Heroines on High

And in one thousand million years, I’ma still be everywhere, you won’t forget me…

-Sia “Immortal Queen” (feat. Chaka Khan and Debbie Harry)

Arguably, the most unjust character in “The Homeric Hymn to Demeter”, is “heavy-thundering and mighty-voiced”, Zeus, who is the evil mastermind behind his daughter, Persephone’s, vicious abduction. In this myth, Zeus orders Earth to grow a narcissus flower, which functions as a snare that lures the unsuspecting goddess directly into the hands of his hellish brother, Aidoneus, who “snatch[es]” his prey (and niece), Persephone, and takes her, screaming, back down to the infernal region he rules. When Helios informs Persephone’s mother, Demeter, about her daughter’s violent kidnapping, she is told not to lament or “nurse in vain insatiable anger” (82-83) in response to this violation. Naturally, these insufferable expectations are disregarded by Demeter, who has no intention of letting either of these gods get away with their deplorable actions, regardless of their hierarchical power in the supernatural world and underworld. In “The One They Hand Along”, a similar level of determination is observed in the youngest son’s wife, who is not only brave enough to venture down into a different sort of underworld to retrieve her sister-in-law, but is also the only character courageous enough to command the respect of her sister-in-law’s captor — a ruthless, god-like “spirit being” with bulging eyes and an appetite for innocent women. In this myth, this demonic spirit uses his powers to rouse fear in the overworld’s villagers who are threatened into giving up their headman’s daughter to his son. In both myths, true courage is expressed, not through acts of violence, but rather, through two female character’s unwillingness to accept the control of intimidating forces that few are brave enough to stand up to. When confronted with what many would consider paralyzing situations, Demeter and the youngest son’s wife resolutely stand their ground and resist the power of forceful gods to recover a loved one. In these two myths, courage lies in knowing what not to fear, which is a virtue that ultimately allows these heroines to either procure or maintain dominance over unjust authority.

In “The Homeric Hymn to Demeter”, Demeter, who is the goddess of agriculture in Greek mythology, expresses courage in its purest form when she refuses to accept bribes from all the divinities in the supernatural world, whose pleas are consistently dismissed by the fiercely determined mother set on finding her lost daughter whom she knows to be in danger:

Then [Zeus] sent in turn all the blessed immortals;

one by one they kept coming and pleading

and offered her many glorious gifts and whatever

honors she might choose among the immortal gods.

Yet not one could bend the mind and thought

of the raging goddess, who harshly spurned their pleas.

Never, she said, would she mount up to fragrant

Olympus nor release the seed from the earth,

until she saw with her eyes her own fair-faced child. (Anonymous 325-333)         

In this scene, Demeter unhesitatingly stands up to all her divine peers who try to persuade her with “glorious gifts” and special distinction in exchange for restoration of the earth’s fertility, which, in turn, could save the mortals from the famine she has caused. Interestingly, the most powerful force of the underworld, the lord of the dead, “…smile[s] / with his brows…” (357-358) when he hears of Demeter’s unwillingness to bend to the gods and seems to be impressed and even proud of his sister's resoluteness in the matter. And although Aidoneus cruelly tricks Persephone into eating a pomegranate seed that will secure her a partial fate in hell with him, he does, arguably, reward her mother’s courage by allowing a reunion between the two of them. Moreover, as soon as Demeter’s heart is soothed by this reconnection with her daughter, she “at once sent forth fruit from the fertile fields / and the whole wide earth burgeoned with leaves and flowers” (471-472), which highlights her sense of justice and eagerness to set things right in the mortal sphere. In this myth, the courage that Demeter displays when standing up to her fellow gods and her domineering and corrupt husband, Zeus, not only earns her greater respect in the supernatural world and the underworld, but also, in the earthly realm, where she immediately establishes a set of “holy rites” that are to be honoured by its inhabitants (473-479). And although we cannot say for sure whether these rites are necessarily just in nature, the fact that Demeter “teaches her Mysteries to all of them” (476), suggests that there is a passing of knowledge taking place within the founding of her power and that her claims to authority are rooted in more of a social contract than an arbitrary seizing of supremacy.  

In “The One They Hand Along” a similar form of courage is observed in the youngest brother’s wife when she commands the respect of her sister-in-law’s captor, an immortal headman that the rest of the search squad are too scared to meet eyes with:

Hwuuuuuuuuuu!

                 The house quivered, they say,

                 and the earth shook.

                 Among all who had come there in search of the woman,

                 not one raised his eyes.  

                 Then the youngest son’s wife raised her head

                 while the rest of them cowered, they say… (Skaay 497-503)

In this scene, the youngest son’s wife is unmoved by the captor’s intimidating presence that even the house and the earth tremble in fear of (523), refusing to recoil like the rest of the crew. When she enters the house of the spirit being she tries to embolden the ones who had come with her, by directing them to “Raise [themselves] up!” (505) and provocatively questions them repeatedly, “Have you no powers?” (515). This conduct sets her apart from the rest of her group, illuminating her strength of character and the predominant role she has on the mission. Furthermore, her courageous energy is even strong enough to disrupt the headspace of her sister-in-law’s captor, who acknowledges her authority. In the following stanzas we see a metaphorical rising of the son’s wife and a simultaneous lowering of the spirit being:

As she lifted her chin,

the spirit being entering the house

reached up and clutched his head.

«A powerful woman you are.»

As he came further in,

nothing more happened.

He sat near his son.

But he snatched his hat

just before he sat down. (Skaay 529-537)

This scene is important because it marks a shift in power from the spirit being to the youngest son’s wife, whose assertive application of it humbles the spirit who “snatche[s] up” his magical hat before taking, what seems to be, a protective seat near his son, unsure of what the rescuer’s next actions may be and toward whom they might be directed. Since the youngest son’s wife knows better than to fear this god, not only can she command his respect, but she can also express her courage through decisive leadership as opposed to anger and/or violence.

As listeners we may also draw a comparison between Demeter and the spirit being if we view Demeter, more generally, as god of the earth in Greek mythology, and spirit being, as god of the sea in Haida mythology, and the similar power they hold over the fertility of their “upper” and “lower” worlds. At one point in each myth, both gods abuse their “super strength” by controlling their elemental realms (earth and water) in ways that cause either fear or suffering to the mortals who rely on these resources for sustenance. And although their journeys through space and time differ, the energy of these two gods is symmetrical with respect to their supernatural shapeshifting abilities, their parental roles, and their destructive powers which increase when they do not get what they want. In “The One They Hand Along”, the spirit being’s powers transcend through a hat he lends to his son which intensify the more his son is denied the woman he came for, “And when they refused him, / the earth became different they say. / Seawater started to boil out of the ground” (38-40). These lines reflect a sudden escalation of elemental power that lessens only when the headman’s daughter is surrendered. Correspondingly, we can sense Demeter’s rage escalating at a similar pace in Ovid’s rendition of the myth, when she is denied answers regarding her daughter’s disappearance. In the following scene, Demeter has just caught sight of her first clue…her daughter’s empty girdle, floating wearily along the fount of Cyane:

…she cursed Sicily

that had kept this token of her daughter.

Then she slew man and beast in the furrow

……………………

With an instant epidemic, throughout the island.

She broke up the ploughs with her bare hands,

Forbade the fields to bear crop

Of any kind. She made all seed sterile… (Ovid 61)

Illustrated in these stanzas, are Demeter’s powers growing in tandem with her rage that is tempered only after she is granted that which she desires — a reunion with her daughter.

In these two myths, the captive’s freedom depends on their rescuer’s ability to know what not to fear, which in both cases, is an immortal being who abuse their authority by using unethical methods to move a desired woman in a direction she would not have otherwise gone. Early on in “The Homeric Hymn to Demeter” we learn of Zeus’s blameworthy role in Persephone’s abduction and rape which not only casts a dark shadow on his constitution but also his claim to authority. Comparably, in “The One They Hand Along”, the spirit being beneath the water is culpable in the capture of the headman’s daughter as well as the unconscious state she is being held in. Luckily, the rescuers in both stories are not afraid to assert their power over these crooked forces, whose dominance is called into question by these heroine’s more just applications of power. Impressively, these characters are moved primarily by love rather than fear, representing the virtue of courage in its purest form. Arguably, it is this form of courage that gives these two heroines queenly status in their upper worlds as well as immortality within European and Indigenous mythology and among storytellers and listeners who will not forget them for it.

Sincerely,

Heather

Works Consulted

Anonymous. “The Homeric Hymn to Demeter.” Translated by Helene P. Foley. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essays, Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. 2-26 (even).

Ovid. “The Rape of Proserpina” [selections from Metamorphoses, Books X and XI]. Translated by Ted Hughes. Tales from Ovid, Faber and Faber, 1997, pp. 53-67

.

Skaay. “The One They Hand Along.” Translated by Robert Bringhurst. Being in Being: The Collected Works of a Master Haida Mythteller, Douglas & McIntyre, 2023, pp. 29-53