Desahogo: The Undrowning

The story of Hades and Persephone is often seen as a romantic love story, one that is forbidden yet still remembered as a classic portrayal. In a patriarchal culture, a young girl being abducted and likely assaulted would of course be painted this way. In this literary work, Hades, Persephone, and key Olympians are woven into a retelling of their myths as a way to describe how women, men, and children exist in the confines of a violent society. This story is used to convey the author's specific devastating trauma that felt like a descent into her underworld-and how she came back to life.