#Myth Of Persephone

[desperatefrenchwriter]

GOD if i have to see one more video like “X modern mythology media makes the *original* myth worse!!!” i’m going to throttle someone. like i’m sorry but first of all, there’s NO “original” myth. There are hundreds of different versions of them according to the message the people who worshipped those gods / beings needed to carry over. Yes, sometimes, Demeter is an overprotective mother who doesn’t want to let go of a daughter she sees as a younger, free-er version of herself. Sometimes, Demeter is a desperate mother whose daughter has been ripped from her because of the decisions of men and she needs to set fire to the world to get her back. Sometimes Hades is a jerk who’s seen a girl he likes and decided to take her for himself. Sometimes it’s a misunderstanding meaning to play on greek wedding traditions of “fake kidnapping”.

Myths aren’t history. They didn’t happen One Way. They’re meant to serve a narrative, and that doesn’t mean one version is better than the other or more meaningful. Lore Olympus is a valid take on the myth of Persephone. So is Punderworld, so is that lovely little comic i see around tumblr sometimes about Demeter’s grief. In some ancient versions, Persephone isn’t even Demeter’s daughter, she’s a Daughter of the Styx and has always been Hades’ partner.

It’s okay if you don’t like one interpretation of a myth you see in modern media. It starts getting immature and ignorant when you act like *you* hold the knowledge of the Only Valid Version. Some version have persephone assaulted by Hades, because it held meaning for the people who told it. Some versions have her willingly go to the underworld. Who are *you* to say which version is Right? Who are you to tell people they can’t tell stories that mean something to them?

#anyway that's me yelling #i used to be like that a bit but i'd like to think i evolved #myth of persephone #Greek Mythology #lore olympus

[thaliajoy-blog]

The Persephone modern retelling & why I get it (unprompted mini essay at 8 am)

So there are people who don't like retelling of greek myths, especially the most recent trend of "feminist retellings" that have sprung up these past years with works like Madeline Miller's Circe and Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus. And there are some very understandable critiques of such works. The Persephone & Hades retellings are quite something in that regard ; it's been criticized for making a story about a girl being kidnapped & a grieving mother looking for her all over the earth into the story of a forbidden romance between complete opposites where the grieving mother becomes a "bitchy" helicopter parent and one of the main obstacles to the romance. So, was that kind of retelling, a sort of re-appropriation of the myth, a messy mistake ? Is it misogynistic ? Is it simply tasteless & bad ?

Well, the way I look at it, Persephone is kidnapped in the original myth, but never really escape the man who took her. She is forever bound to him as his wife, and must go to him each year for a certain amount of time. She goes back to her mother in the end but we know she's still "his". In a sense, Persephone is trapped in the paradoxical role of child (to Demeter, to whom she's "Kore", the maiden, and under whose protection she is originally), and wife (to Hades, a man she didn't choose). It's kind of an incomfortable in-between. So essentially...this myth doesn't have a happy ending, and Persephone is largely without agency, she is tricked at every turn. The people with real agency are Demeter and Hades, and the other gods involved in the quarrel. And in the end, Demeter loses something and Hades gains something. In short, women aren't really winning in this myth. They can only snatch a compromise from the people in power (Zeus & Hades, really), and that compromise is not a compensation at all for the wrongs done to them. There is a real power to the original myth, a solidarity between women, like with Hecate helping Demeter, but all that grief has quite the frustrating ending.

So, I guess that's how Hades turns into a boyfriend/lover rather than being a kidnapper who gets what he wanted in the end. The modern retellings need to spin things away from that pretty tragic ending, and give Persephone a happy ending. They need to refocus Persephone as well & give her more agency in what is happening. And they do that in part by tapping in the subtext of the story - the story of a girl who becomes a woman, who "eats the pomegranate" and divides her attention between her family and her lover. The story of a girl who "leaves the nest" and falls for/dates someone her parents disapprove of, leading to pretty memorable quarrels. It becomes a story of adolescent rebellion, of teenage girlhood. So like, this story is being reappropriated by people who express through it the experience of teenage girls, or of young women. And I get that, and that's why I don't really find this reframing misogynistic, even if Hades gets arguably white washed and Demeter loses her star role in favor of a much less flattering one - the parent. Since Persephone is the center, Demeter is the authority, and through the teenage lens, she's kind of guaranteed to be portrayed as overbearing and essentially an obstacle, if not an antagonist. Persephone can't really "emancipate" herself from Hades, or the myth is broken if she does, so in order to give her some agency she must emancipate herself from the other thing that defines her - girlhood, her role as "Kore", and her mother's protection. This twist on the myth kind of wants to cut the ties with childhood for good, and make Persephone embrace her role as the "Queen of the Underworld" a bit more, which gives her more importance and in some ways, more autonomy (especially since Hades is no longer an antagonist).

#myth of persephone #meta #thoughts on retellings #I need to get this out somewhere #it's one of my favorite myths and I generally like the retellings #there are good and bad ways to go about this is what I really think

[seagull-astrology]

C655 Prosperina's warning for Greta Thunberg

This is a general sunrise chart for Greta the spokes girl from Sweden on climate change. Her rising is 08 Aquarius 34 with an appropriate midheaven of Sagittarius for her travels. Neptune that rules the 12th is found there, showing how the Viking spirit of travelling via boat to bring about the conquest of her message appeals to her. She has a strong stellium in the 11th house of public speaking…

View On WordPress

#Aquarius 09 #Aquarius Rising #Asteroid Prosperina #Bucket With A Saturn Handle #Myth Of Persephone #Preponderance in Aquarius #Stellium In 11th House

[vetyr]

Hades and Persephone

Recent commission! The details on this one were crazy fun to paint, I spent a lot of time on it but I'm really happy with the result :)

If you'd like to make an inquiry or get more information about commissions, feel free to email [email protected].

#artists on tumblr #greek myth #greek mythology #classics #hades #persephone #commission #illustration #digital art

[tylermileslockett]

"Chthonic Ascent" (# in my Orpheus and Eurydice series), illustrated by me,

#greekmythology #greekgods #pjo #mythology #classics #classicscommunity #myths #ancientgreece #Orpheus #Hades #persephone

[gigizetz]

Classicstober day 7: Persephone

#think I had a little too much fun drawing her #that's the spring/summer version of her btw #I picture her having a slightly different design during winter/fall #digital art #art #character art #greek myths #persephone #persephone fanart #greek gods #classicstober23

[each-uisge-enthusiast]

the modern villainisation of demeter will never cease to enrage me bc it wasn’t ENOUGH to just take a story of a girl being torn from her home from everyone who loved her and dragged away to be forced into marriage and twist and corrupt it until it was a romance story about female empowerment that wasn’t ENOUGH they HAD to take the original hero of the story the mother who went to every length to find her daughter again to bring her home and demonise her character until she was this horrific overbearing unloving mother. overprotective controlling without love. they turn the story of her grief at her YOUNG daughter being torn from her without her knowledge into the story of a misunderstood bad boy and a horrible cruel mother who won’t give him a chance and i really find it sickening. it’s ironic, that the ever misogynist age of hellenistic greece, has a better grasp of how disgusting and horrifying this situation was that a modern, self proclaimed ‘feminist’ era.

#ovids version made me cry #imagine you’re just a nymph watching your friend torn away from you by the literal king of the dead #and despite knowing how powerless you are against him you still choose to stand up to him #to stand up for your friend #imagine being so torn apart by the grief of losing her you weep yourself to death #imagine turning that story into a good girl/bad boy romance #weird #anyway #the story of persephone is personal to me #bc i wish my mother loved me like that #demeter was a good mother #you all suck for portraying her as anything less #idc if you disagree #‘oh myth is open to interpretation and reinterpretation’ #okay. well i don’t care. #there’s such thing as bad interpretations #making demeter the villain is a bad one #making hades a misunderstood protagonist is also a bad one

[yournextbimbogf]

“Just take out all your stress on me kay?” Were the last words you said before you were in this position.

So here you were, bending in ungodly ways, panting, your eyes rolling back and drool slipping out of your lips. He strikes your ass yet again as he’s pounding you into oblivion.

“Fuckin’ ugh baby you feel so good, thank you again for letting me have at it with this pussy. How’d you know i was all stressed?” he groans out in pleasure. Your ass is now sore and thighs are tingling. The amount of creampies he gave you definitely made you fuzzy all over.

“Open up” he barks out. He puts his thick thumb into your mouth and lets you suck on it, of course he’s still pounding you almost balls deep. It was hypnotizing the way his cock goes in and out of your cream-filled pussy. Before this he had you on your knees playing with his balls and sucking his hung cock. He grabs you by your skull and pushes your head further into his cock as he watches you gag and choke on him, fat tears are rolling down your face and your lips are all swollen. Don’t worry though. He praises you the whole way so he doesn’t seem half as rude.

After sex he definitely lets you play and feed treats to Cerberus 🖤!

#tumblr fyp #fypツ #smut #fanfiction #yournextbimbogfwriting #blurb #rough kink #fiction #hades! Miguel #greek mythology #greek myth au #greek mytholagy! au #hades and persephone #hades x persephone #persephone! reader #please consider reblogging #spiderman 2099 #miguel ohara #miguel o’hara smut #miguel o’hara x reader #reblogging is appreciated #across the spiderverse #the avengers #Miguel blurb #hades! miguel blurb

[yvain]

Louise Glück, excerpt from “A Myth of Innocence,” in Averno

#louise glück #poetry #death and the maiden #hades and persephone #classics #averno #a myth of innocence #quotes #*

[theoihalioistuff]

Do you have any information on misconceptions about Hades & Persephone? I'm not well read but all the portrayals of them as a #goals power couple doesn't seem quite right to me (also am I losing my mind or did Persephone get girlbossified?) I could be totally wrong of course! There's a lot to learn in the world. Hope your day is good ^-^

Hi Anon! Sorry for taking so long to reply, (I'm in the middle of exam season and have tons of work to do T~T)

There's a lot to unpack here, as this is basically the most popular greek myth nowadays and one of the most affected by misinformation and people spreading their headcannons as facts. Broadly, in every surviving account their marriage is a forced abduction, where Persephone is very much unwilling. For example in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (our earliest and most complete source): she cries out in fear for help as she's seized and dragged away under the earth "So he, that Son of Cronos, of many names, who is Ruler of Many and Host of Many, was bearing her away by leave of Zeus on his immortal chariot — his own brother’s child and all unwilling", is mournful and despondent until she gladdens at the news of being brought back to the surface and reunited with her mother, is "grieved to tell the tale" of her abduction, and finally is not so much tricked as force-fed the pommegranate "I sprang up at once for joy; but he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will."

On the other hand, it's true that their marriage is one of the few where they are presented as standing on equal footing and ruling jointly (compared to, for example, Zeus and Hera, where she's generally very much subordinate to him), to the point where Persephone frequently eclipses her husband as sovereign in myth (sending forth the dead in the Odyssey, recieving Herakles when he goes to the underworld, permitting the return of Sisyphos and Alkestis, etc.) and it's widely theorised that Persephone predates Hades in her role as ruler of the underworld. Also in several parts of Magna Graecia their marriage seems to have displaced Zeus and Hera's as the ideal model in cult.

I get the appeal many feel for the myth (though also frankly sometimes get a bit tired of it), but regarding original sources I would certainly hesitate to call a kidnapping and a forced marriage a #goals power couple. As for Persephone getting "girlbossified", I completely agree and find it really disappointing how in most so called "feminist retellings" the only sort of shallow "empowerment" she gets is "fiercely stricking a pose and looking cunty in black next to her bad-boy misunderstood sweetie of a goth/millionaire fifty-shades-of-grey husband."

All that aside, for a great retelling that in my opinion successfully presents Hades and Persephone as a compelling love story and skillfully avoids the pitfalls where most other retellings fall short, I can't recommend @a-gnosis comics enough. They're really well researched, original, beautifully drawn and peopled with actually well written characters (non-perfect, endearing, interesting, etc.) instead of 2D caricatures. She balances a delightful romance without ignoring and addressing the beats of the original myth (as much as possible anyway, no easy feat in my opinion), and all her comics are free to read on her tumblr, deviantart and comicsfury. I really recommend them to anyone interested!

#greek mythology #greek myths #greek gods #tagamemnon #hellenic deities #hades #persephone #ask

[medusaspeach]

Classicstober Day 23: Orpheus 💀

Orpheus journeys down to Hades to bring back his lost love. 💔 Plus a little King and Queen of the Underworld cameo.

@classicstober

#classicstober23 #classicstober #orpheus #greek myth art #sketch #medusa's peach #with a little hades and persephone

[cityoftheangelllls]

Here it is: my completed first Greek mythology series!

Which one is your favorite?

Commissions info

#my art #angie’s scribbles #greek mythology #greek gods #greek goddesses #greek myth #greek myths #ancient greece #greek mythology art #greek mythology fanart #zeus #hera #poseidon #hades #aphrodite #athena #apollo #artemis #persephone #demeter #dionysus #hephaestus #ares #hermes #hestia #mythology

[ekbelsher]

Hades and Persephone, current era 🖤 

#hades and persephone #hades #persephone #greek mythology #greek gods #greek goddesses #greek myths #valentine's day #god of the underworld #fantasy illustration #height difference #hades x persephone

[gigizetz]

Ello! I was on a spree of animatic watching last night and I couldn’t help but absolutely adore your “Dangerous” animatic. Hermes is just a goofy guy. Anyways might I request a Hades and Persephone doodle when you have the chance? Thanks!!

thank you! Here's the doodle

#gigi's asks #digital art #art #greek myths #hades #persephone #hades and persephone

[stingrayextraordinaire]

Persephone: Tell Hermes about the birds and the bees.

Hades: They’re disappearing at an alarming rate.

#sent in by an anonymous friend :) #hades and persephone #persephone and hades #hades x persephone #persephone x hades #hades #persephone #greek mythology #greek myth #mythology #incorrect quotes #incorrect hadestown quotes #incorrect greek mythology #incorrect Greek myth quotes #incorrect lore olympus quotes #incorrect hades and persephone #incorrect hades x persephone #lore olympus #hadestown #hermes

[elianzis]

#art #my art #digital art #digital drawing #fan art #artwork #digital #greek mythology #persephone #greek goddess #greek myths #greek myth