The Abduction of Persephone- Storytelling

For thousands of years we have told the story of Persephone — and for much of that time, we have softened it. Romanticized it. Made it a love story. But strip that away and what remains is one of mythology's most honest and uncomfortable examinations of power, gender, and the erasure of female choice. In this episode we sit with the story as it was — harrowing, complex, and deeply human — and ask why it still resonates so powerfully today.
🔗 We explore related themes in Episode 16 of Fairy Tale Flip and Episode 23 featuring the Princess of the Spring — links below.

FairyTale Flip: Persephone ep: 16 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2291423/episodes/17170697

The Princess of the Spring ep 23: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2291423/episodes/18986760

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Transcript

Vanessa (00:02.702)
Today we're going be telling the story of the abduction of Persephone, the goddess of spring. So our story starts out with the princess, the goddess, Cori. And that is her name, which means maiden. That's her given name. She is the daughter of Zeus, the sky god, the almighty god, and Demeter, who is the goddess of the harvest. And

Corrie is with her nymph friends and she is out picking flowers. When out of the blue, the earth opens up and out of the earth is a chariot directed by Hades. Hades is the god of the underworld and he snatches her up and he takes her down into the depths of the underworld to become her bride. Now unbeknownst to either Corrie

or Demeter, her mother, Zeus and Hades have secretly hatched a plan because Hades was smitten with Cori and wanted to marry her, but Zeus knew that the mother would not agree to their plan and so Zeus gave his permission to Hades to marry Cori without acknowledging either female's right to know or have a say.

in this marriage. so Demeter is looking for her daughter and cannot find her. And everybody is too afraid of Zeus to tell Demeter the truth of what has happened to Cory, whose name switches from Cory, which means maiden, to Persephone, which means destroyer.

or the goddess of the underworld once she is no longer a maiden but a married woman to Hades. So she is then afterwards known as Persephone after the forced marriage. so Demeter is searching everywhere and finally she is told by

Vanessa (02:21.032)
Hecate and Helios who had witnessed the abduction, they take mercy on her and they tell her what has happened. so Demeter goes on this grief stricken walk basically. And because she was the goddess of harvest and she gave life to all of the plants and everything that lived, the entire world is stricken with famine and

the harshest winter they have ever experienced. And so everything begins to die because she is no longer giving her blessing and she is just completely overwrought with her grief of her daughter. And so all the humans who usually give their thanks to the gods are now dying. And so all of the different Olympian gods

are starting to come to Zeus and say, hey, I think we need to do something about this situation because everyone's going to die pretty soon. so, Zeus finally relents and he says, okay, Hades, you have to release Persephone. However, while Persephone was living in the underworld, she was refusing all food and drink, mostly because she was so unhappy.

had no choice in the matter to become the goddess of the underworld. And so the only action she felt like she could take was refusal of bread and water until finally Hades tricks her and he tricks her into eating just a few seeds of a pomegranate. And that act of eating food ties her to the underworld.

for the rest of eternity. But because she only ate a few seeds and the number is disputed whether it's three or four or six, she is allowed to go visit her mother for part of the year. And then she is drawn back into the underworld for the rest of the year. And when Persephone is on the earth, spring...

Vanessa (04:39.658)
And wildlife flows freely and it is the start of spring and sometimes summer, depending on how long the, that particular story says that she stays. Sometimes it's for four months. Sometimes it says six months. and then she goes back to Hades. There's another part that's really interesting. While Demeter was in absolute grief, she goes to stay with a family and is she's

disguise herself as a human, as a human servant. And so she goes and helps take care of a child that she ultimately falls in love with. And she really wants to bestow blessings of a God and immortality on to this child. And so she begins to do these rituals to bestow her blessings to this child. And the mother walks in during one of these rituals in which she

places the child into the fire and the mother does not know that their servant is actually the goddess Demeter. And so she understandably gets angry. She thinks that she's killing her son, but really she's breaking the ritual that would have given him immortality. And that element of the story is really where the cult of Euphrates

How do you pronounce it?

Vanessa (06:15.415)
illusion.

Vanessa (06:19.666)
Once the ritual immortalization ritual fails for the child and the child becomes immortal again, it is how the illusion mysteries begin and the cult or organization that surrounds Persephone and Demeter really begin.

That group is called the illusion mysteries and we actually don't know very much about it, which is why it's called mysteries because all of their rituals were kept secret even up until today. So no one really knows what rituals were involved, but it was an organization of women who worshiped those two goddesses, Persephone and Demeter. So if you enjoyed the story of the abduction of

Persephone, make sure that you're hitting like, if you're subscribing or commenting. All of these things are really helpful for independent podcasts like ourselves. Once again, my name is Vanessa Rogers. You've been listening to Fabrica Folklore slash Fairy Tail Flip, and I can't wait to tell you our next tale. Until next time.

Until next time, keep the fairy tales alive.