Hades and Persephone "Hades Takes a Wife"

"Hades Takes A Wife"  Rust print on vintage linen over panel, 36 x 28 in.


"Hades Takes A Wife" depicts the abduction of Persephone by Hades; the first act in the Greek foundation myth explaining the cycles of nature and symbolizing the cycle of life and rebirth.

Hades ruled the Underworld alone and desired a Queen to rule with him.  He fell in love with Persephone but knew Persephone’s mother Demeter, goddess of harvest and fertility, would never consent to his proposal.  So, Hades appealed to a higher power, his brother Zeus (Persephone’s Father) who agreed to the union but foresaw Demeter’s objections. Together they decided Hades would steal Persephone from her mother.

One day while Persephone picked meadow flowers a cavern opened at her feet and Hades took her down, down to his Underworld Kingdom.  Demeter frantically searched the world for her lost daughter but of course she was no longer of the world.  Eventually she discovered what had really happened but refused to accept Persephone’s fate.  Enraged she roamed the earth in mortal guise, forbidding trees to bear fruit or fields to yield grain.

Zeus realized that if he allowed Demeter to persist, all of humankind would starve so he summoned Persephone back from the Underworld.  Hades appeared to acquiesce but insured Persephone’s return to him by giving her seeds from a pomegranate to eat.  Anyone who tastes the food of Hades must remain in the Underworld and since she had eaten the seeds, Persephone had to dwell at least part of every year with Hades.

Each Winter when Persephone is in the Underworld, Demeter mourns and the earth lies fallow and unproductive. Each Spring when Persephone returns to her mother, Demeter rejoices and the earth flowers and is fertile once again. 

Persephone’s descent to and return from the Underworld could also represent a vision of eternal life and triumph over death; symbolic of transformation and the cyclical nature of life. One's existence did not end with death because there was no death; there was only change from one state of being to another.

Please check out "Hades Takes A Wife" in my studio, stop #5, on the  2017 Vashon Island Holiday Studio Tour, December 2-3 & 9-10 (Saturdays and Sundays) 10am to 4pm.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Delighted to show with these Fine Art Print Artists! Quartermaster Press and invited guests at the Hardware Store Restaurant on Vashon Island Nov 5-30, 2021.
Read more

Let's All Dance

Image
The Vashon Heritage Museum has hosted the award winning exhibit "In and Out, Being LGBTQ on Vashon Island" since June of 2019.  Originally slated to run until March of 2020 it's been on exhibit until this week, September 6, 2021.   I'm honored to have been asked to create five window panels for the exhibit and be a part of the creative process envisioned by Deb Phillimore, Ellen Kritzman. Stephen Silha, Jesica De Wire, Bruce Haulman and the inspired advisory board they assembled. We all identify with the music of our time.  I asked friends to share the music they identified as significant in their lives, relationships and coming out story.  Their music inspired the monotype/collagraph prints with cut and printed wood sculpture that became the Let's All Dance window panels for the exhibit.  The panels were each 68 x 36 in. and titled (in the order above) Small Town Boy, The Band Played On, Let's All Dance, Anthem and Break Free. Here's a wonderful ...
Read more

Yerevan

Image
Yerevan (with detail), is a monotype print collage in my Magic Carpet Ride series. Called The Pink City, it’s Armenia’s capital. Yerevan is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and was founded by another name (Erebuni) in 782 B.C.E., though the territory was settled in the 4th millennium B.C.E. The Pink City gets its name by way of its building material, a pink stone called tuft, the compacted ash, from Mount Ararat that towers, at a distance, over Yerevan. Yerevan is showing in Pink, Unpacked , an exhibit presented by Seattle Print Arts that explores both pink as color and pink as concept.  March 11-May 1, 2024 at  M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery, Seattle WA.
Read more