Cye Zhang, Period 6, 10/30/23

Research Paper

TW- Discussion of rape

According to Oscar Wilde, “Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.” For example, the rape of Metis is actually a struggle for power whereas when Persephone eats the pomegranate seed her loss of virginity is heavily implied.

In class we explore how experiences of maturity and sexuality are reflected in stories of Greek gods and goddesses, focusing on the story of Persephone and asking questions such as: What are the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone? Why is this cult so secretive about its practices? What happens at the initiation rite and why is it so significant?

When we think about what we know about the story of Persephone our minds go towards how Hades kidnapped her and forced her to eat pomegranate seeds. Some might recall this is the creation story for the seasons, Demeter’s despair of losing her daughter leaving the earth barren of crops as she spends four months each year as queen of the underworld but that’s the usual extent of their knowledge about Demeter. The first known telling of this story is the Homeric Hymn to Demeter from the 6th century BCE. Hymn to Demeter, not Persephone or Hades. While the poem tells the story of Persephone’s abduction it highlights the strong mother-daughter relationship she shares with Demeter.

While it is the mortal people’s suffering from starvation that causes Zeus to relent and ask Hades to return her daughter in order for Demeter to go back to doing her duties, this story is also where the Cult of Demeter and Persephone and Eleusinian Mysteries originate from. In the search for her daughter, Demeter finds herself in Eleusis; a misunderstanding occurs between her and the royal family, and in order to repent for their doings (which for the record was a total misunderstanding but that is a whole can of worms for a different day) they build Demeter a temple. This is where the Mysteries of Eleusis come in. Once her daughter is returned, she teaches the people the secrets of farming, aiding them in cultivating sustenance, through rituals and initiations.

Concrete knowledge of the cult and these mysteries are very fragmented– people were forbidden to speak about what went on and without word of mouth, it died with the people. We can highlight the importance of folklore of these experiences– without the passing of such stories, we are left to make assumptions based on what information we do have. These mysteries are birth, death, sexuality, and love; initiations changing the way people view death, teaching them to live thoughtfully and die with hope. The idea that life is a cycle is a common theme in Greek mythology seen particularly through the way they viewed the cycle of seasons. The Greater Mysteries were celebrated once a year in the autumn with participants tracing Demeter's route as she searched for Persephone before viewing and possibly participating in a symbolic reenactment of the death and rebirth of Persephone. Each fall she joins Hades in the underworld only to return in the spring embodying the natural course of life and the earth.

Despite the fact Persephone is brought to the underworld, each spring she returns aboveground and is rebirthed. They emphasize this and Demeter’s persistent, unwavering will to continue searching for her rather than Persephone’s eating of the pomegranate seed and maturity– her abduction and rape. Culture and ideas spread through communication, it’s theorized the Greeks were inspired by the Egyptians' beliefs of rebirth, adopting them into their religious rites. Demeter impact is significantly minimized in modern retellings of the story despite her influence in the religious rites and festivals held. The celebrations of the Eleusinian Mysteries were one of the most well-known religious festivals of the time. Walls were built around Demeter's sanctuary and an indication hall large enough to hold thousands of people. Unlike other religions, rituals were peaceful usually involving grain, pomegranates, and poppies rather than sacrifice of life.

The people admired Demeter for how she aided them in her role as the goddess of grain and harvest. At the time it was mainly women who predominantly plowed and took care of the crops as men focused on hunting and fighting therefore Demeter gathered a great number of female followers worshiping her with humbleness and gratitude rather than bloody sacrifice. So why does the focus stray towards Hades’ acts of violence even though we follow Demeter’s distress throughout the entire poem? We can expand on what we explored in class and look at the myth from a new perspective.

So why do we romanticize the myth and other stories with similar ideas such as Beauty and the Beast? There are countless modern retellings of the story of Persephone, many of them falling into the YA and romance genre in addition to the bad boy good girl trope; the beautiful and delicate woman gets swept away by a man and despite getting mistreated she falls in love with and fixes his toxic tendencies in the process. These stories are often aimed at teens and frame the idea of a toxic relationship with excitement and allure altering how many teens might view problematic relationships and changing their expectations to be unrealistic. Moreover, this could be especially dangerous as these ideas will lead readers to turn a blind eye to manipulative traits and other characteristics of unhealthy relationships because it is “normalized” and desired in today's books and media.




Bibliography

• Lincoln, B. (1979). The Rape of Persephone: A Greek Scenario of Women’s Initiation. The Harvard Theological Review, 72(3/4), 223–235. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1509722

• Keller, M. L. (1988). The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone: Fertility, Sexuality, and Rebirth. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 4(1), 27–54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25002068

• Cantarella, E. (1985). Dangling Virgins: Myth, Ritual and the Place of Women in Ancient Greece. Poetics Today, 6(1/2), 91–101. https://doi.org/10.2307/1772123

• Hamilton, E. (1999). Mythology Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes . Grand Central Publishing.

• Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023, October 27). Eleusinian Mysteries. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eleusinian-Mysteries

• “To Demeter.” Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, translated by Gregory Nagy, https://uh.edu/~cldue/texts/demeter.html