Course Six: Spectrum, Part 2 287
However, Persephoné had already swallowed
three pomegranate seeds, thus binding herself to the
dark realm. So a compromise was reached: Persephoné
would spend 1/3 of the year reigning with Hadés as
Queen of the Dead, and the other 2/3 of the year upon
the green Earth with Demeter. Koré’s return each
Spring with the flowers was a rebirth, erasing all
memories of the previous cycle.
This story was enacted annually in the Eleusinian
Mysteries, conducted as an 11-day festival from at least
the 13th century BCE until 395 CE when Alaric the Goth
demolished the temple at Eleusis. This was the most
transformative ceremony of ancient times, and initiates
were promised a special life in the Underworld after
death. They were sworn to secrecy, and the inner rites
were never revealed to non-initiates.Athena and Poseidon
In order to thwart a proph-
ecy that he would be overthrown
by her son, Zeus swallowed his
first wife, Metis (“counsel”), when
she was pregnant. Instead of a son,
she bore a daughter, Athena (ah-
THEE-nah), who sprang fully
grown and armed from Zeus’s
forehead. As Goddess of both
war and wisdom, she fought in
the great Clash of the Titans, and
her brilliant strategies won victory for the gods. Athena
became one of the greatest goddesses of Greece, pre-
siding as well in peacetime as in war. She was the pre-
server of the state and of all the peaceful arts and
trades, which she invented and taught to humankind.
After the Olympian Gods defeated the Titans, the
first three brothers drew lots and divided the worlds
among them. Zeus claimed the Heavens, Poseidon (po-
ZY-don) received the Seas, and Hades got stuck with
the Underworld. Not only did Poseidon rule the waves;
he was also the master of horses, including the
seahorses, or hippocampi.
Athena and Poseidon vied over who would become
the patron deity of the capital of Greece. Zeus decreed a
competition based on which one could offer the greater
gift to the people —the winner to be determined by ballot
in the first recorded election. Poseidon
struck the ground with his trident, and
a salt spring and a horse sprang
forth. Athena offered the
olive tree.
All the men and
women of the
city cast their
votes. The men
all voted for
Poseidon, and
the women allvoted for Athena. However, there was one more woman
than there were men, so Athena won the election by a
single vote. Thus was the city named Athens, and
thus was established the first democracy. However,
the men were resentful at having been outvoted, so
the first act of the new congress was to deny voting
rights to women—even though their matron deity
remained the Goddess!Janet and Tam Lin
Janet was the independent daughter of a Medi-
eval Earl. One day, she set off alone to explore the
nearby forest of Carterhaugh. As she plucked a rose, a
handsome young man suddenly appeared and chal-
lenged her, saying he was guardian of the woods. Janet
replied that she meant no harm and asked who he was.
He replied that he was Tam Lin, a notorious Elfin
knight. But he had been born a mortal and had been
captured by the Queen of Faerie when he fell sleeping
from his horse. He longed to return to the mortal world,
but was bound to Faerie by an enchantment.
The two fell in love, and Janet became pregnant.
One day Tam Lin told her that night was Samhain,
when the Fairie host rode out in the Wild Hunt, and
he rode with them. With courage and love, she could
win him away from the Elfin Queen. At midnight she
must wait by the crossroads as the Elfin riders passed
by. She must pull him from his milk-white horse and
hold him tight, no matter what happened next.
Janet did as he told her. The Faerie Queen cast
her spells upon Tam Lin, changing him first to a lizard,
then to a snake, and finally to a red-hot block of iron.
Still Janet held him fast, and would not let him go.
Finally he returned to his own form as a naked man and
Janet wrapped him in her green mantle. The Elfin Queen
cried out bitterly that
had she known the
love of a mortal wo-
man would take
Tam Lin from her,
she’d have torn out
his heart and re-
placed it with a
stone. And had she
known he would be
taken by Janet’s
beauty, she’d have
torn out his eyes and
replaced them with wood.
(This tale is sung in The Ballad of Tam Lin.)Lesson 4: Heroes and Heroines
Gilgamesh (c. 2700 BCE)
Gilgamesh was an historical king of Uruk in
Babylonia (modern Iraq). 2/3 god and 1/3 human, he
was the strongest man who ever lived, and he- Spectrum 2.p65 287 1/15/2004, 9:31 AM