#lokri

Not really! It seems that the “character” of Persephone was the same — daughter of Demeter, married to Hades, carried to the underworld, and connected to agriculture.

The main difference in how she was venerated in Locri in contrast to the rest of Greece was the emphasis on her marriage. Locri had a more positive? reverential? view of the Persephone-Hades union, which essentially made her a goddess of marriage. I already shared 2 articles about this:

- Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. “Persephone and Aphrodite at Locri: A Model for Personality Definitions in Greek Religion.” The Journal of Hellenic Studies 98 (1978): 101–21. https://doi.org/10.2307/630195.

- Mackin, Ellie. “Girls Playing Persephone (in Marriage and Death).” Mnemosyne 71, no. 2 (2018): 209–28. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26572910.

But enough of that marriage. Here’s a great one I read recently about Persephone in her role as chthonic queen:

-Life, Death, and a Lokrian Goddess: Revisiting the Nature of Persephone in the Gold Leaves of Magna Graecia https://journals.openedition.org/kernos/2388?lang=en

Pinakes of Persephone driving the chariot or embracing Hades as he abducts her

A fun fact that I love about Persephone and Hades is that in the city of Lokri (Modern Italy), they were seen as the ideal marriage. Women who were about to get married reinterpreted the myth of the abduction of Persephone so it would reflect their current situation, e.g: women who were happy with their future husband made a pinake (a tablet of painted wood or terracotta) where Persephone was driving the chariot and participating in her own ‘abduction’; on the contrary, women who were forced into their marriage would make a pinake where Persephone was fighting against her captor.

“The pinakes were most likely dedications made by young girls in the lead-up to their weddings. In this sense, it is understandable that the chosen god does not completely undergo the transition process. The dedications served the function of seeking Persephone's blessing and protection for their marriages, and they were dedicated before the marriage had taken place. So the image of the goddess that was being invoked and imitated in the abduction scenes was the goddess in the same state as the dedicating girls: the state immediately before marriage. […]

The most common pinax types are the 'divine' and 'imitation' scenes. In both cases, these range from unambiguous abductions where the maiden clearly struggles against her captor to images in which it appears the girl is complicit in her own kidnapping sometimes even taking charge of the chariot herself. The range can be accounted for because, as James Redfield points out, "no doubt some brides felt more abducted than others".”

Is Lokrian Persephone having a renaissance? Why am I seeing multiple posts about this all of a sudden?

I’ll link the posts containing the articles that I’ve already shared: post1, post2, post3 — all of those are about Persephone, though the first one also includes Aphrodite. That’s 4 monographs on this topic that I, someone who’s not an expert at all, enjoyed a lot.

For Aphrodite, I admit I hadn’t done a lot of research about her in this area, but Stephanie Lynn Budin’s The Origins of Aphrodite has become my manual when it comes to her, so I think this bit is a good introduction:

I love to learn about how women worshipped the gods in ancient times. Nossis was a poet from Locri (modern Italy) in 3th century B.C who dedicated many poems to Aphrodite.

Left: Bust of Nossis | Right: Clay tablet depicting Aphrodite and Eros made in 475 B.C Locri

“Let’s leave for the temple and go to see Aphrodite’s

Sculpture—how it is made so finely in gold.

Polyarkhis dedicated it after she earned great

wealth from the native glory of her body.”

＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

“I expect that Aphrodite will be pleased to receive

As an offering from Samutha, the band that held her hair.

For it is well made and smells sweetly of nektar,

That very nektar she uses to anoint beautiful Adonis.”

＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

“There is nothing sweeter than love: all other blessings

Take second place. I even spit honey from my mouth.

This is what Nossis says. Whomever Kypris¹ has not kissed,

Does not understand her flowers, what kinds of things roses are.”