My philosophical questions from The Rape of Persephone 

1. Are we truly responsible for our actions? 

This is an Ethical question since it leads us to wonder whether we can even be held accountable for making our own decisions—do we really have a moral compass at all, or are our decisions always guided by foreign elements and outside people, the way Persephone was unwillingly convinced to stay in the Underworld by eating the pomegranate kernel? I personally consider that no decision we take can be truly our own—even if we might think it is. Our decisions are always influenced by elements we might not even be aware of, whether it’s the wishes of our family and friends or societal expectations that might be laying dormant in our subconscious. 

2. Is there a right and a wrong way to express love? 

This question is ethical given that each person might have their own concept of a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way of expressing their love. These ways might often vary widely between cultures and even between smaller societies. Each one might have its own views on what the optimal or most ‘normal’ way of expressing love is—views that might be held as wrong or immoral by people that do not think the same way. For instance—what to Hades might’ve appeared as the right way to gain Persephone’s love, was completely frowned upon by all the other gods, just the way people in real life might frown upon certain displays of affection. In my own opinion, I think there are no right or wrong ways to display love—especially considering that our very definitions of love can be very different. So long as nobody is hurt or held against their will the way Persephone was, love can be expressed in many varied ways. 

3. Are we predisposed to judge people by their appearance? 

This question related to the branch of Aesthetics has us consider whether our concept of beauty acts as one of the main attributes we consider when first judging a person—as opposed to other elements that might turn out to be more important to a more integral judgement. The myth establishes that Metaneira judges Demeter poorly when she sees her as an old lady—and only changes her opinion when she reveals herself to be a goddess. She most likely looked down on her before given her old appearance. Diving deep into this question, we might end up asking ourselves what we consider the most important characteristic of a person when we first meet them. Personally, I do not consider the appearance of a person to have any value when interacting with them. While they might look a certain way, their personality might tell us a whole different story about their persona. 

SOURCE:

Greeka. (n.d.). Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Retrieved from https://www.greeka.com/greece-myths/persephone/