Since the
clause about food from the underworld is boilerplate, it’s something that most
of the gods know about, and Core is no different. Many attribute her fasting
upon arrival simply to sorrow over missing her mother, but this doesn’t exclude
the idea that she knew that she could not eat of this food. Hades plied her
with food the entire time she was there, as he understood this to be the case.
The entire
game has been about getting her to eat underworld food. If she eats, Hades
wins. If she doesn’t, Demeter wins, and, as Demeter’s daughter, Core would know
this. She couldn’t help but know this, especially as it is the standard.
This, of
course, begs the question, why did she eat the seeds?
Simple, she
wants to upgrade.
Demeter is
adamant that she will starve out humanity unless she gets her daughter back.
Core knows how much her mother loves her, and the math isn’t hard that no one
side is going to win this entirely, unless it’s Core.
By eating
the seeds, she irrevocably becomes part of the underworld. This cannot be
changed. It can be mitigated, however. Because Demeter is adamant, Core must
become a timeshare. Half the year she is on earth with her mother, and half the
year she is with Hades as his wife. Had Core consented to marry Hades in the
beginning, she likely would have only assumed this new aspect as queen of the
underworld. If she had not eaten the seeds, she would have gone back to being a
daughter of Demeter, a goddess of agriculture.
By taking the seeds, she must, of
necessity in order to attempt to satisfy both parties, be both. She remains the
daughter of Demeter, holding power over agriculture and the earth, and is the
wife of Hades, the queen of the underworld, Persephone.
She now has dominion over the world
of the living and the land of the dead.
Core, through this compromise, has
become one of the most powerful goddesses in the Greek pantheon.