Songnotes:

This song is loosely based on the Greek myth about Persephone, also pieced with images from fairy tales. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the earth force who provides life, food and lodging for humans and all other residents of the planet. Persephone, Demeter's precious slim-ankled daughter, was abducted by Hades, lord of the Underworld. Hades was very powerful, brother to the most-powerful Sky God Zeus. Demeter could not find out who had taken her daughter, and for a long time no mortal or god would tell her. Politically, it was just too risky to anger Zeus, who had approved the capture and rape of the beautiful teenage girl playing in a field of flowers. Demeter's sorrow withered the grapes on the vine, caused drought and famine, leaving many suffering. Finally some mortals and nature forces (Hecate, the compassionate cave witch, and Helios the all-seeing Sun) help her find her daughter. When Demeter is reunited with her child again, she allows the food and water to return to nourish the earth.

This story explains in a beautiful and complex way why we have the movement of the seasons, darkness connecting to light, sorrow to joy. To read more details about this story, pick up a copy of The Homeric Hymns, or go to Wikipedia.

Persephone

from "American Stories"

Elizabeth Hummel © 2002 go to Eli's site to purchase CD

 
It was a monster man
He took me into his stony lair
When I woke up, looked around,
Saw gold, more gold everywhere
And in the corner was a pile of bones
With a human skull, I swear
Oh, I swear

Lost my memory
Slept on piles of gold and fed me like a queen
But I never saw the monster man
Just a shadow in my dreams
Sometimes I heard him whisper
"I want you to want to stay with me...
I'll treat you like divinity
Persephone..."

Sometimes I'd get an image 
In my head of a flowering field
And I'd stare at the candle flame for hours
Ask myself, oh what is real?
And I learned to spin the golden threads
From his golden spinning wheel
But how did I feel?
Trapped underground.

One day he said
I only want you to be here for love
And you're free to go (you always have been)
Get on back to your land up above
And the ground opened up, I saw the sky
Felt the wind in the sweetest rush
I loved it so much
Air, sunshine, freedom

My mother cried and blessed the ground
When she held me in her arms
There were fruit and flowers everywhere
She said, "Daughter, were you harmed?"
I said, "No...yes...I don't know...I might go back
Mother don't be alarmed
It's only for part of the year
When the seeds are cold in the ground
But I'll come back with the flowers
When our season comes round"

 

 

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