The Blossoming Girl In The Hymn To Demeter

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In The Hymn to Demeter written by…, Persephone, Demeter’s daughter, is abducted by the god Gaia to the underworld to be his bride. In order to do this, he grows a beautiful flower in order to lure and kidnap her. The flower is used as a medium for propelling the plot in the story. However, the flower is more than just a beautiful flower Gaia placed, the flower is a symbol of the deceptive nature of beauty and presents a theme of the blurred lines between the appearance of good and bad throughout the story. For instance, flowers represent purity and beauty. They are depicted as good and beautiful which is also seen through the description of Persephone. The author uses Persephone to emphasize the pure qualities of flowers by establishing a correlation between the two through the phrase “the blossoming girl”. During the first instance of the quote, she is shown picking these “lovely” flowers, conveying a tone of peace and childlike innocence. Not only that, but beauty itself creates an air of trust and safety which draws her …show more content…

This flower choice helps give clue to the hidden darkness beneath its immense and luring beauty. The flower narcissus comes from the tale where the young boy, Narcissus, looked at his own reflection and was drawn to its beauty which leads to his death. This flower is strategically used to foreshadow similar events in the story of Persephone. She was also drawn to the beauty of the flower and was then taken to the underworld which represents death. Also, the flowers she picked are described to be lush and carries a tone of life, whereas when the narcissus flower is introduced, it delivers her to the “Lord of the Dead,” bringing again that tone of death and malevolence in a seemingly good package. Therefore, the flower causes what seems good and what is good indistinguishable through the deception of

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