Crow Brings the Daylight

An Inuit Myth - Retold by S. E. Schlosser

Long, long ago, when the world was still new, the Inuit lived in darkness in their home in the
fastness of the north. They had never heard of daylight, and when it was first explained to them
by Crow, who traveled back and forth between the northlands and the south, they did not believe
him.
Yet many of the younger folk were fascinated by the story of the light that gilded the lands to the
south. They made Crow repeat his tales until they knew them by heart.
"Imagine how far and how long we could hunt," they told one another.
"Yes, and see the polar bear before it attacks," others agreed.
Soon the yearning for daylight was so strong that the Inuit people begged Crow to bring it to
them. Crow shook his head. "I am too old," he told them. "The daylight is very far away. I can no
longer go so far." But the pleadings of the people made him reconsider, and finally he agreed to
make the long journey to the south.
Crow flew for many miles through the endless dark of the north. He grew weary many times, and
almost turned back. But at last he saw a rim of light at the very edge of horizon and knew that the
daylight was close.
Crow strained his wings and flew with all his might. Suddenly, the daylight world burst upon
him with all its glory and brilliance. The endless shades of color and the many shapes and forms
surrounding him made Crow stare. He flapped down to a tree and rested himself, exhausted by
his long journey. Above him, the sky was an endless blue, the clouds fluffy and white.
Eventually Crow lowered his gaze and realized that he was near a village that lay beside a wide
river. As he watched, a beautiful girl came to the river near the tree in which he perched. She
dipped a large bucket into the icy waters of the river and then turned to make her way back to the
village. Crow turned himself into a tiny speck of dust and drifted down towards the girl as she
passed beneath his tree. He settled into her fur cloak and watched carefully as she returned to the
snow lodge of her father, who was the chief of the village people.
Crow looked around him and spotted a box that glowed around the edges. Daylight, he thought.
On the floor, a little boy was playing contentedly. The speck of dust that was Crow drifted away
from the girl and floated into the ear of the little boy. Immediately the child sat up and rubbed at
his ear. He started to cry, and the chief came running into the snow lodge to see what was wrong.
"Why are you crying?" the chief asked, kneeling beside the child.
Inside the little boy's ear, Crow whispered: "You want to play with a ball of daylight." The little
boy rubbed at his ear and then repeated Crow's words.
The chief sent his daughter to the glowing box in the corner. She brought it to her father, who
removed a glowing ball, tied it with a string, and gave it to the little boy. He rubbed his ear
thoughtfully before taking the ball. It was full of light and shadow, color and form. The child
laughed happily, tugging at the string and watching the ball bounce.
Then Crow scratched the inside of his ear again and the little boy gasped and cried. "Don't cry,
little one," said the doting grandfather anxiously. "Tell me what is wrong."
Inside the boy's ear, Crow whispered: "You want to go outside to play." The boy rubbed at his
ear and then repeated Crow's words to his grandfather. Immediately, the chief lifted up the small
child and carried him outside, followed by his worried mother.
As soon as they were free of the snow lodge, Crow swooped out of the child's ear and resumed
his natural form. He dove toward the little boy's hand and grabbed the string from him. Then he
rose up and up into the endless blue sky, the ball of daylight sailing along behind him.
In the far north, the Inuit saw a spark of light coming toward them through the darkness. It grew
brighter and brighter, until they could see Crow flapping his wings as he flew toward them. The
people gasped and pointed and called in delight.
The Crow dropped the ball, and it shattered upon the ground, releasing the daylight so that it
exploded up and out, illuminating every dark place and chasing away every shadow. The sky
grew bright and turned blue. The dark mountains took on color and light and form. The snow and
ice sparkled so brightly that the Inuit had to shade their eyes.
The people laughed and cried and exclaimed over their good fortune. But Crow told them that
the daylight would not last forever. He had only obtained one ball of daylight from the people of
the south, and it would need to rest for six months every year to regain its strength. During that
six month period, the darkness would return.
The people said: "Half a year of daylight is enough. Before you brought the daylight, we lived
our whole life in darkness!" Then they thanked Crow over and over again.
To this day, the Inuit live for half a year in darkness and half a year in daylight. And they are
always kind to Crow, for it was he who brought them the light.
 Story of Demeter and Persephone - Greek Mythology

Zeus, King of all the Gods, had three sisters: Hera, Queen of the Gods, was also his wife and the
Goddess of Marriage; Hestia was the Goddess of Home and Hearth and Demeter was Goddess of
the Harvest, responsible for the crops and for feeding the people. Demeter was loved by all
humans for her gift of soil and gentle, mild weather to grow their crops. They worshipped her for
her caring and kindness.

Persephone was Demeter’s only child. Like her mother, she was kind and caring, with a happy
nature and the most dazzling smile. She was the sort of person who spread light and happiness
wherever she went and so, naturally, she was loved by everyone but most especially by her
mother.

Demeter liked nothing more than to spend hours in the company of her delightful daughter,
chatting and laughing, watching her grow into a radiant young woman and seeing the way she
enchanted those around her. So you can imagine how distraught Demeter was when her beloved
daughter disappeared one day.

It happened like this. Persephone was wandering with Artemis and Athena in the meadows
gathering flowers for Demeter. She moved happily through the grass, picking fragrant blooms.
Wafting on the gentle breeze, the most exquisite perfume caught her attention. “I must have this
for my mother,” she thought and followed the delicious scent as it led her away from her friends.

Unbeknown to Persephone, Hades, mighty ruler of the Underworld, had spied her on one of his
trips to the world above. He was dazzled by her beauty, her elegance and her charm. He decided
that he must have her as his wife. Knowing that Demeter would never agree to her daughter living
with him in his gloomy world of the dead, he decided to visit his brother, Zeus, to discuss the
matter. Surprisingly, the great god Zeus agreed to Hades’ plan, to abduct the young woman and
take her to his realm.

Persephone glanced up from the magical bloom and noticed little birds anxiously twittering and
fluttering like trapped moths in a spider’s web. The sky began to turn grey and then darkened still
further until it was black. There was a deep rumble that seemed to shake the very air around her
and the ground began to shift and shudder. A crack suddenly appeared in the surface of the earth
and, as Persephone watched in fear, in awe, a great chasm opened up before her.

With a deafening boom, a hiss of steam and clouds of inky-black smoke Hades appeared, driving
his horse drawn chariot of black and gold. Persephone froze in shock, the freshly picked flowers
spilling from her fingers. Hades leant from the chariot, scooped her up and turned his horse's back
towards the opening.
At last Persephone screamed, “Mother, mother, help me”, as down, deep down, into the widening
crack in the earth the chariot plunged. Cavernous rocks split apart to make way. It was a world of
sparse light; all black and grey.

Hades had led a sad and lonely life in the depths below. Using all his powers of persuasion, he
pleaded with her to stay and be his bride, to rule with him in the underworld. At first, Persephone
cried and cried, until she had no more tears left to weep. She refused all offers of food, for she had
heard the legend that those who eat in the Underworld can never return. So she determined not to
let a morsel of food pass her lips.

Each day, Hades would visit the splendid chamber he had prepared for Persephone, bringing
dainty morsels to tempt her and declaring his love. Each day, she turned away, refusing to listen to
his honeyed words. However, gradually, she began to look around her and could not help but
admire the tasteful but luxurious decorations, the soft, silky furnishings and the sparkling
bejewelled surfaces.

One day, as he entered, she turned and looked at Hades himself. A dark, strong face and hypnotic
eyes, filled with sadness, affection and a little cunning looked back. He stretched out his hand and
the girl tentatively put hers into it. “Come, my love, let me show you my domain. Come and see
the world to which you bring such light and of which you can be Queen, if only you will marry
me.”

Meanwhile, Demeter was beside herself with grief. Her daughter had not returned and no trace of
her was found apart from a few wilting flowers. Demeter roamed the countryside, searching and
seeking far and wide. At first, she was angry that anyone could have taken her beautiful daughter
but soon her fury turned to sadness and despair and, as a consequence, the earth was sad along
with her.

The crops did not thrive, the land became barren and sorrow began to creep over the earth like a
thick fog. “Who will help me find my daughter?” wailed Demeter with her arms lifted towards the
sky.

It was at that moment that Helios, God of the Sun, took pity on the distraught Demeter and told her
the truth, for he had seen clearly what had happened whilst on his daily journey across the sky and
felt sorry for the grieving mother. “Hades has stolen your daughter and taken her down to his dark
realm to be his bride,” he explained.

“What? He has dared such a wicked act under the nose of the great Zeus?” Demeter shrieked.

“Fair Demeter, I only tell you what I know. I am sorry to be the one … but Zeus himself agreed to
the union.”
At that, Demeter’s wrath knew no bounds. Anger most terrible and most savage flared in her heart.
She strode to the foot of Olympus and called upon Zeus and all the gods to hear her oath.

“Never again shall I set foot on Olympus and never again shall I let the ground be fruitful and
yield its crops, until I once again behold my beloved daughter whom you have conspired to steal
from me.”

Zeus, watching from on high and listening to his sister’s words, became worried by how events
were turning out. “If the crops fail the people will be hungry,” he thought to himself, “and they
will blame me and then who will worship me?” He knew he had to do something.

“Hermes!” exclaimed Zeus. “I shall send my messenger, he usually sorts things out and manages
to smooth things over.”

Indeed, Hermes was good at his job and agreed to start on his journey to the Underworld
immediately and to bring Persephone back.

Each day, Persephone would let herself be led by Hades to explore his kingdom. Her inner
sunshine lit up the once gloomy world. Her kind heart was moved by the plight of the souls first
arriving in the underworld. No less was Persephone’s kind heart moved by Hades himself. She still
missed her mother terribly, but she had begun to enjoy the company of this elegant, powerful and
adoring god, and was intrigued by the idea of being Queen of the Underworld.

As Hermes arrived, in the distance he saw Persephone and Hades sitting together on a sumptuous
couch. Hades held a pomegranate in his hand. “Persephone, my love, I am so worried that you will
fade away if you do not eat. Look at this sweet fruit, taste just a little for pities’ sake.” Looking
deep into his eyes, the girl carefully reached out her hand and took the luscious fruit to her lips.
Deliberately, she swallowed a few seeds, just six.

“Oh no!” Hermes thought, “I'm too late.” Persephone was now committed to Hades and the
Underworld. If he was going to fulfil Zeus’ command, he was going to have to use all his
negotiating skills to strike a deal with the powerful ruler. But that was what Hermes was good at.

“Great Hades,” he began, moving forward in the dim light. Hades knew why Hermes was here,
and knew that he would have to part with Persephone. But now she had eaten of her own free will,
he also knew she would have to return to him.

“She has eaten six seeds,” said Hades triumphantly. “I am willing to let Persephone go to her
mother for six months each year and for the following six months she will return to rule with me
as my Queen.”
And so, it was agreed. Every Spring Demeter makes sure flowers blossom on the meadows and the
mountains bloom to welcome home her loving daughter Persephone. Every Autumn Demeter
cries, the leaves fall and the crops are at an end, as her daughter returns, willingly, as Queen of the
Underworld to Hades, her husband. Until the Spring, when the cycle starts again.