Happy Valentines Day! This is Dev. This will be the first of a longish series of Daily Deities, where I take a moment to talk about a certain god or concept or something from mythology that I've been thinking about that day and why. I know that it's called "Daily" Deities, but I won't always have time to make one of these posts every day, since I have a limited amount of computer time a day, even on weekends. During weekdays, I have schoolwork to do and so I may not always write one of these every day, but I will try. I also might not write one of these if my head is still stuck on the previous topic.
With that out of the way, let's talk about Hades and Persephone, who have both caught my attention recently, and both of whom I've been thinking about lately. Recently, Valentines Day happened and it made me think about love stories in mythology. My mind moved to Greece, since they have their fair share of love stories, most of which, unfortunately, end terribly. So, a question came to mind: "what are some really good love stories in Greece that have a happy ending and are actually functional?" I've only been able to determine two couples: Eros and Psyche, and Hades and Persephone. If you find any more, please comment down below.
Eros is the god of love in Greek mythology and he shoots arrows to make people fall in love. Psyche was his beautiful wife, whom his mother Aphrodite was jealous of and did her absolute best to keep them separate. Eventually she gave up and Eros and Psyche were happily married, and unlike most Greek gods, Eros remained totally faithful to his wife.
Hades and Persephone, instead, got off to a rough start. Demeter, the goddess of the harvest was very overprotective of her daughter Persephone, who was also Zeus's daughter. So, when Hades fell in love with her, knowing that Demeter would refuse, he asked Zeus for permission to marry Persephone, and Zeus specifically told him to kidnap her, which he did. In reality, this wasn't some terrifying assault, but instead, an arranged marriage. Demeter didn't respond happily to the disappearance of her daughter and refused to let anything grow on the earth unless she got her daughter back. Zeus sent Hermes to go get Hades to release Persephone. Hades and Persephone had actually gotten along well and when Hades heard what Demeter was doing, he actually told Persephone to return to her mother to sort things out. But he promises her that she will be his queen and that he will try to be the best husband for her. Persephone returned to earth, and then admitted to her parents that she had eaten some food in the underworld and so she had to stay there for one third of the year, while she spent the rest of the year with her mother. When Persephone was with Hades, Demeter would become sad again and it would become winter, and when Persephone was with Demeter, she would be happy and spring and summer would occur.
What I find which I thought was pretty nice, was that Persephone did end up loving Hades, and Hades did keep his word. Him and Persephone never cheated on each other, and Persephone was in the rare position of getting to share equal power in the underworld with her husband. This was not standard in Ancient Greece, because Greece considered women to be very unimportant and less than men. So, knowing that Persephone was being treated equally by her husband makes me feel good inside, because that's how relationships should be like, and it's good know that Hades isn't a bad guy at all. When people think of Hades, they either make him a default Satan analog, or you think of the Hades interpretation in Disney's Hercules movie. These versions are both inaccurate, since Hades has never done anything cruel ever. He is a good person who does his job and loves his wife. So, I really hope that somewhere along the line, we will get a modern interpretation of Hades that matches his good original characterization, which is the characterization that I like. My current favorite adaptation of the story is Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus Webcomic. I'm a huge, hardcore fan.
I hope you enjoyed my first Daily Deity, and I'll try to write more of these as the time goes by. I hope this has reshaped how you think about Hades and Persephone and I hope you are all safe at home during this pandemic. Please wear your masks and socially distance where necessary. We'll get through this together!
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