Persephone's Return

Book excerpt: My earliest memory is of the flowers-sparkling white stars against silvery green spikes; fairy dancing skirts of purple, blue, and fuchsia; blobs of orange and gold sunshine-and with them a glorious amalgam of scents-orange blossom, raspberry, honeysuckle, clove, and a heady musk that even then provoked a tingling response from my pink-flower vulva. Babies are born sexual, praise my father, Zeus! Demeter, my mother, would not agree. Thus begins this first person account by the Grain Maiden of her early life; her kidnapping by Hades, Lord of the Underworld; and the rebellious young goddess s institution of the world s growing seasons. Although set in mythological Greece, this retelling of the myth of the Eternal Return examines issues that include mother/daughter conflicts about maternal control, choice of a husband, and practical business career versus artistic creation. With the often exasperating guidance of Hecate the Crone, the goddesses grow in understanding of the roles of t