LOUISE GLÜCK’S «PERSEPHONE THE WANDERER»

READ FROM A PSYCHOANALYTIC

AND CLASSICAL RECEPTIONS PERSPECTIVE

Sanae Kichouh Aiadi

Universidad de Almería - España
[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Louise Glück provides a compelling example of Classical Receptions in contemporary poetry.

Hence, this paper aims at discussing Glück’s psychoanalytic interpretation of the so-called
Homeric Hymn to Demeter and «Persephone the Wanderer», a poem pertaining to Glück’s
Averno (2006), attempting to demonstrate the appropriation of the myth of Demeter and
Persephone from a psychoanalytic approach. After an introduction to the Homeric Hymn to
Demeter (Foley, 1994), and Louise Glück and her poem «Persephone the Wanderer», I will
compare the myth of Demeter and Persephone in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter with Glück’s
«Persephone the Wanderer». From a psychoanalytic perspective, Demeter’s psychological state
will be addressed while pointing out her motherhood and her grief, and then I will associate
the concept of narcissism to both Demeter and Hades in Glück’s poem and its impact on
Persephone.
KEYWORDS: Louise Glück, Persephone and Demeter, Classical Receptions, psychoanalysis.

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«PERSEPHONE THE WANDERER» DE LOUISE GLÜCK

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LEÍDO DESDE UNA PERSPECTIVA PSICOANALÍTICA Y DE RECEPCIONES CLÁSICAS

RESUMEN

Louise Glück proporciona un ejemplo convincente de Recepciones Clásicas en la poesía

contemporánea. Por lo tanto, este artículo tiene como objetivo abordar la interpretación psico-
analítica de Glück del llamado Himno homérico a Deméter y «Persephone the Wanderer»
(«Perséfone la errante»), poema perteneciente al Averno de Glück (2006), que intenta demos-
trar la apropiación del mito de Deméter y Perséfone desde una perspectiva psicoanalítica.
Después de una introducción al Himno homérico a Deméter (Foley, 1994), y a Louise Glück
y su poema «Persephone the Wanderer», compararé el mito de Deméter y Perséfone en el Himno
homérico a Deméter con «Persephone the Wanderer» de Glück. Desde una perspectiva psico-
analítica, se abordará el estado psicológico de Deméter señalando su maternidad y su duelo,
y luego se asociará el concepto de narcisismo tanto a Deméter como a Hades en el poema
de Glück y su impacto en Perséfone.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Louise Glück, Deméter y Perséfone, Recepciones Clásicas, psicoanálisis.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.25145/j.fortunat.2022.36.04
FORTVNATAE, Nº 36; 2022 (2), pp. 67-80; ISSN: 1131-6810 / e-2530-8343
 The appeal of the classical sources is such that texts like the Homeric Hymn
to Demeter keep finding their way into contemporary literature, and so can be seen
in Louise Glück’s book of poetry Averno (2006), where ancient mythology and current
reality become one. Although the name Averno alludes to the Roman term which
specifically refers to the entrance to the underworld, the use of the Greek names of
Demeter and Persephone makes reference to the Hellenic roots of Glück’s Averno.1
Moreover, in an interview, the author explicitly cites D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths
(1967) as her source of information about the myth in question (Gosmann, 2010:
220). Although this twentieth century version of the myth blends Homeric with
Ovidian traits, the most pervasive one is the Homeric, therefore the choice of the
Homeric Hymn to Demeter in this paper.2
With Averno, Louise Glück succeeds in making the mythical characters
Demeter and Persephone display different psychological behaviours. This analysis
will only focus on the poem «Persephone the Wanderer» (I)3 where we find a range
of complex poetic motifs related to death, marriage, motherhood, grief, and trauma,
among many others that are present not only in this poem and Glück’s book of poetry
Averno but also in all her works of poetry. For the present study the motifs of mother-
hood and grief for the loss of a daughter are imperative as, although there are many
ways of addressing them, Demeter and Persephone have a different perspective and
a different view of the same events. While the former feels concerned and grieved, the
latter feels controlled, lost, and split between two worlds that have decided her fate
without taking her into consideration, and as a result, she has to give up her identity
or the need to establish one.
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1. HOMERIC HYMN TO DEMETER

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The Homeric Hymn to Demeter sings the story of how Persephone, while
picking flowers, stretched her hands to pluck a narcissus and the earth opened.4 Hades,
her uncle, took her away in his golden chariot while she was asking for help. For nine

1
The work on this article has been sustained by the Research Group HUM-741. I wish to
express my gratitude to Lucía Presentación Romero Mariscal and Susana Nicolás Román, who read
an earlier draft of this article and encouraged me with illuminating support and critical advice, Charles
Delattre, who has guided me, and Iman Farouk Mohamed El Bakary who was a source of inspiration
for this paper. See De Vido, 2006. As per the literary resonances of the name Averno as a topos of the
underworld which can be traced back to Vergil, see Hurst, 2022: 75.
2
Although I will be addressing the Hymn to Demeter as the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, it is
generally accepted that it was not written by Homer as the author is unknown.
3
In Averno, Louise Glück entitled two of her poems «Persephone the Wanderer» but this
research concentrates mainly on the first version of this poem while mentioning now and then the
second version.
4
I will be following Helene P. Foley’s (1994) translation of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
days, Demeter, her mother, roamed the earth looking for her, tearing her veil, holding
torches, and not tasting ambrosia, drinking, or bathing. On the tenth day, Hekate
approached Demeter to tell her that, although she did not see anything, she did hear
something. Therefore, she took the grieving mother in front of Helios, who had indeed
seen what had happened. He told Demeter how Zeus, Persephone’s father, was the one
to blame as he was the one that gave his daughter to his brother Hades in marriage
without Demeter’s consent. Nevertheless, he also said that the god of the underworld
was no unsuitable husband, which made the goddess grieve much (HDem ll. 1-91).
Demeter then withdrew from Olympus and disguised herself among human-
ity. While disguised, she met Keleos’ daughters who took her to their palace so that
she could nurse their little brother Demophon. Once at Keleos and Metaneira’s palace,
she nursed the child and treated him like divinity. While trying to immortalise him
by burying him inside the fire, Metaneira was spying on the goddess out of mistrust.
This mistrust triggered Demeter’s anger, who snatched the child from the flames
and stopped the immortalisation process. Then, the goddess asked for a temple in
her honour, where she isolated herself in pain for her lost daughter and buried the seed
under the ground, putting the life of humanity at stake and with them their gifts and
sacrifices to the gods and goddesses (HDem ll. 92-312).
Zeus tried to summon Demeter but did not succeed, so he had no choice but
to send Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back. Hermes addressed
Hades and told him what Zeus had ordered, and Hades did not disobey. Nevertheless,
before letting Persephone leave, he told her about the honours that she would acquire
as his wife and put a pomegranate seed into her mouth. Persephone got reunited
with her mother, but as a result of eating in the underworld, Zeus decided she would
spend one third of the year with Hades and two thirds with her mother. Then Zeus

69
sends Rheia to ask Demeter to restore the vegetation and she does not disobey. Finally,
Demeter teaches her rites to the kings who administered the law (HDem ll. 313-489).

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These were the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were specifically dedicated to Persephone
and Demeter. They celebrated life, death, and rebirth, and promised the initiates
a better life after death (Roisman, 2011: 186). Thus, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter
explains how Koré (a maiden) becomes Persephone (the goddess of the underworld),
the honours that she receives after the abduction, and the creation of the Eleusinian
Mysteries (Harris, 2018: 29).
As Foley aptly puts it, «the Hymn offers a female version of the heroic quest
that plays a central role in Mediterranean and Near Eastern epic» (1994: 80). Simil-
arly, in Louise Glück’s creative appropriation of this Hymn, the female heroic quest
plays a pivotal role. However, much to our surprise, this quest will not be under-
taken by Demeter but by her daughter Persephone.

2. LOUISE GLÜCK’S «PERSEPHONE THE WANDERER» (I):

APPROACHING THE POEM

Louise Glück is an American author of thirteen books of poetry, two of liter-

ary criticism, and one work of fiction. She is now well known for winning, among other
 prestigious literary awards, the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature.5 Her poetry does not
present a set metre, nor a rhyme scheme and she tends to write with a quotidian
diction (Užgiris, 2020: 90-91). Not only is the influence of the classical tradition still
very present in contemporary literature, but also in Glück’s poetry, where a connec-
tion between ancient and contemporary topics is established.6 Indeed, this perfectly
applies to her book of poetry Averno, where the ancient myth is consolidated with
the contemporary reality as the captivating story of Demeter and Persephone allows
us to do. Although there are different versions of this myth, I consider the Homeric
Hymn to Demeter, which is the most ancient literary source associated with this myth,
to be indirectly the most inspiring source of Glück’s Averno. I believe this is demon-
strated in Glück’s choice of diction throughout the poems in Averno when alluding
to the Demeter and Persephone myth. For starters, in «Persephone the Wanderer» (I),
the feeling of shame Demeter induces in her child is similarly addressed in the Home-
ric Hymn where Persephone tells her version of the events to her mother (HDem
ll. 406-33).This speech could be interpreted as a subtle attempt to regain her mother’s
trust. Then, «A Myth of Innocence» explains how «The girl who disappears from the
pool / will never return. A woman will return, / looking for the girl she was» (Glück,
2006: 50, l. 23-25), which is a direct allusion to how Koré becomes Persephone. Further-
more, in «A Myth of Devotion», just as it happened in the Homeric version (HDem
l. 343), we learn of a «bed» (Glück, 2006: 58, l. 4) Hades added to the world he created
for Persephone. Later, in «Persephone the Wanderer» (II), we read: «the dead are
mysteries» (Glück, 2006: 73, l. 8) which subtly alludes to the Eleusinian Mysteries
Demeter establishes at the end of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Also, in all these
poems, Glück uses Greek names to address the characters of the ancient myth.
This study will address the first version of «Persephone the Wanderer» where
70

diction is imperative as the word choice is calculated. Moreover, this diction presents
FORTVNATAE, Nº 36; 2022 (2), PP. 67-80

a contrast between Persephone’s life on earth, her transition to the underworld, and
her life in the underworld. The stanzas hint at either before, during, or after Perse-
phone’s abduction. Most stanzas end with a powerful word such as «human behaviour»,
«harm», «negative creation», «virgin», «modern girls», «Persephone», «Hawthorne»,
«casuality», «conflict», «hell», «die», «safety», «meat», «life», «earth», and «god». Each
of these endings reminds us of what Persephone endures. Many of these words oppose
one another, which gives power to the diction.
Time has a special sense in this poem as it refers to different key moments
in Persephone’s fate, and at the end, there is a sense of future when the narrator
addresses the reader. Although some of the verses are short, they are still strong and

5
For a general overview of Glück’s biography and works, see https://www.nobelprize.org/
prizes/literature/2020/gluck/biographical/ [accessed 17/03/2022].
6
Cf., for example, Glück’s The Triumph of Achilles (1985), Meadowland (1996), Vita Nova (1999).
See Morris, 2006.
meaningful, each ending with a powerful statement referring directly or indirectly to
Persephone. The use of a range of words that have a melancholic tone, such as «harm»,
«negative creation», «hell», or «rape», evokes the Homeric narrative of the myth of
Demeter and Persephone.7 Other words are associated with nature, such as «meadow»,
«daisies», «fecundity», «earth», or «field», once more echoing the Homeric account.8
Also, some words speak volumes of the psychoanalytic approach of the contempo-
rary poet regarding the ancient myth, namely «dilemma», «ego», «superego», or «id».
The names «Persephone», «Demeter», and «Hades» allude directly to the mythical
source. While using the myth of Demeter and Persephone, Glück finds the perfect
excuse to allegorically address disturbing realities about human nature, such as the
«unconscious harm» we do; also, gender and society’s concerns, such as how «modern
girls» are «drugged, violated against [their] will» (Glück, 2006: 16, l. 16); how
marriage changes, mainly, the bride’s life, who even after she returns to her first home
she is «stained with red juice» (Glück, 2006: 16, l. 22) resulting from the shame of
having lost virginity. The poem also tackles the emotions of both the mother, at the
beginning of the poem, and the daughter in the rest of the stanzas. Some powerful
and recurrent words are «earth», «home», and «hell», which echoes with the noun
in the title «wanderer», as Persephone wanders between earth and underworld. Also,
a very powerful word in the diction is «sex» which is the one that causes the transi-
tion from childhood to adulthood, from earth to underworld, thus, the one causing
the sense of wandering. This poem is a poetic example that results from the mixture
of high and middle diction, as when using psychoanalytic terms and neutral expres-
sions. Glück proves to be clear yet, at times, ironic when addressing, for instance,
the way scholars debate Persephone’s abduction.

71
3. THE HOMERIC HYMN TO DEMETER

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AND «PERSEPHONE THE WANDERER»

Glück’s first explicit allusion to the myth of Demeter and Persephone in

Averno can be found in her first version of the poem «Persephone the Wanderer».
After the title itself, the very first lines run like this:

In the first version, Persephone

is taken from her mother
and the goddess of the earth
punishes the earth–... (Glück, 2006: 16, ll. 1-4).

7
See HDem ll. 310-2 for «harm»; ll. 307-10 for «negative creation»; ll. 341-72 for «hell»;
and ll. 404-13 for implicit «rape».
8
See HDem l. 7 for «meadow»; ll. 6-7 for the motif of flowers; l. 469 for «fecundity»; ll.
14-16 for «earth»; and l. 471 for «field».
 A few verses later there is another allusion to the ancient source:

Persephone’s initial
sojourn in hell continues to be
pawed over by scholars who dispute
the sensations of the virgin:

did she cooperate in her rape,

or was she drugged, violated against her will,
as happens so often to modern girls. (Glück, 2006: 16, ll. 11-17).

In these lines, Glück ironically refers to the fact that many scholars have
addressed Persephone’s abduction in countless contemporary studies debating
whether she did or did not cooperate in her rape. Glück uses the appalling verb
«pawed» to criticise the brutal insensitivity with which scholars and academics some-
times analyse highly sensitive texts. It is as if, instead of passing their hands through
the pages of the poem, they put their paws on them. In a typically postmodernist way,
Glück seems to be mocking scholars, who try to go through the written words to find
a plausible explanation as to whether Persephone was abducted or not. Even if some
contemporary authors9 have alluded to Persephone’s abduction as a violation or a
sexualised kidnap, the Homeric version is far more subtle than that, implicitly suggest-
ing such sexual violence against the maiden goddess through the powerful image
of Hades making Persephone swallow the pomegranate seed against her will (HDem
ll. 411-3).
Later, as if Glück were alluding to the situation Hermes found when he went
to the underworld to bring Persephone back (HDem ll. 343-4), we find Persephone
72

also «…lying in the bed of Hades» (Glück, 2006: 18, l. 51), as his wife. Moreover,
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Glück encourages us to read the «tale», as she puts it, «as an argument between the
mother and the lover—» where «the daughter is just meat» (Glück, 2006: 19, ll. 86-
87) as none of them genuinely cares about Persephone, all they want is to own her.
The word «hymn» introduces a song of praise sung for a god or goddess
(Rayor, 2004: 4), here Glück devotes two verses to remind us of what the Homeric
Hymn to Demeter is, a «Song of the earth, / song of the mythic vision of eternal life–»
(Glück, 2006: 19, ll. 95-96), a song sang to Demeter. Also, the last two lines of this
poem invoke again the myth when she asks the reader «What will you do, / when
it is your turn in the field with the god?» (Glück, 2006: 19, ll. 100-101).
Nevertheless, following a postmodern strategy, Glück knows that the charac-
ters of this story are just that: characters, and she asks the reader to treat them as such.
Glück is using metafiction or self-conscious fiction, explicitly addressing how fiction
works within the poem. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter is being used here as a way

9
See Richardson, 2011: 54-55; Arthur, 1977; Foley, 1994: 32; Burket, 1983: 262.
to address certain topics and situations, dilemmas even. Glück warns the reader not
to like anyone as «The characters are not people. / They are aspects of a dilemma
or conflict» (Glück, 2006: 17, ll. 33-36).

4. ‘HUMANITY’ OF DEMETER: MOTHERHOOD AND GRIEF

The title «Persephone the Wanderer» surprisingly highlights the fact that
Persephone (my emphasis) wanders. Indeed, the poet will later focus on Persephone’s
wandering between the earth and the underworld. Yet, it is her mother Demeter
who, to any reader acquainted with the «tale», as Glück says, or the myth of the two
goddesses, actually wanders the earth in search of her daughter.10 Another stunning
element in Glück’s poetical appropriation of this myth is that we see the goddess
as a human, not a divine, person. Glück emphasises the humanity of Demeter, which
is particularly explicit in her reaction, since she vengefully punishes the earth because
of the loss of her daughter, which is:
consistent with what we know of human behavior,

that human beings take profound satisfaction

in doing harm, particularly
unconscious harm:

we call this
negative creation. (Glück, 2006: 16, ll. 5-10).

73
As we know, Demeter is blinded by her anger against the kidnap of her
daughter.11 As such, it is Demeter’s wounded motherhood the one that lets her display

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all this wrath, since losing her daughter is what triggers this reaction.12 Like many
a human being, Demeter selfishly wants everyone to taste her sorrow. Her potential
destruction of humankind through famine is conspicuously referred to in the poem
with a remarkable lithote verging on the oxymoron, namely «negative creation».
The goddess of nature and life behaves in a way unfitting to a deity, acting more
like an insensible human creature. Yet the juncture «negative creation» still evokes
the idea of the power of the pagan goddess, used in negative terms, to destroy rather
than to create, and still creating negatively, that is, creating havoc. Nevertheless, even
if Persephone goes back to her mother what happened to her will not change, it is
a fact that after her abduction she will always have to go back to Hades as his wife
because of the pomegranate seed she ate in the underworld:

10
See Frankel, 2016: 45-46.
11
According to Hurst (2012: 185), Glück «reduces the goddess Demeter to a jealous woman».
12
See Morales Ortiz, 2007: 136.
 As is well known, the return of the beloved
does not correct
the loss of the beloved: Persephone

returns home
stained with red juice like
a character in Hawthorne– (Glück, 2006: 16, ll. 18-23).

Nothing will go back to how it was, Persephone’s return home does not erase
the facts: she is stained in a certain way, and so will her mother see her, no matter
how much love she has for her daughter, she sees her as someone else, a woman rather
than the child she wanted back. Indeed, Persephone returns to her mother stained
with the redness of the pomegranate seed that made her a woman leaving childhood
behind.13 Once she goes back to her mother she is no longer the same as she under-
stands what being in a relationship is, she knows what desires are, and she has lost
her innocence.14 Nothing will be the same again for neither of them, but Persephone
is the one paying for that price, the price of change, unaccepted growth:

I am not certain I will

keep this word: is earth
“home” to Persephone? Is she at home, conceivably,
in the bed of the god? Is she
at home nowhere? Is she
a born wanderer, in other words
an existential
74

replica of her own mother, less

hamstrung by ideas of casuality? (Glück, 2006: 17, ll. 24-32).
FORTVNATAE, Nº 36; 2022 (2), PP. 67-80

Persephone does indeed become a wanderer, there is nowhere that she can
call home, neither Demeter nor Hades seem to be a safe place for her, when she

13
There is a contrast between the whiteness of the snow and the redness of the stain that is
also the blood that implies the loss of maidenhood, the loss of virginity. This could be associated with
the fact that the pomegranate is associated with blood, and marriage, see Richardson, 1974: 276. Readers
should be reminded of the fact that, before her being kidnapped by Hades, Persephone is referred to
as a child, a young girl, i.e. Koré. See Foley (1994: 39).
14
Persephone’s lack of innocence is also suggested in «A Myth of Innocence» which is also
a poem pertaining to Glück’s Averno and, in my view, the contemporary author conveys here ideas
reminiscent from the Homeric subtext. Indeed, Persephone’s erotic awakening is also addressed by
Suter (2002: 22, 41), who suggests that Persephone stretches her hands to unplug the narcissus because
of her readiness to get married and that her interesting retelling of the events to her mother tries to down-
play the fact that she is ready to get married. In a similar vein, Daifotis (2017: 19) also views in Glück’s
Averno Persephone’s willingness to go with Hades.
goes back to her mother she is no longer at home, her mother knows that she is
no longer a child, as so does Persephone herself. When she is with Hades, she knows
that being in his bed is only temporary. As someone with their luggage still packed,
Persephone does not have a place to settle. Wherever she goes she is not at home.
However, Demeter is the same as well: she is a wanderer. Because of her daughter,
she wanders the earth looking for her, and because of her absence, she makes winter
appear. Thus, winter is the way Demeter expresses her grief but:

You must ask yourself:

where is it snowing?

White of forgetfulness,
of desecration– (Glück, 2006: 17, ll. 42-45).

Demeter might be trying to forget her pain but she is buried in her grief.
Demeter’s reaction to her daughter’s loss was that of someone who had nothing to
lose. She had to make a judgement call and she decided to starve humanity until
her daughter was brought back to her. This is yet another reference to the classical
source Glück is using as inspiration (HDem ll. 305-11). That is all she could do to
try and get herself back to how things used to be before Persephone was taken away
from her. Nevertheless, no broken relationship can be completely fixed.

5. HADES’ AND DEMETER’S NARCISSISM

75
AND ITS IMPACT ON PERSEPHONE

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Parental love is a reborn narcissism (Freud, 1914: 91), and so is seen in Glück’s
rewriting of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, where she presents Demeter’s
motherhood as a childish and possessive one. As it happens in Glück’s «Persephone
the Wanderer» (II) where:

Glück shows the difficulty the young woman has with the idea of a maternal and
body-focused femininity. Either the young woman desires to maintain her non-
maternal, pre-adolescent self, and struggles against her mother, who represents that
restrictive, female-gendered body identity onto her; or the young mother develops
a narcissism with and abjection of her own body as it becomes the space wherein
a child develops (Cooke, 2017: 27).

Nevertheless, I submit that these ideas are first introduced in «Persephone

the Wanderer» (I) where Persephone wanders between two worlds. In each of them,
someone, either her mother or her husband, awaits for her and makes her respon-
sible for their joy or sadness, mostly her mother, who indeed sees her as an exten-
sion of herself. As a grieving mother, Demeter shuts down her daughter’s identity,
not allowing her to develop her own separate self. Hades does the same as he seems
a sort of hope to Persephone when she attempts to escape her mother’s control, but
 she feels deceived as she finds herself with a controlling lover.15 Indeed, as Iman
El Bakary asserts, «loss of identity, and the tragic silencing of the mind demanded
by the narcissistic lover are among the most recurrent themes in women’s writing»
(2019: 135). As such, the mother’s pain stems from her physical separation from
her daughter, who is no longer in her body nor on earth, «which, being Demeter’s
godly domain, acts as an extension and representation of her own body» (Cooke,
2017: 34). The control that Demeter holds over Persephone and the earth is the one
that forms her sense of self. In that regard, both depend upon Demeter and are condi-
tioned by her.
As such, neither Demeter nor Hades care about what Persephone feels:

She is lying in the bed of Hades.

What is in her mind?
Is she afraid? Has something
blotted out the idea
of mind? (Glück, 2006:18, ll. 51-55).

That she is Hades’ wife, and she is in his bed is a fact, but what nobody
knows is what Persephone is thinking, how she is feeling. Her mother is looking
for her to bring her back to her, and her husband wants her, but we do not know
of Persephone’s feelings and thoughts.16 Her passiveness represents her lack of iden-
tity. Even if she is not dead, she behaves like someone who is indeed dead, victimised
because of others’ control. Persephone seems to know the power of her mother and
what she is capable of:
76

She does know the earth

is run by mothers, this much
FORTVNATAE, Nº 36; 2022 (2), PP. 67-80

is certain. She also knows

she is not what is called
a girl any longer. Regarding
incarceration, she believes

she has been a prisoner since she has been a daughter. (Glück, 2006: 18, ll. 56-62).

Now, imprisoned in Hades’ underworld she does not perceive any difference
as she was always a prisoner of her mother. The only thing that changed is the cage,
as a daughter she was her mother’s and now as a wife she is her husband’s. She belongs

15
«A Myth of Innocence» reinforces this idea. In this poem, Persephone wishes to escape
the body her mother controls and embraces the god of the dead. Yet, once she becomes his wife, she is
confused and wonders whether Hades is the answer to her prayer as she comprehends that he is simi-
lar to her mother.
16
This is shown in her passivity and lack of agency, see Fletcher, 2019: 42.
to someone a part of the year and to someone else the other remaining part. In fact,
«The terrible reunions in store for her / will take up the rest of her life» (Glück, 2006:
18, ll. 63-64) as she will always have to get reunited with both Hades and Demeter
in an endless cycle. She will always be uncomfortable, part of the year with one and
the other remaining part with the other. She is doomed and definitely «forced to live
in the underworld and to confront her dual life» (Yit Mun, 2008: 7). Furthermore,
«When the passion for expiation / is chronic, fierce, you do not choose / the way
you live. You do not live; / you are not allowed to die» (Glück, 2006: 18, ll. 65-68).
I concur with Azcuy’s view that «Averno relates Glück’s human dilemma—
in existential creation one holds the power to create both good and evil, war and peace»
(2013: 107). Indeed, Persephone does not live nor is she allowed to die, even death
is denied to her, there will never be an end to her pain and sorrow, and there is no
escape.17 She will «...drift between earth and death / which seem, finally, / strange-
ly alike…» (Glück, 2006: 18, 69-71). On earth she is her mother’s daughter, with
no identity of her own as her mother will control her; on the underworld she is her
husband’s wife, again, with no free will as she is controlled by him.18 In fact Perse-
phone is not allowed to have her own opinion nor to speak her mind as «... there
is no point in knowing what you want / when the forces contending over you / could
kill you» (Glück, 2006: 18, ll. 72-74). Therefore, Persephone does not want nor need
to know anymore what she wants, she is completely objectivised, she already lost
herself so whatever she wants does not matter any longer. Knowing who she is and
what she wants would bring her nothing as she cannot escape from her mother who
awaits her on earth, nor her husband who does the same in the underworld. Therefore:

77
as we have seen
in the tale of Persephone

FORTVNATAE, Nº 36; 2022 (2), PP. 67-80

which should be read

as an argument between the mother and the lover—

the daughter is just meat. (Glück, 2006: 19, ll. 83-87).

Persephone is «loved»19 by a possessive mother and a possessive husband that

control her, incarcerate her, own her, by shutting down her thoughts and making
her identity disappear as she is just meat (my emphasis) to them. However, none
of them sees it as it is, this is «love» for them. In Persephone’s situation both her

17
According to Gosmann, «Persephone, Demeter, and Hades are in conflict with each other
in the myth just as ego, superego, and id are in conflict with each other in the mind» (2010: 228).
18
See Hurst, 2012: 178.
19
This is between quotation marks as I believe there is no actual love coming from neither
Demeter nor Hades. In «A Myth of Innocence» Persephone feels incarcerated and controlled by her
mother, in the second version of «Persephone the Wanderer» she is a mere extension of her mother,
 relationship with Demeter and her marriage to Hades are indeed a trap where she
has fallen.20

6. CONCLUSIONS

In Glück’s creative appropriation of the ancient Greek myth, Persephone

lacks freedom, being forced to comply with the willingness of both her mother and
husband. They end up debilitating her with their possessiveness and control over,
not only her body but also her mind. Persephone is unable to change her destiny,
life in death is more tormenting than death itself.
The tremendous impact of the Homeric version of the myth of Demeter
and Persephone on Averno is more than obvious, and even more so in the two poems
called «Persephone the Wanderer» where the author encourages the reader to take
another perspective of the events taking place in the former versions of the myth.
Louise Glück scrutinises Demeter’s and Persephone’s personalities, making the reader
consider the facts differently from the Homeric Hymn: what if Persephone did not
want to go back to her mother? What if she did not want to go back to her husband
either? And after all, what does Persephone want? This last question is disturbing-
ly hard to answer as Persephone actually lacks agency, her thoughts are ignored, and
she is owned, sometimes by her mother and others by her husband. Persephone finds
herself trapped between two worlds that she is supposed to call home, swinging
between two beings whose love is killing her alive. All of this makes Persephone
indeed a wanderer. Glück’s appropriation reinforces the psychological consequences
of Persephone being trapped between mother and husband, offering a different
78

version of the Demeter and Persephone myth. Therefore, following a psychoana-

lytic approach, I could explore the narcissism of both Demeter and Hades and its
FORTVNATAE, Nº 36; 2022 (2), PP. 67-80

impact on Persephone. Indeed, Glück succeeds in depicting the possessive love that
ties Persephone to her mother and her husband.

RECIBIDO: marzo 2022; ACEPTADO: septiembre 2022.

in «Persephone the Wanderer» (I) Persephone is a replica of her mother, and in «A Myth of Devotion»
Hades decides to love her and manipulates her as a proof of such a feeling, all this indicates that Perse-
phone is objectivised and not loved. Moreover, Freud (1914: 76-85) states love as the cure to narcissism
and both Demeter and Hades display narcissistic traits that encourage the thinking that what we
conceptualise as genuine love is not present in neither Demeter nor Hades. Although I take issue
with Dings’ review of Averno, he has a point when addressing «the Glückian obsessions of self, complaint,
anger, and clinical analysis of the human with the tools of myth» (2008: 72).
20
For more appropriations of the Demeter and Persephone myth see Salcedo González,2020: 36.
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