Demeter and Persephone Myth

Portia Elletson

Interpretation essay

Myth 2

19 September 08

                                                            Pomegranate Seed

            The feeling of loss over comes one’s soul.  A deep grievance lingers in the air.  A separation between the two is so unfair, yet the smallest thing can bring them together.  An inseparable bond between a mother and beautiful virgin daughter is broken by that of a reaper. One could analyze this myth to get a deeper understanding of the love between mother and daughter by breaking it down in three levels: natural, social and psychological.  The providing, “good mother,” the beautiful virgin daughter and the small delicious fruit that brings them together.

            When you hear the word virgin, you think pure, without fault, flawless.  All of these characteristics describe Persephone. The image of new birth, a new and beautiful beginning.  Not only was she a virgin, but she was absolutely gorgeous.  She was so perfect.  Happiness overflowed from her as well as the feeling of newness, growth, adventure and change.  The thought never crossed her mind about being ripped away from her mother, to be unwillingly dragged to the underworld. 

Demeter, the goddess of corn, a wonderful provider and a mother, watched carefully over her daughter Persephone. Not only being a mother but a “good mother,” Demeter was looked at as a leader or a queen.  She was in charge of everything on earth.  Making plants and flowers grow was her specialty. 

Small, delicious, messy, nutritious, these all describe the separating bond between mother and daughter.  Hades the spooky, sinister, ugly man forced Persephone to consume that delicious rare jewel, to keep her in his grasp forever.  A short visit from her daughter put Demeter in a fantastic mood.  Beautiful flowers, warm sunshine and green grass sprang up in her arrival.  Life was never better.  But as her time of visiting came to an end, those beautiful flowers, warm sunshine and green grass all faded away.  Cold, miserable, icy days flooded the land. 

Separation makes the heart grow fonder.  By breaking this myth down in three levels we see how a complicated myth can be broken down in terms we can understand.  Myths are just like every day life.  Often times people are overcome with temptation, just like Persephone.  Being tempted goes back way in time.  Some actions are easy to explain and others that can never be explained, unless we break them down and look at them more closely.