(And the view that death could be defeated and that capitalism and scarcity could be defeated are, in the world we live in, closely related to each other)
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That's the whole thing, Hadestown obviously changes on every level what the myth is about, and yet it's born from this very very clear understanding of the THEME of the myth, what it's REALLY about The hero who shows the natural order of things can be challenged
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And it makes all these semi-random bits and pieces from the history of the myths actually fell like they make more sense than they did before Hades, king of the dead, is also Pluto, the god of wealth, simply because precious metals are mined from underground? Let's explore that
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Persephone, bride of the dead, was originally simply the goddess of spring and growing things, and the Rape of Persephone was invented to explain the seasons She's Dionysus' mother and one of her Roman aspects is Libera, goddess of wine (and of "freedom") Hmm
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Once I worked out the whole thing they were going with here - Hades is the boss man, the enforcer of debts and obligations, Persephone runs the company store, where you spend your excess cash on booze to numb the pain - it's really really powerful
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The "seasons" of our post-agrarian, late capitalist world are the economy When Persephone goes back underground, that's when the stock market crashes and interest rates go negative and "money is tight"
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Hades is hard money, the gold standard, bills coming due, austerity (he of the stern and austere countenance) Persephone is easy credit, runaway inflation (soft money, *green*backs), stimulus packages (she does love her stimulants)
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(I love that in contrast to her mother, the goddess of grain and the autumn harvest, Persephone is the goddess of spring and green growing things The goddess of vegetables Which seems to contradict the party girl image until you remember other green leafy vegetables)
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The whole show is extremely accessible without any of this nerdy stuff and yet as you keep thinking about it it's a lit major's dream, you can talk about these connections all day
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My favorite thing is that classicists love to ding pop culture like Disney's Hercules etc for making Hades into a Satan figure To the Greeks he wasn't, he was just a stern enforcer of the balance between death and life
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...Okay but that means he IS a Satan figure Dying is terrible If we could be immortal but instead we have to wither and perish because the gods want to keep us humble then holy shit fuck Hades The subversive legend of Hercules beating up Hades exists for this whole reason
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And, like, Hadestown really does get this Hades as Evil because he's Lawful, because that's how the way things have to be You signed a mortgage and your immortal soul is due Nothing personal (The word "mortgage" literally means death)
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Hades and Persephone were honored in Greece as the ideal man and wife, brides venerated Persephone as the ideal of the passage from girlhood to womanhood, being abducted so she could come of age, shed being a carefree maiden and take the duties of a wife That's ALSO fucked up
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