argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Classical culture of rape
  • Greece. 7th century a. C. They created the oldest copy of the series of Homeric Hymns poems, which collected the story of the goddess Demeter.
Nagore Irazustabarrena Uranga @irazustabarrena 2018ko uztailaren 10
Luca Giordanoren ‘Persefoneren bahiketa’. Persefone Hades azpimunduko jainkoak bahitu eta bortxatu zuen eta hori ez da, inolaz ere, mitologia klasikoko bortxaketa kasu bakarra.
Luca Giordanoren ‘Persefoneren bahiketa’. Persefone Hades azpimunduko jainkoak bahitu eta bortxatu zuen eta hori ez da, inolaz ere, mitologia klasikoko bortxaketa kasu bakarra.

Deméter, daughter of Crono and Rea, was the heir of Gea amalgurra. She was raped by her brother Zeus and, consequently, her daughter Persefone was born. Persefone had also been kidnapped and raped by his uncle Hades, the god of the underworld.

While her daughter was captive in the underworld, her mother, Demeter, traveled the Earth in search of Persefone. Meanwhile, another brother of Deméter, Poseidon, chased his sister to try to rape her. Finally, seeing that Deméter had become a mare, Poseidon became a horse and achieved his goal.

So Zeus made a decision. Persefon would then spend six months in the subworld with his uncle and rapist, and another six months a year would be in the Olympus, with his mother. Deméter's joy provided light and life to Earth during those six months, in spring and summer. But when Persefone returned to the subworld of the hijacker, the sadness, the fall and then the winter took over him. And so, through a whirlwind of incest and rape, Greek mythology exposed the evolution of the seasons, the annual cycle of life.

But that's just one example. Theseus raped Helena de Troy. Kastor and Pólux kidnapped and raped the daughters of Leuzipo, Febe and Hilaira, and then married them, Lucrecia was raped by Prince Sixth Tarquinian. Filomela was raped by her brother-in-law Tereo. Poseidon not only attacked his sister, but Medusa. But in this field also dominated Zeus, who, in addition to Deméter, raped Antiope, Ganymedes, Europe, Leda... the kings of the gods of Olympus. And we cannot forget, according to legend, that the founders of Rome raped Sabinas en masse.

As Classicist historian Gilbert Higuet (1906-1978) said, “our world is the continuation of Greece and Rome. In most of our intellectual and spiritual activities we are grandchildren of Romans and great-grandchildren of Greeks. Other influences have helped us to be what we are, but the Greco-Roman impulse was the richest and strongest.”