“The themes that recur in the stories of so many mythological women — from coercion to violent rape — are easily glossed over between translation and retelling. To ignore them or willfully write them out, as several of these newer “feminist” receptions do, is at best irresponsible, because doing so continues to validate dangerous tropes and leads to actual harm.” Aimee Hinds, Rape or Romance? Bad Feminism in Mythical Retellings
It’s always bothered me that Persephone’s father gave permission to her uncle to abduct her by force and marry her without her knowledge or consent – and of course we can all imagine what happened after that - the wedding night. No one even floated the idea to Persephone or her mother, Demeter. In the story, Persephone and her girlfriends are out picking wildflowers when the earth violently opens up and Hades, Persephone’s uncle and brother to Zeus, comes flying up through the crevasse on a chariot pulled by fiery black horses. He grabs the hapless Persephone around the waist, pulls her into the chariot and disappears back into the earth which closes over them. The only sign the earth was ever disturbed was the echoes of Persephone’s screams for help. Her mother, Demeter, is as distraught by her abduction as Persephone is, yet her father gave permission.
Every time I read the story I got stuck at that point. Usually, I put the story down for a moment to wonder: Didn’t her father care about her at all? She must have been terrified. Did that not weigh as much as his brother’s desire to take her? How could a father behave that way toward his own daughter? When I was in graduate school and began to read the myths archetypally, Zeus’ callousness toward his daughter rankled even more. What about this cold cruelty from father to daughter is archetypal?
Then one day I read a news story about a girl who was brutally raped, and her family wasn’t concerned for her welfare either. They were only concerned about her (read: their) honor. They decided that the best way to address the harm was for the girl to marry her rapist. Then it wouldn’t be rape anymore because what happened was between a husband and wife. Just as in the myth, no mention is made about the girl’s feelings or desires – as if everyone assumes she doesn’t have any.
Slowly, my horror deepened. Most of ancient Greece was very patriarchal and misogynistic. Fathers routinely decided the fates of their daughters without consulting them. It was thought good practice to choose a husband twenty years older than the bride in order to keep her in the position of the child and bolster his authority. Many a wedding night must have been very much like the rape in the myth. As I delved into the research, I discovered that this was a complete reversal of how marriages were done in earlier, more matrilineal times.
Of course, Demeter grieved, and not just for her daughter, I thought. Perhaps a whole way of life was passing away, and as mother god, she was losing almost everything. Perhaps, this story marks a moment of shift, toward a more patriarchal marriage system.