The Abducted Persephone's POV

Persephone is also an asteroid, and she carries two distinct meanings. One connects to her image as a victim, while the other represents the power of awakening and taking back control.

The victim narrative is easy to grasp, but if we stop there, wouldn't Greek mythology be terribly boring? With a mother as vibrant as Ceres, the daughter could not be a pushover!

When Hades abducted Persephone, she was a teenager. Naturally, she was curious about the world, yet her mother constantly micromanaged her, leaving her no choice but to keep playing the part of the pure maiden.

This behavior reminds me of a psychological term: fawning, which means winning love through appeasing others. In other words, because her mother wanted her to be this way, she pretended it was who she truly was.

As a side note, the heroine Liniang Du in the Ming Dynasty Chinese play The Peony Pavilion is also a teenager. I remember a scene where Liniang takes a "daytime nap."

From a modern perspective, what's such a big deal about a teenager sleeping in? But to the ancients, daytime napping seemed quite abnormal.

I still remember vividly when my teacher back then shared a rather deep analysis. She explained that even though Liniang's mother knew something was off, she pretended to be oblivious to her daughter's adolescent struggles because she simply didn't want to deal with them. So, even when her daughter slept away the middle of the day, the mother brushed it off with a few perfunctory words and played dumb.

More than once since then, I've heard various mothers express how terrifying it is for them to realize that "their daughter is growing up."

Children are usually very perceptive. If a mother cannot accept this reality, the child has no choice but to "grow up in secret."

In later epics, many chose to describe Persephone gradually falling in love with Hades and growing into a capable Queen of the Underworld.

The main reason for thinking this is that when Mercury descended to the underworld to rescue Persephone, he discovered that she had eaten the pomegranate seeds given to her by Hades.

Because she consumed the food of the underworld, Persephone could no longer fully return to her mother, having to spend a portion of each year in the underworld and a portion on the surface.

As the daughter of Zeus and Ceres, and an abducted victim, Persephone should logically have been wary of food offered by Hades. Yet she wasn't! She accepted the pomegranate seeds, which some scholars interpret as her accepting Hades and yearning for a new life with him.

The blood-red pomegranate seeds are often read as Persephone's blood of virginity, hinting that she and Hades had already shared an intimate union, making it impossible for her to remain in her mother's domain with the demeanor of a maiden.

Come to think of it, Persephone is truly a woman who knows how to plan her life. She wanted both her own development and her mother's love/company. In terms of playing possum, who could be more brilliant than her?

The story of Persephone and Ceres captures the profound psychological bond between mothers and daughters, highlighting how human beings, especially women, must break away from their mothers and venture outward, yet cannot simply walk away entirely.

I absolutely enjoyed the many layers of this story and hope you do too.

In an astrological chart, the asteroids Persephone and Ceres are said to be useful for observing themes of personal awakening and letting go of rigid love.