Repurposing the Kore

[child_of_the_air]

A thought, which needs more elaboration when I have time.

I've been wondering a lot what to do about the fact that the ancient Greek agricultural year was the opposite of ours: winter was the wet season and summer was the dry season where everything died. This means that the Persephone myth and the festivals associated with it are at the opposite time of the year as make sense for those of us in Northern Temperate climates.

However, Hellenic pagans aren't the only people with this problem: Israel also has a Mediterranean climate where the winter is better for farming, which means Jewish holidays run into similar issues: Passover was originally a harvest-time holiday, but is now a spring holiday for Jews living in northern Europe and much of the US.

Can Hellenic traditions be made to switch significance in similar ways? For example, around the Autumnal Equinox was the traditional time to celebrate Persephone's return from Hades, along with Demeter's institution of the Eleusian Mysteries that allowed mortals to retain their reason after death.

Would it would to focus instead on Demeter teaching Persephone how to return from Hades, after leaning that the pomegranate seeds would bind her to return each year? And could we associate this with the promise of compost/manure/seeds/winter wheat? That death and things buried in the ground in the fall will return to us as new life in six months' time?

Comments

[wolby]

I've never thought about this before! Love this in particular:

"And could we associate this with the promise of compost/manure/seeds/winter wheat? That death and things buried in the ground in the fall will return to us as new life in six months' time?"

[child_of_the_air]

Glad you enjoyed it! Meanwhile...I am trying to write a Samhain prayer/poem with this theme. I'll post it and let you know if I manage to actually get something written.

[child_of_the_air]

Here's a link to the poem in question:

https://child-of-the-air.dreamwidth.org/9496.html