She pleaded with the
ferryman. To no avail. He listened not to her pleas. He carried
only passengers from the portal to deep within. None carried he
to the portal.
She wandered though Hades with sad mien, searching for a path
to the other side. She found none.
While in her search, she met the shades of the departed. On one
such meeting she heard the name, Orpheus.
Suddenly her eyes widened. Orpheus! The only living man to
enter Hades without the attendant ferryman!
Slowly, from tormented souls, from the ferryman, even from
Pluto himself, she gathered details of that entry. How he came,
singing his songs, and melted even the heart of Pluto.
Ah, how did he enter? What secret way, unknown to any other,
had led him into this Stygian realm?
The heights of Taenarus! Earthly legends told of a path, a path
of unknown origin. Through terrain unlike any known to man it
twisted its uncertain way. Boulders coughed from deep within the
earth's core blocked its passage. Edged stones marred its
surface. And the path winds into a cave, whose very mouth is
enshrouded in darkness.
From its mouth sulfurous fumes rise, and dark clouds of noxious
gases besmirch the sky. Bones of man and beast lie scattered
midst pools of murky water.
It is thought that this fissure penetrates the very bowels of
earth. Even into the domain of Pluto, the fearsome kingdom of
Hades.
Through this portal creatures of the afterworld are unleashed
on earth's dwellers.
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