# The Sacred Drama of Eleusis Act II: Persephone in the Underworld

*Tartarus. In the temple of Pluto. In the semi-darkness on the right, a throne has been erected under the tree of dreams, in whose foliage one can vaguely discern the shapes of fantastical animals: lemurs, harpies, and gorgons.*

#### Act 1

*Pluto, scepter in hand, sits next to Persephone, who has fallen asleep on her throne, her head leaning against the trunk of the tree of dreams. The mystics silently lay floral offerings at the feet of the queen of the dead, who [does not] awaken from her deep sleep.*

CHORUS OF THE INVISIBLE DEMONS OF TARTAROS:  
Persephone's conqueror, Great Pluto,  
Honor be to him!  
Hell rejoices  
At your wedding feast,  
In a thousand bonfires of joy  
Tartaros shines brightly.  
Until now,  
The children of the earth  
In their innocence  
Had escaped him.  
They were too easy  
For the realm of darkness.  
But now, possessing  
The goddess of the heights,  
In immeasurable numbers  
We conquer them for ourselves.  
For they will draw  
The mistakes of their lives  
And the beauty of their forms  
Into our realm.  
This must be populated  
With vain shadows.  
You Stygian, Harpies,  
You monsters, rejoice In the tree of lies.  
Honor to Pluto!  
Hell trembles with joy  
And holds  
His prey  
The dark Tartarus.

PLUTO *holds a black chalice and looks at the sleeping Persephone*:  
How beautiful in her slumber  
Appears the daughter of heaven!  
You are accepted into my realm  
You lovely daughter of heaven,  
You bright flower of the gods.  
In times to come  
None of the immortals  
Will ever be able to see you.  
So that you may never  
Be lost to me:  
The potion of oblivion  
And blind desire  
I must give you.  
Crushed in this cup,  
In red blood I must  
The fruit consecrated to darkness.  
*He squeezes the juice of a pomegranate into the cup.*  
Memory will fade  
In your soul then,  
And longing for the kingdom,  
To which thoughts otherwise  
Could still live in you,  
To rob me of my wife.  
But once you have tasted  
This fruit,  
Even Zeus will not  
Be able to snatch you away  
The power that binds you.  
Create a new Dionysus  
The power of the father of the gods himself,  
To take [you], would only  
Be possible for your husband,  
If he, called by you,  
In the bosom of Demeter  
Would come to new life.

PERSEPHONE *awakening*:  
Where am I?  
O this heavy sleep  
In the arms of the ruler,  
Which hold me terribly!  
What has become of me?  
The ominous queen  
Of the realm of darkness!  
Night surrounds me, Which can never end.  
A people of shadows ...  
And terrifying monsters  
Must watch over me ...  
Figures beguile me,  
Woven from dreams  
And from the power of lies!

CHORUS OF SHADOWS:  
You see only souls in us,  
Bent by the power of misfortune,  
Wandering on this shore.  
We want to implore  
Salvation, O Queen,  
From you, begging you  
To lead us up  
To the fields of Elysium.

PERSEPHONE:  
In you I must recognize  
My brothers and sisters,  
And powerless to redeem you  
From this abyss  
I am the one who feels trapped  
In the dark realm.  
Your moans ring in my ears,  
I feel your tears in my heart,  
Like a memory from above.  
But I can only ask you  
To weep for me,  
As I weep for you!  
Nothing else can be given here  
By our souls.

PLUTO:  
Lift up your forehead,  
Husband of Pluto,  
Queen of the Dead!  
No kingdom in the vast universe  
Was more beautiful than yours!  
I am honored in the universe,  
Feared on earth.  
On my altars flows  
Sacrificial blood in streams.  
The same honors  
Will be bestowed upon you.  
*Persephone covers her face with her hands.*  
At your feet you see  
The dead crowding forward  
With a fervor  
That is truly greater  
Than that of the Olympian gods  
At their sacred altars.  
Behold their pleas!  
The power must appear  
That you may call your own here,  
More powerful than that  
Which belongs to the proud Demeter.  
You shall assign  
Eternal dwellings to the supplicants!  
But now drink the potion!  
It will open your understanding  
To the sublime joys  
Of this realm  
And to the love  
Which I can give you.  
*He hands Persephone the cup; she hesitates to take it, and finally grasps it with a mixture of curiosity and terror. At that moment, the Stygian creatures, sphinxes, and harpies begin to emit a magical glow from the tree of dreams. They open their eyes wide and stretch out their claws.*

PERSEPHONE:  
O strange cup!  
It makes my hand tremble ...  
A terrible desire  
I can feel  
In its red juice ...  
It sparkles within,  
Like wisdom that  
Takes root in evil,  
The seeds of the riddle fruit ...  
Like terrible seeds to behold,  
Sprouts of endless torment!  
I will not drink! ...  
But I feel  
The cup sticking to my hand ...  
And once you have looked  
Into this black crater,  
You must look again and again  
To renew your gaze!  
*She looks into the cup a second time.*  
How strange: I see myself  
reflected in it now!  
In dark fire,  
my own eyes shine back at me.  
It is the fire that  
From my husband's eyes,  
So terribly shines upon me.  
It burns in my veins,  
As if a terrible arrow  
Pierced my heart!  
So the memory of above  
Feels like terrible suffering to the soul.  
I must remember the time  
When on the knees  
Of the heavenly mother  
I played and, although  
As a virgin, the husband  
Was united with me.  
But unknown to me  
Are his name and his image  
In this difficult hour.  
Are dreams filling me?  
Oh woe, woe, unable  
To ascend  
I have become forever!  
So shall I forget?

CHORUS OF SHADOWS:  
Do not drink, Persephone,  
The red blood  
In the black chalice.  
And let us ascend  
From Hecate's darkness  
To the Elysian realm.

CHORUS OF DEMONS:  
Forget, forget,  
You shall drink  
From this cup  
And pass it to us  
To drink.  
To drink the power of life  
We desire  
From this chalice!  
It burns within us  
The thirst of hell,  
He alone  
Can quench it.

PERSEPHONE:  
I myself feel thirst  
At this moment!  
O terrible torment  
Of the memory...  
Fading hope  
Confuses my inner being.  
Oh, may this hope be rekindled  
Once again!  
And if this is impossible,  
Extinguish forever!  
*She looks into the cup a third time.*

PLUTO:  
The spell is working!  
She enjoys the drink.

PERSEPHONE *turns to Pluto*:  
It is an illusion, to which I am powerless to resist!  
An unknown intoxication that overwhelms me!  
Your color is changing, O King,  
And your eyes are becoming brighter...  
The diadem shines with a radiant glow!  
Blue stars appear in your dark hair!  
The terrible being of black Pluto  
Is transformed into the beautiful Adonai...  
So my husband is not lost to me?  
Confused, intoxicated by his present appearance,  
I can hardly believe that he  
Is so terrible and beautiful at the same time,  
As he now stands radiantly before me!

PLUTO:  
It is I, given by Zeus  
Persephone, to the virgin, eternally as husband.  
Transformed into the queen of the dead  
The potion you drink, and all of hell  
Will then experience the joys of our marriage with us.  
All the Olympians will turn pale!

*Persephone closes her eyes and brings the cup to her lips, but a clap of thunder sounds, accompanied by the clanging of cymbals; in the darkness, a chariot drawn by seven dragons appears. Hecate drives it. Triptolemus sits at her right. He holds his spear like a lance in his right hand.*

#### Act 2

*The previous characters. Hecate. Triptolemus.*

PLUTO *rises and waves his scepter threateningly*:  
Who dares to enter the gates of Hell  
Without my command?  
He must be smashed without delay,  
Should any human presume to do so alive.

HECATE: You are powerless against Triptolemus!  
Demeter bathed him in fire,  
And it is I myself who brought him here.  
Even the strongest lightning bolts would be ineffective,  
For the youth is invulnerable.

PLUTO:  
So this is what you have done, you wretched woman!  
Shameless spy, with your siren face!  
As punishment, I will wither  
The smiling mask that you deceitfully  
Wear to deceive gods and men.  
You shall be the terror of the earth!  
Your name shall be witch and seductress!  
I will carve furrows in your forehead,  
Like the lemurs bear as a mark!

HECATE:  
I want nothing more than to carry out the command  
Given to me by the great goddess.  
But listen, god of the dead, now hear  
What the voice of a living man says.

TRIPTOLEMUS:  
Stop, Persephone, do not drink  
From this ominous cup!  
Remember your mother's warning.

PERSEPHONE *confused and as if awakening from a bad dream*:  
Who are you, young man, mortal though you are,  
Yet bold and courageous like the gods?

TRIPTOLEMUS:  
The son of the king of Eleusis,  
Protected by Demeter, the great goddess,  
I should have placed the crown upon my head.  
To free you from terrible bonds,  
I have despised what seemed certain to me.

PERSEPHONE:  
O young and fearless ephebe!  
Your sight snatches me from my dream,  
Which rose horribly from my soul;  
You bring back to me the springtime earth  
With my mother and Uranus,  
And the husband I had forgotten  
In this world full of night and terror.  
Like a spring that begins to sprout anew  
After long having dried up,  
So heavenly voices murmur in my heart.

TRIPTOLEMUS:  
Then climb into the chariot and follow me.

PERSEPHONE:  
To break open the gates of this realm for me  
Is not permitted to you! To snatch me away  
Only a god can do that to a god.  
Only he who  
Was already united with me in my mother's womb!  
The Titans have torn my beloved from me!  
He is always alive in my thoughts, which  
Zeus keeps hidden in his soul.  
Only he can save me.  
I call upon you, Dionysus, Dionysus!  
*She throws Pluto's cup to the ground.*

PLUTO:  
I sentence Triptolemus to death!  
He is forever bound to hell.

*Another clap of thunder. Pluto, Persephone, Hecate, and Triptolemus disappear.*