The Tale of Demeter and Persephone
“This story is told only in a very early poem, one of the earliest of the Homeric Hymns, dating from the eighth or the beginning of the seventh century. The original has the marks of early Greek poetry, great simplicity and directness and delight in the beautiful world.”
Demeter is the mother of Persephone, the goddess of spring and beginning. She was young and innocent when Hades, the god of the underworld, took her away from Demeter. He took her down into his layer and raped her. Persephone stayed there for months on end. Demeter was so depressed, everything died with out the happiness of Demeter and Persephone. Finally Zeus has Hermes, the messenger god, go down to Hades and get Persephone back, before Persephone left she ate a pomegranate seed. After eating the seed she realized that she was trapped. Hades says that now every year she has to come down for four months and stay with him. This is what we call winter season, when everything dies.
There are three levels of interpretation while reading a myth. Natural, social, psychological levels. Natural is all about the physical meaning, the way the myth ties into the world you live in. Social is about community and how it ties into the way your community and it’s values, and finally the psychological level, the way that it links to you personally. The spiritual and personal levels that you have to do with the psychological levels.
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