I recently attended a colloquium led by Riccardo Ginevra, in which he discussed common themes throughout classical literature about figures of beauty such as Kore-Persephone, Baldr, and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Ginevra made some excellent connections that I was never aware of, not only between tales, but between entire mythologies. I expected that he would talk about the Greek pantheon, but he also referenced Norse mythology with Baldr’s stories, as well as more recent/well-known literature, such as the tale of Sleeping Beauty.
I, until this point, had thought myself to be fairly knowledgeable about the myths I loved so much, and was pleasantly surprised to see that there was more to study between them. I vaguely remember some of John Campbell’s writings discussing how so much of the literature and mythos around the globe still have certain things in common. In his talk, Ginevra focused on the theme of a symbol of beauty and often innocence, being felled by some type of plant or fruit. Kore Persephone has to remain in the underworld, married to Hades, for 6 months out of the year after absentmindedly eating a few pomegranate seeds from the only fruitful tree in the underworld; Baldr was invincible to almost every material, but was killed by a dart made of mistletoe; Aurora (or Briar Rose) pricked her finger on a spindle sometimes associated with flax seeds. Another similarity Ginevra pointed out was that often the parents or loved ones of the sleeping beauties had tried beforehand to make them invincible/protect them from all harm, but failed. Baldr’s mother, Frigg, had gone to all the plants, animals, and even minerals, and made them promise never to cause her son harm. However, she overlooked the mistletoe, in some versions forgetting it, and in others, thinking it incapable of harming her son.
I was very proud to have prompted a fairly lengthy discussion after the lecture was over. I asked Ginevra about symbols of sexuality in each of the stories: in the story of Kore Persephone, she is considered married to Hades after eating seeds that he gave her, seeds and fruit often being symbols of fertility. The apples in the Garden of Eden are even pomegranates in certain versions, and it is a poisoned apple that almost kills Snow White. Additionally, being penetrated by some type of pointy thing, like the dart in Baldr’s story and the needle in Aurora’s story, representative of phallic symbols. Other people were excited to build on the topic, and I learned some new things from my questions. I asked if Hodr’s blindness had anything to do with the trope of a victim submitting to deception (another trope Ginevra had brought up), and he mentioned a connection between Hodr and another character from a Sanskrit myth very similar to Baldr’s betrayal, with both Hodr and this other character having names that translated to “darkness.” I’m very excited to study mythology more in the future.