Persephone

Walter Crane, The Fate of Persephone, 1877, London, 48" x 105", oil and tempera on canvas.

Persephone stands beside Hades, about to take her into the Underworld, off screen-right.

Victoria Rincon

As a visual medium, art can enable us to interpret stories from mythology from another angle. They have the potential to enhance the emotional aspects of a mythological narrative that could not be conveyed through text alone. We see this in Walter Crane’s The Fate of Persephone, where we observe the moment before Persephone (Roman: Proserpina) is abducted and taken to the Underworld. In the textual accounts such as the Homeric Hymns, the taking of Persephone is described as a sudden seizing of a sort by Hades (Roman Pluto). However, in this iteration of the famed myth, we are presented with a slightly different interpretation of how this particular part of the myth unfolded.

Typically, in art, Persephone is dramatically posed in a lifted or an unwillingly hoisted position in the arms of Hades, akin to Bernini’s statue The Rape of Persephone. In it, Persephone is twisting and crying out in vain, unable to escape. It emphasizes the horror and violence of the event, earning pity from viewers (Morton 334), and embodies the abruptness of this abduction. However, this is not quite the case with Crane’s painting; although there is still a sense of panic within the scene, it is specifically emanating from the nymphs in the background who were attending Persephone. The spring goddess does not share this emotional response; despite Hades having a hand on her arm, Persephone does not look as if she is in much distress, and the small detail of her leaning away from Hades could be indicative that she is resisting him. She is still standing on her own two feet, and this retelling of the scene invokes the feeling that she still has a slight chance to get away or, at the very least, is contemplating it.

Symbolism is also a prevalent part of this piece, indicating the dual-sided nature of Persephone as a goddess. She is still among the flowers, which may represent her association with the coming of spring. However, her status as queen of the Underworld is foreshadowed as well, with the presence of a pomegranate tree blossoming out from the opening leading to the Underworld. It makes light of how the pomegranate binds the young goddess to the Underworld but also the promise of her cyclical return to earth (“Walter Crane (1845-1915): The Fate of Persephone”). There may also be some symbolism referring to Demeter despite her not being directly displayed in the painting, and we see it in two ways. The coloration of the sky and background invoke a sense of gloom, which could be related to the impending winter Demeter will bring. There is also the presence of a lone tiny figure on the mountain, meant to represent her sorrow (“Walter Crane (1845-1915): The Fate of Persephone”).

Additionally, in viewing this piece, one should consider the interpretations associated with this myth. A prominent one being the cycle of death and rebirth because both Persephone and Hades have connections to fertility and death. Persephone, due to her status as Queen of the Underworld, her arrival signaling the start of spring, her cyclical presence on earth, and is the deity of tender budding shoots, which complements her mother’s role as the goddess of agricultural and ripened grain (Morton 340). Hades is first and foremost the god of the Underworld, but his connection to being a fertility deity stems from the location of his realm. His domain is deep within the earth, the very places from where all things grow; he is a god of agricultural wealth (Morton 341). Other than the deities, the most compelling visual representation of this cycle in the painting is the contrast between the earth and the entrance to the Underworld. The surface is teeming with life and civilization while the entrance leading deep underground is dark, rocky, almost like a void, save for the lone pomegranate tree.

Citations

Morford, Mark, et al. Classical Mythology. 12th ed., Oxford UP, 2023.

“Walter Crane (1845-1915): The Fate of Persephone.” Christie’s, 27 July 2001, www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-3935128. Accessed 30 July 2023.

Jasper Fay

Divided into two halves: light and dark; Persephone stands in the middle, narcissus in hand, “a snare for the bloom-like girl,” (Hesiod, Hymn to Demeter, 10) flanked by red-cloaked Hades on her left, arm around her, and his immortal black horses to her right, separating the goddess from the bright meadow where she and her three fellow maidens frolicked picking flowers, and where now they cower in fear at her predicament.

Walter Crane was primarily known as a children’s book illustrator, and later the resident artist of the socialist movement in Britain. Our subject, his painting The Fate of Persephone, does indeed do an exceptional job of illustrating a scene by way of narrative, while leaving the actual action to the audience imagination. The figures are surely posed, poised, but as yet paused: suspended in their potency. This is interesting and unusual in the field. Many of the famous artistic depictions of Hades abducting Persephone opt to capture her in a state of being carried off and him either in flight with her, or in fight with her. Here however, we see the precursive moment, as it were before the Fall, when Persephone’s fate is not yet decided. Hence, I suspect, Crane’s title for the piece.

The liminal nature of this work is further emphasized by the intense contrast struck between the dark and light halves of the scene, orienting the painting temporally—framing it within a story, by illustrating a movement—namely Persephone’s descent into the underworld: the white-flowered meadow where she was, almost shining next to the black chasm where she will be; her soft maiden attendants, flowing like the trees behind, superseded by the rocky hooves of the gruff and grim horses, attendants of her husband-to-be, and hard-edged like the dark earth ahead. We have at once a separation and combination of two distinct settings in a single moment, i.e. the movement between them, at which precipice Persephone resides, or presides, depending how one reads it.

Indeed one could be forgiven for interpreting this Persephone, by her posture, position, and conspicuous lack of being carried off, as holding her own Fate in her hands—beside and beyond the naively picked narcissus. She seems rather to be deciding whether or not to go with Hades. I have to say this idea is most welcome, because I have long felt a certain youthful rebellion buried in the myth of Persephone & Demeter. A daughter leaves her mother, nevermind the kidnapping, as we seem to be entertaining in this painting; she leaves, and leaves her mother mournful. But isn’t that always the way? Isn’t it the fate of parents to let go of their children? Your child goes from belonging to you, to belonging to the world—traditionally, to a spouse. Demeter wants to keep Persephone; she would have her daughter remain unmarried, and in her care forever, to “live with me and your father.” (Hesiod, Hymn to Demeter, 396) Sounds awfully repressive to me.

The myth of Persephone largely treats her as an item to be feuded over by Demeter, Zeus, and Hades, who for his part is more force of nature than eligible bachelor. He declares her eternal honor on his throne rather sweetly, and slips her the pomegranate, rather unsweetly, but otherwise serves as no more than a strong gust of wind to whisk the spring goddess away from her mother and trigger the drama. Here he appears much more eloper than abductor. Moreover this painting reframes the story around Persephone herself and the question or prospect of her going to the underworld, rather than the inevitable fact of it. In fact, if anything hints at inevitability, it is the pomegranate tree in bloom over the sunken entrance to Hades, suggesting, in the words of the painter, “the promise of her return to earth.” (Crane, Reminiscences, 188)

Citations

Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. London: Loeb Classical Library. First published 1914, reprinted 2002.

Crane, Walter. An Artist’s Reminiscences. New York, The Macmillan Company. 1907. https://archive.org/details/anartistsremini00crangoog/page/n262. Accessed July 31st, 2023.