the house ready to show. 

The spring equinox is just a month away, thank the Gods, and we are all tired of this long hard winter.  Spring cleaning evokes the feeling of change for many people. 

The Internet is full of guides to help all of us organize our cleaning and maximize our results. 

• The Complete Spring Cleaning Checklist
• Martha Stewart's take on the matter
• The Organized Home Blog
• How to Organize Spring Cleaning from eHow
• Tips for Green Spring Cleaning

I am as ready as I will ever be to dig in and do a deep cleaning this weekend.  But Persephone story is also a bit about Spring Cleaning.  In about a month she will return to the upper world and everything will blossom and come to life.  She'll shake off the mantle of winter and earth that she has been hiding under and see the sun for the first time in months.  I plan to honor her by making sure we have fresh flowers and fresh fruit out at all times while we are selling the house.  It is good practice anyway when selling a home, but I will know they are to welcome Persephone back with the spring.  Try it for yourself even if you aren't selling your house.

Persephone in Hades

In a random search for content to post here, I came across this book.  I think I might need to read more.  This is a sample poem provided. 

Black rose in the vision; with tormented eyes,
And fortitude most desperate and divine
She fronted Him from whom the fearful priest
Averts his face at the black sacrifice,
Whose name is never spoken, and whose rites
Are secret, and with whispering horror done.
She saw the horses and the chariot,
She felt the mighty, and the restless clasp,
And knew her valour vain. As men at arms
Hold honour above all, dishonoured die,
So she, whom fear alone could never tame,
Struck by the thunderbolt of insult fell,
A senseless prey. The brazen hooves retreat,
Earth closes in and sighs; the broken turf
Unites, and save the headlong-fallen trees
And the girls weeping in the sorry rain,
No trace remains to mourn Persephone.

Poem by Ruth Pitter

Plea to Demeter

Is it the end of winter that makes the spring come? 
Is it the beginning of spring that makes winter end?
Demeter, it is up to you to let your daughter rise. 
Let her push the green shoots through the black soil. 
Your tears of diamonds sparkle on the earth
They keep it sleeping beneath this blanket of cold. 
The world grows weary of winter
I long to see spring again. 

The Song of Persephone

Winter is still very much here.  With most of the east coast under a blanket of heavy white snow, I am certain most people are quite finished with the season actually. 

This time of year, as I have mentioned before, I start to get restless for Spring.  I start to get the itch to be creative.  Lots of big changes are going on in my own life which are taking a lot of my creative energy.  We are finishing a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina and we are selling our house to move to somewhere smaller that is better suited to our current lifestyle.  I thought perhaps some devotional practice would be called for to help banish winter and bring in the renewal of spring. That gave me an idea.  Please, keep reading to see where I am going with this! 

The Celtic holiday of Imbolc just passed and is traditionally a holiday celebrating Brigid, the goddess of Poetry, Healing and Fire.  In 2004, I wrote a poem for her based on the Song of Amergin.  It went like this: 

The Song of Brigid


I am the smoke on the pyre
I am the bubble in the brook
I am the cat asleep on the hearth
I am the wren on the breeze
I am the heat of the blaze
I am the herb of healing
I am a red-eared cow
I am the playful otter
I am a well on the land
I am the inspiration
I am the anvil and the hammer
I am the goddess who burns the inner fire
…Who stokes the fire of the home
…Who fans the fire of the forge.
…Who is the fire of the heart

And inspired by that, in 2008 I wrote another poem for the Olympic Gods. 

The Song of Olympos


I am the fire on the hearth
I am the lightening in the storm
I am the eye of the cow
I am the crashing sea
I am the sheaf of wheat
I am the lover's embrace
I am the music of the lyre
I am the sword and the shield
I am the hunter in the wild
I am the wisdom of ages
I am the anvil and the hammer
I am the guide of the dead
I am the vine and the grape
I am the fire in the hearth
...We are the eternal ones
...We are the deathless ones
...We are the Gods of Olympos


So I thought it would be a great exercise to write a similar song for Persephone.  I thought I would ask for some help.  We all know the basics of her myth as well as some of her symbols.  Starting each line with "I am" what would Persephone say in this prayer?

We'll call this cooperative poetry.
Enjoy!

Lectio Homerica: The Homeric Hymn to Demeter Part Two

As I mentioned in my last installment of Lectio Homerica: The Hymn to Demeter I started this nearly four years ago.  I only made it to Part Two.  I am reposting that here, with no alterations.  In the intro I talk about going to the Unitarian Church.  I don't do that so regularly any more, but not because I don't want to.  The pastor moved to another church and I have never quite connected with any of his replacements.  So, here is Part Two with the firm promise that I will make it to Part Three and Beyond. 

Posted on Jan. 29th, 2006 at 02:52 pm

I regularly attend a local Unitarian Universalist church here in the Atlanta area. This morning the sermon was centered on a text rather than an idea. The text was about the leftovers of our lives and it was a lovely metaphor. However, during the sermon our pastor mentioned the practice of Lectio Divina and how he felt it could be used with any text to meditation on and internalize the words. I couldn't agree with him more. Which is why I came home to write this next installment of the devotional reading of Homer and the Hymn to Demeter.

"And so long as she, the goddess, yet beheld earth and starry heaven and the strong-flowing sea where fishes shoal, and the rays of the sun, and still hoped to see her dear mother and the tribes of the eternal gods, so long hope calmed her great heart for all her trouble. . . . and the heights of the mountains and the depths of the sea rang with her immortal voice: and her queenly mother heard her.

Bitter pain seized her heart, and she rent the covering upon her divine hair with her dear hands: her dark cloak she cast down from both her shoulders and sped, like a wild-bird, over the firm land and yielding sea, seeking her child. But no one would tell her the truth, neither god nor mortal man; and of the birds of omen none came with true news for her."

from http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/demeter.htm

We begin this next section with Persephone again as she cries out in hopes someone would hear her and rescue her. How are we the abducted and innocent goddess? My inner dialogue with Persephone takes me often through her journey - things that carry me into the "depths" of my psyche and how I can "rule" over them as Queen to emerge again in my own "spring time". Sometimes our cry is so primordial that the earth herself hears our pain.

But how does Persephone's dear mother answer her? As any mother would, we expect - by rushing off after the cries of her daughter and searching every possible place on earth for her.

The translation by Diane Rayor that I am reading uses the phrase, "She tore the veil from her ambrosial hair, threw a black cloak across her shoulders and sped like a bird..." In the translation from http://www.sacred-texts.com/ it appears that Demeter casts off her cloak, but in Rayor's version she dons it. It is like the veil of mourning - Demeter cannot be seen in her motherly veil of the celebration of life, but needs to clothe herself in the darkness of sorrow.

Sometimes I too don the cloak of sorrow. I think we all do from time to time. And, like Demeter, we search the lands for that which was lost to us. Sometimes this is in the form of finding our spiritual center. That is the journey that I have been on with Persephone for many years.

How does the sorry of Persephone and Demeter speak to you? What is your internal dialogue with these two goddesses - each of them in mourning but for various reasons. Is there something that you have lost? Is there something that has been taken from you? How far will you go to get it back?

Selling My Childhood

The myth of Persephone is generally recounted as a "Reason for the Seasons", so to speak. Persephone is abducted and Demeter mourns her loss so she weeps and the trees die and eventually winter covers the land. Or a drought.  Then Persephone is finally returned, her emergence symbolizes the beginning of spring and the snow melts, the world warms and the trees grow green again.


But there is a deeper meaning to the story. Persephone begins as a child, a daughter. She is merrily playing in beautiful green feels and in love with life. She hasn't a care in the world. Next thing you know, this guy comes along. Whether he took her by force or she made the conscious choice to join him, it doesn’t matter. Persephone now becomes a wife and a queen and now has a whole new set of very adult tasks and worries. The myth not only explains the season, but it explains the loss of childhood. For mothers, in the case of Demeter, is the loss of their young daughter - now all grown up with a life of her own.

When I was a small girl, I loved horses. A lot of small girls love horses, that is true. I didn't take riding lessons or go to farms very often. My love for horses involved collecting. Breyer Model Horses have been on the market for decades. They are very detailed and beautifully carved and painted horses models, typically made from a molded plastic resin. I had dozens of them. When I was really little I played with them so many got scratched and broken. As I became a teenager, I wasn't ready to part with them. I purged the older broken models. I kept the beautiful ones displayed on shelves in my bedroom.

When I graduated from college and moved in with my partner, I received a barrister bookcase from his mother for my graduation present. We moved the horses into the duplex where we lived and I kept them on display there as well. We eventually moved out of that duplex and the house we bought didn't have a good place for the models. I had considered selling the horses, but wasn't quite ready to do that. My mother volunteered to keep them in her basement in boxes - I don't believe she was ready to let go of my childhood either.

Eventually, as time continued to march on, Matt and I moved to Atlanta and the horses finally came with us. For a couple of years they stayed wrapped in paper towel padding and stored in plastic boxes.

One day, finally, I realized that I really needed for them to go. It was time to purge that part of my life. I wasn't the little girl who loved horses any more. I had grown up and moved on and I would never have them on display again. I recognized that I was a grown woman and needed to shed some of the trappings of girlhood.

Over the course of several days, I painstakingly researched each horse. I made notes about their years of production and how much they seemed to be selling for on eBay. The memory of each horse flooded my emotions and it felt sad to me to have to reduce them all to a description, a date, and a price. Each one was rich with stories for me. I attached a yellow sticky note to each model, wrapped it gently in paper towel and placed it in a cardboard box. I was going to give these horses to a friend to sell. She had more eBay experience than I did and that way I wouldn't feel emotionally connected as each piece of my younger self drifted away.

But there was one. Just one that I kept. The very first Breyer model that I ever received. I was about 8 or so and my Great-Aunt, whom we called Nana, bought her for me. She was called "Stock Horse Sorrell Mare". I didn't know what Sorrell meant at the time (Chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail) so that is what I named her, my accent on the second syllable. She is very warn - her leg had broken off once when I was little. My mom had delicately repaired it - using a headless nail to give the leg stability rather than just gluing it back. She mixed several colors of paint that she had in the house to match the rich red of the mare's coat.

I still have that horse now. I don't know where she will end up. I'll keep her forever as a small symbol of my childhood. I imagine Persephone keeping a small daffodil in a bud face near her throne in the underworld as a symbol of her carefree girlhood (Kore-hood?) on Olympos.

Persephone and the Creation of Mankind

From Theoi.com

In one obscure myth Persephone was accredited with creation of mankind from clay (in place of the usual Prometheus). A divine dispute ensued over which god should possess him, with the result that he was awarded to Zeus and Gaia in life, and to Persephone in death.


Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 220 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :


"When Cura [i.e. Koure, Persephone] was crossing a certain river, she saw some clayey mud. She took it up thoughtfully and began to fashion a man. While she was pondering on what she had done, Jove [Zeus] came up; Cura asked him to give the image life, and Jove readily grant this. When Cura wanted to give it her name, Jove forbade, and said that his name should be given it. But while they were disputing about the name, Tellus [Gaia or Demeter] arose and said that it should have her name, since she had given her own body. They took Saturnus [Kronos] for judge; he seems to have decided for them : Jove, since you gave him life [text missing, presumably he was given control of the fate of men] let her [Persephone] receive his body [after death]; since Cura fashioned him; let her [Gaia] posses him as long as he lives, but since there is controversy about his name, let him be called homo, since he seems to be made from humus."

Persephone and the Creation of Man

I was young when it happened, and the world seems to have mostly forgotten about it. Since that crafty Prometheus came and told his own version of the story, I just let things pass.

It was long before I went to live in the Underworld with my husband. The meadows with their butterflies and daffodils were my constant companions. That warm immortal afternoon, when a day could last literally forever and be more beautiful than could be imagined, I was dancing down by a river. The river was so soothing on my bare feet, and the rocks were smooth. The water was clear and blue. As I danced along the banks of the river I marveled at the different textures I could feel beneath my feet. The cool wetness of the water, the soft brush of green grasses, the smooth bumps of the rocks, and the squish of the red clay between my toes. As I felt the clay, I had an idea. I got down on my knees and gathered some of the wet clay in my fingers. It was like making dolls, and I would play with them and they would be my companions. I shaped the figure with two legs, a slender torso and graceful arms. I sculpted a head with a face - ears, eyes, a nose and a mouth. I gave the figure luxurious hair on its tiny head. You may ask if I created Man or Woman first, but to tell you the truth I don't remember. I created both, together, equal.

As I held the clay woman in my hands, I heard steps behind me. I looked up to see my father. It wasn't often that I saw him, as I spent all my days with my mother. He smiled warmly at me.

"What have you made, Kore?"

I held it up so he could see. "I haven't given it a name yet," I said. "Can you bring it to life?"

He nodded and touched the clay figure. It sprang to life and began to happily dance on the banks as well. Zeus animated its partner as well.

"Since I made them, I was thinking about calling them Kore in my own honor." We gods are very proud.

My father chuckled. "No, dear daughter. It is I who gave them life. We shall call them after me."

Next thing we knew, my great grandmother Gaia approached. "I felt you," she said "you made these creatures from my own body. I claim them. We will name them for me."

We argued for some time over the issue. It was finally decided, since Gaia was Zeus's grandmother, they would ask an intermediary - Gaia's son and Zeus's father, Kronos.

You may think I had never been to the underworld before I married. You would be wrong. It seems so long ago, I was in the image of a little girl. Imagine, a 6 or 7 year old girl, with her two live dolls going deep into the underworld with her Great Grandmother and her Father - hand in hand. Kronos had been banished to Tartarus during the battle that gave power to the Olympians. And why it was that they would chose his counsel in this matter seemed beyond my comprehension. We all explained our positions to my grandfather. He watched the two clay figures dance and frolic about as they had no idea where they were.

"There is a lot of depth here," Kronos said finally. "And there are things at play that we will have not seen come to pass yet. While they live, Zeus they will honor you and your brothers on Olympos most high. They will belong to Gaia during that time. And when they die, they will be passed into the care of your daughter." I didn't know then he was telling me my very own fate then. "It does not matter what they are called, let them be called Human as they are made from humus."

So we released the people who began to populate the world. And as my story would later play out, I found myself the queen of the land of the dead and as each soul returned to me after they died I remembered that I created them with my very own hands. And that is why I protect them for all eternity.