Pomegranates and Apples

While I'm thinking of women and their search for knowledge and reading, in a similar vein there's a new children's book out telling the story of Persephone, by Sally Pomme Clayton, illustrated by Virginia Lee. (Pub. Frances Lincoln £7.99)

Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of harvest. Kidnapped by Hades, the king of the Underworld, she refused to eat, as legend had it that if you ate in the Hall of Hades, you would never leave. After a week she gave in and consumed six pomegranate seeds; Zeus sent Hermes to bargain with Hades, and a deal was made that if Persephone married him, she would spend six months with him in the Underworld, but in the spring return to earth. So spring flowers are Demeter's welcome to Persephone, while in the autumn her sorrow at her daughter's departure is shown by the plants dying .

Now I love fruit but it does seem as if it gets us women into dreadful trouble, what with Eve and the apple. Either way seems to lead to Hell.....and we're even to blame for the winter.

Sally Pomme (what a wonderfully relevant name!) Clayton founded the Company of Storytellers with Ben Haggarty and Hugh Lupton in 1985. In 2010 she was commissioned by the British Museum to write  six stories for A History of the World in 100 Objects. She is one of the performance poets listed on the website Apples and Snakes: Poetry with Bite  http://www.applesandsnakes.co.uk/page/1/Home