The Interesting “Romance” of Hades and Persephone

A story that’s been twisted throughout time — but not in the way you might expect.

When I was a kid, I had a storybook that included the tale of Hades and Persephone. In it, Hades was depicted as the sinister king of the Underworld, who fell so in love with Persephone that he tricked her into staying with him forever. She was only rescued by her mother Demeter’s sheer determination to save her, but the victory was only partial — she’d eaten of the Underworld, so she must return in the winter, during which time her mother mourns.

This…isn’t exactly the right story. I discovered this during later research when I found that, not only was Persephone potentially never kidnapped, she probably really liked being the queen of the Underworld. And poor Hades gets such a bad rep!

Let’s explore why that is.

Persephone the Maiden

Persephone went by many names and epithets, as all the ancient Greek gods did, but one of her more famous ones was Kore, which translates relatively simply to “Daughter” or “Maiden.” There are a few running theories as to why this is, but it’s generally thought to be because she was a terrifying figure to the Greeks, who believed that the gods’ names had the power to summon them.

It’s important to note that Persephone was viewed as a fearsome goddess long before she was associated with Hades. In Theogony, Hesiod refers to her as “dread Persephone,” and the earliest depictions of her and Demeter, before the relationship between them was fully defined, were of dark, mysterious figures of extreme, undefined power. It wasn’t until a bit later, toward the era of Romanization, that Persephone became seen as a simple goddess of Spring and fertility.

In any case, Persephone was never the hippie that a lot of modern interpretations portray her as. She has always been a powerful and formidable figure.

Hades and the Underworld

Hades is the god of the Underworld in Greek mythology — pretty much everyone knows that. His name means “The Unseen One,” and because…