"The Rape of Persephone" & Other Canon Deeds Regarding My Fiction: 6 Little Seeds

On etymological loopholes, sexual assault, violent abduction, and shady, shifty fruit.

Last time on TWISTED HISTORY & MYTH:

Seriously, if you have a sensitive constitution and you haven’t read the previous post, including the way I handle trigger warnings in my fiction (these two posts pretty much ARE your warnings)…I highly recommend that you do. 👆

Ready to move on? Groovy.

Since we’re opening this publication’s Greek Gods Section with my retelling of the Persephone and Haides myth (as well as a sprawl of other related shenaniganry because Greek Gods are way too fun and all sorts of individuals have Their messy little paws involved in this incident), I shall address the most controversial and touchy aspects of these tales in depth.

THE CONTENTS OF THIS POST AT A GLANCE:

• THE RAPE OF PERSEPHONE - Is There Nonconsensual PIV or Not?

• THE POMEGRANATE INCIDENT - Shady, Shifty, Hungry, or Choice?

• THAT INFAMOUS ABDUCTION - Shocking, Snatchy, Grabby God

This post will get into major plot spoilers for my stories, in case you need them to decide if you want to embark on these adventures with us. If you don’t need to know how I handle these things in advance of reading and you want to come into the story fresh, you can skip this content warning and head straight here:

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THE RAPE OF PERSEPHONE - Is there nonconsensual PIV or not?

Short answer: not in my version.

Am I ignoring canon myth in favor of romance: nope, I’m squeaking through a vocabulary loophole to give a too-often helpless goddess some of her original power back.¹

And to slice off some of that modern Hollywood simplistic demonizing of Haides, who was NOT synonymous with “evil” and the Devil in Ancient Greece. Was he a sweetiekins? Did anybody really look forward to being hosted by the Host of Many? Was he really just a nice, misunderstood guy with a playful pupster? Hells no. (FYI Around here, Kerberos DOES like to play. So does Haides. He has all sorts of fun toys.) 😈 But the Greek Underworld was not Hell.

You know…except for the places where it was.²

This tale in classical art is often called “The Rape of Persephone,” and it comes with a great debate in books, articles, videos, and forums: did “rape” mean “forced penile penetration of Persephone’s vagina?”³ Or has vocabulary shifted through time and culture, and back then it only referred to “violent snatching and carrying off?”

Phrasing like this begs that question:

"Mint, men say, was once a maid beneath the earth, a Nymphe of Kokytos, and she lay in the bed of Aidoneus [Haides]; but when he raped the maid Persephone from the Aitnaian Hill…
~Oppian, Halieutica 3. 485 (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd A.D.)

It wasn’t “raped her on the hill.” It was “raped her from the hill,” like you’d do when you snatch all the blossoms off a bush or denude an entire stalk of all its beans in a voracious act of hunger.

According to etymonline.com - even into the 14th Century this definition was still the more common usage: ⁴

late 14c., rapen, "seize prey; abduct, take and carry off by force," from rape (n.) and from Anglo-French raper (Old French rapir) "to seize, abduct," a legal term, probably from Latin rapere "seize, carry off by force, abduct" (see rapid). Also figuring in alliterative or rhyming phrases, such as rape and renne (late 14c.) "seize and plunder."

Classical Latin rapere was used for "sexually violate," but only rarely; the usual Latin word being stuprare "to defile, ravish, violate," which is related to stuprum (n.) "illicit sexual intercourse," literally "disgrace," stupere "to be stunned, stupefied" (see stupid). Latin raptus, past participle of rapere, used as a noun meant "a seizure, plundering, abduction," but in Medieval Latin also "forcible violation." 

Since our story takes place way before Latin was a speck tickling anybody’s vocal chords - in fact, before the age of Homer, and even before the Trojan War - I’m going to go with Greek because Linear A hasn’t been translated yet, and I don’t know anybody who speaks the languages of Olympos or the Underworld. From Mara Lynn Keller’s article on the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone:⁵

“The verb used here, as in all Greek sources, to describe Hades’ action,” a classicist explains, “is harpazein, meaning ‘to seize, snatch, carry off’ a term usually reserved for acts of war or thievery, but always acts of violence.”

So then. Did the rapacious grabbing also include…the devouring? Did the snatching involve snatch? That is the question.

I mean, source after source only talks about the abduction and the pomegranate, not forcible penis-in-vagina.⁶ So were the storytellers being delicate? Were they being literal? Or were they using the word “rape” in the old “seize-and-carry-off” way?

Another curiosity is that Persephone (in most versions, and all the ones that I have chosen for my inspiration) does not become pregnant like many other goddesses do in the aftermath of their rapes. Is this because Haides, as the Lord of the Dead, is shooting blanks? Or does it mean PIV didn’t happen before Hermes came down to yoink her up to her mother?

Either way, there are loopholes to be exploited for my fictional choices.

The long, detailed Rape of Prosperina (the Latinized name of Persephone) by Claudian⁷ is the version that leads us closest into the bedroom where consummation could have taken place. In this rendition, no boinking occurs amidst the flurry of the kidnapping or in the calmer gentling of the bridegroom and his realm as they prepare the newly”weds” for the clinching marital deed. But even this version shuts the bedroom door, leaving any sex to our imagination, unlike the very descriptive seizing from the flowery field.

In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, when Hermes comes to take Persephone back to the Upper Realms, he finds her in Haides’ bed, “shy and strongly reluctant through desire for her mother,” as my copy describes her.⁸

So had the marriage actually been consummated by the time she’s taken back to Demeter or no?

Some who say that the word “rape” doesn’t automatically translate to sexual assault in this story conclude “not yet.” Others point out that the long-storied practice of bride-snatching in this ancient society would have automatically-and-duh implied just that—a sexual assault if she wasn’t all excited about this arranged and snatchy marriage—which we’ve seen that she’s not. Since there are no ancient lines (at least none that I’ve ever found) that explicitly say, “And then he forced his dick in her and she didn’t want him to,” I’ve had to make an artistic and authorial decision.

We’ll get deeper into that in other posts. This is just to tell you WHAT my choices are and WHICH canon and contemporary sources I based my decisions upon, not WHY I wrote it this way. That’s too deep a topic to get into here.

That notorious pomegranate has a similar issue.

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THE POMEGRANATE INCIDENT - Shady, Shifty, Hungry, or Choice?

For its blood-red hue and its numerous seeds, some say that the use of this fruit is a metaphor for sex. Others say that it indicates Haides’ attempts to woo his snatched bride into consummating the marriage willingly. Upon returning to the Upper Realms, she tells her mother in the Homeric Hymn:

“…but he stealthily put in my mouth a food honey-sweet, a pomegranate seed,
and compelled me against my will and by force to taste it…”

And here comes the argument again—this is a quote by Persephone, not the narrator telling us what he did. So did she tell Mommy the truth? Or did she lie? I mean, did you miss what Demeter does when she’s hacked off? I wouldn’t want Earth Mama peeved at me if I’d willingly slept with the enemy.

Persephone certainly spends a lengthy time outlining a whole lot of details and nymph names, so was she motor-mouthing to cover her ass after voraciously fucking the King of the Dead? Was she nervous and ashamed because she couldn’t stop him from sexually assaulting her? Maybe she was telling the absolute truth in an info-dumpy way?

The narrator tells us:

“…But he gave her to eat
a honey-sweet pomegranate seed, stealthily passing it
around her, lest she once more stay forever
by the side of revered Demeter of the dark robe.”

So there you have it. Sneaky, not forcey. Ovid even has Persephone wandering and randomly plucking a fruit off the tree herself—no Haides involved. In some versions, the orchardist who tattles about her eating the seeds is punished by Persephone, in others he is punished by Demeter, and the punishment itself varies as well. (4)

Therefore, since we are never shown a scene where Haides forcibly crams anything in her mouth and she hates it, neither do I.

However, let it be knowne: neither do I write a perfectly innocent dreamboat of a Haides who doesn’t have a conniving or ruthless bone in his immortal body. My characters screw up. Some of them—big time.

I’ll give you a hint about how I write mythology tales, which will answer a lot of your questions about why I make the choices I do:

I often try to find ways that multiple conflicting texts and multiple conflicting interpretations can all be equally right. It’s fun for me to examine these things from multiple sides and to craft fictional bridges between them.

It’s equally fun for me to examine the motivations and reasoning behind the actions of all these warring personalities, while still presenting the opinions and prejudices of each POV character. After all, to the Ancient Greek Haides was not the Devil, His realm was not Christian Hell, and all these deities commit acts of divine blessing as well as wrath so I like to give them both extremes.

Makes for richer characters that way, too.

Therefore, the Pomegranate Incident is something you’ll have to read if you want to know how I handle this issue. Because some say that he tricked her. Some say he forced her. Some say she was hungry and clueless of the ramifications when she popped a snack into her mouth. Some say that she ate those seeds willingly, in full comprehension of the consequences.

I say…

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THAT INFAMOUS ABDUCTION

In contrast to the murky issue of rape/snatching/sexual assault, the abduction itself is clearly detailed in multiple sources. In the ancient texts, it is an unwilling, shocking and violent affair often said to have occurred “at the behest” of Persephone’s father, Zeus.⁹ My version of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter says:

“Demeter I begin to sing, the fair-tressed awesome goddess,
herself and her slim-ankled daughter whom Aidoneus (Haides)
seized; Zeus, heavy-thundering and mighty-voiced, gave her,
without the consent of Demeter of the bright fruit and golden sword…”

…The earth with its wide ways yawned
over the Nysian plain; the lord Host-to-Many rose up on her…
he snatched the unwilling maid into his golden chariot
and led her off lamenting…

The Hymn is even more explicit about Persephone’s adverse reaction to being seized, so I have chosen to go with this canon plot point. MAJOR SPOILER: I have not given my heroine a miserable marriage to a god she despises unto eternity. If you hate either of these choices, this story probably isn’t for you. You’ll have to read it to know why, how, when, from where, and in what manner it happens.

So these are my artistic choices: Violent abduction? Absolutely. Paternally arranged marriage without the consent of either mother or daughter? Yup. Tricksy-Styxy conduct with passing fruit around? Yarp. But there will be no scenes of crammed seeds or forced Haides-dick since we don’t explicitly see it in the ancient texts like we do the snatching. (If we had, I probably wouldn’t have written an entire series about it.)

Of course, in my stories, there is a whole lot of Haides’ dick everywhere all over the Underworld, so you do the math about how my Persephone feels about it when it eventually happens.

Oh, this story sounds super-duper exciting (or super-duper awful) and you want to read it now? Here ya go:

1. Despoina - The Mistress - an ancient Arcadian goddess originally set as equal or even above her mother Demeter, and later conflated with Perspehone/Kore. Also the epitaph of Persephone’s younger half-sister, daughter of Demeter and Poseidon, whose true name was never to be revealed. I’m telling you - so many texts, so many cultures. So I make artistic choices as They inspire me.

See more at Point 4 below.

2. Type “Hades is not the Devil” into a search engine. Seriously. Just…yeah. Or read the original texts yourself. Here are a bunch in one place:

• Haides (Hades) the God

• Haides (Hades) the Place - including the Asphodel Meadows - the dismal, gray fields of meh for the general dead.

• Tartaros - the storm-belching pit of punishment & eternal damnation for evildoers.

• Elysian Fields & Isles of the Blessed - the Underworld’s paradise for heroes. Because who likes the Fields of Meh?

• The Pyriphlegethon - one of the main rivers in the Underworld. And yes. It’s a raging river of FIYAHHHHH that will carry you down to Tartaros if you’ve been bad.

• The Styx - ooooh, the River of Hate Herself! Another fun destination in the Underworld. There are many more. Hop aboard. I’ll show them to you.

• Don’t get me wrong. I’m a Joseph Campbell girl. I am fascinated by the Transformations of Myth Through Time, so I’m constantly setting up breadcrumbs that will make it all too easy to eventually pair Hades’ name with that of Satan. And seriously? I grew up on Disney. I just can’t help myself. We’ll get way more into all of this in the future because it’s too deep a rabbit hole.

3. The touchy subject:

• One of the gazillion conversations about it: Why is rape featured so prominently in Greek mythology?” Including links to both Wikis which will get you started down this rabbit hole - “List of rape victims in ancient history and mythology” and “mythological rape victims.” These are by no means complete or representative of worldwide myths.

• Why the Ancient Greeks Thought Adultery Was Worse Than Rape by Peter Jones and…

• Want the longer, nerdier, much more nuanced version of that? Greek Sanctions Against Sexual Assault by Susan Guettel Cole

• Guide to the classics: Ovid’s Metamorphoses and reading rape in today’s age by Marguerite Johnson

• An argument against romanticizing this myth in a Beauty & the Beast-ish fashion - and one of the gazillion reasons why I, as a modern author inspired by and repulsed by ancient myths, have such a deep rabbit hole to explore before I can make my choices.

• Ritual Death, Patriarchal Violence, and Female Relationships in the Hymns to Demeter and Inanna by Marcia W. D-S. Dobson
  
  

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) - Including the National Sexual Assault Hotline  800-656-HOPE

4. Etymology and shifting of the word “rape” through the centuries

• Etymology of “rape”

• History of the word “rape” - is it a “gate rape” or a “stay rape” or a “date rape” or a “rape-rape?” Is that a “forcible rape”? Are there any other kinds? Inquiring minds want to know.

And yeah. We’re being snarky sometimes, because the ridiculata can be strong with this one. And well…Underworld humor. Sometimes it’s dark. Sometimes it’s snark. But rest assured how rabid my fangs are over the entire concept of sexual assault, molestation, coercion and rape culture. Heck, it’s one of the many reasons why I’ve corralled my Damsel To Dangerous memoirs into a NSFW Substack of their own, separate from the shiny, pretty dance, creative process, art & nature stuff I also write about.

Writing fiction like this is one of the many other ways I have processed and dealt with my own experiences of violence, assault, sexual trauma and yes, rape-rape. You know. The “forcible kind.” 🤨

5. The Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone: Fertility, Sexuality, and Rebirth by Mara Lynn Keller

6. Theoi.com - A boatload of snippets and ancient text stories gathered all in one place for our devouring pleasure. The Persephone page has links to multiple versions of The Rape - Greek, Roman and a recent entry, the long, detailed Claudian version:

7. Claudian’s Rape of Proserpina

8. My home sources:

• The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essays by Helene P. Foley, Editor. Princeton University Press, 1994.

• Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology - A new translation by Robin Hard, Oxford World Classics reissued 2008.

• The Road to Eleusis by R. Gorden Wasson, Albert Hofmann, Carl A. P. Ruck, preface by Huston Smith, Hermes Press Book, William Dailey Rare Books Ltd, 1998. This book contains another translation of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter translated by Danny Staples.

• Bonus modern material for we aficionados: Queen of the Sacred Way - A Devotional Anthology in Honor of Persephone, edited by Melitta Benu, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2012 by Neos Alexandria

• Please don’t ask me to remember the other gazillion books I’ve perused and checked out from various libraries throughout the years. But a bunch of these sources have been neatly compiled and divvied by deity/topic on Theoi.com. 👆

9. Original myth and translation of Hades asking Zeus for permission to kidnap Persephone - a discussion and a boatload of translations from people who are way geekier about this stuff than I am. Woot!

Direct and Indirect Speech in The Homeric Hymn to Demeter - a fascinating look at when, where, and by whom direct quotes are used, versus indirect telling to indicate the importance of the mother-daughter bond versus a distanced reserve with Persephone’s bond to the males in question, particularly her father.