"The Hades and Persephone myth (because there's a lot of people saying a lot of different things, like Persephone plucked a particular flower, which opened up a hole to the Underworld, and others say that Hades came to the surface and took Persephone with him to the Underworld..)"
It's not surprising that over the years, the myth of Persephone's abduction became one of the most embellished of all the Hellenic myths; it's a timeless tragic love story, and as a Netflix visit can confirm, we love those. The ancient Hellenic sources are a lot less eloquent about the myth and that is most likely the reason for the modern day confusion Jasmina hinted at: there was enough room for interpretation, and so the myth was interpreted again and again. The oldest source is most likely the Homeric Hymn to Demeter which reads:
"Apart from Demeter, lady of the golden sword and glorious fruits, she was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters of Oceanus and gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also and hyacinths and the narcissus, which Earth made to grow at the will of Zeus and to please the Host of Many [Haides], to be a snare for the bloom-like girl -- a marvellous, radiant flower. It was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a hundred blooms and is smelled most sweetly, so that all wide heaven above and the whole earth and the sea's salt swell laughed for joy. And the girl was amazed and reached out with both hands to take the lovely toy; but the wide-pathed earth yawned there in the plain of Nysa, and the lord, Host of Many, with his immortal horses sprang out upon her -- the Son of Cronos [Haides], He who has many names. He caught her up reluctant on his golden car and bare her away lamenting. Then she cried out shrilly with her voice, calling upon her father, the Son of Cronos, who is most high and excellent. But no one, either of the deathless gods or of mortal men, heard her voice." [4-21]
The other instance Jasmina mentions, where Haides came to the surface to collect Persephone Himself is actually not in Hellenic kythology, but it would not surprise me is it came from the Orphic tradition. In the Orphic Hymn to Plouton [Haides], Haides is described as coming up to the surface with Persephone so He can hold her captive in a cave near Eleusis:
"And in dread Acheron [Haides], whose depths obscure, earth's stable roots eternally secure. O mighty dæmon, whose decision dread, the future fate determines of the dead, with captive Proserpine [Persephone], thro' grassy plains, drawn in a four-yok'd car with loosen'd reins, rapt o'er the deep, impell'd by love, you flew 'till Eleusina's city rose to view; there, in a wond'rous cave obscure and deep, the sacred maid secure from search you keep, the cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display an entrance to the kingdoms void of day." [17]
So now we come to something that is often misinterpreted: the words 'rape' and 'abduction'. I have already written a long post about these subjects, which can be found here. Time to de-romanticize the ancient Hellenes a little. We tend to equate 'rape' with the absence of love and mutual consent, but in ancient Hellas, marriage itself was an agreement between men about a woman. Rape in ancient Hellas was therefor not tied to the approval of the woman--any sexual act on her part was performed without love and consent anyway, or at least without care for her consent--but to the approval of the men surrounding her. In my opinion, the question of rape lies in the outcome of the mythological sexual act: does the sexual act lead to marriage or not? In cases where it does, the sexual act is not so much rape as we understand it, but an illustration of the start of a marriage. This certainly holds true in the myth of Haides and Persephone. To illustrate this view, I would like to quote Roman mythographer Apollodorus from his 'Library' as he puts into words what many other writers hint at or say far more flowery:
"Pluto [Haides] fell in love with Persephone and with the help of Zeus carried her off secretly." [1.5.1]
Here we see a perfect illustration of a marriage arrangement: Zeus and Plouton decided upon the fate of Zeus' daughter Persephone. In a twist that most Hellenic women would most likely not have been able to achieve however, Demeter fought against the marriage agreement and managed to wrangle a situation where Persephone could come up to the surface at least part of the year. I feel--but UPG/personal interpretation alert here--that this part of the myth served as a reminder for ancient Hellenic men (and women) that a woman was always partially part of her family-by-blood, and that when a man took a wife, he got her family with her in a package deal. This included tending to ailing parents and probably supporting them financially if the need arose.
The myth of Persephone and Haides is an important myth about family, marriage, and the ethical and practical responsibilities that came with both. The details of Her abduction matter, but not as much as the lessons attached to it.
The myth of Persephone and Hades has been told and retold so many times, that a lot of peopl like to put their own little spin on things , although in the case of Hollywood may put things so out of whack that it doesn't even coincide with the actual myth! lol Anyway as you said yourself the myth can be retold as many times over , over teh centuroes but teh morals of teh story will never change!
ReplyDeleteJust a couple of notes:
ReplyDelete1) I think talking about the 'ancient Hellenes' in the context of sexual attitudes is to use too broad a term, since it would encompass Greek speakers from all over the world and from the Bronze Age onwards. And while Hellenism tends to be 'Athenian reconstructionism', in this context, I think it's worth remembering that there were different attitudes.
Classical Spartans would have been horrified at the lack of consent offered to women that you suggest. "Xenophon and Plutarch speak of desire for intercourse on the part of both spouses, though within the limits of modesty. Plutarch also refers to flirtatious behaviour when the girls parade nude before the bachelors, trying to interest them in marriage… Spartans, because of their respect for tradition, took their mythical examples seriously and Helen must have been a major figure in a Spartan woman's thoughts even before marriage." (Sarah Pomeroy's Spartan Women, p45)
2) Apollodoros - more accurately pseudo-Apollodoros since it's misattributed to Apollodoros - was almost certainly Athenian, not Roman, although given Athens was part of the Roman empire, it's a fine distinction.
3) You assume that there's some form of sexual intercourse/rape between Persephone and Hades, whereas the Homeric Hymn to Demeter says no such thing, even though Greek texts are usually happy to say when such an act has occurred.
Also, given that both Athena and Artemis were present when Persephone was abducted and that Gaia created a flower to knock out Persephone, I'd say it highly unlikely any form of rape was envisioned, unless you believe that those goddesses and the Nereids are 'rape facilitators'.
All that might be mere guesswork, though, if there weren't this later line in the poem: "he sent the Slayer of Argus whose wand is of gold to Erebus, so that having won over Hades with soft words, he might lead forth chaste Persephone to the light from the misty gloom to join the gods, and that her mother might see her with her eyes and cease from her anger. "
That's 'chaste Persephone', meaning she was still a virgin at the point when she returns to Olympus.
I did a longer analysis of the poem on the Yahoo Groups mailing list, but to me, this reads like an arranged marriage intended purely as a merging of powers: Hades gets a companion, Persephone gets dominion over the underworld. She's reluctant to leave Olympus, because of her mother and because she's an Olympian who would normally shun the underworld. However, once down there, she becomes interested in the idea (and possibly Hades) and becomes reluctant to leave, which is why she 'secretly' takes the pomegranate seeds from Hades without Hermes seeing.
Eventually, of course, Persephone becomes almost the de facto ruler of the Underworld, with The Odyssey and Odysseus barely mentioning Hades, instead worrying about Lady Persephone, so clearly it's an agreement that worked well for her in the long run. But YMMV.