The Rape of Persephone
When Persephone is taken into the Underworld, the masculine point of view (Hades and Zeus) tells the event as a wedding, while the feminine one (Persephone and Demeter) tells that is was a rape (DeBloois, 1997). The early versions of the myth embrace the ambiguity of this act in its use of verbs, but the story as a whole presents a masculine view of the productive nature of Persephone's pain, both emotional and physical (Lincoln, 1994). Eternally bound to her captor by her red-stained lips, her suffering as a hostage in the Underworld creates the seasons for the over-world. Winter is described both as the absence of Persephone and the presence of her mother's mourning.
The myth of Persephone has changed over time. Our contemporary understanding of Persephone's interactions with Hades assumes that sex is implicit in rape. When this myth was originally translated from Greek to Latin, the word harpezein, meaning to seize, was translated as rapio. While to Romans rapio meant to seize, contemporary readers have referred to Persephone's myth as a rape. In part due to its etymological link to rapio, and perhaps in part due to an increased understanding of the sexual connotations of abduction. Thus, the artist's understanding and our contemporary understanding of Persephone's suffering, both physical and emotional, has deepened over time.
The abstract, physical presentation of this painting communicates an internal, emotional state that underlies the Myth of Persephone and signifies both physical and emotional imprisonment. The harsh, earthy colors remind the viewer of the charred remnants of desolate soil, a result of Persephone's sufferings in the Underworld. The oblong representation of the central figure is reminiscent of a mirror, projecting its own darkness, of its hole-like, morphed body, onto the viewer. The abstract figure communicates a sense of distortion similar to the perceptions and bodily experiences of one that suffers from depression. A parallel can be drawn between the painting's simultaneous imagery of depression, the entrapment of internal suffering that echoes hopelessly inside the enclosed darkness, and the inside of the brain, where one's emotional and physical pain converge on shared pathways and neurotransmitters aggregate and amplify.