I’m not sure whether I should laugh or cry.
Is OP aware that oh so many books exist on this subject?
And that almost universally the ones authored by people with doctorates in classicism and mythology disagree with OP?
Including the… epic hymn that first told this story? You know what’s in that original source material… right?
Abducted, yes.
Demeter mourned? Definitely.
Rape, no.
So here’s some info on Ancient Greek wedding traditions which (oh my stars and garters!!) included abducting the bride. With the father’s permission, which Hades got before he took her away.
Here’s a whole book on the subject of Ancient Greek wedding custom and its conflation with funeral rites. (Which sounds a bit like Hades and Persephone to anyone who’s ever dabbled in things like explication and context)
Here’s a link to another book that talks about Persephone’s rise to power as a result of her willingly eating the pomegranate seeds.
Here’s a whole bunch of myths and hymns that talk about her Queen of the Underworld badassery!!
Here’s another book about the myth focusing on the seasonal religious and liminal rites. WHICH TAKE PLACE IN THE DRY SUMMER (not the fucking winter), which you know if you read a book.Way to go, OP!
All these fucking books! What could anyone possibly do with them all?!?!?!?! Do you eat books to absorb their powers instead of read them?
A better guess would be that you got into a moral panic over the name of a certain Renaissance statue and maybe after reading three pages of Edith Hamilton or the first paragraph of a Wikipedia article. And then used that to castigate and demean not only the people who actually take their limited time to create gorgeous art but also to denigrate modern day worshippers of Persephone and Hades?
Maybe next time, you stringy piece of over-boiled okra, you might want to take your own advice and pick up a book, instead of reducing the feared and respected Queen of the Underworld who held power equal to or in many interpretations GREATER than her husband into a meaningless pastiche of female disenfranchisement that you seemingly plucked from your own ass.
