Kore, more popularly known as Persephone, was the daughter of Zeus
and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. She had a little magic paint-box which
she used to paint the spring flowers as she would please. She was out one
day in the fields painting, when the ground opened up and six black horses
came thundering out, pulling a chariot which carried her uncle, Hades,
who grabbed her and swung her into the chariot with him. She refused to
eat or speak to her captor, despite the best entertainment possible, the
beautiful gowns and piles of precious gems he layed at her feet. Demeter
scourged the earth in a furry looking for her duaghter until she caught
the words of some gossiping birds; when she found out what had happened,
she went to Zeus to demand the release of her daughter, but Zeus had been
bribed with a new lightening bolt staff more beuatiful than any he had
beheld before and told her that Kore must marry inside the family anyway
or else lower her status. Demeter refused to let anything grow and famine
and death spread across the earth unitl Zeus finally relented and agreed
to set her free if she had not eaten of the food of the underworld, or
else, by the ancient Law of Abode, she would be considered a guest, not
a captive, and would have to remain as Hades bride. Hermes flew off to
fetch her, but in the mean time, Tartarus, a gardener who hated Demeter
for once turning him into a lizard for laughing at her, tore off a perfect
pomegranate, persephone's favorite fruit to which she was pratically addicted,
and handed it to the starved and thirsty goddess, who greedily snatched
up six seeds before she had even realized it. Hermes swooped in just then,
but Hades had already raced to Olympus and claimerd Kore as his bride under
the Law of the Abode.
Kore became . . . . .
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