The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 4.1 A Trip to Magna Grecia

The delegation left early in the morning, poised to reach the shores of Magna Graecia at sunrise.

Everywhere else Persephone was just another goddess of the Pantheon, but in Locri, she was the goddess.

Two majestic temples were raised for her worship, and the city had bestowed upon her the additional honor of being the protector of childbirth, thus managing to intrude upon the attributions of both Hera and Artemis, and therefore offend them both.

Persephone tried to suppress a smile, and figured out if any of the lands of Hellas were going to have the gumption to question the gods, they had to be Locri.

The city had been founded by the Achaeans and was protected by Poseidon; its citizens were aristocratic and never backed down from a fight.

Their sophisticated, unbendable laws, and their appreciation for athletics, culture and the arts, were supported by the enviable wealth of their thriving commerce.

The women of Locri were very special to Persephone, who favored them as much as they did her.

They were independent and powerful, undaunted by their men’s ambitions, and they didn’t indulge the whims and demands of the latter.

They were masters and administrators of their own homes and wealth, acting like earthly goddesses in their own right, and so they didn’t aspire to gain the favor of Aphrodite, and her enchanted binds of desire, or Hera, the ideal obedient wife, or either one of the virgin goddesses, who had to forgo marriage in order to enjoy their freedom.