/lit/ - Literature

When was it that the common perception of the myth of Persephone became a story of rape? The word originally used was harpazo, which is understood as meaning rapture. I think it's a far more powerful image, Persephone undergoing a grotesque rapture to hell, than her being raped.

I've just been reading a great deal about the Eleusinian mysteries, and their conception of Demeter and Persephone are so far removed from what the perception of them became later in history. I think it's pretty fascinating

The character or persona of both Zeus and Poseidon in regards to what they represent philosophically and in terms of mythology are fairly well defined and understood. Especially in comparison to Hades.

I've been reading, trying to discern what the character of Hades is in the fullest and most layered sense, not just one aspect, as all of these Gods are multifaceted figures, like Zeus being both a pitiless ruler who abuses mortals for revelry and the upholder of divine justice for both mortals and immortals alike.

From what I've read, in comparison to his two brothers, Hades is the shrewd, calculating one who devised plots of trickery and deception as a strategy in the war against the Titans. This was symbolized with his helmet of invisibility being his weapon, being this unseen shadowy force rather than using a weapon of overt power like Zeus's lightning bolt. As Lord of the Underworld, he wears a stern, icy cold visage and sits as a frightful, inexorable judge of the dead, but is never a cruel or unjust figure. Despite his cold nature, he is fair and lawful beyond all the other Gods, the only one besides Zeus content with his place in life. He is still most trusted by Zeus as an advisor, but rarely interacts with any other Olympian.

As for his negative aspects, Hades is said to be the true owner of all the material wealth of the earth, and of the mortals that possess it temporarily in their lives before passing into his realm. There has been some tellings that paint him as a figure of greed, his palace sitting upon heaping mounds of coin and jewels, his chariot an audacious construct of gold, who claims the wealth of the dead leaving them nothing. There are others that show him as disenchanted by his wealth, finding no fulfillment in it, treating it as coldly as he does the dead souls he rules, concerned only with keeping order in his realm.

Obviously given the fact that in regards to all mythology, there are always wildly differing tellings of stories and interpretations of figures, but through all of that we can always gleam some truth in them. What other layers to Hades am I missing in the complete picture of him?