Talk:Persephone

Right now, the myth of Persephone's abduction is told in detail at Persephone § Abduction myth. At Rape of Persephone § Mythological background, there is only a brief description, and a {{main|Persephone}} link back to the Persephone article (but not the specific section). However, the lead section of Rape of Persephone (which focuses mostly on art) has "Abduction of Persephone" in bold, seemingly indicating that it should be the main article for the topic. And our general practice would be to put more detailed information at the more specific article. Anyone have thoughts about how to sort all this out, or want to take a stab at doing it? Cheers, Sdkb ^talk 18:11, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

I'd correct your statement that this article focuses mostly on art to say instead that this article is focuses exclusively on art. Quoting what I said at Talk:Rape of Persephone: "This article is about a theme in western art based on a Greek myth. But recently the article was rewritten to be about the myth itself (a topic which is well covered at Persephone) I've restored the article as it was before this change. While we could have a separate article about the myth itself, this article is not it." Paul August ☎ 10:08, 15 August 2026 (UTC)

I think if that's the intended focus of the other article, then it needs a hatnote (I should also note that I found Rape of Persephone because it was linked from Hadestown over a reference to the myth, so it's clearly causing confusion). Sdkb ^talk 16:22, 15 August 2026 (UTC)

The confusion results from the unfortunate fact that the art world has traditionally used the term "rape" to describe the abduction, but there's nothing we can do about that. I have tried to add an appropriate hatnote to the "Rape" article, and have redirected those links in Hadestown to point to Persephone § Abduction myth, so thanks for that. What still needs doing, apparently, is to check all the incoming links to our article "Rape of Persephone" to see if they need to be fixed. Paul August ☎ 18:18, 15 August 2026 (UTC)

I should perhaps add, that the myth is usually referred to as an "abduction", not a rape, while the theme in art is usually referred to as the "Rape of Persephone" (a proper noun), where, quoting from our article: In this context, the word Rape refers to the traditional translation of the Latin raptus ('seized' or 'carried off') which refers to bride kidnapping rather than the potential ensuing sexual violence.^[1] However, since in a modern context, calling the abduction a rape is something of a misnomer, the art theme is also sometimes called the "Abduction of Persephone", hence the bolded Abduction of Persephone in the lead of that article.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Paul August (talk • contribs) 12:23, 15 August 2026 (UTC)

There is really not a lot of information on Persephone's usual birth story. This article goes into depth about the Orphic "Rhapsodic Theogony version of her birth, but it merely states one brief sentence in the summary stating that she is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. I would like to see a more detailed telling of the myth of how Persephone is Zeus and Demeter's daughter. Kjette101 (talk) 14:26, 22 August 2026 (UTC)

What sources do you have in mind? A search through DuckDuckGo, Google Scholar, and Google Books don't yield a more detailed telling. Rotideypoc41352 (talk · contribs) 15:26, 23 August 2026 (UTC)

@Kjette101: I suspect that there isn't much more to say. These are the important primary sources for the parentage that I'm aware of:

• Hesiod, Theogony: Also he came to the bed of all-nourishing Demeter, and she bore white-armed Persephone whom Aidoneus carried off from her mother;
• Homer, Odyssey (Zeus as father): ‘Ah me, my child, ill-fated above all men, in no wise does Persephone, the daughter of Zeus, deceive thee, ...
• Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Demeter as mother): I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess—of her and her trim-ankled daughter whom Aidoneus rapt away, given to him by all-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer.
• Apollodorus, in the Bibliotheca, initially describes Persephone as the daughter of Zeus and Styx, but later calls Demeter her mother: But when Zeus ordered Pluto to send up the Maid, Pluto gave her a seed of a pomegranate to eat, in order that she might not tarry long with her mother.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece: Mistress is her surname among the many, just as they surname Demeter's daughter by Zeus the Maid. But whereas the real name of the Maid is Persephone, ...
• Hyginus, Fabulae: From Jove and Ceres, Proserpina.

As you can see, none of these sources describe the circumstances of Persephone's conception or birth. Do you know of other ancient sources that do? – Michael Aurel (talk) 07:55, 24 August 2026 (UTC)