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Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics Podcast
Demeter

Demeter

Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics vor 2 Jahren

A story of a mother's love, and anger. Demeter seeks justice for Persephone.

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27:34

Natalie tells the powerful and painful story of Demeter's fight
to get justice for her daughter Persephone.

Hades conspires with his siblings Zeus and Gaia to abduct
Persephone and force her to live with him in the underworld as
his wife. Many versions of this story are sanitized for children
but the original is not. It is clear that Persephone is tricked
and trafficked, that she hates and fears Hades and never becomes
accustomed to life among the dead. And that her mother Demeter is
furious and grief-stricken.

The light is gone from Demeter's life and consequently from the
world: crops fail and the people starve. It's only now that Zeus
takes note of her pleas to get Persephone back. He doesn't really
care about the people but he misses their gifts and praise.

In a tour de force solo performance recorded at the Hay festival,
Natalie reclaims the goddess' story for our times. A story of a
mother's love and fury that speaks painfully to us across
millennia.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery