Hey, There's a Huge Wooden Horse in Our Front Yard!

Last week, in connection with Hesiod's Theogony, we talked about deceptive gifts, the sort of gifts that confer -- or appear to confer -- a benefit but also act as a trap. The Trojan horse is the classic (and classical!) example. Pandora is such a gift. Another that we did not discuss in class can be found in the myth of Demeter and Persephone.

You remember that one. The god Hades, lord of the underworld, rapes Persephone and kidnaps her. Persephone's mom is Demeter, goddess of agriculture. Demeter is furious, not least because Hades' brother Zeus permitted this to happen. Demeter leaves the company of the gods and calls herself Doso*, a mortal woman. Abandoning her agricultural role, she hides the seeds of crops in the ground, people starve, the gods and goddesses receive no sacrifices of first fruits. Zeus commands Hades to return Persephone to her mother. But first Hades gives her pomegranate to eat. She accepts the gift and consequently has to spend a portion of every year in the underworld as Hades' wife.

I never understood why eating some pomegranate fruit -- or just one seed, as the Hymn to Demeter has it -- means that Persephone has to spend at least part of the year with Hades.

Now I do understand. It's simple, really. The rape establishes no bond between Hades and Persephone. The gift-giving does.

It's like when someone says to another, "I'm sorry, I can't accept that." The basic idea is that by accepting a gift from a person -- someone, say, that you would prefer not to have in your life -- you are linked to that person.

So, in this sense, ALL gifts are deceptive. Every gift, even a mere seed, conceals something of monumental importance: human relationship.

--Abbot

*The name Doso is based on the Greek verb "to give." Interesting, huh?