hey everyone welcome to another
installment of mythology
explained in today's video we're going
to be discussing
one of the best known greek myths the
abduction of persephone
in a nutshell it gives a divine
explanation for the growing seasons
their cycle of death and rebirth
a compromise was made in which
persephone spent half her time in the
underworld
and half her time in the land of the
living with her mother demeter
the goddess of the harvest and
agriculture demeter became overjoyed in
the spring
when her daughter returned to her and
the world bloomed with her happiness
the opposite happened in the fall and
persephone returned
to the underworld to meet his sadness
withered plants and crops
and so the growing cycle was explained
a lesser discussed aspect of the story
is why hades went through all the
trouble
he was zeus's brother one of the
original six olympians
the lord of the underworld did he really
need to resort to kidnapping to get
himself a wife
surely there must have been a long line
of women just waiting for the dark lord
to drag them down to hell it's these
questions that we're going to unpack
in the rest of this video hades wasn't
much of a philanderer
he bettered few women and he sired few
children
this is in stark contrast to the sexual
exploits
of his lecherous brothers poseidon zeus
were
presumably desired by many but they also
forced themselves upon many
using trickery or strength to get what
they wanted
what's interesting about this is that
though hades was less desirable
we'll get to that later it can be
reasonably deduced that he possessed
physical strength
and magical abilities to a degree
commensurate with those of his brothers
and thus could have taken similarly the
sexual fruits of others against their
will
this begs an interesting question why
didn't hades overpower
and deceive people sexually the same way
that poseidon
zeus and many other greek deities did
understanding this question comes down
to understanding how the ancient greeks
perceived hades
to begin with the greeks didn't place
the same stock in the afterlife
that many other cultures did the ancient
egyptians
for example built enormous pyramids as
mausoleums for their most venerated
dead and they toiled through the
drawn-out and meticulous process
of mummification the greeks on the other
hand
had a profound zest for life but had
relatively little interest in rewards
that would be bestowed afterwards in
death
as such on an overarching cultural level
the greeks were far less interested in
hades than they were with other deities
they respected him to be sure fearing
his power and what he represented
but there wasn't much of a cult if any
dedicated to him
there were no temples and which worship
was paid to him
if there were they were exceedingly rare
and the only sacrifice
dedicated to him were black animals
usually
black bulls this idea of hades being
feared
ties in with the intense moralism
ingrained in greek culture
it was thought that those who did evil
that those who lacked scruples in life
were severely punished after death so
hades was seen as a subterranean being
who seldom departed from his cavernous
domain and as a being whose purview
was the punishment and torture of the
sinful dead this description
doesn't exactly conjure up notions of
sexuality
or stir desire in one's loins moreover
in a fashion sex is the act of life
making it the antithesis of death
and thus the polar opposite of what
hades and his dark realm
represented what this all boils down to
is that the greeks didn't associate
hades with
sexuality or celebrate him to the same
extent that most other gods in the greek
pantheon were so
there were little to no myths centered
on lust or romance
built around him haiti's omission from
these sorts of myths
in turn came to color his character his
appearance was so grim
and his abode was so gloomy that he was
unable to woo
any goddess into marrying him his power
was great
his riches were abundant but still no
woman
wanted to be his wife this struck two
very human emotions into the mighty
god's heart
loneliness and frustration eventually
his not being able to win a wife for
himself emboldened him to pursue
other less consensual avenues which is
why he snatched up persephone
and whisked her away underground in his
chariot
and that's it for this video if you
enjoyed the content please like the
video
and subscribe to the channel until next
time
remember where rage seeds repentance
reaps
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