(Art by Paula Friedlander!)
I am tired of Persephone Poems.
We all have them! I have two. It’s an attractive narrative – the lovely, innocent young maiden seduced into the underworld. People have done interesting things with the story. But it’s one of the most popular narratives out there, poetry-wise, and I am drowning in Persephone and want to drown her.
So yes, everyone loves the good girl.
What about the bad girl? What about someone who’s a Queen of the Underworld in her own right, and could be an equal match for Hades?
I’m a Sumerian mythology geek, and I’ve told my version of Inanna’s Descent. What about Inanna’s sister, who requires that Inanna surrender her very life?
That’s a strong character.
So here, Ereshkigal has a proposition for Hades.
And I still can’t read the last line aloud without blushing.
“Ereshkigal’s Proposal to Hades” was published in Mythic Delirium #27.