The story of Demeter and Persephone has been analyzed and examined from many angles. Poets and novelists have also taken it as their own. In our own time, one can even catch sight of certain parallels between this ancient story and the ideas and questions posed by quantum physics. How can something be in two places at once? How is it that the observer affects the outcome? How can all things be interconnected?
There have been many voices who have spoken for “The Maiden” across the centuries. Sometimes they appear contradictory, but perhaps that should only serve to broaden our thinking and transform our notion of duality. In some sense, each of us is Persephone. We all lead a double life, one in the outer everyday world and one in our own subjective, interior world, the one created by our imaginations and populated with our hopes and fears. A bout of depression can surely thrust us into an underworld as powerful as the one ruled by Hades.
Demeter is traditionally the focus of the tale, for once Persephone goes “underground”, she virtually disappears from the story. Not satisfied with this invisible silence, I have tried to present a fuller reading of the story, and give “The Maiden“ her due. The quotations that appear on the following pages have been drawn from many sources, from the days of Homer to the present. They represent just a few of the paths I have travelled in pursuit of Persephone’s story. The accompanying paintings are mine. They are not necessarily traditional illustrations, but rather a pairing of color and content, created over many years in a variety of styles. They form a motley scrapbook hereby dedicated to the goddess of continuous transformation.
