The Persephone In The Song The Hymn To Demeter

The Hymn to Demeter is a song about the kidnapping and eventual induction of Persephone as the wife of Hades. Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, and is portrayed as a young woman of marriageable age. As the wife of Hades, Persephone shares his domain, being given authority and power over all who reside in the underworld (line 364-369). Also, Persephone is able to reprimand those who are immoral or do not satisfy her with offerings and sacrifices (line 364-369). In the hymn, Persephone first starts out as a seemingly static character, but throughout the song she undergoes maturation and coming of age to end as a dynamic goddess. It is as if the plucking of a narcissus flower has changed her outlook on the world and transformed her …show more content…
Persephone explains to her mother that “Kronos’ other son put into me a pomegranate seed, honey-sweet food, compelling me by force to eat, most unwillingly” (lines 411-413). Although there were no implications that Hades coerced Persephone to eat the seed, the daughter lies to her mother to hide the fact that she has willingly accepted Hades as her husband and that she was well aware that eating the seed would affiliate her to the underworld. Persephone does not want to disclose the truth to her mother and wishes to still be viewed as the innocent victim of Zeus’ arrangement. It is interesting that despite the close mother-daughter relationship that the two goddesses share, Persephone still feels the need to conceal herself and does not reveal that she actually wanted to marry Hades for the honors she will be given. Starting as a girl who was wholly attached to her mother, Persephone gradually becomes more independent from her mother’s overprotective barrier and begins grasp control of her own life by making her own choices. With the order from the lord of the sky, she is to stay with Demeter and the Olympians for two-thirds of the year, while the other one-third is to be spent in the underworld with her husband Hades. Although Persephone undergoes a coming of age, she continues to maintains her …show more content…
The song shows that Persephone is strong-willed, independent, adaptive, and is able to exert her influence to get the honors and powers she desires. From being a seemingly frail and innocent girl who is helplessly kidnapped while picking flowers, she is able to get what she wants from the lord of the dead and sky and become a revered goddess. Perhaps, it could be seen that Zeus purposely arranged the marriage of Hades and Persephone to help the coming of age of his