#demeter and persephone

[gracebriarwoodwrites]

Each spring, my daughter returns from the underworld ice-cold and frost-hard. The only light in her is the cheap reflection of gold, shining against the shadow of death. I show her the sun again, but it’s hard for her to thaw— she freezes the new buds in the night many times before she finally lets them bloom.

She can’t bear, at first, to let the sun kiss her cheeks, knowing she must lose the spring again. But she learns, and she laughs, as the days lengthen and shorten.

And then my daughter returns to the darkness, and winter comes again.

#poem #poetry #mythology #persephone #demeter #demeter and persephone

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

I don't see why people feel the need to demonize Demeter into a smothering matriarch who didn't want Persephone to be happy to make Hades seem more sympathetic when there's a villain right there: Zeus, the fuck ass who plotted to sell Persephone to his brother without even informing Demeter about it because "silly women and their feelings, she doesn't belong to you anyway" and demanded she just give in. Especially since the Hymn to Demeter is full of women and ripe for feminist retelling: Gaia, who betrays Persephone for her favor to Hades, Hekate, who hears Persephone cry out and joins Demeter in the search, the four mortal girls who comfort her in her distress and their mother Metaneira who takes her in, wise Iambe who lifts her heart with jokes and poems, Iris and Rhea, Zeus' messengers.

More Hymn to Demeter retellings where Demeter is a woman desperate to find her daughter after her abusive husband steals her and the women who help her, where Demeter breaks Zeus' patriarchal power with her own, where she's willing to break the whole world rather than let it be one where daughters are property of fathers to be traded and sold as they see fit. Demeter is not the villain here. Zeus is.

#classic mythology #demeter and persephone

[teawiththegods]

“We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they've come.”

- The Barbie Movie

#this quote always makes me think of Demeter and Persephone #demeter deity #demeterdeity #demeter #persephone #persephone deity #persephonedeity #demeter and persephone

[ive-given-up-the-bug-diet]

Screaming weeping and crying as I rewatch Overly Sarcastic Productions' video about Hades and Persephone, a 20 minute long video that almost entirely focuses on the relationship between Persephone and Demeter as well as the ties they have to the underworld in their own right outside of Hades, only to look in the comment section and it's 99%:

"Hades and Persephone are like the Gomez and Morticia of Greek mythology"

"Hades and Persephone as a pastel-goth couple but imagine Hades is the pastel and Persephone is the goth!"

Like I get the appeal of Hades and Persephone's perceived dynamic in modern pop culture, but the video could not more clearly be primarily about Persephone and Demeter what is wrong with you people

#overly sarcastic productions #osp #hades #persephone #kore #demeter #hades and persephone #hades and kore #persephone and demeter #demeter and persephone #greek myth #greek mythology

[smolandweirdwriter]

“Everything my mother did, all the difficult choices she made, she was always going to fail because this is not a world where you can succeed in a thing like having a daughter.”

— Girl, Goddess, Queen by Bea Fitzgerald, p. 370

#Girl goddess queen #bea fitzgerald #greek myth retellings #hades x persephone #persephone #demeter and persephone #demeter #greek gods #greek pantheon

[ivelovedhimthroughworse]

Aster & Narcissus

Chapter Three of the Lore Olympus AU is up!

Click here to read on AO3: Link

This is a collaboration for @carry-on-big-bang where @theearlgreymage wrote the story and I made the art.

Chapter Three is exciting as we get the backstory of Persephone!Baz.

I got to this moment and I had to stop and draw it. I love the interplay between Natasha and Baz as she teaches him to use his magic. And Natasha is a fantastic Demeter!

Of course, then I went back to reading and wanted to draw what comes next, lol. But the pull of Lil Baz was too strong!

And I just want to take a moment to appreciate the colours Rachel Smythe uses for her characters. Half the fun has been c l o s e l y looking at the panels of the web comic.

#baz pitch #natasha pitch #Demeter and Persephone #lore olympus au #carry on big bang #cobb 2023

[thingsphoenix21]

Demeter: Come on, Kore. There are plenty fish on the sea.

Persephone: Yeah, but that's my clown fish.

*Hades in the background trying to figure out how to do a thumble being teached by Thanatos.*

#greek gods #incorrect greek gods #greek incorrect quotes #greek mythology #greek myths #ancient greek #incorrect gods #hades #persephone #demeter #demeter trying to convince persephone that there are better options #persephone just loves her messy sarcastic clown #hades is just trying to figure out thumbling it's a really hard challenge #thanatos pro of gymnastics #fight me on this one #demeter and persephone #hades x persephone

[gracecarts]

Persephone and Demeter concepts

#artists on tumblr #art #my art #digital art #gaea #demeter #persephone #demeter and persephone

[the-lunar-vixen]

First Day of Spring Altar

Today, March 20th, 2023, is the first day of Spring! That means that today Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, leaves her husband in the Underworld to join her mother, Demeter. The Goddess of Harvest welcomes her daughter home for the warm months. This also means that Hades, King of the Underworld, awaits his love’s return to him.

So today, I celebrate this transition and the first day of Spring with an altar. I’ve laid Oracle cards representing Hades, Persephone and Demeter surrounded by corresponding crystals.

To help Hades let go of his wife and ease his loss, I’ve laid a selenite cleansing crystal. Cerberus will keep him company.

A selenite wand guides Persephone’s journey safely. A rose quartz tower welcomes her home to the loving arms of her mother.

#witch #witchcraft #greek mythology #Persephone #hades #Demeter #first day of spring #spring #imbolc #pagan #hellenic polytheism #hellenic polythiest #hades and persephone #demeter and persephone #spring witch #persephone devotee #spring ritual #first day of spring ritual

[0lympian-c0uncil]

Headcannon: When Persephone was little and a teen she would go to her mother crying and screaming saying something was wrong and she needed help. Demeter worryed out of her mind would bring her to the doctor cuddling her and planting kissed on her forehead to calm her down, only to find out from the doctor that Persephone was faking it for her mama's attention. Demeter fell for it at least 27 times cause she is easily worried. But by the time Persephone was 17 Demeter stopped falling for it. Persephone will still try it sometimes when she was grown but Demeter would just bop her on the head and say "if you want attention from me ask!" Lucky she started to. :)

#demeter #persephone #greek mythology #incorrect greek gods #incorrect greek mythology #incorrect greek god quotes #incorrect greek quotes #greek gods #demeter and persephone

[deathlessathanasia]

“The separation of Demeter and Kore is an unwilling one; it is neither a question of the daughter's rebellion against the mother, nor the mother's rejection of the daughter. . . . Each daughter, even in the millennia before Christ, must have longed for a mother whose love for her and whose power were so great as to undo rape and bring her back from death. And every mother must have longed for the power of Demeter, the efficacy of her anger, the reconciliation with her lost self.”

 - Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born

#demeter #persephone #Demeter and Persephone #mothers and daughters #quotes

[teawiththegods]

Reading about Demeter is wonderful but also infuriating. I’m enjoying learning more about her and developing a stronger connection to her, however the more I learn the more frustrating her modern depictions and treatment are.

She was sooooooo crucial to the ancients and her relationship with Persephone was especially significant. Agriculture, abundance, fertility, the afterlife, and yes even feminism (because Demeter’s festivals often gave women the rare opportunity to act outside of the strict social norms) were essential aspects of Demeter (along with Persephone) and her festivals.

But no she’s just Persephone’s overbearing mom who’s getting in the way of “true love” 😒

#can you see why it’s infuriating??? #demeter deity #demeterdeity #demeter #Demeter and Persephone

[i-bring-crack]

Unrelated, I'm mad at the pop media now casting Demeter as the Villain in the Persephone & Hades Love Story just as people where mad about how Hades was pictured as the bad guy in Hercules(and other medias that still do it to this day).

Its basically doing the same thing. And if people can't bash about the latter then imma do it about the former because :

1) Demeter is a mother whose child was kidnapped. She searched for her through every part of the world for nine days and yet recieved no help from the olympians, her supposed family whom she even helped in the Titanomachy. Hell she even holds her place there yet they still don't treat her with the least amount of respect (Zeus killed the one he loves, then raped her, Poseidon raped her halfway through her journey and she still didn't give up on finding Persephone.), She traveled all alone until finally being acompanied by Hecate, and meeting Helios who told her that Hades had been the one to kidnap her daughter and all of it was organized by Zeus, (and considering the track record of her other brothers messing her life, we can guess she is not happy at all about this), recieves no (helpful) consolidation:

"Daughter of fair-tressed Rheia, mighty Demeter, 75

you will know the truth. For I greatly revere and pity you

grieving for your slim-ankled daughter. No other

of the gods was to blame but cloud-gathering Zeus,

who gave her to Hades his brother to be called

his fertile wife. With his horses Hades [80]

snatched her screaming into the misty gloom.

But, Goddess, give up for good your great lamentation.

You must not nurse in vain insatiable anger.

Among the gods Aidoneus is not an unsuitable bridegroom,

Commander-to-Many and Zeus's own brother of the same stock. [85]

As for honor, he got his third at the world's first division

and dwells with those whose rule has fallen to his lot."

-Homeric Hymph to Demeter trans. Helene P Foley

And finally this comes to undue her as she goes of to find a temple to reside in because she has decided she isn't going to be a part of the olympians anymore due to... well everything. It is only when Demeter descends her wrath upon the humans and makes the worst winter that Zeus actually starts to listen. (key on the fact that she can't even go against him, bc its not that she doesn't want to but rather she cant, its the same with hera, no one can defeat Zeus and therefore have to extend their anger elsewhere.) Heck, in the text she doesn't care about Hades nor curses him, she detests Zeus because as far as she is aware, Persephone was only raised by her. This man came out nowhere, did stuff to her daughter in the orphic hymphs, and then came back to arrange her marriage despite wanting her daughter to be raised as the virgin goddesses that DID have more power and respect than all other goddeses [Athena, Artemis, Hestia]. That winter was understandable and If I had been Demeter it would have been worse.

2) Zeus is right. Fucking. There.

#demeter #rape of persephone #hades #homeric hymph to demeter #hades and persephone #demeter and persephone

[smolandweirdwriter]

My Bad Analysis of Hades and Persephone

the Homeric hymn to Demeter is, as far as I know, the earliest source we have for Hades and Persephone. It is… a confusing text, to say the least. For one thing, the only evidence we have in this that anything regarding r@pe occurred is this line: τέτμε δὲ τόν γε ἄνακτα δόμων ἔντοσθεν ἐόντα, ἥμενον ἐν λεχέεσσι σὺν αἰδοίῃ παρακοίτι πόλλ᾽ ἀεκαζομένῃ μητρὸς πόθῳ 

translation (not my own):

“there he [Hermes] found the lord in his palace sitting on a bed with his legal wife, very much reluctant, longing for her mother"

so… Is it clear that she’s been r@ped? Not exactly, but neither does it say she hasn’t been. Also, according to the translation (supplied by a friend of mine who takes ancient greek- my school does not offer it and I am not the best with foreign languages, although I am studying classics on my own a bit, let alone ancient ones but I digress) Persephone is hades’s wife at this point. Now, before the hades stans take me out after the rest of this statement, let me explain it!

my belief is that it… could very well have been r@pe. Just not quite the type you’re picturing. If, at this point, a wedding has been officiated and they are husband and wife, there is a ritual within the Ancient Greek marriages, directly after the wedding, in which the man and woman have sex to secure the wedding rites. They are consummated. It wasn’t just a “thing” they did- it very well could be argued to be a religious ritual. An obligation, as marriage was meant to be to the ancient Greeks. Love matches were very rare. So it could have been r@pe, but it was a perpetuation of societal norms and obligations. Does that make it any better? Debatable. Probably not. So they could have had sex, and Persephone certainly did not want it, but it is a required part of a marriage. A marriage she didn’t even want. One her father forced her into without her mother’s or her consent. This was typical of Ancient Greek marriages. That’s what the myth is presenting beyond an explanation of the seasons: how woman were forced into marriages, the obligation of the married couple to have sex by social pressure (which could certainly be seen as an extent of r@pe), and yet when hades and Persephone are presented together in art and literature POST their marriage, they seem somewhat… tolerable towards each other. Perhaps— PERHAPS — even in love. For this, I cite Ovid’s Metamorphoses, wherein Orpheus says to Persephone: “But Love has overcome me, a God well-known in the upper world, though whether here or not I do not know; and yet I surmise that he is known here as well, and if the story of that old-time ravishment is not false, you, too, were joined by Love.” Whether “Love” in this is meant as “sexual desire” is slightly unclear. The Greeks had a different concept of love than we think of it today, as I’ve already established. And “ravishment” does not have the best connotation in today’s terms, but Orpheus appears to see it as proof of their love. So I believe the “ravishment” here relates to the above mentioned marriage ritual. we also have various works of art, my personal favorite of which being this:

however there’s also an equal amount of if not more artwork of the less savory aspects (ie the kidnapping) of the relationship.

so, in conclusion, I think hades and persephone were meant to portray the average relationship of a married couple in Ancient Greece: the future wife is taken much to the distress of the mother and the girl herself, the (certainly questionable by modern standards) marriage rites are performed, and eventually the two manage to find some relationship.

It’s not ideal today. But for Ancient Greece, well, “In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Persephone and Hades represented the very low bar for romantic relationships in Ancient Greece. However, they also somewhat rose above this: persephone was free to leave for half the year. She saw her mother. Most girls were (literally) praying for this. So again: low bar. Not exactly romantically ideal for today in any way. Nor were most relationships in Ancient Greek mythology. Should we romanticize it? Absolutely fucking not. But can we reimagine it? Retell it? I genuinely don’t know. Is it wrong? Is it making excuses for bad relationships? Even if they’re over 2,000 years old? I really can’t say. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. What are your thoughts?

#hades and persephone #greek myths #greek mythology #demeter and persephone #hades x persephone #ancient Greece #ancient history #greek pantheon #olympian gods #cthonic gods #hellenic gods #greek polytheism #zeus god #zeus greek mythology #greek myth retellings #greek gods #greek goddesses

[noctilionoidea]

update on the spring painting I’m working on. The branches have to dry for me to paint on baby leaves and stuff and then I’ll finish this off by painting Demeter and Persephone in colour.

it’s still far from finished beyond what I’ve mentioned but yea. Also does anyone know any kind of fruit tree/bush that grows during spring in Greece? Everytime I try to research anything it will either be a fall/winter fruit or extremely not from Greece

#Wip #painting wip #acrylic painting #greek mythology #demeter #persephone #kore #Demeter and Persephone #art #traditional art #Greek myths

[cherryandsisters]

demeter protecting persephone sketch

#demeter #persephone #greek mythology #mansi draws