I think I find myself drawn back to some of my favorite myths of childhood, which always seemed to be about a parent’s loss of a child. Demeter & Persephone as well as Icarus & Daedalus.
I think as a child I sensed the way my mother loved the myth of Demeter, she shared custody with my father for part of the year and I think this myth fel…
I think I find myself drawn back to some of my favorite myths of childhood, which always seemed to be about a parent’s loss of a child. Demeter & Persephone as well as Icarus & Daedalus.
I think as a child I sensed the way my mother loved the myth of Demeter, she shared custody with my father for part of the year and I think this myth felt like a reflection of our life in that way. She died about three years ago, and now I think they speak to those parent wounds in a very different way. It’s strange to have grown up so identified with one side of the myth and to feel in adulthood as if I have just traded places with my mother in these stories.
Are there any myths about grief you particularly love?
Thank you for sharing and showing how the different parts of the myth can resonate and align with us at different periods of life. I think it's why mythology can be such a rich container for contextualizing experience. We grow with the myths, they are a companion.
The fairytale of Rapunzel comes to mind. Grief, longing, and loss are played with at several points: the parents early infertility, Rapunzel's captivity and later banishment, the sorceresses desire to keep her locked away, the prince's loss and longing of Rapunzel, etc.
It's thematically complex in that sense, playing with nuances of parent/child, lovers, coming of age and more.
I think I find myself drawn back to some of my favorite myths of childhood, which always seemed to be about a parent’s loss of a child. Demeter & Persephone as well as Icarus & Daedalus.
I think as a child I sensed the way my mother loved the myth of Demeter, she shared custody with my father for part of the year and I think this myth felt like a reflection of our life in that way. She died about three years ago, and now I think they speak to those parent wounds in a very different way. It’s strange to have grown up so identified with one side of the myth and to feel in adulthood as if I have just traded places with my mother in these stories.
Are there any myths about grief you particularly love?
Thank you for sharing and showing how the different parts of the myth can resonate and align with us at different periods of life. I think it's why mythology can be such a rich container for contextualizing experience. We grow with the myths, they are a companion.
The fairytale of Rapunzel comes to mind. Grief, longing, and loss are played with at several points: the parents early infertility, Rapunzel's captivity and later banishment, the sorceresses desire to keep her locked away, the prince's loss and longing of Rapunzel, etc.
It's thematically complex in that sense, playing with nuances of parent/child, lovers, coming of age and more.