this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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Mandatory Pro-Hades/Persephone Note: There are ancient interpretations of their relationship as wholesome. This is not just a modern reading/meme.
Even if of not. It's a made up story, so I decide how I want to read it! And I want them to be a wholesome underworld couple, because I need something wholesome in my live!
I listened to Stephen Fry's audiobook Mythos and Heroes, and other than kidnapping and tricking her, Stephen does make it feel like shes happy there.
Kidnapping of that sort was common in Ancient Greece in its... less wholesome form, but also common as a means of eloping when two consenting people knew that they wouldn't get approval for their marriage otherwise. Some of the ancient tellings of the myth unambiguously portray it as the... unwholesome form, but some others imply the 'elopement' angle.
Likewise, some ancient accounts have Persephone tricked into eating the pomegranate seeds (and deeply upset about it), but other accounts portray Persephone as knowingly eating the pomegranate seeds as a means of defying her mother.
There's even some mention of Persephone as an underworld deity predating Hades getting the gig.
Maybe it's like a Baby It's Cold Outside situation where she's playing into the idea of being conquered because that's considered a normal courtship style for her culture.