The wealthy one, hospitable Lord Hades, receiver of many and his dread bride Persephone. 

It’s the winter solstice which means Persephone is presiding over her role as Queen of the Underworld and Demeter is about to make it everyone’s problem. 

It’s very “American Gothic” by way of Greek Mythology. 

Εἰκοστή/ Εἰκὰς/ Εἰκοσάδες, XX day
From today’s sunset: twentieth day of Anthesterion.
ΜΙΚΡΑ ΜΥΣΤΗΡΙΑ - I day of the LESSER ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES
Sacred Εἰκὰς: the twentieth of each month is always sacred to Apollo and Athena.

“Every year two mystery cults are celebrated in honor of Demeter and Kore, the Lesser and the Great (Mysteries). The Lesser take the form of a purification and attainment of a state of purity, preliminary to the Great Mysteries.” Schol. Pluto 845f

“The Great Mysteries were in honor of Demeter, the Lesser in honor of Her Daughter Persephone.” Schol. Pluto 846

***
Moreover, “On the great twentieth, in full day, a wise man should be born. Such a one is very sound-witted.”
“He (Hesiod) calls it ‘great’ because it contains most of the days of the month; therefore all the day is suitable for birth, or he (Hesiod) has called it 'great’, as if it were completing great undertakings. The one who is generated in this day is very virtuous and learned.”
Hesiod and scholia, Erga, 792

(Terracotta figure of Persephone standing,Her right hand raised and holding a pomegranate. From Tanagra, 270 BCE. Now in the British Museum…)

mythologyofthepoetandthemuse:

Goddess Hecate is being perceived nowadays as primary a goddess of magic with apotropaic characteristics, still the ancient sources reveal an original different image of the goddess. In the greek antiquity she was the revered Kore, the companion of Persephone and Demeter, the only one along with the all seeing Helios (the sun) to witness the abduction of Persephone from Hades, in the field where the girls gathered flowers, Persephone was swallowed by the earth…It was Hecate that informed mother Demeter of the abduction of Persephone. In the artifacts depicting the eleusinian worship, Hecate is present, constant company of the holy duet of the mysteries. Also in Samothrace, the two elemental dwarfs, those Great Gods, tiny and enormous at the same time, Cabiri, devoted their sacred mysteries to no other deities than Demeter, Persephone and Hecate, perhaps the three aspects of the moon, the three ages of the woman, as the mountain Saos (the moon) protected the mystics during their initiation and rituals.

mythologyofthepoetandthemuse:

   Proclus, the neoplatonic philosopher, although subsequent and therefore not present in the Eleusinian Mysteries, mentions that the officiator of the mysteries used the invocation cry “Ύε κύε!” to gather the  protection and power of both the heavens and earth, or else of both the male and female aspects of divinity.“Ύε” may possibly be translated as “You may rain” and  “κύε” as “You may incubate”, a ritual reminding us the sexual intercourse and also the fourth stage of the seven operations of alchemy, Conjunction. Mentally this state of being is close to what is called the true self, the union of the male and female sides of our personalities into a more intuitive yet authentic state of consciousness.