"… I shall be no unfitting husband for you among the deathless gods, that am own brother to father Zeus. And while you are here, you shall rule all that lives and moves and shall have the greatest rights among the deathless gods: those who defraud you and do not appease your power with offerings, reverently performing rites and paying fit gifts, shall be punished for evermore."

-Hades to Persephone upon her capture

Homeric Hymn

Her screams echoed throughout the small cavern as her hands beat a steady rhythm into the door. Bang! Bang! Bang! “Let me out! Let me out!” The space she had inhabited for the past several days was a hovel with a single wrought iron door. The corner farthest from her held a thin pile of straw, which she had woken up in a few hours ago after collapsing in it from sheer exhaustion. The only light in the room was a small hole in the ceiling, through which Persephone could see a few stars pulsating and taunting her with their freedom at night. She found herself cursing them as she fell asleep each night. They were somewhere that she could never go again.

“I said ‘LET ME OUT’!” This time, rather than pounding the door with her fists, she began to kick at it. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief when she finally heard a rustling at the other side of the door, then a key in the lock. “Do you have any idea who I am?!” She shrieked as she saw someone enter her hell. “It’s your fault that I’m in here! You just wait! I‘m sure Zeus‘ fingers are itching to smite you, you son of a bitch.” She ran at him, fists clenched and eyes on fire. She released all of her terror, torment, and anguish from the past few days through her fists and into his dirty, muscular frame.

When she was done, Persephone took a step back and glared into his dark face, shaking with rage. “Are you done?” He asked. He was absurdly filthy, wearing nothing but a few rags, so muscular that he had no neck. His teeth were rotted, and his breath made her eyes water.

“Not even close. You kidnapped me! What will they do without me on Earth? And my mother, my poor, poor mother.” Persephone’s eyes began to shimmer and the world around her began to swim. She clamped her eyes shut and took several short breaths until her hysteria faded out. “You,” She said, her chest heaving with each word. “Deserve to be stuck here in the underworld. Thieves die best. Oh, what I‘d have given to see that.” She tried to make her way back to the pitiful pile of straw that she‘d called a bed for the past several nights.

Instead, she found herself restrained by the man’s tight grip. “Wrong way. Follow me.” He tightened his grip a bit more to ensure her restraint, then he dragged her down the bridge that she’d begged to be allowed to cross for the past few days. Today, though, she felt nothing but apprehension.

“Where are we going?” She tried to make light conversation, hoping for pity. Instead he further tightened his iron grip. She was sure that he knew her plans, that he could feel her fear radiating throughout her body in the form of muscle tension. Persephone began to look around her, wondering if there might be some way to escape the underworld. Other than stealing the ferry that sat on the river Styx, anyway. She immediately regretted her decision to look.

It was endless. To the right, lava burnt red-orange in five distinct rivers, which all joined in a single marsh at the center. Each of these snaking bodies held a different set of souls, each imprisoned and tormented for different but similar reasons. Their screams pierced the air, and their bodies writhed in unimaginable pain for the sins that they had commited throughout their lifetimes. The largest of the five was the river Styx. It wound all the way to the left, like a giant burning snake. Terrified, she stopped looking for an escape and decided that she’d have to wait for her father to save her.

Finally, the man dragged her into the room at the end of the bridge. Briskly pushing the door open, he marched in and saluted another man who sat on a large throne, carved to look like thousands of snakes. The light in the room was a solitary torch that hung from the wall to the right of the throne. Despite this, Persephone couldn’t see any part of the face of the man who sat there. Instead, the torch only illuminated his head, creating a halo as the torch made his long hair glow. “Kharon. Thank you for bringing her to me. Return to your post.”

Kharon, who had dragged Persephone to this chamber, left the room, presumably to return to the River Acheron and his ferry. Persephone could just make out his mumbling that he hadn’t received an Obolus for Persephone’s passage into the underworld. The man in the throne must have heard it too, for he said quite harshly “You’ll do as I say, Kharon. You’ve avoided punishment for your sins only because I don’t want the job of ferrying those souls across those wretched rivers, and you’ll receive no coin from myself for the passage of my property.” Kharon mumbled something again, making the man in the throne laugh, then slumped out of the room.

The man turned to Persephone. “Ah! So the stories are true. Most beautiful Persephone. Come closer.”

Hesitantly, Persephone took a small step forward, like a small child testing out its new legs. She could now make out a beard on the man, in addition to his long hair.

“Is that any way to treat your new husband? I said closer!” He reached out and grabbed Persephone’s wrist. “Much better. Tell me, what do you think?”

A gasp filled the room, and the man laughed. “Hades.” She said. “My mother already ended your suit! Why am I here? I know not what you mean ‘wife’ and I demand that you return me this instant. Demeter and Zeus will have you for this, stealing your siblings’ child.” His eyes were black, surrounded by large black circles and a prison pallor that came from ruling the underworld and hardly ever visiting Mount Olympus. The corners of his lips were downturned in a permanent frown, and his nose was much too large for his face. Rather than the traditional linen robe that each of the immortals wore while at Mount Olympus, the same robe that Persephone was wearing, Hades wore black robes, seemingly made of shadows.

Hades laughed again, mirthless. “Well, ended or not, you are here now. Here to stay.” A long pause insued, and Persephone, who had had nothing to eat since her arrival in the underworld, listened to her stomach growl fill the room. “Well, we can’t have that, can we? Here, eat these.” Hades pressed a bowl filled with Pomegranate seeds to her hand.

“This doesn’t mean that I accept your treatment of me, or that I don’t want to leave.” Persephone greedily forced the entire contents of the bowl into her mouth, cheeks stretched out like a squirrel in preparation for winter. As she chewed and swallowed, Hades watched carefully, greedily, through the eyes of a man who had long planned something.

“Well, now that you’ve been fed and I don’t have to listen to that infernal growl, tell me what you think of your new home!” He clapped his hands, as if speaking to a servant, rather than an immortal like himself.

“What do I think? What do I think? He wants to know what I think of the underworld?” She said mockingly. “ I think that I’m very glad that Zeus didn’t inherit the underworld. That’s what I think.” She crossed her arms and glared at him.

“Ah, a fiesty spirit. We’ll soon break you of that. No wife of mine speaks to her husband that way.”

“I am not your wife.” A thunderclap echoed through the large chamber. Persephone smirked. “Ah, like I said. Zeus and Demeter won’t stand for this.”

As Persephone finished her sentence, Zeus appeared in the room, next to Hades’ throne. His eyes were lit with the fire of rage, and even Persephone, who had done nothing wrong, took a step back. He carried his weapon of choice, a thunderbolt, in his right hand. Taking a step closer to Hades, he raised the bolt level with Hades throat, and for a moment, fear flashed over Hades’ face. Zeus’ white hair flowed wildly wround his face, trying to escape the Gods’ rage.

“Hades! I will not stand for this.” The king of the gods brought the thunderbolt closer to Hades’ throat, smirking when Hades tried to remove himself from his throne. “Give me the girl. Your suit was refused, and I must say that her mother is more than upset at your escapades. Even more upset than myself.” Thunder cracked in the room, and Hades flinched. “Thanks to you, nothing is growing on Earth, Demeter is so upset. Man is starving. Your trickery has given you more subjects to rule over than your domain can handle. Give me my child.” Zeus moved toward Persephone, a hand on her shoulder, eyes on Hades. “I’m sure that you’re ready to leave?”

“Yes. Let’s go.” Persiphone said.

Hades finally found the courage to speak. “Not so fast! She is mine.”

Zeus scoffed and raised the bolt again. “Care to wager on that?”

“She can’t leave. Not even you can defy the fates.” Hades smirked.

Panicked, Zeus turned to Persephone. “What is he talking about?” She asked.

“Child, did you eat or drink anything that he offered you? Anything at all?”

“Well, the brute was kind enough to offer me some pomegranate-.”

A moan escaped Zeus. “Then he is right, you’re stuck here.” He rubbed his face, as if trying to erase Persephone’s foolish mistake.

“What do you mean, stuck here?! You’re here, let’s go!” Persephone tried to leave the room.

“You can’t leave.” Zeus repeated. “The fates have willed it. Anyone who eats in the land of the dead is condemned to live in the land of the dead.”

A heart wrenching scream issued from deep inside Persephone. “NO!”

“Child, there is nothing I can do. Whatever will I do with Demeter now?” Zeus sighed. “Persephone, I have to leave. I can‘t defy the fates.” And with a clap of thunder, Zeus was gone.

Disgusted and frantic, Persephone wailed, collapsing into herself. Condemned to hell for the rest of her immortal life, she felt she had nothing more to live for.