Ascalaphus- Greek SpiritSpirit

The Pomegranate Witness

Ovid makes Ascalaphus the son of Acheron and the nymph Orphne; Apollodorus names Gorgyra as his mother instead. He dwelt in the shadowed gardens of Hades where the pomegranate trees grew. When Persephone plucked seeds from a pomegranate and placed them on her tongue, Ascalaphus was watching. He raised his voice and declared what he had seen. By the laws of the dead, anyone who ate in the underworld was bound to remain. Zeus brokered the compromise: Persephone would dwell below for a portion of each year and return above for the rest.

Punishment and Transformation

Demeter's wrath fell swiftly on the spirit who had bound her daughter to the dark. In Apollodorus's telling, she crushed Ascalaphus beneath a massive stone, where he lay pinned until Heracles descended to capture Cerberus and rolled the boulder away. Demeter then transformed him into a screech-owl.

Ovid tells a different version. Persephone herself dashes water from the river Phlegethon into the informer's face. His face stretches into a beak and his eyes swell to enormous discs. He shrinks into the flat-faced owl that haunts ruins and tombs, the betraying voice turned to a shriek.