Were They all reluctant to marry their later turned to be Husbands?
Not talking about girls of yesteryears or todays, but very much back into antiquity
Talking about 3 main Greek goddesses-Hera, Persephone and Demeter.
Every Greek god is related to one another in every curious way we know. Here itself, Demeter is the mother of Persephone, whereas her husband Mr. Hades is her uncle. We can find umpteen number of such examples shattered over every nook and corner of the Greek pantheon. Let us focus our attention now to these three wonderful women.
Hera is married to Zeus; Demeter too was forced to marry him and Persephone to Hades. Mythology enthusiasts may know this much as that is the basic general knowledge to enter the realm of Greek Gods. Let’s consider them one by one.
1.Hera
The queen goddess is also the sister of Zeus. Various authors attribute various stories to explain their marriage. But it is generally accepted that Zeus took the shape of a cuckoo who was withered and injured. Hera took great care of that bird and became too fond of it. Finally, Zeus revealed himself as the cuckoo and Hera could not reject his hand for marriage. This story cannot be categorized under forced marriage to a God, though it was not kind of a two way love story. But the stories of Demeter and Persephone are different.
2.Demeter
Demeter had to marry Zeus first. When he approached her she actually ran away from him ,hid in various places; but how to escape from the mighty Zeus? She took the form of a snake and the God too took the form of a huge serpent and violated her. Result is the beautiful Persephone.
Not only Zeus, her another brother Poseidon too asked her hand for marriage .Again she ran away and took the form of a mare in the city of Ochios, but to be brought down by the Stallion form of Poseidon .Two of her kids Arion & Despoina are children from that relation.
3.Persephone
Hades literally abducted this beautiful child of Demeter with the silent consent of her Father Zeus, much to the dismay of Demeter when she later came to know about this .But Hades was much more gentle than his brothers so that he didn’t forcefully violated her. But waited till the tide came in his favor. At the end of the story Persephone had to spend one third of a year in the underworld with Hades.
So we all know the stories now. The ladies are all strong Goddesses who can put any mortal into distress within seconds. Yet they can’t fight against their own male counterparts. Always succumbed before their wishes. These three are not the standalone cases of abduction and forceful marriages in Greek Mythology. Just mentioned here these three only, because the antagonists in all the three stories are the most powerful of the Greek Gods and they are brothers too. Ancient Greek poets were highly misogynistic in their words and such stories are thus ample examples for the true gender bias in our ancient lives too.
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