Spring has sprung! It is now April, and that means it’s time to exchange the dreary cold of winter for flowers, spring rains, and sunshine (at least here in my part of the world)! In honor of the changing of the seasons, I want to highlight some books that give a fresh spin on the spookiest of spring goddesses: Persephone. According to Greek legend, Persephone is the daughter of the harvest goddess Demeter. One day while she was out gathering flowers, Persephone was abducted by Hades, the god of the dead, and taken down to the underworld. While in Hades’ realm, Persphone ate six pomegranate seeds, which obligate her to return to Hades for six months out of the year before returning to her mother. When her daughter is away, Demeter mourns and neglects the earth, but when they’re together, they make flowers bloom and plant life grow. This myth serves to explain why vegetation flourishes for half year but becomes dead and barren in the winter. Persephone is a fascinating and paradoxical character, serving both as a maidenly goddess of spring and as the queen of the underworld. Below are a few of my favorite books that incorporate the myth of Persephone in unique ways:
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
The first book in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series isn’t a direct adaptation of the Persephone myth, but it is about a girl who unexpectedly ends up in the underworld and finds her life changed forever. When Nancy disappeared, her parents believed that she had been abducted. The truth is far stranger: Nancy had stumbled through a portal to the Halls of the Dead, a colorless realm of silence and stillness. Nancy finds peace and acceptance in this unusual underworld, but after only a short stint, she is sent back to the land of the living. In almost a reversal of the Persephone myth, Nancy mourns her loss of the underworld rather than her mother mourning their separation. Not knowing what to make of their newly somber child, Nancy’s parents send her to a boarding school full of other children who have returned from magical worlds. There, she makes new friends and gets mixed up in a murder mystery, all while searching for the doorway that will let her back to the Halls of the Dead.
Strangely Beautiful by Leanna Renee Hieber
In this gaslamp fantasy adaptation of the myth, Persephone gets reborn as a human, joins a team of ghost-busting Victorians, and enters into a battle with the underworld. Persephone “Percy” Parker is the human incarnation of a goddess whose story resembles, but also has some key differences from, the Persephone myth. The goddess spent centuries bound in the underworld by her captor Darkness, but has finally escaped by being born again into the land of the living. Percy grows up with no memory of her earlier life as a goddess, but she does have the uncanny ability to see and speak to ghosts. When Percy arrives at a boarding school called Athens Academy, she meets a group of others with paranormal abilities who call themselves the Guard. As Percy finds herself falling for their leader, Alexi Rychman, she learns more about her past, her powers, and the dangerous destiny that awaits them.
The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
If you want more Persephone-inspired romance, The Star-Touched Queen follows a cursed princess who finds love in the underworld. This stand-alone novel blends elements of the Greek tale with similar Hindu myths, all set in an Indian-inspired fantasy world. Mayavati is a pariah in her father’s court, since she was born with a horoscope predicting that she would be partnered with death and destruction. No one who knows of her horoscope would willingly marry her. But when Maya’s father tries to arrange a political marriage for her, a mysterious stranger shows up and whisks her away to a kingdom she’s never heard of before. Once there, she discovers that her new husband is actually the Dharma Raja—the lord of justice in the afterlife—and her new kingdom is the realm that souls pass through before being reincarnated. But can she trust this god-like man she’s married? And is she ready to take on the responsibilities of queen of the underworld?
What are your favorite retellings of the Persephone myth? Have you read any of the ones mentioned above? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
I wouldn’t count this retelling as Gothic, but there’s a great new manga-style webcomic version of the story of Persephone out now called Lore Olympus. I love the art so far. The comic places Persephone and Hades in a modern setting. In the retelling, Persephone is a young goddess attending college and Hades is a much older and more powerful “CEO” god of the Underworld corporation. Persephone is attending college on a scholarship from a purity society. Her life starts spiraling when other goddesses convince her to attend a party and tabloids take photos of Persephone leaving with Hades. Along the way Persephone secures an internship in the Underworld library, befriends Cerberus, and holds her own in Tartarus (depicted as a deadly off-limits sector of the Underworld office building). So far the comic deals with themes of rape culture and toxic masculinity. The character of Persephone is slowly but surely coming into her own. https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/lore-olympus/list?title_no=1320
Also, not strictly the Persephone myth or Gothic but Anais Mitchell’s Hadestown just hit Broadway in March! I love the original music and I’m sure the musical will be a hit. Hadestown is a musical interpretation of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice in a setting inspired by the Great Depression. Those familiar with the tragedy know how it ends, but I like the creative setting and folk score of this interpretation. Once people arrive in Hadestown, Hades’ underground factory, they can never leave without his permission. His wife Persephone is a sympathetic bartender to Hadestown laborers. Hades tempts Eurydice to come to Hadestown for job security because her husband Orpheus is a broke poet. Persephone intercedes for the young couple by reminding Hades that he can spare these two people. Hades is moved by Orpheus’ poetry lamenting his loss of Eurydice because it reminds him of how much he loves Persephone. Plus there is a song called “Why We Build the Wall” (the chorus’ answer: to keep us free/to keep out poverty). Considering the 2010 album was first adapted for the stage in 2016, that song really hits home. https://www.hadestown.com/
Yeah, I was reading Lore Olympus for a while, but found that it got heavier than I was expecting with the sexual assault plot line, so I took a break.
I’ve been hearing a lot about Hadestown, and definitely intend to check it out!
Lore Olympus was on hiatus for months anyway and it just came back this week. The sexual plot line can definitely be triggering. Potential spoiler but so far I think the artist/author handles survivor PTSD in a thoughtful and sensitive manner.
Hadestown went on tour in London before making its Broadway debut. I would definitely love see the show while it’s in the United States.