The overwhelming sense of dread I felt while parenting my daughters was no passing affliction. For years motherhood felt like a prison. Because I love them, the realization that I have let them down again and again is too much to bear. If I had known then what I know now I would not have chosen motherhood and its unbearable love.

—CECILY ROSS, CHATELAINE, APRIL 2007

Demeter held her dear child in her arms

When, suddenly, her heart suspected treachery

And she trembled terribly.

She stopped hugging her and at once asked her:

“My child, tell me, you did not,

did you, eat any food while you were below?…”

Then the very beautiful Persephone faced her and said:

“Mother, I shall tell you the whole truth…”

—“song of demeter,” the homeric hymns