{"id":35113,"date":"2026-03-15T16:53:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35113"},"modified":"2026-03-15T16:53:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:53:27","slug":"demeter-persephone-spring-held-hostage-a-greek-myth-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/03\/15\/demeter-persephone-spring-held-hostage-a-greek-myth-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Demeter & Persephone: Spring Held Hostage – A Greek Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Justine<\/strong> & Ron Fontes<\/strong>, Steve Kurth<\/strong> & Barbara Schulz<\/strong> (Graphic Universe)
\nISBN: 978-1-58013-318-0 (HB), 978-0-82256-570-3 9 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Look! Out the window!! The sun! Flowers!<\/em><\/p>\n

The heroic tales and legends of older cultures have, for centuries formed an integral part of children\u2019s educational development – and a good thing too. These days though, those magnificently inspiring and memorably visual yarns are as likely to be disseminated in graphic novel form as through the illustrated prose books which had such a formative influence on my early days.<\/p>\n

Demeter & Persephone: Spring Held Hostage<\/strong> was released in 2007, one self-contained tome in a larger series which also retold in comics other Hellenic myths such as the Labours of Hercules, or Jason\u2019s journey with the Argonauts as well as other cultures\u2019 founding fables like Isis & Osiris or King Arthur.<\/p>\n

Packaged as full-colour, 48 page, card-cover booklets they – hopefully – introduced a wealth of kids to the magical riches of human imagination. They also read very well as comics in their own right.<\/p>\n

All religious stories are devised to explain away contemporary unsolved questions and unknowable mysteries. The liturgical lesson retold here was one people\u2019s attempt to rationalise the progress of the seasons and the man-made miracle of agriculture, opening in the paradisiacal golden age of \u2018A Winterless World\u2019<\/em> where, thanks to the joyful bounty of the goddess Demeter<\/em>, plants bloomed all year long and the Earth was bathed in perpetual warmth. The harvest goddess\u2019 greatest joy was her glorious daughter Persephone<\/em>, offspring of one of Zeus\u2019 constant infidelities with any deity, supernatural creature or mortal he took a fancy to…
\n\"\"
\nThe supreme god ruled over the skies and Earth whilst his brothers Poseidon<\/em> and Hades<\/em> controlled the oceans and underworld respectively. However, when the dolorous, lonely Lord of the Dead saw Persephone he wanted her for his wife, and callous, unthinking Zeus told him to just steal her and take her down to \u2018The Dark Domain\u2019<\/em> he ruled…<\/p>\n

Despite her plight, Demeter\u2019s daughter found a great deal that was admirable about Hades and his vast kingdom of judgement, punishment and reward. However, knowing how perilous her fate was, Persephone refused to eat anything that her embarrassed abductor offered, knowing that to do so would bind her to him forever. In the bright lands above, Demeter frantically searched for her child. Discovering how Persephone had been taken, the Harvest Goddess pleaded with Zeus who refused to intervene, prompting her to abandon the pantheon\u2019s home on Mount Olympus. She wandered the Earth as \u2018A Worried Mother\u2019<\/em> and in the guise of a broken old woman became the nurse to Prince Demophoon<\/em> of Eleusis, infant son of King Celeus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Months passed whilst Demeter neglected the world\u2019s lush abundance, defiantly ignoring the desperate pleas of man and god alike. Plants withered and starvation gripped the Earth, and on Olympus the crisis at last forced Zeus to act. He despatched messenger god Hermes to the underworld to negotiate with Hades and a compromise was reached. \u2018The Seeds of Change\u2019<\/em> saw a now reluctant Persephone leave the abductor she had come to care for. In all that time she had eaten nothing but as they parted she swallowed a few pomegranate seeds from a fruit Hades offered as final gesture…<\/p>\n

Even whilst back in the clean air above, this caused great consternation as their consumption gave Hades a legitimate claim to Persephone. Moreover, she had come to love him but as her mother refused to be separated from her, her marriage to Hades would have doomed mankind to starvation. \u2018The Pomegranate Problem\u2019<\/em> was only solved by Rhea<\/em>, mother of all gods, who suggested that the lovers should marry but that Persephone must spend two thirds of each year with her mother who would then cause the world\u2019s plants to germinate, blossom, grow and ripen. After that the daughter would spend four months with her husband in the underworld, with Earth consequently becoming temporarily cold, dark and bleakly barren.<\/p>\n

Satisfied with the solution but plagued by guilt, Demeter eventually returned to Eleusis where the baby Demophoon<\/em> had grown to manhood. Here she taught her human charge the secrets of cultivation and plant improvement and the prince travelled the Earth, sharing his divinely-bestowed knowledge of agriculture to a grateful and eager humanity…<\/p>\n

Engrossing, dynamic, pretty and blessed with a light touch despite its toxic message of male ownership and inescapable dominance (it\u2019s history, you can\u2019t ignore or cover up but must adapt and redefine terms and context!) this splendid introduction to mythology is designed for kids with a reading age of nine or above – that\u2019s Year 4, I think – and also contains a full glossary; Further Reading<\/em> and an index as well as fact-features on Creating Demeter & Persephone<\/em> and biographies of the creators.
\n\u00a9 2007 Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1902, Ozzie artist, caricaturist, cartoonist Alex Gurney <\/strong>(Bluey and Curly<\/strong>) was born, as was master scribe Bob Haney<\/strong> in 1926 and Spanish cartoonist Francisco Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez Talavera<\/strong> (Mortadelo y Filem\u00f3n\/Morty & Phil<\/em>). In 1954, Dan Adkins<\/strong> came along, with Bob Budiansky<\/strong> joining the party in 1958 and Sailor Moon<\/strong> creator Noaka Takeuchi<\/strong> in 1967.<\/p>\n

In 2002 we lost Canadian underground star Rand Holmes<\/strong>, and writer of The Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide<\/em>\/King Features Editor Jay Kennedy<\/strong> in 2007. In 2012 died strip legend Fran Matera<\/strong> whose Steve Roper and…<\/strong> ran from November 23rd<\/sup> 1936 to December 26th<\/sup> 2004.
\nIn 1958 today Ken Reid<\/strong>\u2019s astounding Jonah <\/em>set sail in The Beano<\/strong> for the first time.<\/p>\n

I have no idle comics thoughts for Monday so just read a book instead. However…<\/em><\/p>\n

Tomorrow in 1892 Swedish children\u2019s periodical Kamratposten<\/em><\/strong> launched. Italian western star Gino D\u2019Antonio<\/strong> (Storia del West<\/em><\/strong>) was born in 1927 as was Kate Worley<\/strong> in 1958, Todd McFarlane<\/strong> in 1961, Harold Sakushi<\/strong> (Gorillaman<\/em>, Stopper Busujima<\/em>, Beck<\/strong>) in 1969 and Paolo Rivera<\/strong> (Spider-Man<\/strong>, Daredevil<\/strong>, The Valiant<\/strong>) in 1981. In 2017 Underground Commix superstar Mervyn \u201cSkip<\/em>\u201d Williamson<\/strong> (Bijou Funnies<\/strong>, Snappy Sammy Smoot<\/strong>) died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Justine & Ron Fontes, Steve Kurth & Barbara Schulz (Graphic Universe) ISBN: 978-1-58013-318-0 (HB), 978-0-82256-570-3 9 (TPB\/Digital edition) Look! Out the window!! The sun! Flowers! The heroic tales and legends of older cultures have, for centuries formed an integral part of children\u2019s educational development – and a good thing too. These days though, those … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Demeter & Persephone: Spring Held Hostage – A Greek Myth”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[166,102,122,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-kids-all-ages"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-98l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35116,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35113\/revisions\/35116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}