This story is a myth about how the seasons change. For me, there is no connection to religion. Persephone, daughter of Demeter, decides to live in the underworld in order to recieve the dead--so their spirits would not roam confused. Demeter is depressed while her daughter is away, and since she is a spirit with the ability to grow wheat-- the fields become barren when she is sad. When Persephone returns-- Demeter is pulled out of her depression and Spring fills the land. Just like any other myth or fable or story used to explain something about the world, it isn't supposed to be taken literally ( in my opinion at least.)
This myth shows women figures as the powerful creatures, and that is the only difference I see between this and other stories. In the beginning of Christine Downing's passage, Artemis; The Goddess Who Comes from Afar, Downing writes "We need images and myths through which we can see who we are and what we might become." (page 119) This line really struck a chord with me, because it makes me understand why stories about women are important. I have learned a lot about self-esteem and the importance about good role models, and this is just another example of where females can look to get that confidence. By reading myths and stories about powerful women, it gives one faith in oneself that they too can achieve big things. Without a role model to look up to, it is harder to imagine accomplishing big things. This reminds me a lot of Dolores Williams' chapter on "womanist" theory. Womanists are all about connecting strong women in history to contemporary women, to show them that there have been brave, courageous successful women before us-- and we can be like them. These concepts make sense to me, but I have a hard time connecting them to religion because religion is not part of my life at all. But I see how religious myths that show powerful women would be important to a religious woman that is used to only hearing stories in her place of worship about brave males.
A very recent blog post on HuffingtonPost.com in the religion section reminds me of this whole concept. Although I may not be religious, I live in a community and a country where people around me are sometimes very affected by religion. How Religion Is Killing Our Most Vulnerable Youth was published October 15, 2010, and was written by The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson. He is the Ninth Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire and a visiting Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C. In this course, we learn how religious traditions and readings can influence women to think they are not as good as men, just by seeing a lack of a powerful female role model. But for gays- in some religions, they are outright told they are less than heterosexuals, and some even go as far to say they are abominations before God. Our course explores how the lack of role-models affects women, but what about the opinion on homosexuals and how it affects them? Robinson goes on to write
"You don't have to grow up in a religious household, though, to absorb these religious messages. Not long ago I had a conversation with six gay teens, not one of whom had ever had any formal religious training or influence. Every one of them knew the word "abomination," and every one of them thought that was what God thought of them. They couldn't have located the Book of Leviticus in the Bible if their lives depended on it yet they had absorbed this message from the antigay air they breathe every day."
This paragraph brings everything together for me. I cannot connect to much of the religious aspects of this course because that is not part of my life, but I can understand things better when I realize that they can still affect me. The stories and the opinions that religions in my country have, can affect everyone around them. The article about homosexuals cites a lot of the recent suicides linked back to anti-gay bullying. This is an easy-to-understand example of how religion can affect people, and it makes it easier to see why it's so important to have religious myths about powerful women.
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