Lesson 3
Stories of all Kinds
1. Preview the text and match the gods to their powers. Check after reading.
1. the god of love
2. the god of the underworld, where the dead live
3. the messenger of the gods
4. the king of the gods and god of the sky
5. the goddess of harvest and fertility
a. Demeter
b. Eros
c. Hades
d. Hermes
e. Zeus
Reading Strategy
A myth explains the
creation of a natural
phenomenon.
The Rescue of Persephone
Long ago, in the mountainous island of Sicily, there lived a goddess called Demeter, the
goddess of harvest and fertility. She allowed people to collect fruits, vegetables, and animals
to eat. She and her beautiful daughter, Persephone, lived happily, but one day this changed.
It all started when Hades, the god of the underworld, wandered into Persephone’s garden.
All of a sudden, he was shot by an arrow sent by Eros, the god of love, who made him fall in
love with Persephone. Sometime later, when this girl was picking some flowers, she magically
vanished from the earth. Zeus, the king of gods, witnessed everything.
Demeter looked for her daughter angrily and worriedly, but she could not find her. She felt
so sad that she stopped blessing the earth. Plants stopped growing, seeds didn’t sprout, so
animals died.
Soon, Zeus realized the terrible consequences of these happenings. So, he told Demeter that
Hades had kidnapped Persephone and had taken her as a prisoner in his realm . Zeus asked
Hermes, the messenger of the gods, to look for Persephone in the underworld. But, Zeus
warned Demeter, “I can only bring her back if she has not eaten any food from the underworld.”
Meanwhile, Persephone was tempted to eat some fruits, but she knew she couldn’t, “If I eat
them, I will never get out of this place.” She thought. Unfortunately, the underworld gardener
tricked her, “It won’t do you any harm to smell their fragrance.” She thought. Persephone took
the fruits. They reminded her of the outside world, so she ate them thoughtlessly. Sadly, by
the time Hermes arrived, Persephone had already eaten the fruits. “She cannot leave, she just
ate some fruits, now she’s my wife,” said Hades to Hermes.
When Demeter found out about her daughter’s fate, she begged Zeus to change her terrible
destiny. “If you don’t help her, I won’t fertilize the soil anymore and all people will die.” Zeus,
almighty, decided that Persephone could stay with her mother for two-thirds of the year. She
had to stay with her husband in the underworld for the other third.
In the end, Demeter accepted the conditions. Every time Persephone came out of the
underworld, the warm touch of Demeter was felt all over the earth for eight months. Seeds
grew and blossomed. Once Persephone had to go back to the underworld to stay with her
husband, for the next 4 months, Demeter’s sadness made the earth sterile. This happened
year after year.
2. Read the myth.
a
Persephone
Hades
Demeter
Zeus
Eros
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