Persephone & Connie, Children to Women

When I was young, I owned an illustrated children's book of Greek Myths.  I would spend hours flipping through the colorful pages, pausing on my favorites to read of the love, envy and wickedness of the varying gods and goddesses.  I always found myself pausing most on the story of Persephone.

Whether it was such a straight-forward explanation of the changing seasons, the loss I felt for Demetre or the horrible fate of Persephone to forever return to the Underworld, I was hooked.  However, my young and naive mind never made the connection to the harsh foundation of kidnapping, and even as we discussed in class, rape, this myth laid for future stories.

It wasn't until I read the short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? that the myth was brought out of the rose-hued glow of my childhood and into the evil possibilities of the world.

Reading it made me uncomfortable, disturbed and terrified.

I immediately saw the relationship to the story of Rapunzel; her long golden hair, her over-bearing mother who guards the tower of her home, Arnold Friend coaxing her to escape and join him.  The story of Persephone took a bit more thought, however, because there was no loving mother with whom Connie was forced to part.

The connection came, however, when I finally realized she would go with Arnold in the end.  And I have to say I prefer the children's myth much,. much more.  The darkness of the ending haunted me.

I was also engaged to think again of my thoughts on marriage.  The comparison is highly exaggerated (marriage is not the Underworld... at least not in all cases), but for me is still there.  I have begun to form the opinion that marriage is a way of conforming to society, of "doing what you are supposed to do" and settle down.  The man looks for a wife, finds a woman looking for a husband, and whisks her off to his domain of the home.  I hope that if I ever do choose the path of marriage one day, it will not be a form of binding me to the love of my life because we will already be bound emotionally.  It will not be a necessity, it will not stop me from traveling and interacting and exploring and being an individual.  In all honesty, I would probably get married when it becomes more convenient financially after having been with one many years.

We'll just have to see.