When Hermes and Persephone reached the entrance of the Underworld, they had come to a shadowy place of the dead and passed through black gates that hold back the souls.

The first thing that greeted the kidnapped goddess was the harsh bright light, which filtered through some crooked branches of the trees. Ever since she was spirited off to a sunless world, the earth was in a severe barren state.

Persephone expected to reemerge to the fields where eternal springtime reigned but all she found was snow and ice covering the hardened ground, like a white blanket over the poor globe.

The young maiden stared blindly in confusion. The forest...