Today’s story, we start with one of Bernini’s masterpieces handed down from generation to generation, “Hades Robbery of Persephone”, pictured below, now in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, Italy ( Borghese Gallery).
The protagonist of the story is Persephone, the daughter of Hades and Zeus. Speaking of which, in terms of seniority, Pluto Hades is the brother of Zeus, so Persephone is Hades' niece. The niece becomes the wife of her uncle. This is a common ethical method in Greek mythology. After all, she has status. The number of male gods and goddesses was so small that they had to resort to incest marriage to maintain their noble godhead.
Zeus is the sixth son of the third-generation god Cronus and Rhea. With the help of his older brothers and sisters, he overthrew his father's rule, and then the entire universe was ruled by the three brothers (Zeus, Bosnia and Herzegovina). Sedon and Hades) drew lots to determine the scope of their rule. Zeus has the best luck, being in charge of the heavens (including the human world), Poseidon is second, being in charge of the ocean, and Hades is the last, having the right to rule the underworld. But in fact, the power of the three brothers is equal, there is no higher or lower. (It feels like the prototype of the separation of powers)
The other three sisters of Zeus are: Hetis, Hera, and Demoter. Demoter is the goddess of grains, in charge of the harvest of food in heaven and earth. She is the fourth wife of Zeus and gave birth to the beautiful Persephone.
Hades, the king of Hades, is powerful and peaceful in nature. He conscientiously performs his duties and patrols the underworld.
One day, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, laughed at her son. Cupid, the goddess of love, said: "Boy, your golden arrows are useless unless you can knock down the aloof Hades." "The little god of love was very angry, so he flew to Hades and shot the arrow of love. Hades, who was hit by an arrow, could not stop the power of love and spilled the flower of his love - Narcissus.
Although the scientific name of narcissus "Narcissus" comes from the Greek mythological character Narcissus, due to the poisonous nature of narcissus, its etymology actually comes from the Greek "Narke", which means "paralysis" and "drowsiness". ".
One day, Persephone, Artemis (Diana, the daughter of Zeus and the goddess of hunting) and Aphrodite (Venus, the goddess of love) were in a valley full of flowers. Playing in the mountains (Aetna). Persephone saw the daffodils blooming extremely brightly by the river, and couldn't help but go forward and smell them. Unexpectedly, the psychedelic poison of the narcissus instantly made her fall asleep. At this time, the earth cracked, and a golden chariot pulled by four black horses rushed out of the cracks in the ground. The owner of the chariot was the tall, strong, and majestic Hades. He picked up the dazed Persephone, turned around, and drove the chariot away at high speed. The cracks closed in the dust of the chariot, and the earth returned to calm in the blink of an eye. At the same time, the beautiful girl Perse Fournier also disappeared. In the dark Hades, Hades forced her to become the Queen of Hades and accompany her.
The girl’s mother was distraught and looked for traces of her daughter. The sun god Helios (Apollo) saw everything and told Demoter the truth.
Demotel knew that Hades, the king of Hades, had kidnapped his beloved daughter, so he went to Zeus to reason. However, Hades had already made a private agreement with Zeus that he had helped Zeus seize the throne of God King, and now he would use Zeus's daughter Persephone as compensation. Zeus acquiesced to Hades's robbery, which made Demoter particularly angry, and she left Mount Olympus in anger. However, Demoter is the goddess of grains. Without her protection, the grains in the world cannot be produced, and the earth is in a state of hunger, and there is no life in it.
Zeus had no choice but to discuss with Hades whether Persephone could be returned to her grieving mother. Hades was in a dilemma when he saw his brother explain himself and saw his beloved lady in tears all day long.
Persephone was particularly happy to hear the news and was grateful for Hades' kindness (Stockholm syndrome?). Hades said to her, my dear, I have never treated you badly during the days when you came to the underworld. I am very sad and guilty that you do not eat or drink like this. Before we say goodbye again, why don't you eat some of the food here to count us as husband and wife? Unable to bear Hades's bullying, Persephone ate seven pomegranate seeds from the underworld and returned to the world of the sun. Therefore, in many paintings, you can see Persephone holding a pomegranate in her hand, which means a good harvest and many children ("A Dream of Red Mansions" also has a metaphor for many children in the judgment of Yuan Chun, "the pomegranate blossoms illuminate the palace"), which also represents this legend. . Picture below (painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
However, the simple Persephone did not expect that after eating the food of the underworld, she would not be able to completely escape the shackles of the underworld even if she returned to the sun world. . Therefore, for three months of each year, Persephone must return to the underworld to accompany her husband Hades, who was once a cold, stern, and unkind queen of the underworld; for the rest of the time, she can return to the sun to accompany her. The mother turned into a beautiful girl. This is acceptable to all three parties. Three months after Persephone returned to the underworld, her mother Demoter did not think about food or food, and the earth faced the barrenness of all things. This is the scene of winter. And when Persephone returned to the world, the earth began to revive, and everything was prosperous and prosperous. Therefore, Persephone is also called the "goddess of spring", symbolizing seeds. Leaving the underworld means "emerging from the ground and sprouting".
There are other stories about the Queen of Hades, including helping Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to raise the beautiful boy Adonis, and her relationship with the daughter of Cocytus, the god of the weeping river. The grievances and resentments between Mintha will be described separately when we focus on these two little characters.
Finally, let’s return to Bernini’s masterpiece “Hades Robbery of Persephone”. This was Bernini’s work when he was 23 years old. The hard marble is as soft in Bernini’s hands. The incomparable tofu cubes are exquisitely crafted and lifelike. Just put a detail at the end to recall the legendary Greek story and marvel at Bernini's superb skills.