Hades, Demeter, and Persephone
The story of Demeter, Goddess of the harvest, the kidnapping and rape of her only daughter, Persephone, and the trickery of Hades, God of the Underworld is intense. Demeter has only one daughter; she is the symbol of spring and all that comes with that season. Persephone is the symbol of spring and purity and because of that purity, it caused her to become queen of the Underworld residing beside Hades. In this story of Demeter, and in any story, there are three levels that we must look at in order to understand the deeper meaning of the story and what the author wants the world to see. These three levels are: natural, which is seeing the basics of the story, like who, what, where, when, and why, or how the world sees it, social; which is seeing the relationships with other people or how the people in the world expects of you socially; and psychological, this is the level of feelings and emotions of a person or individual.
On a natural level, Persephone is the daughter of Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest. She is the symbol of spring and all of its newness, purity, and beauty. She was said to be extremely beautiful, just like the new flowers that come with spring. With spring, comes new things, new life, and in this story, grief. She was kidnapped by Hades, and taken into his ugly, dark realm of the Underworld. As a result, her mother grieved and took life from the Earth.
The next level is the social level. One famous way to show the social level is to have a villain. Well in this story, the villain was the king of the Underworld. He fell in love with Persephone, with her beauty and purity. So he came out of the Underworld and took her, not allowing her to leave. Giving her all the jewels of the world to his new bride, but poor Persephone, who missed her mother and the world above, would take nothing from him. Hades is the symbol of death, greed, and desire.
The last and final level is the psychological level. Demeter, Persephone’s mother, was the Goddess of the Harvest, so she gave the world food and growth. She is the symbol of life and all of the things the world gets from the Earth. That is, until Persephone disappeared without a trace. When she couldn’t find her only daughter, she was grief-stricken. She rebelled against the world, taking away all growth, bringing a famine to the world. If she had to suffer, the world did too.
Hades is the symbol of death, greed, and desire. Persephone is the symbol of spring, purity, and beauty. And Demeter is the symbol of growth and life to the world. This myth is also supposed to be the reason for the different seasons. I think that all of these correspond together; hopefully this story makes sense and won’t make you lose your mind.
