MYTHOLOGY 



4046 



MYTHOLOGY 



from what she believed would have been its 

 h. But what v. na/.ement, when she 



turned around, to see before her. not the feeble 

 old woman whom her husband had brought home, 

 but the radiant goddess Ceres, with her hair of 

 gold and of wheat and scarlet poppies. 



Ceres spoke sadly, but not angrily. 



"I would have given to your son." she said, 

 "immortality. Now you. by your failure to trust 

 me, have taken from him that gift." 



ds. the goddess vanished. 

 :; still i-ontinued. and finally, when it 

 . rything was in vain. Ceres became 

 y with the earth which had failed to aid her 

 .:iid la il her curse upon it. Drought 

 and famine, she declared, should extend over the 

 whole earth ; nothing green should grow ; there 

 ild be no seedtime, no harvest, until her 

 daughter should come back to her. In vain the 

 people implored her. in vain tales of their suffer- 

 ing came to her ears ; she, usually so gracious and 

 kindly, was cruel enough now. 



At length she found a. clew. The river Are- 

 thusa, which comes up from the underworld, had 

 in the kingdom of the underworld a queen 

 who looked, she said, most like Proserpina. She 

 was pale and sad. and the white poppies which 

 she wore in her hair were very different from the 

 bright flowers she had been so fond of wearing. 

 But still, boy.md a doubt, thought the river Are- 

 thusa. it was Proserpina. Ceres knew not 

 whether to be glad or sorry. Her daughter was 

 found, but found where? She went to the meet- 

 ing place of the gods on Olympus, which she had 

 not vi.-ited since the loss of her daughter, and 

 implored Jupiter to use some means to have her 

 daughter brought to her. All the gods felt sorry 

 for Ceres, and they felt sorry, moreover, for the 

 people on the earth, whom Ceres' grief was caus- 

 ing to suffer. At length Jupiter summoned Mer- 

 cury, the messenger of the gods, and sent him 

 to the regions of the underworld. 



"I will do my best," said the king of gods and 

 men, "but the Fates are even stronger than I, 

 and they have declared that if your daughter has 

 eaten anything while she has been in Pluto's 

 realm she may not again come back to the light 



Mercury reached the kingdom of Pluto 

 and ,-e the king and the sad-eyed queen, 



he himself fe4t sorry for her and hoped that he 

 should be able to take her back with him. When 

 it became known, however, that Proserpina bad 

 eaten a few of the seeds of a pomegranate, Mer- 

 cury shook his bead in despair. 



"It cannot be," he said, and he went sadly back 

 to the assembly of the gods, leaving Proserpina 

 more hopeless than before. 



At length, however, the Fates agreed to make a 

 decree less severe, and declared that though Pro- 

 serpina must spend six months of every year with 

 Pluto in the dark, underground kingdom, the re- 

 maining six months she might spend with her 

 mother on the earth. 



You may imagine the delight of Ceres when 

 it came time for her daughter to return to her 

 for the first time. She stood anxiously at the 

 door of her cottage, waiting, watching while the 

 former companions of Proserpina stood about 

 where they might welcome her. Suddenly there 

 seemed to be a new freshness in the air ; the grass 



in the. meadows, long dry, grew green before their 

 yes. and purple violets and yellow buttercups 

 started up all about them. 



"She is come :" they cried, and sure enough, she 

 was advancing toward them across the meadows, 

 her hands outstretched, her garments blowing in 

 the breeze, no longer the sad, white-faced queen 

 of the underworld, but the old glad Proserpina 

 who had left them long before. 



Ceres, goddess of agriculture, was one of the 

 kindest of the gods, and she would not, the 

 Greeks felt, afflict her people by withdrawing 

 the warmth of her presence all through the win- 

 tor months without some good reason. So they 

 made this beautiful tale of the loss of Proser- 

 pina. When she descended to the underworld 

 each year, Ceres mourned, and no flowers 

 bloomed and no seeds sprotited it was win- 

 ter; but when she returned to the upper world, 

 spring came with all its gladness. 



The Death of Balder 



Balder the Beautiful was the center of all 

 brightness and cheer in Asgard, home of the 

 gods. Everybody loved him except Loki, who was 

 so wicked that he just could not love anybody 

 that was good and happy. He let himself brood 

 upon his hatred for Balder until in time it came 

 to seem to him that the only thing in life he 

 cared for was to injure Balder. And Balder 

 seemed to feel his danger, for he had most terrible 

 dreams of unknown woe to come, which finally 

 he spoke of to his father and mother, Odin and 

 Frigga, who had questioned him as to his down- 

 cast looks. 



"Do not fear, my son," said Frigga comfort- 

 ingly. "I shall visit everything on earth every 

 beast and bird, every treacherous poison and 

 every lurking disease, every stone and tree and 

 creeping thing, and even the ravening fire and 

 make them promise not to harm Balder." 



Feeling much safer, Balder went home to bis- 

 shining palace and his beloved wife, Nanna, witJi 

 his old smile, the light of gods and men, again 

 shining from his eyes. 



Frigga's journey about the earth made her 

 mother heart very proud, for every object and 

 living thing on earth took so gladly the oath not 

 to injure Balder. 



"Why should we hurt the one whom most we 

 love?" they questioned "the one without whose 

 presence the earth would be a gloomy place?" 



Wearied with her journeyintfs, but very happy, 

 Frigga went back to Asgard, and just as she was 

 about to enter Valhalla she espied a tiny mistle- 

 toe plant on thf; branches of a strong oak. For 

 an instant she stopped, because she had exacted 

 no promise from the little shrub, but finally she 

 passed on without speaking, thinking the mistletoe 

 was too young and weak to do any harm. 



When the gods heard of her success they hit 

 upon a new way of amusing themselves. Balder, 

 with bis bright smile quite restored and his 

 golden hair shining in the sun, stood upon their 

 great playground and allowed them to hurl at 

 him their weapons. The sharpest spears, the most 

 jagged stones were thrown with unerring aim, but 

 they harmed Balder no more than a shower of 



