hollis (they/them) currently studying classics and archaeology.
look i know greek mythology is super interesting and stuff but i think we should all just, like, put a moratorium on any new takes about persephone and hades and how kidnapping is actually girl power. i feel like we’ve got enough of those floating around to last us at least another thousand years.
First off, here’s a link to a translation of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. That’s the earliest written record of the myth. I like this link because it provides commentary and the original Greek alongside it.
A huge problem I have with the #GirlBoss Persephone reimaginings is that it often portrays Demeter as some sort of mean old helicopter parent who just didn’t want cool Persephone to have fun. Because a huge part about the story of the kidnapping of Persephone is Demeter grieves the lack of agency she and her daughter have. Neither Persephone nor Demeter knew about the arranged marriage beforehand and that was a very real fear that ancient Greek women could relate to. The reality was that the father of a girl had complete control over her and if he decided to give her to a man much older than she was then there was nothing she could do about it. One day your husband could take your daughter and give her to a man who lived far away. They didn’t have any real means of control over that. Sure, this doesn’t mean that every father was a tyrant, and sure, I’m sure there were many cases where the future husband was discussed with the mother. But at the end of the day the reality was that the father trumped all and if he really wanted to send your daughter to the other side of the world he could, because she was, ultimately, viewed by the law as his property.
Demeter wasn’t some mean old hag who wouldn’t let Persephone spread her wings, she was a grieving mother who, as a goddess, actually had some power to fight against her daughter’s lack of autonomy. She was willing to use everything to rage against that and fight the other gods for love of her daughter. To make her the villain of the story just seems wrong.