52 Nature Myths and Stories

Demeter hastened to the great father Zeus, who
could do all things.

She asked him to send to Hades for her daughter.
Zeus called Hermes. He bade him goas swiftly as
the wind to the home of Hades. Hermes whispered
to everything on the way that he was going for
Persephone so that all might be ready to welcome
her back.

He soon arrived in the kingdom and gave Hades
the message from Zeus. He told about the barren
earth and of how Demeter was mourning for her
child. He said she would not let anything grow
until Persephone came back. The people must
starve if she did not soon return.

Then Persephone wept bitterly, for that very day
she had eaten a pomegranate and swallowed six of
its seeds.

Hades pitied her and said that she need only
stay with him one month for each seed she had
eaten.

Joy gave her wings, and as swiftly as Hermes
himself, Persephone flew up into the sunshine.

Apollo saw her and rose higher and higher into the
sky. A gentle breeze came rustling from the south-
east, and whispered something to everything he met.

Suddenly the flowers sprang up; the birds flocked
together and sang; the trees put on bright green
leaves.

Everything, great and small, began to say in his