But other women have gone into Hades. Demeter braved the underworld for her daughter Persephone, and held open the door for Aphrodite to retrieve Adonis. Persephone in turn prevailed upon the grey king to send Eurydice home with Orpheus. The story has it that Orpheus failed at the last, but: was it meant that he should? Was it happenstance, or some deeper game of gods? Eurydice was killed by a serpent while fleeing lustful Aristaeus, who in turn was the father of Actaeon and Macris. Actaeon was devoured by hounds, but Macris became the nurse of the infant Dionysus, who was born when the heart of his first, murdered life as Zagreus—also a serpent—was placed within his mother. Dionysus was in turn the son of Apollo, who cast down a serpent to learn prophecy, and his wild worshippers devoured Orpheus when the lyrist returned without Eurydice from the underworld. The head of Orpheus still sang as it passed down the river, and that song is the path by which Persephone enters the mortal world again each year, and thus Demeter’s end is served. Death is springtime and the gods are cyclical, like wheat. They repeat and they return and they rig the game. Whose game do I play now, and what shall be my reward if I should win?