Jason wasn’t foolish enough to go after the Golden Fleece alone, in fact, he brought pretty much every big-name hero of the time with him. The argonauts included Hercules, Boreas’s kids (hint, hint, this might be important in the next trilogy), Philoctetes, Telamon, Orpheus (SUPER hint hint), Castor and Pollux, Atalanta and Euphemus.

We’ve talked about Hercules and Orpheus in depth in other mythology Mondays, and there’s not much to know about the Boreads (children of Boreas), other than the fact that they can fly, that won’t be covered in the trip. They didn’t even get individual names. And many of the other 50 sailors accompanying Jason change depending on the source, but there were quite a few notable Argonauts. And I’d like to give them all a Mythology Monday.

So let’s talk about Phil. He was a young prince who was very good at archery. Also, he was human. His dad was actually the one recruited for the trip because he was also a legendary archer, but Phil tagged along and became famous. He and Hercules became special friends. Phil (or sometimes his father) actually lit the funeral pyre for Herc when he died, but then Herc became a god they all lived happily ever after. Except that this is Greek mythology, and no one gets to live, or be happy for very long. Herc moved on to Mount Olympus, but he did give Phil his bow and arrows.

Later Phil competed for the hand of Helen of Troy, but obviously he lost. However by throwing his hat in the ring, he pledged loyalty to whoever won. So when she was taken to Troy, he had to help attack it.

Well, bless his heart, he tried, but he ended up getting lost en route to Troy, and somehow hurt his foot, possibly by Hera sending a snake to bite him, possibly by Apollo sending a snake to bite him, possibly by Hercules’ ashes infecting his foot for beytraying their location (long story), or by an angry nymph, or possibly by a random snake. The wound festered and smelled and because the wound delayed his arrival to Troy, the Greeks exiled him on the island until they realized they couldn’t win without Herc’s bows and arrows, and guess who had them? They thought about just stealing the bow and arrows from Phil, then the newly deified Hercules came down from Mount Olympus to tell them in no uncertain terms that he did NOT approve of that idea, so they healed Phil’s foot and brought Phil AND the weapons back to fight Troy.

Well Phil was just the second wind the Greeks needed to turn the tide of the battle. Phil fought Paris, Prince of Troy, in single combats and in some accounts he was the one who killed him. He also hid in the Trojan horse and slaughtered many a Trojan.

Leuce was a beautiful nymph that Hades fell in love with and dragged down to the Underworld where she lived out her mortal life and died. Hades mourned her passing and turned her remains into the white poplar tree. These trees could be found in Elysium as well as scattered around the living realm. Leuce is the daughter of Oceanus, and has no other role in mythology. Her story is somewhat similar to Persephone’s (she gets abducted after all) but she’s never referred to as Hades’ wife.

In terms of timing, most sources agree that Leuce predates Persephone, but some argue that the two were hanging out in the Underworld at the same time. Leuce was possibly mentioned as a companion of Persephone at one point, so she was was servant, and possibly a friend. I haven’t decided how to treat Leuce in my series. I traded her out for Apollo’s Daphne/Laurel, but she may come into play later. Time will tell.

Silly name, but the guy had some serious moxy. Sisyphus was the son of King Aeolus who ruled almost as many kingdoms as he had vowels in his name. By all accounts, Sisyphus was a decent king in terms of keeping up a good economy and encouraging scientific growth, but as a person, he kind of sucked. Not only was he super greedy, but he was a serial killer to boot. He would lure people to his castle under the premise of Xenia (hospitality to guests) and then murder them while they slept.

He had a grudge against a man named Salmoneus, so to settle it, he seduced Sal’s daughter Tyro in hopes of impregnating her with children that would dethrone Sal. Sal figured out his plot and killed the babies.

Despite all his sins, somehow his most grievous error, the one that landed him in Tartarus, was tattling on Zeus for hiding the river god’s daughter.

While he was a horrible person, no one can deny the guy had guts. When Thanatos (or in versions of the myth that make NO sense, Hades) was chaining him up in Tartarus, Sisyphus tricked him into trying on the chains of death and trapped the god of death, and causing chaos when people would get mortally wounded and not die (anyone watch that episode of Twilight Zone, “One Night at Mercy?” Netflix it, it was awesome!).

Ares got bored with the never ending death free battles, so he saved the day by setting Thanatos free and returned Sisyphus to Tartarus. But Sisyphus wasn’t out of ideas yet. He whined to Persephone that his wife hadn’t buried him properly (she tossed his naked corpse out into the public square. I’d say she was making a statement, but really she was following Sisyphus’ instructions so he’d have a reason to go back), so she let him go back to the living realm with proper burial instructions. Once there, he decided not to leave and had to be dragged back to Tartarus by Hermes.

Because he’d thoroughly managed to piss off pretty much every god who had any say in his fate, Sisyphus was assigned an afterlife of pointless labor. He had to push a boulder up a steep hill, watch it roll right back down to where it started and repeat over and over again for all eternity. Interestingly enough, this punishment is alluded to in a good light in the Pilot myth of the Matched Trilogy. Sisyphus did get a brief break when Orpheus sang in Tartarus, but then it was right back to the grind stone.

I wanted to say a big thank you to author M.W Muse for dropping by my blog today to tell her version of the Persephone story. M.W. Muse is the bestselling author of the Goddess Series and is the New Adult pen name for the award-winning, bestselling adult romance author Mandy Harbin. Her books range from contemporary to paranormal erotic romance and include Darkest Sin, an erotic romantic suspense and first in the new Darkest series and the ever-popular Woods Family series, which began with the bestseller Surrounded by Woods. Writing as M.W. Muse has afforded her the opportunity to spend some time focusing on the younger side of love, and the accomplishment of having a book ranked number one in teen romance. She lives in a small Arkansas town with her family

My take on altering the myth of Persephone:

Within Greek Mythology, Persephone is the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. There are a few different interpretations of the myth surrounding her abduction by Hades, which led her to be his wife and queen of the underworld. Commonly, Persephone had been kept away from other deities since some gods (Hermes, Apollo, etc.) had tried to woo her. Hades, wanting her for himself, had taken her from a field against her will. When her mother had found out, she’d grown depressed while she searched for Persephone, but her feels had altered vegetation and caused starvation. Eventually Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone for the good of the people. Hades did, but not before tricking her into eating pomegranate seeds—which would bond her to the underworld. As a compromise, She then had to spend half the year with Hades, resulting in the barren seasons of the calendar year we know today.

This is a just a very condensed version. In my Goddess Series, Legacy Kore believes herself to be a regular teenager until she discovers on her 17th birthday over the next year of her life, she’ll be changing into a goddess with her official ascension on her eighteenth birthday. She doesn’t believe in all the mythology crap, but when she starts developing abilities, she learns how real it is.

The major difference between my series and traditional Greek Mythology is the original gods are still around today, and them, along with other gods can attempt to recreate a likeness of an original god by mimicking the circumstances in which the original one was created. Of course, it doesn’t always work, and over the centuries, newer gods have diluted powers mixed with gods of their heritage. As for Legacy, she has to learn how similar she is to the original Persephone and do what she can to keep from being abducted like the god she was created like. Legacy also has to protect herself from other gods who’d want to destroy her before her ascension. Of course there’re hot guys who want her. What’s a good romance without that?

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Ms. Muse was also kind enough to answer some questions for me.

Why do you write different genres?
From the sweet stories of first young love to the hot, hot, hot erotic stories and everything in between, I love romance. I like paranormal, suspense, funny, historical…practically everything, so I write what I like. J.D. Salinger was quoted saying, “…I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.” I, too, write for my own pleasure, so why limit what I write when I don’t limit what I read? All levels of romance are fun!

Where do you get your ideas?
Everywhere. Dreaming, listening to music, interacting with people, anything can spark an idea. Once an idea materializes, I play around with various scenarios until I know the direction I want a story to go in. Getting ideas is the easy part. But writing a book around those ideas is the thrilling part.

When do you write?
Usually at night and on the weekends. I may get inspired listening to music and engaging with people, but when I write I like total solitude. That’s usually easier said than done but more likely to occur during those times.

Do you have a writing system?

Of course. I do a lot of technical writing, and that organized mentality bleeds into my creative writing ventures. There are a lot of different methods one could utilize, but I tend to write in stages. After mentally developing an idea for a book and writing up short bios on my characters, I draw out a three act structure on a piece of paper, noting key points in the book (setting up the story, plot points, conclusion, and particular scenes that are important and/or I’m already excited about). I actually stole this concept from studying screenplay writing, and since I love to watch movies, this method helps me visualize my book at a glance. Then I open a spreadsheet and write every scene that I think will be in the book. This step shows me exactly what’ll happen from start to finish and allows me to move scenes around before I start writing a book. Once the grunt work is done, I write. Since I already know my characters and every scene I’m going to try to include, writing the first draft is usually pretty fast. I have a minimum- per-day word count that I stick to during the first draft, but I usually double that minimum goal.
There are people on both sides of the fence who are for or against outlining a book like this before writing. People who are against it argue that it stifles creativity; however, I find this just isn’t true for me. Understanding my characters and outlining everything beforehand gives me the freedom to run free with the story I’ve already created on paper, yet it keeps me on track when I write. Also, the prep work is used as a guide to write my story and not something that can’t be deviated from. Sometimes parts are taken out or changed. If the story takes me in a different direction than what I’ve outlined, then I follow the story. It’s the creative process that works for me

Follow M.W Muse around the net!

Her website at http://www.mwmuse.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MWMuse.Author
Twitter: @MW_Muse
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/MWMuse

Goddess Series:
The Goddess Series is about a teenage girl who discovers on her seventeenth birthday that her mother hadn’t died all those years ago, but that she is actually a Greek Goddess and Legacy is changing into one, too. Each book in this series follows Legacy through obstacles she experiences over the next year of her life, leading up to her eighteenth birthday and her final ascension…or supposed ascension. Along the way she discovers love, betrayal, heartache, friendship, and answers to questions she never knew ever existed.

Order of the Goddess Series and Links:
Goddess Legacy (FREE on all retailers for a limited time!): http://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Legacy-Young-Adult-ebook/dp/B00B9DN2ZM/ref=sr_1_6_bnp_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1379698057&sr=8-6&keywords=m.w.+muse

Goddess Secret: http://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Secret-Series-Young-ebook/dp/B00BN1YOUW/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1

Goddess Sacrifice: http://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Sacrifice-Series-Young-ebook/dp/B00BUFF1GW/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2

Goddess Revenge: http://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Revenge-Series-Young-ebook/dp/B00C4ZBJXQ/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1

Goddess Bared: http://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Bared-Series-Young-ebook/dp/B00CJD4QVK/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2

Goddess Bound: http://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Bound-Series-Young-ebook/dp/B00DE2KZHE/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1

Also called the Gigantomachy. After the Titanomachy (war against the Titans) Gaia was not exactly happy with the Olympians for slaughtering\locking up all the Titan in Tartarus. Her displeasure would send ripples throughout mythology, often resulting in different monsters and such that had to be defeated. Unsurprisingly, the biggest attack against the Olympians came from the Giants.

A bit of background. There were twenty-four giants were born in full armor carrying weapons, spears specifically, and had “serpent like lower limbs.” They were rather large, and easily made angry. They could only be defeated by gods and heroes working together. Hence the premise for the Percy Jackson series. (House of Hades can come out any day now).

The giants, led by Alcyoneus attacked the Olympians. Otus and Ephialtes attempted to storm Olympus by piling Mount Ossa upon Mount Pelion. The fates teamed up with the Olympians to drive them back but were not successful, though they did manage to club the giants Thoon and Agrios. Hecate burned the giant Clytius to death with her torches. Athena killed the giant Enceladus, who had the scales of a dragon for feet, and buried him under Mount Etna, where he sometimes breathes and causes lava to flood the land. She also killed the giant Pallas.

Artemis killed a giant with her arrows, and either Hephaestus or Ares depending on the myth killed the giant Mimas by throwing fire balls at him. Dionysus even got a kill in when he slew Eurytus with his pine-cone wand (not joking, google it, it’s called a Thrysus). Ares also killed the giant Pellorus.

Hermes killed the giant Hyppolytus by using his flying shoes and invisibility hat. The last giant the Olympians killed on their own was Polybote. Poseidon crushed him with an island.

Why did I just list off every giant killed by the gods alone? For one very important reason. The giants could only be killed by a god and a hero working together. Many versions of the myths featuring the death of these giants were solo missions. In other words, some gods, not many, but some were also heroes.

Athena, Poseidon, the Moirae, Ares, Hepheastus, Hecate, Hermes, Artemis, and Dionysus have earned an honorable mention for being able to do what Zeus, Hera, Hades, Demeter, and EVERY other god of the time could not.

It wasn’t enough. The giants were still coming. At that point, Hera had a prophecy that the Olympians would never win without the help of the demigods. Specifically the demigod she’d spent the last several decades torturing with endless quests, and madness, and bad luck.

Talk about an “oh crap” moment.

How Hera managed to get Hercules on board is beyond me, because I seriously would have told her to go f–

This is a young adult blog, isn’t it?

Ahem, I would have been less than polite in my refusal.

But Herc was a hero, and by this point probably was legitimately crazy, so he helped the gods best the giants in a series of uber-epic battles. Now remember, Hercules was also dramatic, so rather than saying “Sure, I’ll help,” he loaded up one of his hydra poisoned arrows, shot Alyoneus, picked him up, and dragged him from the magical borders of Pallene where he could not die, and beat him to death with a club.

Interesting side note: Alyoneus had seven daughters known as the Alkyonides. Upon their father’s death they threw themselves into the sea and became fish. There are a group of islands named for the sisters. The word Alkyonides also refers to a beautiful weather pattern that repeats in Greece every year after Christmas until the middle of January there is a non-interrupted period of days with clear blue skies and warm temperatures. I would really love to move there.

Aphrodite assisted Hercules in the slaughter of several giants by forcing the giants into a cave and locking them in with the hero. Hercules teamed up with Apollo to kill Ephialtes and Otus with Apollo’s arrows, though some versions of the myth feature the two giants accidentally killing each other.

In a lovely father-son moment of bonding, Hercules and Zeus worked together to defeat the giant Porphyrion, who was trying to rape Hera thanks to a misfire from one of Eros’ bows.

Hercules defeated the giants Leon and Peloreus on his own because as a demigod, he was also a god and a hero. Go figure.

Because Hercules helped the gods so much, after his death he was turned into a god and brought to Mount Olympus.

I’m sure Hera was thrilled.

Bet you thought we were done with old Herc, huh?

Nope. Hercules has a textbook full of myths associated with him. His mythology intertwines with so many other myths that for the purposes of my research I have to know about him even though I killed him off before book 1 AND had him drink from the Lethe (i.e I have no plans for Herculean adventures in my series, though he may pop up in short stories or prequels.) That research should count for something, so settle in for a few more weeks worth of the most famous of all the demigods. I promise, I will eventually move on.

Okay, so I mentioned in young Hercules that Hercules was driven mad by Hera and killed his wife Megaera and his children. It took him many years and many labors, but he eventually moved on to Princess Iole. Her father promised her as a prize for an archery contest. Hercules won, but when her father (who’d actually taught Hercules archery as a child) realized who Hercules was, and recalled the fate of Hercules’ first wife, he refused to allow Hercules to marry his daughter.

Iole’s brother Iphitus thought his father was over reacting, so in an effort to bond/help Herc prove himself, he asked for help tracking down some of his father’s missing horses. Herc agreed, but Hera randomly drove him nuts again, so Hercules ended up murdering Iphitus.

Hercules felt bad about the murder, so he consulted/and or depending on the version of the myth was commanded by The Oracle of Delphi to atone for the blood on his hands. The Oracle sent him to serve Queen Omphale for one to three years depending on the source. Omphale, daughter of a river god, made Hercules dress as a woman and do women’s work for the time he was in servitude. He must have been into that kind of thing, because when he was freed, he married her.

The marriage didn’t last. Hercules later met the beautiful, and by far one of the more interesting women in Greek mythology, Deianira. Her father had arranged her marriage to a river god, but she wasn’t having it. She drove a chariot, studied war, and made her own choices, and she set her sights on Hercules.

She eventually caused the death of Hercules with her jealousy…

Hmm… interesting interpretation most of my research comes to that. Lets rephrase that to get a better representation of what actually happened.

Hercules the womanizing, cheating, scumbag got what was coming to him.

Herc and Deianira had to cross a river, a centaur named Nessus offered to help but ended up trying to kidnap and rape Deianira. Herc got pissed and shot him with one of his poisonous arrows. As Nessus bled out, he offered her a spell to keep Hercules faithful. Mix his (Nessus’) blood with olive oil.

Fast forward a bit, and Hercules has fathered children all across Greece with other women (fifty of them the daughter of one man given to him as a reward for one night, who all bore children, long and kind of gross story). He also slept with Echidna, and had monster-children, more on them later, and he may or may not, depending on which version of the myth you read, have slept with every man mentioned by name in all of the Hercules Mythology Mondays.

Hercules randomly remembered that Iole’s father never did give him his prize. So he attacked her city. Iole threw herself off a wall, attempting suicide rather than living with Herc. However her fluffy dress saved her, and she landed unharmed, whereupon Hercules took her as his concubine.

Understandably miffed, Deianira slathers the bloody mixture on to Hercs clothes. He puts it on, and the poison in the blood from his hydra tipped arrows burned through his skin, causing so much pain that Hercules ended up leaping onto a funeral pyre to end it all.

Deianira stabbed herself with a knife.

Greek myths are so cheerful 🙂

Hercules went on to have a ton more adventures before dying/becoming a god. Two I’m not going to cover in this series of Mythology Mondays are his adventures with Jason and the Argonauts (that’s a whole new series by itself) and the battle against the giants. I’ll tell them eventually, but through a broader lens than just Herc’s place in it.

Hercules had a few divine friends, one of whom was Dionysus, the god of wine. Dionysus wanted Hercules to tell him how to get to the Underworld. Hercules told him a few unique ways to commit suicide, but eventually relented. But not before challenging the god to a drinking contest. He lost, and had to join Dionysus’ cult for a while.

He fought death, and won. Not in a metaphorical sense either. There was a man who was dying of an illness, his wife offered to take his place. Thanatos took an appointment and when he was supposed to collect the wife, Herc strangled him until he agreed to let them both live.

He took bad kings off of thrones and restored the rightful heirs so often that the myths got a bit repetitive. He killed abusive bosses or annoying people. There was one man who would force travelers to work in his vineyard if they wanted to pass through without getting clubbed to death. Herc killed him and put an end to that. He won contests. He studied with scholars and killed thieves. He was the original super hero. I think of him as an ancient version of Chuck Norris.

He also saved Troy (long before the Trojan war). Poseidon had sent a sea monster to attack Troy, and the King of Troy was going to sacrifice his daughter to appease the beast. Hercules intervened and killed the monster in exchange for horses Zeus had gifted the city as an apology for kidnapping the beautiful young man Ganymede. The King went back on his word to give up the horses, so Hercules pillaged Troy and killed all his sons.

Next week, we’ll explore Hercules’ love life and his death.

The tenth labor of Hercules was to get cattle from the monster Geryon. Geryon was a giant and a grandson to Medusa who lived on the island Erytheia. He either had one body and three heads or three conjoined bodies depending on the myth you read. Sometimes he even had wings. He had a watch dog with two heads that was a brother to Cerberus that guarded the cattle.

Hercules had to cross the desert to get to Erytheia, and he didn’t like the heat. He threw a temper tantrum and shot at Helios with an arrow. Helios was shocked at Hercules’ bravery (odd reaction from such a volatile species, but whatever) and gave Hercules a magical golden cup that Helios used to cross the entire sea each night. Hercules used it to get to Erytheia quickly.

Hercules arrived and promptly killed the two headed puppy with his club :(. Geryone was furious and charged after Hercules, but Herc shot him with one of his poisonous arrows with so much force that it split the monsters head in half. Gross.

Herc herded the cattle back to Eurystheus. On the way some versions of the myth have a young man named Cacus stealing a few of the cattle by walking them backward so they left no trail. Herc tracked them down and killed the kid who stole them. Hera also intervened, sending gadflies to bite the cattle and scatter them, but Herc tracked them all down within a year. She also flooded a river so he couldn’t cross, but Herc piled some rocks and made the river shallower.

While tracking down the cattle, Hercules battled with two giants, Albion and Bergion or Dercynus, sons of Poseidon. Worried he couldn’t defeat them, Hercules prayed to his father Zeus for help. Zeus helped him win, and was so flattered by the prayer he put a constellation in the sky of Hercules kneeling to him.

Upon arriving back to Eurystheus, Herc sacrificed the cattle to Hera. He seriously could not take a hint. The woman hated him, just accept it and stop trying to appease her because everything he did just pissed her off more.

But Hercules was horrifyingly bad at taking hints, so he set off for his eleventh labor to steal apples from Hesperides, nymphs that guarded a garden in the Atlas Mountains, which of course belonged to Hera. The golden apples that grew in this garden could grant immortality. These were also guarded by a dragon with one-hundred heads named Ladon. One of these apples was later used to start the Trojan War by the goddess of discord.

Hercules first had to find the garden. To do that he caught the old man of the sea, a shapeshifting sea god. The Old Man can answer any questions if captured AND if you can hang on while he changes shape. He got directions, and on his way to the garden bumped into Antaeus, a monster who could not be killed so long as he was touching the earth. His parents were Poseidon and Gaia.

No problem. Hercules lifted him up and crushed him.

Upon reaching the gardens, Hercules asked for help from the father of the nymphs (in some versions), Atlas. Atlas agreed, if Hercules agreed to hold the weight of the world while he went and grabbed them. Hercules took on the weight of the world and waited patiently, but Atlas decided he didn’t want to return.

Some background on Atlas. Atlas was a Titan who sided against the Olympians in the Titanomachy.
As punishment, Zeus had him stand on the western corner of Gaia (earth) and hold Uranus (the sky) up on his shoulders so they could never make more baby Titans. The earth and the sky can never, ever touch. He did NOT hold the planet. Just the sky.

Anyway, depending on the version of the myth, Hercules either tricked Atlas into taking the weight again, or built the pillars of Hercules so that no one had to hold the sky in place. I prefer to the latter because I have a very difficult time believing Atlas would be so easily tricked (it literally went like “Sure Atlas, I’ll hold the world, but can you take it for a second so I can rearrange my cloak to be more comfortable. Atlas: Sure thing, buddy. Hercules: hhahahaha! *runs away*) into taking back the sky.

But since Atlas got the apples, not Hercules, he had to do a twelfth labor. To capture Cerberus, Hades’ three headed puppy.

Cerberus was the son of Echidna and Typhon. His three heads represented the past, present, and the future as well as youth, middle age, and old age. He stopped souls from crossing the river Styx and going back to the living realm.

Hercules was not allowed to use any weapons and had to travel to the Underworld. To learn to travel to the Underworld, he had to be inducted into the Eleusinian Mysteries, a cult that worshiped Demeter, Persephone, Hades, and Orpheus (who in my book named his CD the Eleusinian Mysteries). Passing into the Underworld somehow absolved Herc from his drunken party turned murder fest with the minotaurs from way back in his early labors. While passing through, Hercules rescued Theseus who, along with Pirithous was stuck to a chair for trying to abduct Persephone. He tried to free Pirithous too, but Hades wasn’t having it.

While he had Hades’ attention, Herc asked if he could borrow Cerberus. Hades agreed, so long as Herc promised not to use weapons on his puppy. Herc agreed, then slung Cerberus over his shoulder and found his way back to the living realm, completing his final labor.

In my universe, Cerberus was never returned to the Underworld, so Hades holds a grudge against Hercules.

We are not done with Hercules yet! He still had lots of adventures.

We’re taking a break from Hercules for a very special guest post from author Molly Ringle. She wrote her own version of the Persephone myth in a book called Persephone’s Orchard (wordpress won’t let me underline for some reason so lets see if italics works). I’ll include her version of the myth first, then a bit about the book. Tune in Thursday for a review of Persephone’s Orchard

Molly Ringle’s Version of Persephone:

There is no single “original” myth for Persephone and Hades, nor for most of the other myths. We have a variety of surviving sources, often with varying and conflicting details. What I’ll tell here draws from various versions, though predominantly from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, one of the earlier sources we know about.

One day Hades, the lonesome and grim god of the Underworld, caught sight of Persephone, a goddess of spring and daughter of the gods Demeter and Zeus, and fell promptly in love with her. Deciding he must have her, he dispensed with the usual introductions, and abducted her from the field where she was picking flowers. He caused the earth to split open, and dragged her down into its depths in his chariot pulled by black horses. The chasm then closed again, and Persephone officially became a missing person in the world above.

Her mother Demeter went wild with grief at the disappearance of her daughter, and while racing around looking for her, dropped her duties of making the Earth fertile and healthy. The weather went cold; the land went barren; people began to starve. This was, apparently, the first instance of winter. And no one liked it. So once Zeus figured out where Persephone had disappeared to, he insisted upon her return, for otherwise Demeter would refuse to save the Earth, and humanity would freeze and starve to death.

Persephone was happy to see the messenger Hermes come to the Underworld to summon her back, but it turned out her return to the surface would only be temporary. She had eaten a pomegranate seed from the land of the dead (the Homeric Hymn says Hades slipped it straight into her mouth, sneakily), and was therefore obliged to return to the Underworld for part of every year. She honors this obligation, and this is why winter, too, returns to Earth each year.

Queen of the Underworld

It’s a horrible thing, a woman being kidnapped and trapped into a marriage in the land of the dead. We can all agree on that. What has always interested me, though, is how it doesn’t resemble the average kidnapping. Hades doesn’t tie Persephone up and throw her in a closet and abuse her. Quite the contrary. Instead, he gives her new powers. He makes her queen of the realm. He tells her she can punish anyone who doesn’t properly worship her, in any way she sees fit. And he asks her, please, to think of him kindly, and to consider that he’s not such a bad guy as husbands go.

It all still sounds a bit psychotic from our modern point of view, but nonetheless, in his possibly twisted way, he loves her, and honestly wants her to love him. That’s the point that has stuck with me all these years, and made me (like hundreds of other writers) come up with a version of the story that gives their relationship a fair chance at happiness.

My changes to the myth

My story, Persephone’s Orchard, uses somewhat less magic than the old myths, in which the gods can do virtually anything they wish by a wave of the hand. I love the myths, but I find it easier to plot stories where magic is limited and can’t solve everything, so I tempered the magic to a few key abilities and places. The Underworld is certainly a place of magic, where even the plants growing there (for example, pomegranate trees) exhibit properties that their living-world counterparts do not. But my immortals are nearly regular humans in most ways, other than exhibiting unusual strength and longevity. As with vampires, you can kill them if you try really hard, so they do have to be on the lookout for anti-immortal vigilantes. (But, unlike most vampires, the gods in my story are warm to the touch. And, no, they don’t sparkle. Unless they’re wearing lots of those beautiful Underworld gemstones.)

But perhaps the most important change I made, as hinted at already, was to remove the majority of the non-consensual portions of the myth of Persephone and Hades. Instead I have a Hades less prone to kidnapping, and a Persephone who’s actively curious about that dark and forbidden place called the Underworld, and who chooses to visit there, against her mother’s wishes. And that which is forbidden is always so much more tempting.

About her Book:

The Greek gods never actually existed. Did they? Sophie Darrow finds she was wrong about that assumption when she’s pulled into the spirit realm, complete with an Underworld, on her first day at college. Adrian, the mysterious young man who brought her there, simply wants her to taste a pomegranate. Soon, though she returns to her regular life, her mind begins exploding with dreams and memories of ancient times; of a love between two Greeks named Persephone and Hades. But lethal danger has always surrounded the immortals, and now that she’s tainted with the Underworld’s magic, that danger is drawing closer to Sophie.

* * *
Molly Ringle has been writing fiction for over twenty years. With her intense devotion to silly humor, she was especially proud to win the grand prize in the 2010 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with one (intentionally) terrible sentence. Molly grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and lives in Seattle with her husband and children. Her studies include a bachelor of arts in anthropology and a master of arts in linguistics. She was a Tri-Delta in college, in an old sorority house that was supposedly haunted, which inspired some of the central ideas for The Ghost Downstairs. She also loves folklore and mythology, and is working on new novels about the Greek myths. Persephone’s Orchard is the first in the series. When not writing, she can often be found experimenting with fragrances, chocolate, and gardening.

Website: http://mollyringle.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MollyRingle
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2905269.Molly_Ringle
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mollyringle
Blog: http://lemonlye.livejournal.com/

The seventh labor of Hercules was to capture the Cretan Bull. The Cretan Bull was in some versions of the myths, the parent of the minotaur discussed in Minos’ Mythology Monday a few weeks ago. That whole myth may just be an early version of the Zeus /Europa myth, but that’s another story.

Anyway, Minos wanted to get rid of the bull that seduced his wife, so he sent for Hercules. Minos offered to help, but Hercules declined in favor of sneaking up on the bull and strangling it into unconsciousness with his bare hands. He shipped the bull back to his king, who wanted to sacrifice it to Hera, but Hera didn’t want anything Hercules killed, so it as set free to roam in Marathon. Theseus (he’s popped up in a few of our myths so far, and we’ll learn more about him later) later killed it and sacrificed it to either Apollo or Athena depending on who told the myth.

The eighth labor of Hercules was to steal the Mares of Thrace (or Diomedes, but I prefer Thrace because of Gattlestar Gallactica), four man-eating horses that belonged to Diomedes, King of Thrace and son of Ares. Also, he was a giant.

Fun fact, Alexander the Great traced his horses lineage back to one of these horses.

The horses had names: Podagros (the fast), Lampon (the shining), Xanthos (the blond) and Deimos (the terrible). They were tied up to a bronze manger and were insane thanks to their diet of human flesh. They also may have breathed fire. In some versions of the myths, Hercules brought a few boys with him to keep the horses occupied while Hercules dealt with the giant. Some versions had only one boy, Abderus, some versions had no boys. The boys that may or may not have come were eaten in the versions of the myths they took part in. Hercules got pissed, and fed Diomedes to the horses.

Eating made the horses calmer, so Hercules bound their mouths shut and shipped them back to his king, who dedicated them to Hera, or Zeus, or set them free, or sacrificed them. Sorry for all the maybes, but there are a TON of Herculean myths to wade through. Either way, the horses descendants were used in the Trojan war.

The ninth labor was by far the most offensive. Hercules had to steal Hippolyta’s girdle. Hippolyta was the Queen of the Amazons, and a daughter of Ares. There are two versions of this myth, one with Hercules alone, and the other with Theseus.

Okay, for Herc alone, Hippolyta was so impressed with him that she gave him the girdle, and went to visit him on his ship. Hera disguised herself as an amazon and got the others all riled up and convinced that Herc was abducting their queen so they attacked, were defeated, and Herc gave the girdle to his kings daughter.

Her and Theseus went down almost the same, except that Theseus may have actually been trying to abduct her or she might have been going with him willingly, setting aside her throne for her love. They got married, and Theseus left her for a chick named Phaedra (some versions of the myth have Phaedra not coming about until after Hippolyta’s death). Hippolyta stormed the wedding and attacked and was killed. But maybe it was actually not her at all, but her sister, as some of the myths claim.

Either way, Hippolyta pops up in Chaucer’s “A Knight’s Tale,” AND Shakespeare’s

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

married to Theseus.

Hercules is getting just a few more mythology Monday’s, he has many adventures to come. Then I promise, the Hercules show will be over and I’ll move on to other myths.