A photoshoot of Lord Jazor as his own design of Dr. Doom and me as the Scarlet Witch. I ship Wandoom hard and Jazor and I have a silly head canon on how the act.
a lot in the myths, Gods or Goddesses would get angry with anyone who attracts or ( at least try to) get with their spouses. Hades was even furious with Pirithous when he tried to take Persephone so I kinda wondered why Hades doesn't react in the Adonis myth especially when the kid grew up in the underworld, he's bound to know. So I personally believe that either Persephone saw Adonis as her kid or Hades was fine with his wife having a boy toy or they share him.
Hi! Recently I bought and read a book called “Adonis, his representations in South Italian Vase-painting”. From what I’ve seen, apparently, the Adonis myth is not Greek, but “imported” from other cultures. That said, the sources we’ve got left are not very clear. What is known for sure is that Adonis and Aphrodite were lovers, but the relationship with Persephone is pretty ambiguous.
From the vase paintings in the book, at least, to me, it doesn’t seem that Adonis reciprocates Persephone’s affection (like, he doesn’t stare at her but looks the other way, or looks towards Aphrodite if she is present in the painting too).
A second problem is that Persephone’s gestures are ambiguous too. Like, in one vase she places her hand on Adonis’s knee, but: ¿is that gesture meant to be seen as romantic? ¿Or it could be a mom-son affection? There is a vase painting where Persephone places her hand on Zeus’** shoulder, and they don’t have a romantic relationship, but there are also sculptures where Persephone touches Hades’ shoulder gently and he is her husband. (**now, the book says it’s Zeus but I think it’s Hades). Touching knees could be seen as a “begging” gesture too.
Vase paintings sometimes can be hard to read without a text telling the story because: 1) some vases were not created for main Greece but as an export product for Greek colonies or other cultures overseas, 2) not all the vases have the name of the characters on them (usually when the names were written it could be because the audience was not Greek or familiar with the myths), 3) it depends on who bought the vase (like from IV B.C women could buy and customize vases stories), 4) some times modern scholars or archaeologists make mistakes when identifying the characters, like in some vases not even scholars are sure if the god depicted is Zeus or Hades because, if there is no name written, and they share traits (throne, scepter, etc.) there might be no way to differentiate them.
Also, the religious ceremonies or rituals were always about celebrating or mourning the Aphrodite-Adonis relationship. As far as I know, no Ancient Greek woman celebrated Adonis being together with Persephone because Persephone was equal to “death”, while Aphrodite was life and romance.
I’ve been always confused about this myth, and again, I don’t think there is a 100% clear answer because the sources we’ve got left are confusing.
Another difficult aspect is that, in some versions and vase paintings, it’s Hades himself the one who plays the judge and rules in favor of both goddesses, dividing Adonis’ time with them.
This makes everything confusing because NO Ancient Greek man would allow his wife to cheat on him, not even the myths (that are “fantasy” and not always following real-life traditions) allowed wives to cheat. When Aphrodite cheats on Hephaestus that is a ground for divorce. So, it would be REALLY weird and “impossible” for the ancient Greek mindset that Adonis and Persephone were lovers, and Hades allowed that in his own house.
My thoughts to solve this situation are:
Maybe this myth was “non-canon” at all since it was mainly celebrated by women and was a foreign “cultural import”. Maybe that’s why Persephone has a lover and Hades allows it, but STILL, it doesn’t feel like a satisfactory answer, since I’ve never seen any other myth or tale in Ancient Greece where a husband is ok with such a situation. It feels incredibly odd and foreign. If the relationship was secret, it could be understandable that Hades doesn’t do anything, but if he knew and he was the one allowing Persephone to stay with Adonis, it’s absolutely weird for Adonis to be Persephone’s sexual lover. Average ancient Greek men would divorce or punish the man who touched his wife. And even if he forgave his wife (like Menelaus with Helen) he wouldn’t allow the lover to live with them and have a sexual relationship.
Another answer, which is my most comfortable answer, is that Persephone doesn’t have a romantic-sexual relationship with Adonis, but she wants him as his son or loves him in a “platonic” way, like, Adonis was way TOO beautiful, so maybe Persephone wants him as “something beautiful to treasure” rather a “partner”. From the vase paintings, most of the time, the dynamic between Adonis and Persephone doesn’t feel so romantic at all compared to Adonis-Aphrodite. Like, you can see in vases that Adonis and Aphrodite touch each other, stare at each others’ eyes, are about to kiss and etc. In written texts or vase paintings, Adonis always wants to stay with Aphrodite and never with Persephone (so it would be an unreciprocated love, or it’s a mom-son relationship where the son doesn’t want to stay with her mom -Persephone- and prefers love before his “family”).
Also, another weird thing from the myth, which I don’t understand at all and doesn’t feel very Greek, is that Adonis is meant to be a BABY. So, Aphrodite leaves the baby Adonis with Persephone (we know it’s a baby because he was put in a basket and he is depicted as a little kid in some paintings, and the basket is shown too). So, this kind of incest feels very odd for Greek mythology. The only mother-son “allowed” incest was Gaia-Ouranos. The fact that Persephone raises this baby and then wants to make him her lover?? There is no other myth like this anywhere. Even the mother and step-son myths had tragic endings (like Phaedra). That’s why I believe Adonis could be something like Persephone’s stepson and she fights for him to stay (as Demeter asked Persephone to remain by her side).
Also, we don’t know much about kisses and affection in Ancient Greece, like maybe a gesture like touching a knee or shoulder is not romantic per see. Maybe in a vase Persephone and Adonis are not necessarily shown as lovers, now, this is complicated too because, in the vases where Persephone and Adonis are together, there are some sex-romatic hints (like Erotes flying or Persephone’s dress showing her shoulders or her breasts more visible,etc.).
The last comment is that I think the story’s logic would depend on WHO told this myth and for WHAT kind of audience. Was this myth meant for Aphrodite’s worshippers and it was a tale about a goddess losing her beloved partner to the terrible power of death (Persephone)? Or was this myth about life-death together, and Adonis was meant to love both goddesses? It’s difficult to say.
This is the bed from Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard movies! It was made for the King of Spain to give to French actress & singer, Gaby de Slys. Universal bought it on her death in 1920 and it was used in several movies, most notably in The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
sometimes the best fanfics are written by middle aged adults with years of writing experience who simply know how to craft a good story. but also sometimes the best fanfics are written by a sixteen year old girl with something deeply wrong with her
#fandoms need both
#biodiversity
trade secret, the middle aged adults with years of writing experience are just the sixteen year old girl with something deeply wrong with her but all grown up
“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”
“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
“We loved with a love that was more than love.“
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?”
“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.”
“I have great faith in fools - self-confidence my friends will call it.”
“There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion.”
“Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.”
“Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.”
“Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.”
“And all I loved, I loved alone.”
“Years of love have been forgot, in the hatred of a minute.”
“The best things in life make you sweaty.”
“I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow.”
“Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.”
“Invisible things are the only realities.”
“The true genius shudders at incompleteness — imperfection — and usually prefers silence to saying the something which is not everything that should be said.”
“There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told.”
“Madmen know nothing.”
“That which you mistake for madness is but an over-acuteness of the senses.”
“I admit the deed!”
“Anything was better than this agony!”
“Who’s there?”
“You fancy me mad.”
“I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth.”
“Who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery?”
“Leave my loneliness unbroken!”
“Even in the grave, all is not lost.”
“It is a happiness to wonder; – it is a happiness to dream.”
“Stupidity is a talent for misconception.”
“A more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame.”
“To die laughing must be the most glorious of all glorious deaths!”
“The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer.”
“Let my heart be still a moment.”
“Villains!”
“Lord, help my poor soul!”
“You call it hope — It is but agony of desire.”
“Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not?”
“The beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.”
“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.”
“For the love of god!”
“Nevermore.”
“I have been happy, though in a dream.”
“The truth is, I am heartily sick of this life.”
“I am convinced that every thing is going wrong.”
“The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls.”
“Fool!”
“And if I died, at least I will have died for you!”
“It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.”
Anonymous
