Myth Myth Myth

Demeter's story; notes, explanations and motivations.

My re-telling of the story of Demeter is as much about an awkward teenager forced out of his own context --by having to do work experience in an old people's home-- than it is about Demeter herself. He comes into contact with a parallel society that has been violently separated from his own, in the form of an old people's home. They seem to live lives that are similar, but somehow removed from his. Everyday tasks are transformed as in their detail into alien rituals and ceremonies.

He meets Demeter, one of the residents, and is told the story of the loss of Persephone. The factual reality of her story remains purposely ambiguous throughout, with earth-splitting etc. plausibly being metaphorical language. It also relied on the reader (the myth class) knowing the details of the myth, which were alluded to.

At the end of the story the nurse tells the boy that Demeter didn't have a daughter. Her story is real in that it comes from experiences in her life, her youth, but they have been reconfigured into a different narrative that serves a different purpose. The Eleusinians are the resident's of the home --Eleusina-- as well as being the followers of the Eleusinian mysteries, which relate to the cult of Demeter and Persephone. For both Eleusinians Demeter's story is about renewal and the natural cycles of life and the seasons. The myth still wields its power, to the extent that the question of whether it’s factually true or false is no longer the primary concern.

I also included at the head of the story an extract from the Antonio Machado poem 'Proverbios y cantares XXIX'. It is purposely not referenced or translated in faux modernist style (can you be any other type of modernist in postmodernity?).

Al andar se hace el camino,

y al volver la vista atrás

se ve la senda que nunca

se ha de volver a pisar.

In walking the path is made

And on turning one’s sight back

The path is visible that never

Will be trodden again

This seemed a pertinent motif for old age and Demeter's story, as well as the mythmaking power of the telling itself. In this narrative the idea of old age, loss of memory and fantasy came together. In the vagaries of reality, fiction and the inevitable deterioration of the body Demeter still finds meaning through narrating herself and her story, as well as providing a mythic narrative of renewal and worth for her aged co-habitants. The device of the work-experiencing boy is an attempt to highlight the utterly foreign nature of the discourse/paradigm these people inhabit. Entering into their world he sees a reality constructed around different assumptions, expectations, needs. It is this realization of utter difference, rather than an attempt to cross the divide, that serves as the boy’s revelation.

One can therefore see the story as the moralizing Myth I probably wanted it to be.

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