Arya and Murtagh each embody different halves of the Persephone myth.
Arya represents the classical structure of the Persephone story. Like Persephone, she is abducted by a dark and unnatural figure in Durza, a Shade who functions almost like a lord of death. Her imprisonment in Gilâead creates consequences far beyond herself. Queen IslanzadĂâs grief mirrors Demeterâs mourning so strongly that it alters the political climate of AlagaĂ«sia itself. The elves withdraw from the war effort, communication fractures, and the conflict stagnates for months. Just as Demeterâs sorrow causes winter and famine, Aryaâs disappearance causes the âspringâ of resistance to wither.
Arya also carries the symbolic âseedâ of the future through Saphiraâs egg. Persephone is tied to fertility, rebirth, and cyclical renewal, and Arya literally transports the last hope for the rebirth of the Riders. Her return from captivity eventually culminates in her ascending to queenship herself, similar to Persephoneâs transformation from maiden to Queen of the Underworld. The transition from ambassador and daughter to Dröttning mirrors Persephoneâs evolution into a sovereign figure transformed by suffering and descent.
Murtagh, however, represents the darker psychological core of the myth. His story is more about irreversible binding to the underworld.
The closest equivalent to Persephone eating the pomegranate seeds is Galbatorix discovering Murtaghâs True Name. Once that happened, Murtagh became metaphysically chained to the King through oaths in the ancient language. Like Persephone after consuming the fruit of the dead, Murtagh could never fully return unchanged. Even outside UrĂ»âbaen, part of him remained trapped there.
This is reinforced through vorgethan, the drug used by both Galbatorix and later Bachel. In UrĂ»âbaen, it suppresses Murtaghâs will and helps force his submission to Galbatorix. It functions almost exactly like the food of the underworld. Once consumed, it binds him to a realm of death and servitude. The horror of Murtaghâs captivity is not only physical imprisonment but in the violent unraveling and reshaping of his identity.
The violation of his mind deepens the parallel further. Galbatorix ravages Murtaghâs thoughts and memories to uncover his True Name, reducing his inner self into something that can be possessed and controlled. Persephoneâs myth has always carried undertones of forced transition, loss of innocence, and violation, and Murtaghâs arc pushes those themes into something deeply existential. He is literally remade by darkness.
His later captivity under Bachel in Nal Gorgoth develops the Persephone parallels in a different way. Bachel casts herself in the role of a twisted maternal figure, constantly calling him âsonâ and insisting the Draumar are his true family. The Persephone and Demeter dynamic becomes inverted and corrupted because the âmotherâ figure is now the captor keeping him underground.
At the same time, Bachel repeatedly frames Murtagh as a prince and chosen ruler, calling him âprinceling,â âking of kings,â and âfaultless champion.â This resembles Persephone becoming Queen of the Underworld: elevated in status but trapped inside a gilded cage. Oth Orum and the Well of Dreams feel even more overtly chthonic than UrĂ»âbaen, especially with the Breath of AzlagĂ»r functioning like a hallucinatory fruit of the earth that clouds thought, dissolves time, and pulls Murtagh into dreamlike submission.
So Arya represents the external consequences of abduction: the grieving mother, the frozen world, and the eventual rise to queenship after surviving darkness.
Murtagh represents the internal horror of the myth: the consumption of the underworldâs fruit, the irreversible transformation of identity, and the tragedy of returning alive while never truly being free of what claimed you below ground.
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