Selina Zheng, Period 2, 11/14/22

Selina Zheng

Period 2

11/14/2022

Modern Mythology 2023

Literacy & Learning

The story of Persephone and Hades had been a close favorite in my tier list “Top 10 Mythologies”, only after the tale of Psyche and Eros. When I first read their story, like a hopeless, naive romantic, I grew to love the trope of the hero “sweeping” their heroine right off her feet, which Hades did– quite literally. The love was innocent, with the clueless Hades simply asking the wrong person for advice causing the terrible start in this romance. Unfortunately, as I grew up and revisited the story, I became disillusioned with the fact that this “romantic” story was not all that “romantic”. What I thought was an exception to the tragic tendencies of Greek mythology turns out to be another story of a maiden and her innocence cruelly taken by a more powerful male. The simple temptations of a delicious fruit became synonymous with pedophilia, whereas the charming Hades was the aware groomer that tempted the minor, Persephone. Demeter, who was once the villain of this budding romance, was now a distraught mother who came too late to save her daughter from the devastating effects of losing one’s purity.

When I revisited this story, years after my first reading, I was still hoping to ignore the red flags. But like how Persephone could not undo the effects of eating the pomegranate, I, too, could not reverse the effects of reading this myth with open eyes. Like the saying goes, do not meet your idols, the flaws in this myth became evermore transparent when I started to dig deeper. My Modern Mythology teacher, Mrs. Fusaro, pointed out that fruits in mythology tends to represent sex and that no creatures in mythology, even the gods, are perfect. In fact, the gods were purposely made to enlarge the flaws of humanity. By coming to terms of the nature of this story, I start to see childhood staples in a different light. For one, Eve was tempted by an apple, cherry blossoms of Japan representing a new start and fertility, plums in East Asia representing a young woman’s innocence, and so much more. Forming this new connection, I had to reevaluate many of my favorite stories.

The men who wrote these stories had wanted young girls like myself to believe that the natural order was to villainize the women in our lives while respecting the men, who would clearly do wrong, but excuse them in the name of love. This restricting message was meant to limit the power of women by plotting them against one another; we see this as a theme throughout many fairy tales and mythology. Although we do not cover the story of Snow White in Modern Mythology, I can discern the similarities between Snow White and Persephone. Persephone is the goddess of spring, loved by flowers and animals, similar to Snow White. The stepmother is the evil one in the story like Demeter was when she tried to retrieve Persephone from Hades’ grasp, while the prince, who is much older than the princess like Hades, is idolized as the charming Prince in shining armor who comes to the rescue. 

In Modern Mythology, we employ different critical theory lenses to analyze the intent of the author and any hidden agenda commonly overlooked. Recognizing the rhetorical situation is key to making proper judgment. Even if it means to “ruin” my childhood, rereading the stories fed to me as a kid have opened my eyes to the power of written works. Not only stories, everything told or untold has a purpose it is meant to serve, such as political statements, public relations responses, etc. We as consumers have to learn the skill of reading in between the lines so as to not be led by our noses. Understanding this, I am definitely moving Persephone and Hades’ story further down on my tier list.