Waxing Poetic - Persephone

This will be the last poem of the week.  Thank you for indulging me. 

As I mentioned previously, I thought about keeping this poem until Autumn, which seemed a more appropriate time of year.  However, I've been spending a lot of time in the Underworld of late, and the Dark Lady, in all Her guises, is much on my mind. 

Having hosted Lilith in my body more than once I have no fear of the shadow Goddesses, and Persephone's story has been a fascination of mine since high school.  Even as a teenager I never could quite believe the accepted version of things--I imagined the young Maiden walking proudly through the ebony gates, shedding her innocence as Inanna shed her garments, no longer content to live under Her mother's thumb or the rule of patriarchal rapist gods.  I wanted my Goddess to take the hand of Hades unflinchingly, no matter what the myths--all set down by men--would have me believe.  When I looked at Persephone I did not see a terrified virgin screaming from the back of a chariot.  I saw a Queen.

My mother thinks that I said no.
She's better off, in my opinion.
Last we met I was a slender creature,
with sprigs of thyme and flowers in my hair
barefoot and giggling, lily-white,
legs crossed if a man looked towards me.
Everything was boys and ribbons
a blush and a sigh
with downcast eyes.

There are days when I still wish for flowers
and wake to find jet roses at my feet.
I am full and red and ripened now,
not some tender little thing.
I have no further need for sonnets
or for ribbons in my hair
for now I speak the tongues of nightmare
and robe myself in spider's silk,
with shadow for my cloak.

She would have wed me to some bright-eyed boy
smart as a horse and hung like Hermes
who would follow me around
and paw at me with the lights out.
How do you tell your mother
you prefer to fuck in the firelight?
I would not sit idly in the glaring sun
fanning myself and drinking watered wine
when I can bathe in the flame of night
and rake my nails across Death's shoulders.

Grandchildren, she always said.
It never occurred to me to disagree;
but the choirs of the dead are far more pleasing
than the whine of a child hanging from my breast.
It would surprise her to know
that in this place, this woman need not bow her head
this woman is no mere wife,
and my word is also law.

Tell her for me, when you go back--
tell her that I was afraid,
that I begged to be sent home,
and that he held me down and pushed my knees apart.
It's best, I think, that she not know
my screams were not from fear.
Besides, I lost it when I was fourteen
behind the stable while she was away.
Perhaps for her my memory is best left lily-white.

Let her cry rape to Olympus if it pleases her.
Let her beg and weep for my release;
I swallowed far more than seeds that night
so I think her cause is lost.
She'll feel better if she thinks I grieve
for those scattered blossoms on the hillside
but I have learned to love the taste of blood
and I am not going anywhere.

Comments

[Heather]

Wow. Love it.

[Autumn]

I agree with Heather. WOW. I really like that, and it gives me a new direction of thinking on Persephone.

[Mel]

The myth of Persephone in the underworld never really grabbed me, but that is such a kick-ass interpretation.

Hmmm, that makes you the third witch/ Wiccan I know of who says that it was Persephone's choice to stay. Interesting...

[N ightmare]

I always understood the "rape" in the story to be more metaphoric, more a kidnapping of sorts or forceful wooing rather than actual rape. Thus, this lines up with my vision of Persephone's story much better than the traditional understanding. But perhaps that's just me.

[Luna]

Hi, I'm new here, but I already love your blog.
The ancient writings definitely do portray it as a rape sanctified by Zeus, which I think is why modern feminists want to reclaim the story with interpretations like this. Several years ago I also wrote poem taking a similar perspective. The way I see it, Demeter is very much about the middleworld and sexuality that leads to life and growth. Persephone's story seems to be about attraction and the desire to copulate for its own sake. That's a pretty subversive idea for a young girl to have, especially in a patriarchal culture. No wonder "no one hears her cries"; no wonder it all happens in the underworld.

[Danmara]

Beautiful!!

From what I know of Hades and Persephone (total UPG btw) I can't see Hades as a rapist...I just can't. And I can't see Persephone as an unwilling captive, either.

[Travis]

I'm not Wiccan/Pagan, but I do find interest in Greek mythology. I was doing research for a novella I want to write modernizing the story of the Rape of Persephone, and there are a few interesting things I came across.

1) Plato and Sophocles actually mentioned Persephone as being a Psychopomp.

"In Spretnak's version of the myth, Persephone explains to her mother that there are spirits who "drift about restlessly" and "hover around their earthly homes" because they do not understand their state. She then volunteers to go down to the Underworld and initiate them into their new life. While at first resisting Persephone's desire, Demeter comes to understand her motives and leads her to "a long, deep chasm and produces a torch for Her to carry." When Persephone finally arrives in the Underworld, she stands on a rock, with her torch, a vase of her mother's grain, and a large bowl of "pomegranate seeds, the food of the dead." As her aura increases in "brightness and warmth," she introduces herself as Queen of the Dead, and explains to the spirits that they have left their earthly bodies. She then beckons "those nearest to step up onto the rock and enter Her aura," where she embraces them, looks into their eyes, feeds them pomegranate seeds, and offers them a blessing for renewed "tranquility and wisdom" (111-116)."
http://www.mythicarts.com/writing/Persephone.htm

2) Some myths suggest her as being part of a triple goddess. Persephone (Maiden) of the underworld, Demeter (Mother) of the earth, and Hecate ("Crone"/Elder) of the sky. (Possibly stemming from the Eleusian Mysteries.)

3)I could go on and on, but I'll just direct you towards here:
http://endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrpersephone.html

[April]

Persephone has always interested me. Below is a bit of a rambling I had about her.

What do they mean when it is called the “Rape of Persephone” in art and myth? Some (and this is the interpretation I follow) believe that her rape is not of a physical sense. It is, instead, her identification with a man. Until Hades takes her to the underworld, she is a virgin in the classical sense of the word: she was identified solely by the feminine. (This is also seen in “Goblin Market.”)

Persephone is often identified in the female cycle of “maiden, mother, crone” as the maiden. But this needs to be looked at as a cycle and not as a singular event. At some point she has to cross over into the next aspect. Some say she was tricked into eating the pomegranate seeds. I feel that she deliberately took them from the hand of Hades because it was with him that she felt the whole of her femininity. I feel that Persephone knew what she was doing. She made a decision.

[Jacky Heraty]

As far as I know, the term "rape" had a different meaning in ancient Greece. It was a the crime of having sex with a woman without her father's/husband's permision - in other words, the person wronged was the male "owning" the female. Persephone's consent or otherwise would have been considered irrelevant.
I, too, believe that, after the abduction ( and she was, of course "set up" by both her uncle, Zeus and her Grandmother Gaia who grew the flower which caused her to wander away from her companions) - she came to love her husband and embraced her role as Queen of the Underworld. She brought life to the Dead, for the seed must fall away from the corn and remain underground before it can grow into its full potential and return to the upper world.