LORE OLYMPUS THEORY, APOLLO DIDNT R*** PERSEPHONE, ZEUS DID.
Obviously there will be spoilers ahead.
I've been wracking my brain to figure out why, out of everything, the one innaccurate detail in Lore Olympus that is so blindingly wrong is that Apollo r***d Persephone or really anyone for that matter. Especially since Apollo is such an awesome God for the most part in his actual mythology.
So hear me out. I know this has been said before but I have even more evidence to back up why this theory makes so much sense to me.
In some myths, Demeter hears a prophecy about Persephone having an unwanted bedmate before marriage so she hides her away in a cave guarded by dragons. Zeus finds this cave and transforms into a dragon to lull the other dragons to sleep and then proceeds to take advantage of Persephone.
This isn't the only story where Zeus uses transformation to take advantage of someone but aside from the aforementioned example, there is one that stands out in my mind.
The story of Callisto is where I'm going to be pulling from for this bit. In this story, in one version, Callisto is a companion of Artemis who has taken a vow of chastity. Wikipedia says that Zeus was either disguised as Artemis or Apollo when he took advantage of her causing her to have her son Arcas.
The creator before has mentioned not wanting to say too much about the god's abilities to transform other than their animal forms. Is this because in mythology Greek gods transform to look like each other all the time?
Zeus and Apollo also have striking similarities. And when Hera asks about him after her vision what he thinks of Apollo, Zeus compares the two of them saying he reminds him of his younger self.
The creator has also placed great importance on color. So there must be a reason they made both Apollo and Zeus purple and such similar shades of it too.
It is true that in Greek mythology Apollo tried to woo Persephone by giving her a lyre as a gift, but that's it. So where did the r*** come from?
My theory is that the author merged the stories of Callisto and the original Persephone to make what you see in Lore Olympus. Persephone is the companion of Artemis who takes a vow of chastity but has that taken away by Zeus disguised as Apollo. Artemis and Hestia are the dragon's meant to protect Persephone from such an occurrence, but turning into Apollo was similar to turning into a dragon, it tricked the guardians into letting him into the "cave".
This also explains why Apollo is so confused by her hatred. Why he doesn't understand why she destroyed his lyre, why he doesn't get all of the hatred towards him and how, despite his annoyingly forward advances, he seems to have completely lost the plot when it comes to knowing why Persephone is pissed at him.
So as a pagan who genuinely likes Apollo and was nearly ruined for the deity by this story, I would like to offer this theory in defense of Apollo.
