Personally I prefer one of the modern retellings where Persephone was never kidnapped but instead wished to actually have a relationship with Hades. That said, it is vitally important to remember the original telling to remind us of the cruelty that comes from letting desire supercede respect.
The modern retelling does make it easier to read but it also throws under the rug that pain that came with it. Without that pain, we can quickly become numb to other’s suffering.
For Rome, the rape of the Sabine women was a similar tale. One can see why Ovid would soften the story.
Yet bernini took to himself and presented it in full visual and emotional pain. You can see Persephone’s tear. She is crying, not excited to go with Hades.
There is something in the nature of human sexuality that seems to involve male dominance and female submission. That dominance is not incompatible with female happiness. Isn’t male insistence over and against female resistance, followed by resolution in the form of female acceptance a trope of popular song and story? It appears to me that the older mythology and the newer fit this pattern. (The Taming of the Shrew, for instance.)
Were the Greeks descendants of the Yamnaya? If so that could explain a lot. DNA shows that the men were warrior invaders, the women were abducted. That could leave a lasting impression in the collective memory.
Thanks CE! Greeks are proud to claim Autochthony (sprung out of their earth) through their myths and recorded history, showcasing that they were “always in Greece”; the only major “Migration” that is actually recorded in myth and history was the Dorian move - which was another Greek tribe - located in the Pindus mountains that migrated south, towards the Peloponnese. But they were also Greek. Therefore, i cannot see any connection with the Yamnaya - if they ever existed as a cohesive tribe.
Personally I prefer one of the modern retellings where Persephone was never kidnapped but instead wished to actually have a relationship with Hades. That said, it is vitally important to remember the original telling to remind us of the cruelty that comes from letting desire supercede respect.
The modern retelling does make it easier to read but it also throws under the rug that pain that came with it. Without that pain, we can quickly become numb to other’s suffering.
For Rome, the rape of the Sabine women was a similar tale. One can see why Ovid would soften the story.
Yet bernini took to himself and presented it in full visual and emotional pain. You can see Persephone’s tear. She is crying, not excited to go with Hades.
There is something in the nature of human sexuality that seems to involve male dominance and female submission. That dominance is not incompatible with female happiness. Isn’t male insistence over and against female resistance, followed by resolution in the form of female acceptance a trope of popular song and story? It appears to me that the older mythology and the newer fit this pattern. (The Taming of the Shrew, for instance.)
Were the Greeks descendants of the Yamnaya? If so that could explain a lot. DNA shows that the men were warrior invaders, the women were abducted. That could leave a lasting impression in the collective memory.
@TheBlackWolf could answer this best.
Thanks CE! Greeks are proud to claim Autochthony (sprung out of their earth) through their myths and recorded history, showcasing that they were “always in Greece”; the only major “Migration” that is actually recorded in myth and history was the Dorian move - which was another Greek tribe - located in the Pindus mountains that migrated south, towards the Peloponnese. But they were also Greek. Therefore, i cannot see any connection with the Yamnaya - if they ever existed as a cohesive tribe.
Just looking at the sculpture ‘ in the flesh’ so to speak, really brings home the true meaning to me. Photographs cannot do it justice in my mind x