How Lemons came to be
By: Peyton Cavnar
A Illustrated Myth
There was once a young girl named Lemoney. She lived in a place called Ancient Greece, a time when you and I were not even a possibility. Lemoney was a very sour and bitter person who was always downplaying on peoples’ positive personalities. Lemoney thought that whatever she did was not being seen by the Greek gods…but she was mistaken. Every time Lemoney wronged someone, the gods watched and became angry. This is a story of how this girl became a reminder of how we should treat others.
Our story begins while Lemoney was in town buying fruit when a hungry child came up to her. “Could you be so kind as to spare me one cluster of grapes?” she mumbled. Lemoney replied rudely, “Why should I waste my time on one useless orphan?” she bantered. “There are plenty of other people in Greece to assist you with your meaningless begging!” At that, Lemoney shooed the child off and carried on with her shopping. The gods saw, and were disappointed.
Later that day, while at a local wicker store, Lemoney overheard the shopkeeper chatting about her new line of brass weaved baskets. “They are certainly the best,” she declared, “why, Arachne could have weaved them herself!” Lemoney’s ears twitched with delight at this moment shattering opportunity. “I disagree,” Lemoney added, “Arachne is far a better weaver than you…and I am going to tell the whole village that you have offended the goddess.” As these words came out of Lemoney’s mouth, a sour snicker crawled across her face like a spider. It turns out; Lemoney was the one who had offended the gods, not the shopkeeper.
All throughout the evening, Lemony kept on raining on other peoples’ parades. These problems went on for weeks until another situation presented itself.
The next morning when Apollo raised the sun chariot into the sky, Lemoney awoke to find a fisherman beached by the seaside. “Could someone please help me,” he cried, “I fear there will be no supper for my family tonight!” When Lemoney heard this, she trampled out of her beach house with anger. “Is it your intention to wake me up from my nights rest?” she accused. The moment the last word came out of her mouth, a lightning bolt struck the sea and a kraken sized tidal wave rose up out of the dark blue depths. Lemoney shrieked and ran for cover while the distressed fisherman abandoned his boat. The hungry waves charged at the shore like horses ready for battle. It was no other that Poseidon, he had been watching Lemoney, and felt that he needed to give her a sign of disapproval. Lemoney however, dismissed the thought of the tidal wave and slunk back into her beach house.
Up on Olympus, Zeus, Poseidon, and Demeter discussed the content of the situation. Finally, after many hours of thundering voices, these three immortal beings decided to send Demeter to give Lemoney her last chance.
The following evening, Lemoney was once again at the beach relishing her loneliness, when an eye piercing ball of light appeared out of nowhere! Then suddenly, the goddess Demeter emerged from the light source and glided onto the sand. Demeter wore no cosmetics, which only enhanced her natural beauty and ageless look. “Lemoney!” Demeter puffed. Lemoney’s eyes were glazed over in shock as the goddess approached her daringly. “You have brought shame and punishment upon yourself!” Demeter emphasized. Lemoney came to when a breeze of cool ocean air tickled her face. Demeter then gave Lemoney a choice, she could go work for and live in a home for the sickly, or suffer the consequences.
Of course Lemoney refused Demeter’s offer disgustedly. And because of this, Demeter replied frankly. “Well then,” she bellowed, “I have no choice than to give you what you deserve!” At that moment, Demeter called upon the roots of surrounding plants to hold and restrain Lemoney. Demeter strode over to the writhing girl, and held her hand up to Lemoney’s heart. She then performed a magic spell, and extracted all of Lemoney’s sourness out of her and placed it in a seed. This procedure did not hurt Lemoney, but since she had no kindness in her heart…there was nothing left of her, so she turned into soil. Demeter was surprised at what had happened to Lemoney, thinking that there was something good and just inside of the girl. Nevertheless, Demeter did her job and placed the seed of sourness into the patch of soil that was once Lemoney. Then, the rain and sun shined and poured over the seed until a peculiar tree grew before Demeter’s eyes and sprouted a yellow fruit. This fruit is what we now call a lemon. All who tasted the lemon were reminded of Lemoney, and that you shouldn’t treat others poorly.
Up to this day, we are reminded of how we shouldn’t treat others by the sourness of the lemon fruit that matched a foolish girl’s personality. So, whenever you see a lemon, use one in a desert, or even squeeze one in your tea…you should think back to the last time you treated someone harshly. Send that person a silent sorry, they might not hear you… but the gods will. And if you’re lucky there might not be one more lemon in the world by the time you apologize.