The Law of Xenia

Did I watch Beauty and the Beast after watching this? No. But I will after posting this.

The quote today is my mom's favorite disney quote of all time, and one she uses on me and my dad practically every time we open our mouths, so without further ado, enjoy!

Disclaimer: Chapter 1

Thumper: "If you can't say something nice… Don't say nothin' at all."

- Bambi (1942)

Shaking, the walls were shaking. Even the ground beneath them felt the sensation and seemed to follow suit as the very earth began to quake. A small plump hand beat against a wooden door, so swift and so loud, the owner of the cottage could've sworn an army comprised of hoplites and their heavily armored myrmidons were either marching towards them with their drum-like, synchronized steps, or thunder was beginning to stir in the sky thanks to Zeus in his usual frustrations.

But no, as the drowsy woman cracked open her door just a tad with her oil lamp in hand, ready to tell off the intruder, the mortal froze, biting her tongue from even uttering a sound.

A cold wind accompanied the stranger who stood before her door- a beggar woman with a thick woven cloak, shrouding her head, neck and crooked shoulders. That same gust so strong, so chilled rushed past the hunched woman forcing the measly door to open unrestrained and reveal the heavy-eyed homeowner who hid behind it.

Now fully exposed, the mortal woman shivered from the sudden gust of wind. The cold shook away the spell of sleep upon her and now rubbing her eyes, the woman began to notice the apprehension in the beggar woman's eyes, her haggard appearance, and on closer inspection, dried tears stained the woman's wrinkled face.

"May I share your hearth tonight, my dear?"

She didn't know how, but an overwhelming sense of sorrow washed over her and before she even knew what she was doing, the woman stepped aside to give the crone entrance.

Dried leaves and broken heads of wheat and barley trailed the woman's threadbare robes as she entered the humble home of shepherds. Wordlessly, she took a seat by the dying embers of the hearth and just like at the door, the homeowner did not protest nor stop to ponder as she began to prepare something for her to eat.

"Anything will do," was all the beggar woman hoarsely whispered, throwing in the dried leaves that were still attached to her robes into the dying embers for the hearth.

The mortal woman nodded dumbly and made her way to the other side of the hearth where her son peacefully slept and roused him from his slumber.

"Fetch me some kykeon*!" The mother whispered now that her senses began to come to.

The boy grumbled, but something in the air, a sudden charge of energy- of power, the shepherd boy was up in an instant. With a sideways glance at the pear-shaped crone, he made a beeline towards the pitcher waiting for him at the backdoor without uttering a single complaint.

With her son taking care of refreshments for their uninvited guest, the mother quickly rushed back to the kitchen and served a plate of pita bread and some leftover feta cheese.

"I'm sorry if it's stale," the mother could barely speak as she offered the plate to the beggar woman who accepted it with what one would consider a smile were it not for the spring of tears that began welling up in her meadow green eyes.

"To me this is ambrosia," the beggar crone reached across and squeezed the woman's stupefied hand.

"Oh thank you," the woman smiled unsurely. "Is there anything else I can offer you?"

The beggar woman, despite having praised the meager offering, did not take a single bite. Her chest began to heave and before she could give a straight answer began to sob. An ugly, pitiful sound to hear, so loud and pained it reminded the woman of a wounded she-wolf baying in the night for her cubs and the sharp sound of scythes swinging in the air gathering wheat with every hitch of breath.

"My daughter, has vanished!" the crone finally revealed.

Not knowing what to do, the mortal reached over and tentatively embraced the beggar woman like she were her own child. "There is a village not far from here. Perhaps in the morning I can take you there and we can search-"

"I already searched there," the crone began to sob again, shaking her head to and fro like a pendulum. "She said there was- out in the village, but she- she lied to me." Streams just as fervid as before began to pour almost seamlessly down her now rounded cheeks, but the mortal woman could've sworn they began to freeze as they dripped off her face."Why would she lie to me?"

Not knowing how to answer the stranger, the young mother simply began to hug her all the tighter. "Children don't know how much power they have over our hearts. Maybe there was a misunderstanding-"

"You think I don't know my own daughter?!" The beggar woman's voice became chilly and contrite as she broke free from her embrace.

The air in the room quickly following suit, causing a fresh wave of goosebumps to erupt on the woman's exposed flesh. "I- I never said-"

"You'd be right!" The stranger wailed, but that sound quickly diminished as a new voice entered the small cottage.

Amid the crone's weeping, the mother turned to her son who had returned with a pitcher full of the drink. "Ascalaphus, fetch a glass."

Before her son could run to do just as his mother had asked, the crone reached out and took hold of the pitcher. Without any hesitation, the crone lifted the lip to her mouth and tilted it downward into her waiting maw. Every last drop was chugged down without a single breath taken in between her gulps. So quick and efficient was the crone that there was no doubt to everyone in the home of her thirst.

But even after the Kykeon was consumed, Demeter did not cease her weeping.

"There, there," the mother comforted the crone. "Boy, fetch more for our guest."

"Hey, ma, I don't think we have enough to feed that," Ascalaphus loudly commented to his mother as a cacophony so conflicting, so oppugnant erupted from his wide mouth.

Laughter.

Laughter as unadulterated and biting as the blade of a gladius cut through the air from where the boy stood. He pointed at the crone, his shoulders shaking as the sudden bout of manic giggles overtook him.

"I don't think the whole village could!"

The mother stared in horror at the sudden rigidity that overtook the crone's figure.

The crone stopped her wailing and the form she was in began to melt away in a blinding light, revealing a powerful, raging goddess. The dark robes giving way to a dark green peplos and the veil that once covered her head revealed a wilting crown of leaves.

No longer was she hunched over, but seemed to grow three feet in size before their very eyes. The pitiless green eyes that stared down from her imposing height tore into the son as his laughter quickly subsided into a cry of terror.

"You dare mock a grieving woman, boy?" Demeter's once soft, pleasant voice had become bitter and frigid, the rawness of her voice adding in an element of horror to the mother as she realized the identity of her uninvited guest.

Ascalaphus' eyes grew wide at the roar and flinched at the ferocity behind it. His small body began to tremble as instinct took over his thin legs and initiated a flight response towards the door.

"Lady Demeter!" The mother flung herself in between her and her son. "Mercy! Please! He meant no offense- he's only a boy! He doesn't know any better!"

"He will now!" Demeter roared.

In a single motion like she was casting seeds upon the ground, Demeter's power came upon the boy, engulfing him in a viridescent beam.

The mother began to shriek, howling and flailing as she sprinted to where her son once stood, but in his stead there was now a pile of discarded chiton robes. A noise so abhorrent and anguished erupted from the mother as she rifled through her son's clothes only to behold what had remained of him.

With wide-eyed fear and trembling, the mother lifted up a little green reptile she had coaxed into her hands. "Gods above…" she met the unflinching gaze of the goddess of grain. "You turned him into a newt!"

"He's a lizard."

"He's eleven!" The mother cried with a vehemence that matched Demeter's in every stride. "How dare you- I welcome you into my home, offered you a seat by my hearth-" she began to march towards the mournful, saturnine goddess.

"- And yet you taught your child this sort of disrespect?" Demeter attempted to restrain and control her rage, but the tempest in her eyes could no longer be constrained. "To mock one of his guests-" Demeter clenched her fists in an attempt to stop a fresh wave of tears. "… He broke the law of Xenia- our most sacred law."

"That excuses nothing!" The mother roared and raced after the goddess who had taken her leave. Running in front of Demeter, the mother blocked the goddess' path, and held out her son. "Change him back!"

"You should've raised him better."

"I could say the same about that daughter of yours."

Demeter flinched back as if she'd been slapped. The rage that had once taken over her began to recede as her own heart began to grieve. "I am teaching him the lesson you never did," she whispered in a steady, steely voice.

"As this?! I would rather he be dead than be in this- this wretched form."

The same guise she wore before adorned Demeter once more, wrapping her in dark robes befitting a wandering, hunched crone. With a single look upon heaven in her robes of night, an eagle descended down and landed upon the head of a cane the goddess held in her hand to complete the disguise. "You have my pity, dear."

She slammed the cane into the ground and the eagle leapt into the air, its powerful wings extended out and caught the wind as his terrible talons, sharp and cruel reached out to the lizard in the mother's hands and snatched him away.

The mother screamed as the hawk's claws dug into her hands sharp as knives before they wrapped themselves around her son, leaving six severe gashes in her flesh. Blood gushed unfettered from the the precise cut the talons had created, issuing forth streams of crimson.

"But your son has my mercy."

Persephone stirred in her sleep. With a shaking breath, the goddess slowly rose to an upright position and in an addled state of drowsiness and unfettered anxiousness, she fixed her gaze upon the room around her. After a small second of silence, reality began setting in and her rapid heartbeat began to steady itself as she recognized the dark tenebrous stone walls of her room. Persephone sighed in relief and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as her teeth chattered uncontrollably.

Gazing at the candle she had lit at the side of her bed, Persephone counted the sections that had melted in her time of slumber and released an irritated groan at what she found.

Not even two hours…

Persephone let herself fall back onto the bed in exasperation and laid there for several seconds as she began to grab at the sheets on her bed in an attempt to capture the heat in them, but she had no such luck. It would seem whatever she had seen in her now distant dream had stolen all the warmth from her bones.

I just want to sleep.

After three weeks, she had received only one decent night of sleep, but once again, she never made it past the one exception.

Running a tired hand through her hair, lit up her locks in that soft yellow hue that Hades once likened to pollen and honeycombs. Persephone forced herself to sit back up and get out of bed, but before she rose, she placed a tentative foot on the floor and winced at the sensation of the cold stone biting into her toe.

Still sitting on the edge of her bed, Persephone buried her head in one hand as the other began to grope around the bedside table until it finally grabbed hold of her crown.

In a swift, resolute motion, she placed it on her head and sprang into action despite the lingering sideways glance she made at her bed.

I don't have time to rest.

A/N: Idk I probably should've posted Demeter's section after the Courtroom chapter, but I forgot, so oopsie. Might fix later...

The myth of Ascalabus is a short tale, but it's another highlight to how terrifying Demeter can be, and yes I'm using his name as Ascalaphus b/c it combines two myths surrounding basically the same character.

So the law of Xenia(Xeno means stranger in Greek). I believe I mentioned it earlier(w/o knowing the actual name for it, my bad) about how much of a corner stone hospitality was in Ancient Greek culture. Many examples were shown that throughout other parts of the ancient world about taking care of strangers and the sick and the poor like in Leviticus 19:33 and Matthew 25:31- 46. They weren't the quotes for today's chapter simply because it didn't align with what this chapter ended up becoming.

Now Xenia is the promise that a host will fulfill a traveler's every need: food, water, provide a bed, etc, while the guest promises to return the gesture by being polite and considerate in return- Basically don't be a mooch and don't leave people out in the cold.

If either party was guilty of being a mooch or a rude host, Zeus would personally see to you and(possibly) your whole family's demise since he was the guardian and sole upholder of hospitality.

*Kykeon is a drink mainly composed of wine and grated cheese with possibly barley and other unknown ingredients that was flavored with mint and thyme. It might've contained some psychoactive stuff too, so it would've made one helluva party. A drink of the lower classes like farmers it was used in the Eleusinian Mysteries that centered on Demeter for the rebirth/death ritual every year for when Persephone went down under. This drink appeared in the Odyssey when Circe mixed it in with her potion to turn Odysseus' men into pigs. Some guy on YouTube made a video on how to make it, but judging by his taste test it was no spoonful of sugar.

Sorry that this turned out to be a shortie, but I'm really excited about the next chapter since we'll be reaching a major turning point that will lead to plenty of underworld shenanigans like Pirithous, a wager b/w our two dorks, orpheus...?

Also if we hit either 200 reviews or 100 faves, whichever comes first, I will take a request to include in this fic, or if y'all want a one-shot for something. Don't ask for something I've already mentioned in the previous line. I know everyone wants an orpheus chapter (me too), but don't waste your breath. He'll show up when he shows up.

So, I might finish the Olympus chapter by Spring break, or sooner idk. Sorry my dear readers, but school is coming back and I'm putting the finishing touches on that Meg oneshot which should be out relatively soon. LYG is taking long b/c I'm terrible with pace so that too will finish eventually.

Stay safe out there! And thank you so, so much for all the love and support y'all have given me!