As a child Demeter had promised to be sensible, but by the time the winged dragons had whirled her away to the sea-shore she was already calling for the sea-nymphs to come and play with her. Demeter knew that the sea-nymphs knew her and would keep her safe, and before long she could see their glistening faces and sea-green hair above the waterline calling her in. She waited for them to come to her, and did not think once of how her mother had told her to avoid dreaming of a magical land beside the seashore and stay at home instead to clean the house and cook bread for tea. Carrying beautiful shells, the sea-nymphs sat on the wet sand with Demeter threading a necklace together which they then hung around her neck.
‘Stay here with us Demeter’, the sea-nymphs asked, but Demeter missed her mother and before the evening darkness fell she knew that she would have to go home.
All day her mother had been planting seeds in fields as large as you could ever imagine and had thought of Demeter often when the sky shone bright blue and the sun touched her skin with the tenderness of a child’s small hands. Nothing was growing these days and she worried how desolate the land had become with flowers dying and the grass and grain no longer coming to completion. There was a dark spell upon the land and she, a mother, could do nothing to banish it. Kneeling on the land she placed the last seed that she had on the ground when all of a sudden she was sure that she could hear Demeter calling her name. In a panic she threw her heavy and rusted trowel down and headed off home to find Demeter. When she reached the house there was no sign of Demeter. Pots and pans and clothes were strewn around the cottage and there was a distinct lack of the smell of bread cooking in the oven.
‘Now where can she be?’ Demeter’s mother cried. ‘Something has gone very wrong I must find my daughter’.
Knowing that Demeter loved the seashore she ran there as quickly as she could to find the faces of three wet sea-nymphs peeping over a wave.
‘Where is Demeter? Tell me you naughty sea-nymphs; have you enticed her under the sea again?’
Tossing their green ringlets impudently, the sea-nymphs told of how Demeter had left the shore to run along dry land and that they had not seen her since early in the day picking beautiful flowers from a large bush in the distance.
‘But there are no bushes growing in this land, you must be mistaken’.
‘Oh that can’t be true for we are sure she was picking flowers from a large bush and there was a man in a chariot with winged horses waiting on her’.
Lighting a torch, for it was now becoming dark, the sea-nymphs helped Demeter’s mother search the shore and all of the land for her daughter for hours and hours and after many days they still had not found Demeter and were becomin
g weary and tired. Having knocked on every door and searched through woods and fields nearby they returned to the shore once more and entered a cavern by the sea that the sea-nymphs knew was hid from human view.
‘The King has given her enchanted flowers’ the sea-nymphs said, ‘and taken her away for ever from this wasteland where nothing ever grows and the only sound to be heard the sound of the sea.’.
Stepping into the cavern Demeter’s mother and the sea-nymphs could see through a portal, a beautiful Kingdom and colours as myriad as a rainbow were set before their eyes as they walked slowly towards a light.
‘He has drowsed her with the aroma of poppies and taken her away from me with his magic,’ Demeter’s mother said in a low and sad voice. ‘Am I never to find her again?’
‘Or with the odour of a white Lily,’ the sea-nymphs added, hiding behind a craggy rock so as not to be seen.
The Kingdom was magnificent full of fauna and flora and food and jewels and as they ascended a lofty flight of white marble stairs they could see Demeter sitting on a throne with diamonds in her hair and a royal household of princes and princesses all about her waiting to do her bidding. Her mother cried softly at the sight of her daughter, and thought of ways that she could be with Demeter without causing alarm or frightening the sea-nymphs who did not like leaving the sea for the very reason that they had never been to the royal Kingdom before, but had heard that the King was a very powerful man and that he did not like sea-nymphs, not one little bit.
All of a sudden, from a distance, Demeter’s mother could see the King talking to Demeter and offering her food.
‘I have no appetite in the world unless it was a slice of bread of my mother’s own baking, or a little ripe fruit from her garden,’ she could hear Demeter telling the King.
‘That is impossible,’ the King bellowed. ‘Nothing grows outside of this Kingdom in which I am the King. That is why I have saved you, for you are my daughter too and I will not see you dull and dreary without food or magic, or without dreams as many and as splendid as you wish to have.’
Sending his servants to find fruits of all kinds from his Kingdom, the King was sure that he could tempt Demeter to eat from his table, but she was stubborn and wanted to be with her mother again.
He wanted to find her something sumptuous to eat, but as it was, the only fruit to be found was a pomegranate and it was so dried up that it was not worth eating.
Since there was nothing else, the King dressed the fruit up on a silver platter and carried it to Demeter leaving her to look at the fruit and hoping that she would take it. Demeter looked at the fruit with eagerness for she had not eaten for several days and wondered how it might taste.
‘At least I could smell it,’ said Demeter and lifted it to her nose, but then it somehow found its way into her mouth. Just as she was to bite down on the fruit the King and his servant Quick-Silver entered the room in a hurry talking of liberty and poor old souls that also had nothing to eat. Before they could see that she had been tempted, Demeter quickly took the pomegranate from her mouth and hid it behind her back.
‘My little Demeter, Quick-Silver tells me that I have caused many people sadness by bringing you to my Kingdom and many great misfortunes have befall innocent people by my detaining you here, and I know you think my palace dreary and dusky. I must have a heart made of iron for it is weeks since you have tasted food. You are free to go, my daughter. Quick-Silver will lead you home, to your mother and the land that you know’.
Jumping from her thrown, Demeter left the palace quickly for she was eager to see her mother again, but was warned by the King not to say anything about the fruit that was set on a silver platter for her.
Passing through the Kingdom and out of the great gateway, Demeter emerged with Quick-Silver upon the surface of the earth. Everywhere there was flowers blooming and growing and with every step of Demeter’s foot violets gushed up along the wayside. All along the land and in all the fields visible to the eye, grass and grain began to sprout luxurious and in abundance making up for months of barrenness.
Demeter’s mother had been steps ahead of her on her journey home, for as soon as she heard of her daughter’s freedom she made her way out of the King’s Kingdom carrying an enchanted torch that burned in her hand all the way to the front door4 of their cottage in the woods. But, as she walked towards the doorway of their little cottage Demeter’s mother noticed now that the flame had gone out.
‘What does this mean’, she said, ‘this torch is an enchanted torch and should burn forever? Did you taste any food while you were in the King’s palace?’ her mother asked.
‘Yes,’ Demeter replied. ‘They brought me a pomegranate this morning and I was tempted to bite it, and the instant I tasted it the King and Quick-Silver came to me and told me that I was freed. I did not swallow a morsel, but six of the pomegranate seeds remained in my mouth’
‘You silly girl, and all this splendour for your dreaming of magic and Kings, and palaces and flowers – those six seeds mean that you must spend half of the year with me and half of the year with that mischievous King, your head will be filled with nothing more that fairies and nymphs and sea-shells and diamonds. Whatever am I to do?’
Kissing her mother, Demeter placed the six pomegranate seeds on the kitchen table and sat down ton eat.
‘Have some bread mother. Things are not too bad, for I am home and I can wash and clean and bake for you. Let’s just be thankful that the King is not to keep me the whole year round’.
