Tanglewood Tales
47 pages • 1-hour read
Nathaniel HawthorneTanglewood Tales
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Stories 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence and death.
Story 5 Summary: “The Pomegranate Seeds”
Ceres, the goddess of motherly love and agriculture, lives with her daughter, Proserpina (known as Persephone in the Greek tradition). One day, Ceres tells Proserpina that she must leave to ripen the crops around the world. She tells her daughter to play with the sea nymphs by the beach, as they’ll keep her safe, but warns her against going into the nearby meadow. Proserpina agrees, and Ceres leaves. At first, she plays with the friendly nymphs, but then decides to go to the meadow to fill her apron with flowers. She stumbles upon an incredible flowering shrub with beautiful blooms and becomes determined to plant it in her mother’s garden. She pulls it up by the roots and is surprised to see a gaping hole where the plant had been. Out of the hole ride four black horses pulling a “richly dressed” man in a chariot. Terrified, Proserpina calls for her mother, but the man grabs her and hauls her away.
He explains that he’s Pluto (known as Hades in the Greek tradition), the king of diamonds and other precious stones, and he’s taking her to live with him in his underground palace. Despite Proserpina’s resistance, Pluto guides the chariot further and further, happier that it’s now dusk, since he hates sunlight. Proserpina screams for her mother as the chariot flies along. Finally, the two arrive at Pluto’s home, which is guarded by his monstrous, three-headed dog, Cerberus. Proserpina notices the River Lethe, and Pluto encourages her to drink from it, since its water makes people forget. If she forgets her mother, she can live without pain. Proserpina refuses and vows never to forget her mother. Pluto urges Proserpina to eat his feast and accept her new life, but she rejects this idea, asking to go back to her mother.
The author adds that in myths, the characters who eat magical food in strange places are always stuck there afterward, foreshadowing Proserpina’s upcoming dilemma.
Meanwhile, Ceres is working with plants when she hears her daughter’s last scream. She returns home, asking the sea nymphs about her daughter and following the clues to the poisonous flower, which she recognizes as having a strange magic. She asks all the local farmers and even the nature spirits and creatures where her daughter has gone, but no one can help her. On the 10th day of her search, she finds a strange, miserable woman in a cave with the head of a dog and a wreath of snakes. Her name is Hecate.
Because Ceres is also miserable, the reclusive Hecate decides to speak to her. She reveals that she heard Ceres’s daughter screaming on a chariot heading east, and tells Ceres to give up hope and remain with her in the cave, where they can be miserable together. Ceres begs for Hecate’s help, and she reluctantly agrees. Ceres realizes that Phoebus, the happy god of light and music, should know where her daughter is. They find the handsome god in the sunlight with his lyre. Phoebus merrily tells Ceres that her daughter was stolen by King Pluto and will have a wealthy life in his palace of precious stones. Distraught, Ceres begs for help, but Phoebus can’t access the underworld because of his sunlight.
Overcome with grief, Ceres ages quickly. Whenever she sees other children playing, she thinks of her daughter. Despite the challenges, she continues to search for Proserpina, her torch still burning. She looks for other entrances to Pluto’s dominions since she’ll never pass Cerberus. Meanwhile, she cares for a baby named Demophoon, nursing him to health. She has the power to grant him immortality, but his mother interrupts her care, ruining it and making him a regular child. Ceres leaves them, saddened again and missing her own child. She decides to stop allowing any plants to grow while her daughter is missing, and the world is plunged into famine.
Meanwhile, in the underworld, Proserpina has survived six months despite eating nothing that Pluto gives her. She begs to return to Earth and her mother, but he refuses. Pluto wants to be loved and needs Proserpina’s company. Being a sweet girl, she admits that she likes him a bit and reveals that she enjoyed the natural foods her mother gave her, not the strange sweets he has. He offers her a pomegranate, the last one from the famine-stricken world, and she eats it.
Seeing the chaos of the famine, wise Quicksilver journeys to King Pluto, asking him to return Proserpina so that the world can grow food again. Pluto sadly agrees, and Proserpina, feeling bad for Pluto, leaves with Quicksilver. Proserpina joyfully reunites with her mother, whose torch finally flickers and goes out, as her quest is complete. Proserpina reveals that she ate six pomegranate seeds, and her mother laments that each seed represents one month that she must spend in the underworld with Pluto every year. Proserpina assures her mother that King Pluto isn’t so bad, and that she can ease his loneliness for those six months of the year and live happily with her mother for the other six months.
Story 6 Summary: “The Golden Fleece”
When Jason is just a baby, he’s sent away to live in a cave. A wicked man named Pelias stole the kingdom of Jason’s father, King Jason of Iolchos, and Pelias wants to kill Jason because he’s the rightful heir to the throne. Chiron, a renowned teacher who is also a centaur, or half-man and half-horse, raises Jason. Chiron teaches him all subjects, from music and medicine to fighting, and helps Jason become a talented and strong young man. Learning that he’s the heir to Iolchos, Jason leaves Chiron’s care, determined to regain his family’s throne. He sets off to Iolchos, drawing attention because he wears a leopard skin cloak and golden-stringed sandals and carries two spears.
On his journey, he comes across a gushing river that has flooded its banks. Drowned sheep and cows float past, and Jason worries about how to cross this dangerous water. Suddenly, a strange elderly woman appears at his side. She holds a pomegranate in one hand and has a peacock on her shoulder. The woman asks him where he’s going and if he can carry her across the river. Jason tells her his story and is doubtful he can help her, as he thinks they’ll both drown. She asks him again, telling him he can’t be a king if he can’t help an “old woman,” since kings must serve their people. Feeling guilty, he agrees to help her. Taking her on his back, Jason begins to cross the ice-cold river. A downed tree rushes past them, and Jason loses his footing—and one of his precious sandals. The woman reveals that Speaking Oak has been talking about Jason. When they’re safely on the other side, she wishes him well, and he continues down the path, now wearing only one shoe.
Jason arrives at a mountainside town where the locals are celebrating a holiday. A man tells him that he’s in the kingdom of Iolchos and that King Pelias will soon sacrifice a black bull to Neptune. He’s amazed to see Jason’s one sandal and spreads the word about him. Jason doesn’t understand that the locals have heard a prophecy from the Speaking Oak of Dodona that a one-sandaled man would come to unseat their king and claim the throne.
Jason attends the sacrifice, and the people are amazed when they see him. Annoyed at this distraction to his ceremony, King Pelias confronts him for the disruption and is aghast to see his bare foot, since he has lived in fear that this prophecy might come true. King Pelias interrogates Jason, asking him what he would do to an enemy. Jason says he would send him to find the Golden Fleece, a notoriously impossible task involving a strange ocean voyage. The golden fleece is from a ram that fled from Boeotia, a region of Greece, to a faraway island. King Pelias happily sends him on this quest, to which Jason agrees as long as King Pelias gives up his crown and throne if the mission succeeds.
Having accepted the challenge, Jason travels to Dodona to ask the Speaking Oak for advice. The oak tells him to seek out Argus the shipbuilder and ask for a ship with 50 oars. He listens to a branch of the tree as well, cutting it off for the galley of his ship. He carves it beautifully and attaches it to his vessel. The wood speaks to him, saying it will give him advice. Its first message is to gather the heroes of Greece. Jason sends messengers to all the Greek towns and finds 49 brave young men who agree to row him to the end of the Earth and help him fulfill his quest. These include heroes like Theseus, Hercules, Castor and Pollux, Atalanta, and many more. Together, they’re called the Argonauts.
As Orpheus plays his harp, the boat sails from the harbor at Iolchos, with the crowd cheering them on and King Pelias watching with hatred. They first arrive at an island where they’re hosted by a kind king. To repay him, they slay the giants that have been terrorizing the townspeople. Next, they meet King Phineas, a lonely man who is harassed by evil harpies, or woman-vultures. The sailors lure the harpies and then chase them away so that King Phineas can live in peace. The next danger is birds shooting their feathers at them. The warriors make sounds on their shields, frightening the birds away.
Jason soon meets two handsome princes who were raised in Colchis, where the golden fleece is located. They warn him that it hangs on a tree that is guarded by a fearsome dragon. Nevertheless, Jason and his friends embrace their mission and refuse to turn back. Jason arrives in Colchis, where King Aetes greets him. Jason is suspicious of this mean king who says he can try to get the fleece only after taming two mechanical bulls that breathe fire and using them to pull a plow to plant dragon’s teeth. Jason has no choice but to agree. The king’s daughter, the enchantress Medea, approaches Jason, offering to help him. She gives him an ointment to protect him from burns when he approaches the bulls’ flames.
Jason confronts the bulls the next day, boldly managing them and taking them by the horns. He then uses the plow and sows the seeds. Out of the ground spring angry warriors who want to attack Jason. Medea advises Jason to throw a stone among the soldiers. The rock hits their helmets, confusing them and causing them to attack each other instead of Jason. Soon, they’re all dead. He asks the king to allow him to pursue the golden fleece, but King Aetes is furious at Jason’s survival and refuses. Jason is distraught at the king’s broken promise. Medea reveals that her father will burn Jason’s ship and execute him and his friends the next day. She promises to help him that night.
The two meet before midnight, and Medea leads Jason to the Grove of Mars, where the beautiful golden fleece hangs on a tree, looking as bright as the sun. The fierce dragon is wrapped around the tree. Jason sees it lunge at an antelope and eat it instantly. Being a witch, Medea enjoys Jason’s fear and uncertainty, but wants to help him. As the dragon approaches them, she tosses a potion down its throat, putting it to sleep. Jason quickly takes the golden fleece and rushes from the garden. Outside, he notices the magical elderly woman and her peacock cheering him on. He runs with the fleece and leaps aboard his ship, where his companions are waiting, oars up and ready to paddle. Orpheus strikes his harp, and Jason and his companions set sail for home, triumphant.
Stories 5-6 Analysis
The final tales provide more examples of the hard-working hero. Ceres’s tireless and creative search to find her daughter, Proserpina, further develops the theme of Achieving One’s Destiny Through Initiative and Hard Work. Ceres’s loving search for her daughter is exhausting, but she never gives up, “resolving never to come back until Proserpina [is] discovered” (71). Her ever-burning torch, which she carries with her to light the way, represents her undying love for her daughter: “[I]t burned dimly through the day, and, at night, was as bright as ever, and never was extinguished by the rain or wind, in all the weary days and nights while Ceres was seeking for Proserpina” (71). The text highlights Ceres’s determination in her conversation with Hecate, as she rejects the woman’s persuasive offers of companionship and shared misery in her cave dwelling. Rather than giving in, Ceres promises to search the world for her daughter, telling Hecate that “she would wander about the earth in quest of the entrance to King Pluto’s dominions” (75).
By rejecting Hecate’s hopelessness and lethargy and continuing her quest, Ceres chooses to work toward reuniting with her daughter, no matter how dangerous or uncertain the journey. Her strategic decision to neglect the world’s crops shows both her desperation and her initiative to do everything in her power to find Proserpina, even if it means creating a disaster. Ultimately, she achieves her goal, making her a heroic figure and a representative of motherly love. However, she causes a famine and thus is responsible for widespread suffering, which complicates her heroism. Quicksilver’s plea to Pluto to release Proserpina (and thereby end the famine) makes his heroism more accessible.
Likewise, Jason is a hard-working hero who dedicates himself to his goal of unseating the wicked King Pelias and taking back his family’s throne in Iolchos. Rather than live in safety with Chiron and his other pupils, Jason embraces the challenge of achieving his own destiny as the rightful heir to the throne. Along his journey, Jason faces many challenges, such as fighting beasts, building a ship, and seeking advice from a wise tree. His willingness to do all this to labor toward his kingship shows that hard work is a hero’s quality. This connects to the theme of Compassion and Responsibility as Heroic Qualities.
These traits are especially clear in Jason as he travels to Iolchos and then to Colchis. For instance, when Jason encounters an elderly woman trying to cross a river, he feels a sense of responsibility to help her. She encourages this feeling, noting that if he neglects his duty to her, he can’t be a good king to his people: “[U]nless you will help an old woman at her need, you ought not to be a king. What are kings made for, save to succor the feeble and distressed?” (86). Jason’s compassion for the woman motivates him to help her, since he “could never forgive himself” (87) if she drowned in the river. This scene makes it clear that Jason is fit for the throne because of his sense of obligation and care for the woman, and demonstrates his willingness to earn people’s respect by overcoming challenges.
In addition, Jason’s good deeds expand the theme of Using Violence for Moral Good. When King Pelias, the wicked and illegitimate king, confronts him, Jason doesn’t threaten him with violence, but simply answers his questions with honesty and makes a deal with him. Jason’s reluctance to use violence against other people reveals his noble nature. While he’s a skilled warrior, he fights only to protect others. For instance, he and his companions fight off monstrous giants that have been killing the townsfolk on an island: “Jason and his friends went boldly to meet them, slew a great many, and made the rest take to their heels” (95). In addition, he asks his companions to chase away the evil harpies that had been tormenting King Phineas, allowing the elderly blind man to live in peace again. Jason’s acts show his desire to use his strength and abilities to help others, earning him their gratitude and respect and revealing his strong moral code.
In sharp contrast to Jason’s restrained approach, King Aetes embraces violence as a way to conquer others and maintain power. When Jason respectfully asks him for a chance to take the golden fleece, Aetes schemes for his bulls to kill Jason. His anger at their failure to do so shows his cruel personality. Medea reveals that her sadistic father still plans to end Jason’s life: “Unless you set sail from Colchis before to-morrow’s sunrise, the king means to burn your fifty-oared galley, and put yourself and your forty-nine brave comrades to the sword” (103). Aetes’s violent leadership makes him a foil for Jason’s character, as Jason uses violence to protect others rather than to serve his own ambitions.
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