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A-gnosis — Sephy and Kerbie
Published: 2011-10-14 02:06:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 5064; Favourites: 66; Downloads: 18
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Persephone and Kerberos. I've been quite inspired to draw Persephone lately since I'm reading The Narcissus and the Pomegranate - An Archaeology of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter by Ann Suter.In short (now I'm gonna quote much from the description of the book) Suter argues that the hymn involves an earlier tale of Demeter and Persephone that predates the seventh century B.C.E. (when the hymn was composed) and that the story of Persephone's abduction does not reflect a female initiation rite into adulthood, as has been argued, but rather a hieros gamos (a sacred marriage). She also argues that there are signs of an earlier rivalry between the goddesses Demeter and Persephone and that one of the purposes of the hymn is to emphasize Demeter's priority over Persephone. She comes to the conclusion that Persephone was once a powerful goddess in her own right, independent of Hades and of Demeter as well.
Of course this is highly speculative, but I still think it's quite fun to read (one thing that I didn't like though, was that one of all the methods she used in her analysis of the hymn was psychoanalysis. I don't think psychoanalysis has much to contribute in a context like this. Or in any academic context at all).
To see other drawings where I talk about this book go here [link] and here [link]
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Comments: 24
Can Persephone give me some Kerberos pups?!......I know she has some....I jut know!
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Heh! Well, I don't know if there is a female dog around in the Underworld...
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I don't really see how you can apply psychoanalysis to old myths? It sounds like an interesting thing to do, but it must be very speculative? Ah well. Cerberus is as adorable as always, anyway.
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Suter applies psychoanalysis to do a psychological analysis of the characters in the hymn. Why they behave the way they do and so on. Of course one can only speculate about such things and that can be fun sometimes, but I think that her choise of psychonalysis is quite improper since psychoanalysis is too much of a pseudoscience. It has never been proven to be a correct model of human development.
Thank you!
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Ugh, psychoanalysis, keep it away! But Sephy and Cerby are so sweet together!
That's a really interesting argument; like your research into Persephone linking herself to the Minoan snake goddess. Maybe, since Persephone was a goddess of life and death, sort of, the later poet was trying to promote a more positive goddess? Who knows?
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I really hate psychoanalysis. Damn pseudoscience!
Yeah, who knows what the motives behind the hymn really were and how the gods of the classical pantheon developed into the characters we know today? But it sure is fun and interesting to speculate about it and I thought that it might be good inspiration for my comics to read the book.
I'll probably come back to it later when I've read some more.
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Thanks! I've seen that Persephone fans sometimes call her Seph or Sephy and I thought it sounded so cute that I had to use it myself. ^^
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This is just darling. I bet that she has him well trained and wrapped around her finger. The plants remind me of those on my window ledge.
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Thanks! I tried to draw quite realistic plants. And, yes, Kerbie is probably very obedient to Persephone. ^^
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You're welcome! And Ms. Suter probably overthought that whole Demeter-Persephone-Hades dynamic, I think. Considering that this myth is one of the more elaborate and multilayered among the Greek myths, it's easy to do that, I suspect.
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Yes, I think that literature analyses always include a bit of over-thinking. And when you get to this level, all you can do is speculate. It is not impossible that Persephone once was a quite different goddess that eventually developed into the well-known goddess of the classical pantheon. And I guess it's not impossible that the hymn wished to establish Demeter as the more prominent of the two (like how one of the purposes of the Babylonian epic Enuma Elis was to establish the god Marduk's supremacy over the older Sumerian gods). But we can never know for certain and some of Suter's theories are maybe not so likely.
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Aw, that's such a sweet picture. Something tells me if that wasn't the adorable three-headed puppy, Sephy would not be so kind but the book is sounding pretty interesting.
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Bai-Bai!
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Thank you! Yes, I imagine Persephone would go really mad if anyone ruined her plants.
If you're a Greek mythology freak the book is indeed pretty interesting.
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Welcome and then...I must read it!
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Bai-Bai!
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That book sounds interesting, but I agree: psychoanalysis doesn't really seem to belong in a historical context. I don't see how one can apply rules of psychology to tales that were told and retold all over the land with many variations. 
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Thanks!
Yes, there's nothing wrong in speculating, but I prefer when you base your arguments on the archaelogical evidence (she does that too of course. Fortunately, she just uses psychoanalysis in one chapter).
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You're welcome.
Agreed. Well, at least it's only one chapter. That's not too bad. It sounds like a really interesting book.
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