Cthonis Princess

(Avatar by Eirini Skou) | My hobbies include getting personally offended whenever someone insults something I like.

[xenotatts]

For those who don't know...

I'm on vacation... To the Underworld .. ✨

[therkalexander]

Is it true that Hades and Persephone were viewed as an ideal marriage by the Ancient Greeks? A while back, I read somewhere that, out of all the couplings between gods and goddesses, Hades and Persephone were the ones most commonly depicted on pottery gifted to newlyweds.

The primary goddess of marriage in Hellas was Hera and I think that the instances of Persephone taking precedence as the goddess of marriage were at localized cults, most prominently at Locri.

Also, what the Greeks viewed as an ideal marriage vs what we view as an ideal marriage are two very different things. Our most proliferate sources are from Athens, so I usually refer to their way of

Athens, let’s not forget, was a deeply misogynist city-state where a woman of status only left her house to be married or buried. Her primary functions were bearing children and weaving, regardless of social status, and she could not own property or inherit.

So when we’re talking about “ideal marriage”, bear in mind that our sense of it is thousands of years removed from the Bronze Age culture in which all these stories originate.

[dererumvita-art]

Sorry for not being very active right now, but I’m working on a short story and other stuff right now. Here’s a sketch of Dionysus and Ariadne I did yesterday as a cool down. I always loved Dionysus since I studied the greek tragedy “Bacchae” by Euripides in high school and I have always imagined him as a god who doesn’t conform to any particular gender (he keeps his hair very long, often dresses himself in feminine clothes and wears makeup bc fuck yeah why not). For Ariadne I chose to be as much historical accurate as I could, giving her typical Minoan clothes and hairstyle (as represented in Crete’s frescoes). Although Dionysus is pansexual and totally not monogamous, he loves Ariadne so much to make her his “canonical” wife (to the shock and disapproval of the whole pantheon, except for Aphrodite who laid a sick high-five).

[dererumvita-art]

“The red thread of fate” Or “When you help bae slay a monster, but he’s a f***ing douchebag and ditches you on a desert island, like thanks for nothing Theseus, you son of a b**ch”

[dererumvita-art]

Some of you have asked for a re-print of Bacchai, my first comic-book published by @shuientertainment, right? Well then, stay tuned! Now more than ever is the time to show your support, so consider activating the notifications on my blog, so as not to lose any update.

[dererumvita-art]

Sometimes I still think about her and want to make a comic based on her myth 🥲❤️

[coloricioso]

Drawing of Hades and Persephone based on this vase. Along with this one, we have many depictions where Persephone is shown doing the “veil gesture” (anakalypsis). As acceptance of the marriage, a woman would hold the tip of the veil with her left hand and “unveil” her face. In vases, Hades and Persephone were also depicted next to Eros or many Erotes, and same idea is repeated in terracota plaques or sanctuaries decorations. This -along many other evidences- proves that for Ancient Greeks, Hades and Persephone were a good marriage accompanied by love. 

Also it is really important to remember, as some scholars have researched (see Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones) that ancient Greek women turned the veil into a tool of self-expression and identity; what was initially supposed to be an imposition from men became a medium of self-expression and wider freedom (for example, women could leave home and walk through the city and engage in more activities by wearing their veils). Despite the fact they belonged to a pathriarcal and sometimes very misogynistic society, ancient Greek women were incredible strong and played important roles in daily life and they always pursued the best for them with the tools they had. So… please stop reducing Persephone into a helpless creature and erasing the fact her marriage was actually good; she was seen as a strong, amazing and a powerful woman/goddess by Ancient Greeks, and she was even considered a patroness of marriage in some cities.

[coloricioso]

“According to one version of the myth, the abduction of Kore took place on Sicily, where a festival called Kore’s Katagoge (bringing down) was widely celebrated. Moreover, Underworld scenes were common on southern Italian funerary vases in the fourth century B.C.”

it breaks my heart that Persephone’s face is erased :( but we can see that she is doing the “veil gesture” which could allude to many things (marriage acceptance, covering for modesty or uncovering for “seduction” and so on…).  And Hades totally looks like “oops”. 

[soverylittlehoneybee]

I always find it curious when people tell me Persephone was tricked by Hades to eat the seeds. I guess they mean the Hymn to Demeter version, when Hades gives Persephone the seeds with explicit purpose of binding her to the Underworld, because in Ovid she eats them without his knowledge and he is only later informed about it. But even in the Hymn we are never told if Persephone is aware of the consequences of eating the seeds. She may now very well what they mean and be just ultimately accepting Hades’ offer or she may not know and in this case she really is tricked.

It really gets even more complicated when Persephone tells Demeter that Hades forced seeds on her, which is not really consistent with what actually happened in the earlier lines. I heard many explanations why she says it this way. Some people I spoke with think she is making Hades’ fault more explicit this way or that she is covering shame she feels for letting herself be tricked, but others said that she lies to Demeter because she is worried how her mother will react to Persephone willingly staying with Hades.

[therkalexander]

Oo! Oo! Oo! Check out what I found!!!

The part that most people cite, at Line 406, when they talk about Persephone eating the seeds unwillingly reads as follows:

“Surely, mother I shall tell you the whole truth.  When Hermes, the helpful swift messenger, mae from father Zeus and the other heavenly dwellers to fetch me from Erebos, so that seeing me with your own eyes you might desist from your anger and dreadful wrath against the immortals, I myself sprang up for joy, but Aidoneus slyly placed in my hands a pomegranate seed, sweet as honey to eat.  Against my will and by force he made me taste of it.” (Athanassakis, HHtD)

BUT

And this gets VERY interesting

Here is a quote from Demeter at Line 119 when she is talking to the daughters of Metaneira and Celeus about her identity:

“Dear children, whoever of ladylike women you are, I greet you and will explain; indeed is fitting to tell you the truth, since you are asking.  Doso is my name which mighty mother gave me.  And now from Crete on the broad back of the sea I came unwillingly; marauding men by brute force carried me off against my will.” (Athanassakis, HHtD)

She gives her name as Doso and tells them that she was carried from Crete by pirates unwillingly because the truth that she is the goddess of the harvest would have been a story completely beyond belief for the mortals of Eleusis. It is only later that she reveals herself as Demeter.

The Homeric Hymns are all in iambic hexameter, originally spoken aloud, oral tradition that was then written down around 700-600 BCE. The audience would hear these similarities. They would hear them in rhythm. Meaning they would be hearing the exact same words Demeter used to tell a story the Eleusinians would believe, that Persephone used when she told a story Demeter would believe!

So with VERY similar language that Demeter used to ease the minds of the Eleusinian mortals and disguise her truths, Persephone tells her mother that the pomegranate seeds were forced upon her because the truth of her eating them willingly to stay in the Underworld with Hades would have been beyond belief for Demeter. It is only later in every single story about Persephone (we never again see her in myth outside her position of power in the Underworld) that she is revealed to be dread Persephone, the Iron Queen.

[coloricioso]

PERSEPHONE’S MYTH (part 1)

MISCONCEPTION 1: Before marrying Hades, Persephone was a random flower nymph/goddess with no importance at all.

I’ve read this kind of statement a lot here in Tumblr (even by Persephone fans or worshipers). Why is this wrong? What does the Homeric Hymn to Demeter tell us about her? This post is meant to clarify and enlighten the myth.

LINES 2, 21, 31 and others:  First, let’s remember that Persephone is a goddess by birth. She is daughter of Zeus (god and king of all other gods) and Demeter (a highly imporant goddess!!), therefore she is part of the immortal race. She is sister to Athena, Apollo, Artemis and many other “important gods”.

LINE 08: Persephone is named “Kore” which means “maiden” or “girl”. In Ancient Greece, women’s life was divided into childhood/maidenhood and adulthood. The transition to adulthood is set by marriage. Married women are no longer girls, no longer “maidens”. That is why, Athena and Artemis who are virgin goddes are also “maidens”. 

The “kore archetype” can be linked to vulnerability, not to stupidity. As authors and scholars like C. G. Jung state, the status of maidenhood is related to vulnerability (by lack of experience or physical strenght, etc.). In the Hymn we see that Persephone is a girl playing, who has no defense against her seizing. Artemis was a hunting goddess and yet she was also vulnerable to have her intimacy broken by Aktaion, Athena who was goddess of war and logic also suffers harrassment by Hephaistos. The huge difference between the 3 sisters, is that 1) Persephone has no defined honor/power yet unlike Artemis and Athena who are already linked to hunting/battle activities whent they find themselves in trouble, 2) in Persephone’s case, is Zeus, the ruler of gods and her own father, the one who allows the marriage by abduction. So in this context, Persephone as maiden goddess, is helpless and vulnerable. In the myths, Persephone is not portrayed as a goddess who is helpless because “she is stupid” and neither her status of young girl is linked to stupidity, as some Tumblr users like to portray.

LINES 5-7, 417-427: Flower gathering or “anthologia” was a deserving activity, one that girls did with joy and pride. The flower gathering was NOT a silly thing done by “stupid girls”. I’ve read this a lot in Tumblr and always in a very derogative way. Some people speak of Kore (Persephone) as if she was uninmportant and stupid because she was related to flowers, and only after marrying Hades she “became important”. This is not only inaccurate and wrong, but also highly anti-feminist.  In lines 417-427 Persephone names her flower gathering companions, did you see who are with her? Athena and Artemis, goddesses of battles and hunting, “important goddesses”. Flower gathering was a good thing, done by maiden goddesses. And it was also done by Ancient Greek girls, with joy. As you should remember, in Ancient Times, flowers were highly important for clothing dying, medicine, food, garlands and ritual activities. So mocking and reducing flowers and the girls who gather them into a silly thing is something not helpful and harmful, and as I said before, really anti-feminist.

LINES 84, 325, 268, 360-369 and others: the Homeric Hymn to Demeter tell us many things, is a complex hymn, but one of the important subjects is the attribution of honors or timê/ timên. This concept of honor is related to the gods prerrogatives, rights or their magistracies. In order to sooth Demeter, Zeus (sending all the other gods) offers her to choose from any honor/attribution she wants. From the narrative of the Hymn we see that Persephone is portrayed as Demeter’s daughter but she does not seem to have any particular honor, not a special attribution from her own that distinguishes her from other goddeses. We can analyze this in many ways (from psychological perspectives like psychoanalysis, and so on) but what we learn and is clear from the Hymn, is that by becoming Queen of Hades (Underworld), Persephone gains new honors -again, we are not told if she had any previous honors- and as other important goddesses (as Styx or Hecate) these powers are not only limited to one realm (the Hades where she rules) but many. Persephone has honors in Hades, on Earth and also in Olympus. 

The fact that we aren’t told of Persephone’s previous honors, does not necessarily mean that she didn’t have them. It would be a pretty weird thing that a daughter of Zeus had no honor or attribution at all. Persephone is portrayed as a girl, but she is still a goddess, she is not unimportant. In other myths, we have infant (or just born) gods as Artemis, Apollo or Hermes already doing great things. We are told that a “baby” Hermes invents the lyre and steals Apollo’s cattle, and later Zeus confirms the divine privileges/honors of Hermes. So, I think that we are free to speculate on Persephone/Kore’s privileges prior the abduction.

YOU CAN READ THE HOMERIC HYMN TO DEMETER ONLINE:

Perseus page

Early women masters: very useful since it has complementary texts on the left side of the screen, and notes on greek translations.

Translation by Gregory Nagy

Next post will focus on the abduction. Feel free to make questions.

[kimber-anne]

While you’re waiting for the next chapter ;) If you’re not caught up with my Hades and Persephone story, check it out here :)

[kimber-anne]

WIP from the next chapter! :) I still need to clean it up but I’m moving to the next page for now :)

[kimber-anne]

Discontinuing my Work

I am saddened to announce that I am currently discontinuing my work on Hades and Persephone. I started the project in 2015 and have been stepping over my own feet nearly the whole time. I honestly enjoyed working on the comic, and even now there are so many appealing aspects about doing it. But in ways I’m not ready to talk about, it has played a role in decimating my mental health. Maybe one day I’ll be emotionally ready to take it back on… but I’m nowhere near that point right now. I’ve been absent from social media on and off for a long while now. But I need to be off-off and put more effort into recovering.

Thank you for the kind messages and showing interest in my work. Sorry I couldn’t deliver. This account is going to be silent for a long while, so in case you decide to unfollow or you just forget over time I would like to wish everyone the best in life. 

Take care,

-kimber-anne

[cthonisprincess]

@kimber-anne

I’m not sure if you are going to see this, but I hope that Tumblr lets you. 

I know that it’s been four years since your last real update, but I just wanted to take a moment to tell you that I haven’t forgotten about you, and I’m genuinely curious about how you have been in the last few years and that I hope that your mental health has recovered and that I still care about you.

-Cthonis-Princess

[kimber-anne]

I’m working on a comic, and it’s coming along really slow. But I figured it would be cool to post some character sketches. This is my Persephone design from my retelling of Hades and Persephone. I’m actually pretty nervous to show people my WIP stuff for this, but maybe it’ll help encourage me to work harder at it.

[kimber-anne]

Still working on my comic, I really want to show some pages but I’m nervous about posting stuff before its done… :/ Mainly because like, “What if I want to change stuff later?”

But I REALLY want to show people 

[kimber-anne]

Navigation 🌷

Prolouge Part I Part II

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Here’s the prologue to my version of Hades and Persephone 

didn’t get too creative with the title haha 

I’m very nervous to post it. I saw other artists do a much better job with the story, but I really didn’t want to give up all the work I did just because of that.

The first actual chapter will come out soon! I’m looking forward to sharing it!

I’ll probably post here and on Tapastic eventually, so if you like Tapastic’s layout better than tumblr’s, there will be that.

I will have to re-size all these pages because I wasn't thinking

[kimber-anne]

Hades and Persephone- Part I

Prologue, Part I, Part II

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It’s here! I’m going to try to post on Thursday nights. No promises they’ll always be on time because of work/school. But Thursdays are the goal.

I had a lot of technical difficulties with this. My home monitor is really crappy and the one I used at school is great… but it made the colors have a lot of inconsistencies. I’ll be getting a new monitor soon, so maybe I’ll come back to older chapters later and retouch them.