When you think of myths, the first thing that comes to your mind is most likely ancient heroes. Brave or strong or righteous men who go on adventures to prove how brave and strong and righteous they are. You might not think of the women of these myths, which will be the theme of this blog.

First of all I would like to give a heads up. When I use the term mythology, I am not implying that the stories and legends I am writing about are false. I simply mean that they are stories passed down through tradition that describe our world and its history. I will be looking at these mythological women as characters in literature, and do not mean to discredit anyone’s beliefs.

With that out of the way, let us move on to our first subject: Persephone.

This goddess does not have much text about her. Despite being thought to be one of the Greek deities who predate classical Greek culture, she is seldom mentioned in texts other than Homer’s Hymn to Demeter, which was written about her mother. This hymn expresses sorrow for Demeter when her daughter was kidnapped by the King of the Underworld, Hades.

Persephone is referred to in many different ways, each representing a different aspect of her character. These names are called epithets.

The one you likely will hear most is Kore, though this is more of a title than a name. It directly translates to maiden. This title would represent Persephone’s fertility and nature related aspects. In modern media, you might hear she changed her name from Kore to Persephone, as an act of rebellion, as Persephone supposedly translates to feared one. I think this is a neat idea, but it is definitely not accurate to the texts and artifacts we have about her. That title of feared one likely comes from one of my favorite of Persephone’s epithets, Brimo, which roughly translates to roaring. This is where her duality starts to shine. Brimo would be used in relation to Persephone as a chthonic goddess and Queen of the Underworld. 

In modern media, Persephone is seen as a rebellious young woman who broke free from an overbearing mother to marry someone she loved, as shown in the popular webcomic Lore Olympus by Racheal Smythe. As much as I love this idea of the character, I wish people took time to understand the original source material. Yes, the incest and kidnapping is disturbing, as it should be, but there is also a story about a young woman finding power in less than perfect circumstances.