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Was Persephone kidnapped?
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Hades tricked Persphone

She did not intend to seal her fate with pomegranate seeds.

The Argument

What truly sealed Persephone's fate was her choice to eat the pomegranate seeds. However, she did not know that this choice would not permit her to leave the home of her kidnapper. She chose to eat the seeds in order to appeal to Hades, and in order to seal and fix her hunger. She was so close to leaving, but Hades took advantage of her. One source states that, "By eating a few pomegranate seeds, Persephone tied herself to Hades—the pomegranate being a symbol of the indissolubility of marriage"[1]. How could she have known that? She couldn't have. She was forced, she was kidnapped.

Counter arguments

Many sources state that Persephone willingly ate the pomegranate seeds. In fact, this is the more common version of the story. She defiantly ate them out of her love for Hades, due to her conflicting between her mother, Demeter, and her lover. She knew what she was doing.

Proponents

Premises

[P1] Hades tricked Persephone into eating the seeds. [P2] Persephone was kidnapped.

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118911/
This page was last edited on Thursday, 21 May 2020 at 20:25 UTC

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