Every culture has its version of Romeo and Juliet written ages ago, loved by all, idolized by many, and somehow just like some insurance policy, the finer details of the tale are overlooked. The problematic finer details. We have tales of Romeo and Juliet etched into our memory without ever having read the actual text. How is this possible? How do kids know about them or Heer and Ranjha or about Cathy and Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights without ever going through the original story?
The simplified answer is the power of our society. We have repeated tales of ‘tragic love stories’ for ages and these stories can be traced back to Greek Mythology. The Greeks have a plethora of tragic love stories on their hands, from the famous story of Helen and Paris to Odyssey and Penelope. But the story we are looking at today is not about the story of mortals. Our love story is about the yin-yang duo of the God of the Underworld, Hades and the Goddess of Spring, Persephone.
Before we look at the finer detail of this universally adored love story, let us take a couple of steps back to understand how Persephone was born. What many people are prone to forget is that Persephone was conceived when Zeus (God of lightning and King of Olympus) had trapped Demeter (Goddess of agriculture and fertility) in a hole when she was running away from him in the disguise of a snake. Demeter didn’t have a choice but to succumb to Zeus’s sexual desires and thus she gave birth to Persephone. It is a known fact that out of all the children that Demeter had, Persephone was the most beautiful and the one Demeter was most protective of. Persephone was Demeter’s most loved offspring and she made sure that her daughter would not have to face the same fate that she had been subjected to. To put it simply, Demeter made it clear that Persephone was ‘off-limits’ for everyone. The Gods had a hard time following rules but they feared Demeter and kept their distance from the young and beautiful Goddess.
In comes the dashing bad boy (more like a really, really old man) Hades, the God of the Underworld and the Dead. He had seen Persephone frolicking around in fields and fell madly in love with her. He went to Zeus to ask for Persephone’s hand in marriage and though the two brothers never got along, Zeus agreed. He also advised his brother that the only way to get his daughter was to kidnap her when Demeter was not around. So, as the tale goes; one day when Persephone was running around gathering flowers in a field, the ground opens up, and out comes the chariot of darkness ridden by Hades. He grabs the young girl and takes her to the Underworld to make her his wife. After days of confinement, Persephone ends up eating a handful of pomegranates and the story goes that if one eats any food in the Underworld, they can never leave the place without having the undying urge to come back. Long story short, Persephone was kidnapped and trapped for life.
Now, this is where modern society has managed to twist this tale and interpret it not as a ‘sexual assault and kidnapping story’ but as a socially loved ‘bad boy-good girl dynamic’ where Persephone, though snatched from her home and made to marry a man without her consent, managed to fall deeply in love with Hades after the time she spent in the Underworld. When I say this is a modern interpretation, I mean it. If you look back at the responses to these stories given by the Greek philosophers like Homer or even Ovid, who was known for his comedic observations of the Greek mythology over the serious ones, sympathized with the horrific tale of Persephone. He talked about the young girl “terrified, in tears” while she pleaded with Hades. The gross injustice was done to her as she was just “this girl, frightened and forced” (Ovid Metamorphoses 5.399-419). This modern romanticization of the beauty and beast complex under which Persephone and Hades fell completely overshadowed the cries of many women who worshipped Persephone as their Goddess and conducted prayers and sacrifices to give her strength in the Underworld.
Let’s draw our eyes to Indian mythology for a second, and we will find many similar stories of women with their fates sealed by other men. We don’t have to look too deep into our tales to find an example when the famous myth of Draupadi has been known to every child no matter what their culture or religion. Draupadi consented to marry Arjuna when he won the contest and in turn won her hand for marriage (another problematic theme to follow up) but because of the twisted fate ahead, she had to marry her 4 brothers-in-law because of the rule of sharing among brothers. Draupadi and her consent no longer mattered. She was now to be wed to 5 men. Just like Persephone who did not get a say in the matter of her own life and marriage, Draupadi’s fate was sealed by someone else.
Men in power used the words of history to dictate how women should live their lives. Be it a mortal princess or an immortal goddess, history has told us that women’s choice did not matter. In our contemporary world, women have finally started demanding a say in their lives yet there is this big cloud over women that makes them follow men like Hades. The bad boy who can be only made better with our help. We must remember that it is not a woman’s job to make a man better. It shouldn’t be Persephone’s duty to be the light in the dark and evil world of the dead. If there is anything good that is coming out of this myth is the love of a mother. Demeter searched the entire world looking for her daughter, stopped making women fertile, and didn’t let any harvest season come until Persephone was returned to her. The deal was struck that 1/3rd of the year Persephone must live with her husband and the rest with her mother. The myth of Hades and Persephone is controversial and toxic but it also showed us how strong love can be when a mother is ready to move mountains for her daughter.
So, now we must learn to look closely into the tales we grew up listening to and start questioning their morality because that is the only way that we can control the narratives of our own lives.