VIRGO PART TWO - PLEASE READ PART ONE FIRST OR BE PUZZLED

Demeter was devastated with the news of her beloved daughter's abduction. She wondered what cretin could be so brazen as to kidnap her girl in broad daylight, while in the company of such lofty chaperones.

Zeus wasn't about to tell. No sir! He feared Demeter's wrath were she to find out his accomplice role in the affair, and besides, he was real busy chasing after sexy maidens, willing or otherwise.

'So little time, so many nymphs', was Zeus' motto.

As any grieving mother would do, Demeter set out to look for her Persephone. Armed with lit torches, doggedly she traveled all over the world to find her.

Memo to Demeter: You're not about to locate her on earth. Think lower.

But the mother's disconsolate anguish produced unforeseen results. As Demeter peripatetically wandered throughout the land looking for her missing child, she deliberately neglected her divine duties.

The revered goddess of the Harvest forbade the earth to produce and, consumed by her sorrow, she caused all vegetation to stop growing.

Within a short period, everything began to wither and die. Winter for the first time fell upon the land -- the Bohemian era of perpetual springtime had ever so tragically ended. Paradise lost, alas.

Still Demeter scoured the earth, indifferent to the earth's plight, looking high and low for Persephone, but not looking low enough.

Meanwhile, down in the Underworld, things were tumultuous to say the least. Having attained the sweet object of his desire, Hades now had to convince her to become his wife. Tough sell indeed.

It's not that Hades wasn't attractive, in a creepy kind of way; it's just that, well, Persephone really wanted to honor her mother and remain unatached. Besides, this nasty old god had quite violently stolen her from Demeter, rather than going through the proper matchmaking channels. How rude.

But the Lord of Darkness, whose name mere mortals dared not utter lest he heard them and came for their souls, sure did have a lot to offer, including:

Dominion over countless souls; hey, free domestic help up on earth was damn near impossible to find! This could work, she reflected; I'd never have to lift a finger.

Possession of all the world's gold, gems and jewels, since they were found beneath the ground; that's why he was called Pluto, literally, 'rich'.

Not to mention his real hot Gothic-style palace, equaled only by the very abode of the gods, way up on lofty Mount Olympus;

Complete with a couple of matching, uber-regal His and Hers black marble thrones, exquisitely bejeweled with every kind of gem and diamond imaginable, compliments of creative Hephaestus.

'Sweet', mused Persephone...'especially that 'gold and jewel' bit. The other girls will be so envious!'

"Did you say you own ALL of the gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires in existence? Can I see?"

"Sure, right this way, sweetie. I keep the whole lot in my bedroom, strictly for security's sake of course. Watch you don't stumble into that endless mountain of diamonds, they can cut."

What's a teenaged girl to do? Persephone desperately wanted to rejoin Demeter and the friends that she missed so much, but daily she found herself growing fonder of her abductor. And what a fine chariot he drove!

Secure at his side, she loved whizzing around the vast and cavernous Underworld, all the Shades bowing down in solemn reverence, and even the infernal River Styx momentarily stilling Her sacred waters in silent paean to their passage.

Back 'Upstairs', as Hades liked to refer to earth, things finally reached a crisis point. The world had turned cold and barren, and the famished people and animals were perishing in unprecedented numbers. The entire planet's survival was at risk!

Helios, the all-seeing Sun god, was the only one who had witnessed the abduction of Persephone and had recognized the culprit. Taking pity on the mother's heartbreak and torment, at last he told Demeter what he had seen.

Was she ever ticked! Not only did Demeter never consider looking for her daughter in the Underworld, but now she discovers that her own brother, Hades, was the miscreant! For shame!

But what could she do? Hades was all-powerful in his dark subterranean domain and there was no way to invade or gain entry into it without his express approval. What could she do?

Demeter decided to take her plight to the highest arbiter, Zeus. On bent knee she beseeched the King of the Olympians to convince their brother Hades to release Persephone.

Zeus was torn, but faced with Demeter's misery and sorrow, and in view of the starving world, he reluctantly decided to render a verdict:

Hades must return Persephone to her mother at once!

Hades had no choice but to agree, but the dark Lord of the Underworld was cunning. He informed Persephone that she was being immediately released, and gave her seven pomegranate seeds to eat.

Now Persephone, in her spite at being abducted, had not tasted any food or water ever since her kidnapping, and understandably she was starving. Knowing that she was about to rejoin her mother, eagerly she accepted the proffered fruit and proceeded to devour the seven seeds.

Hades had tricked her, by giving her the pomegranate seeds to eat! Having taken food while still in the Underworld, under divine law Persephone was obligated to remain there.

That would not do by Zeus! He had spoken, and his word was not to be trifled with! Still, divine rules are divine rules; protocol must be observed.

The Thunder Bringer pronounced that Persephone, having eaten of the forbidden fruit in Hades, must spend a third of each year there, or half of each year as others in the northern climates claim.

Reluctantly Demeter agreed to this, champing at the bit to re-unite with her daughter, praying that Hades wasn't too rough on the innocent maiden.

The wedding of Hades and Persephone was a grandiose event befitting  such noble Olympian deities. She was given the city of Thebes by Zeus in acknowledgement for a favor she had bestowed upon him and in like manner Sicily was said to have been given to her at her wedding.

Two festivals were celebrated in her honor in the island each year, the one at the time of sowing, and the other at harvest time.

Hades gave her jewelry. Lots and lots of jewelry.

She was commonly worshipped -- along with Demeter, and with the same cryptic mysteries -- in places such as Boeotia, Corinth, Megara, Sparta, and at Locri in the south of Italy. Temples to Persephone are mentioned at all those locales, and many more.

The story of Persephone spending one part of the year in the Lower World, and another with the gods 'Upstairs', made her the enduring symbol of new vegetation which shoots forth in spring, and the essence of which withdraws into the earth at other seasons of the year, only to return yet anew.

The ancient writer Plutarch identifies her with spring, and Cicero calls her 'the seed of the fruits of the field'. In the divine and highly secret mysteries of Eleusis, the return of Cora or Kore -- 'daughter', another name for Persephone -- from the Lower World was regarded as the symbol of immortality and hence she was frequently represented on sarcophagi.

In the mystical theories of the Orphics, and what are called the Platonists, Cora is described as the all-pervading goddess of nature, the producer and destroyer of all things. She is therefore mentioned along, or identified with, other mystic divinities, such as Isis, Rhea, Gaea, Hestia, Pandora, Artemis and Hecate.

Upon Persephone's return, spring immediately arrived and the earth flourished with vegetation and color. The world was saved!

Persephone's image was placed by Zeus on the sky as the constellation Virgo, to honor her return to Demeter, and the survival of the earth. And the overjoyed people partied hard.

And then Dionysus and his wild posse arrived -- the noble grape having been harvested -- and the overjoyed people partied harder.

That's how Virgo the Virgin became part of the honored and exalted Little Animals in a Circle!

ZODIAC

HOROSCOPE

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