Persephone

Persephone by Sally Pomme Clayton Illustrated by Virginia Lee

I chose Persephone as the traditional story with which I was not familiar.  Somehow, in my education, I missed many of the ancient Greek myths, which are an essential part of an educated person's knowledge.  I've often been lost when references were made to such things as Pandora's box or the nature of pomegranate seeds.  Having read Sally Pomme Clayton's version of Persephone, I am now familiar with one more influential Greek myth.

The story of Persephone follows a beautiful young girl who is kidnapped by the God of the Underworld, Hades.  Her mother, Demeter, the Goddess of Earth, is distraught and puts the world into a period of cold and death as punishment for allowing her daughter to be taken to the Underworld.  Zeus, God of the Sky, intervenes and demands that Persephone be returned to Earth immediately.  Hades acquiesces, but only after convincing Persephone to eat 3 pomegranate seeds before her departure.  Upon returning to Earth, Persephone learns that the pomegranate seeds were food of the dead that will force her to return to the Underworld for 3 months a year -- one month for every seed eaten.  And thus, each time she returns to the Underworld, Mother Earth, Demeter, condemns the world to cold and death until the return of her daughter, which heralds spring.

Tunnell, Jacobs, Young and Bryan point out in their book Children's Literature: Briefly that "Myths grew out of early people's need to understand and explain the world around them and their own existence." The story of Persephone clearly is an explanation of the mysteries of the changing seasons and the cycle of life and death.  The death and cold of winter is the Goddess' punishment to Earth as the summer is Earth's reward for the return of her daughter.  Persephone becomes the symbol for life, the seeds of the pomegranate, for death.  What is interesting is the context that Clayton brings with her source notes at the end of the book.  She connects the story to both ancient and modern Greek life.  In the note, she reveals that the story of Demeter, Persephone, and pomegranates symbolized renewal and the mystery of life to the ancient Greeks.  In modern Greece, she tells us that pomegranates are used at New Years and weddings to bring good luck and happiness.  Interestingly, they are also used at funerals to honor the dead. 

The inclusion of this final note in the book is one of the two outstanding features of the book.  It gives deeper meaning not only to the story but also to the way in which the story affected Greek culture.  The second outstanding feature of the book is the illustrations.  Virginia Lee created images that convey the fear of the kidnapping, the power of Zeus and the beauty of the Earth as Persephone returns and spring comes back to the world.  One of my favorite images is that of Demeter bringing winter to Earth.  She is shown sweeping her wide white cape over the land, using it to bring death to all plants and making all that it touches become gray. A small quibble that I have with the illustrations is that the details do not always match the text, a problem I also noticed in Gift of the Crocodile.  For instance, Hades' chariot is described as golden, yet the painting shows it as black.  While the general excellence of the paintings more than makes up for such mistakes, they do cause pause for the reader.

I think that this book would be excellent as an introduction to Greek myths, probably for grades 1 through 3.