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<h1>A MESSAGE FROM:<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">PERSEPHONE</span></h1>



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	<a href="../images/photo_sidebar04_01.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="../images/photo_sidebar04_01_med.jpg" alt="Persephone" width="250" height="342" border="0"></a></div>
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	In Greek myth, Hades, the god of the underworld, abducted the young Persephone, daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the earth. Hades carried Persephone off to the under- world and held her captive. In Demeter's grief at the loss of her daughter, she condemned the earth to eternal winter. The world would have starved if Zeus had not intervened to obtain Persephone's release. Before she left, though, Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds, which meant that she had to return to the underworld for six months of every year. Each year, according to the myth, when Persphone returns to her mother, winter ends and spring arrives. Until one day...<br /><br />
<em>Illustration modified by Sandbox Studio Based on Triptolemus and Kore, tondo of a red-figure Attic cup by the Aberdeen Painter.</em>
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	<p><strong>To:</strong> <a href="mailto:Demeter@pantheon.org">Demeter@pantheon.org</a><br />
    <strong>From:</strong> <a href="mailto:Persephone@underworld.edu">Persephone@underworld.edu</a><br />
    <strong>Subject:</strong> Annual Leave</p>

	<p>Hi Mom,</p>

	<p>Don't take this personally, but I won't be coming home this year for my annual visit. I'll miss you--and too bad about no spring or summer--but the underworld is HAPPENING right now, and I just can't get away.</p>

	<p>I know, I know, I used to complain about life down here: dark, nothing to do. I couldn't wait to get back to earth every year. But there's been a mega-change, and I am so, so loving it!!!! Picture this: the underworld full of scientists and never a dull moment. I have joined a double-beta decay experiment, and and if we find what we're looking for, watch out: It's gonna change the way we see the universe. We'll know what happened to the antimatter after the Big Bang. Finally!!!! I almost joined a geoscience experiment to find out what causes earthquakes--trust me, it's not Atlas shrugging--or an astrophysics search for dark matter, but those fascinating little neutrinos won me over. (After a few millennia down here, dark matter gets old...) Anyway Mom, I'll be taking shifts for my experiment, POMEGRANATE, so I'm sorry but I can't come home this year.</p>

	<p>Your loving daughter,</p>

	<p>Persephone</p>


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	<p><strong>To:</strong> <a href="mailto:Persphone@underworld.edu">Persphone@underworld.edu</a><br />
      <strong>From:</strong> <a href="mailto:Demeter@pantheon.org">Demeter@pantheon.org</a><br />
      <strong>Subject:</strong> Re: Annual Leave</p>

	<p>Persephone,</p>

	<p>Got your message. Any room on the Dark Matter Search for an Earth Goddess? I'm putting the seasons on "auto" and coming on down.</p>

	<p>Love,</p>

	<p>Mom</p>




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