The Greek Underworld is a place of Fear, of Wealth, of Weakness, & of Power. The common take on one of Hades’s (the Place, not the Monarch) most famous denizens – Persephone – is that she was an innocent girl out gathering flowers when, in retribution for what I’ve forgotten, Pluto (the king of hell for Rome) or Dionysus (the god of wine for Greece) snatched her away to the Underworld, where unfortunately she committed the worst sin imaginable by Eating in Hell the simple single seed of a pomegranate. Who eats in hell cannot leave hell – those are the rules. Demeter, Persephone’s mother, managed to orchestrate a slight reprieve for her doomed daughter, & so (the popular theory has it) for the 3 Months which constitute Greek Spring, the little lost girl can gad about the Earth & either admire the flowers or cause their existence. Her Hell therefore last 3/4ths of the year in which there are no Spring Flowers.
My take on the myth is less comforting: I take her punishment as causing her to abide in Hell during Spring (her motive force & youth create the flowers she cannot see up here on Earth), & during the rest of the flowerless year she wanders the Earth never finding Spring. Her Hell therefore lasts the entire year & even seems to follow her around. “Which way I fly is Hell,” Milton’s Satan intones: “myself am Hell.” Persephone agrees.
Spring rides are difficult because the legs are old with Winter’s inactivity but the rides are enticingly brand new. 31 miles in August are a warmup to the desired 100 mile day, but in April one’s 45 miles are dearly bought.
I’m gathering as well as I can
Ecbatan 