Lore Olympus: Volume One

The towel Persephone holds to her hand is sodden with gold ichor, the gods’ blood. Hermes and Artemis rush off to look for a first aid kit (Hermes wants to use the opportunity to touch all of Artemis’s things). Artemis tells Apollo to take care of Persephone.

Apollo puts his coat on Persephone and lifts her onto the counter. Apollo tries to make amends. He works long hours pulling the sun through the sky; sometimes it makes it hard to control his moods. He tells her that she was lucky to escape from the Underworld: If Hades had wanted to, he could have trapped her there forever. Hermes returns with the first aid kit and jokingly asks if he is interrupting them. Apollo magically heals Persephone’s hand with the kit: Medicine is his specialty. Persephone thinks that Apollo might not be that bad—she even finds him a bit attractive. Apollo is delighted that they made up. He has Hermes take the picture of him and Persephone that Hera later shows Hades.

Persephone begins to doubt her assessment of Hades based on everything she has heard. He did not seem to be the way the rumors portrayed him, and she did like the attention he showed her, as she thinks of herself as an inconsequential “minor goddess.” As the evening wears on, she cannot stop thinking about the situation. The panels juxtapose her internal monologue with the four gods watching a movie. Apollo puts his arm around her shoulder at some point.

Persephone decides to go to bed. Apollo wants to wrap the evening up because he has work in the morning. Artemis says he and Hermes (who is asleep on the couch) can finish the movie. She goes to bed too.

Instead of leaving, Apollo sneaks into Persephone’s room. He wakes her and kisses her. Persephone says she is flattered, but she is supposed to remain a virgin for eternity, like Artemis, Athena, and Hestia. Apollo persists. Persephone is conflicted. She hates the way being a virgin for eternity sounds. As Apollo undresses her, she mentally retreats to Demeter’s greenhouse. However, a door opens. Having sex with Apollo sounds ugly to her, but she considers that at least it could be her choice.

Eros, Hermes, and Hades are all shown sleeping. Hera is awake, reading and smoking. She can feel someone is distressed and wonders who.

Persephone feels things are happening too fast. She does not know why she agreed to have sex with Apollo. She wants to stop, but she worries that it is too late to say something. She can feel the line of her fate snapping, an allusion to the three Greek Fates who spin, measure, and cut the thread of life of every being. Apollo takes pictures of Persephone as they have sex.

Persephone is scared; she mentally retreats into the greenhouse where she feels safe. Apollo finishes and gets dressed. He tells her that she is his girl. Her hair has grown long and flowing again; Apollo says she likes it.

After Apollo leaves, Persephone cuts her hair short again. She determines not to call her mother.

Crying, she texts Hades again, thanking him for the coat. Hades calls her.

Hades dreams of his youth, on his sixth birthday. His mother, the titan Rhea, holds him. He shows off his power of creating jewels. Suddenly, the dark figure of Kronos, his father, appears. Rhea tells Hades to hide. Kronos is looking for Hades; he reminds Rhea of Gaia’s prophecy that if Hades lives, he might destroy the titans. Rhea lies that she does not know where Hades is. Kronos sees through this; he finds and eats Hades. Hades jolts awake in bed.

Hades reassures himself that Kronos is in Tartarus and cannot hurt him. He tells Cerberus he will make an appointment with his therapist.

Looking at his phone to check the time, Hades freaks out when he sees Persephone’s second text message arrive, realizing that she was behind the unknown number. He figures there is no harm in calling her.

In a flashback to before the Panathenea party, Hera is angry at Zeus that he invited Minthe to Hera’s birthday party. Zeus protests that he could not deny Hades a plus one. Hera and Minthe start to argue, but they are interrupted when it comes time to open gifts.

When Hera opens Hades’s gift, she is filled with a vision. In the vision panels, only Hera and Hades are in color. She sees Hades’s wedding day, but she is unable to see the face of his bride. Though she cannot see her face, the bride is evidently Persephone. The vision ends. Hera tells Hades that she cannot accept the gift. She tells him she thinks it will come in handy for him someday.