#LoreOlympus is one of the most popular comics on #Webtoon . Since it’s start in 2018, the graphic novel has garnered 4.8million subscribers and an average of 200,000 likes per episode. With the comic detailing the mythological love story of famous Greek Gods Hades & Persephone, it’s rapidly increasing fanbase includes not only comic book enthusiasts, but also history nerds. In this series on Moan Inc. we’ll be chatting to a few of Lore Olympus’ loyal followers to discuss the historical reliability, artistic choices and the cleverly placed mythologies tying each narrative to the next.
Today, #Historian Erica Stevenson speaks to #Actor Sam DeLeon, an NYC based actor. Sam studied at NYFA in New York City that led him to star in numerous indie projects after graduation. Along with being a big fan of mythological retellings in film & TV, Sam is also a huge fan of retellings from literature. As a teenager he read the entire Percy Jackson series from Rick Riordan and recently dove into “Song Of Achilles” by Madeline Miller.
Check out our website: www.moaninc.co.uk/comic-books/lore-olympus-webtoon
To Find The Original Mythology –
Hades and Persephone (or for Roman names: Pluto and Proserpina) are written about in multiple different works from the ancient world. Luckily for you guys there’s only really one story surrounding the pair, that being of Persephone’s abduction. Our main sources for this are in the #HomericHymn to Demeter (attributed to Homer, but alas we can’t say he wrote it for sure) and Ovid’s #Metamorphoses .
A bit about us –
Trust us, the ancient world isn’t as boring as you may think. In these videos, we’ll be explicitly discussing the representation of Ancient Greece & Rome in various comic books. These videos are aimed to shed light on the incredible work done by the creatives in the graphic novel industry, in the hopes of redirecting some of you to these wonderful comics.
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/sam24deleon/
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While I do enjoy Lore Olympus, I’ve got to admit that the Hades and Persephone relationship is my least favourite part, for very similar reasons as Sam has listed. Like Erika says, I think the usual mythology weirdness that I can put up with is made weird by the modern setting of the comic, cause when looked at through a modern lense, a company CEO romancing his teenage intern is very much not okay.
But Erika’s point about the author doing this on purpose is interesting because I really like the way she retold the Eros and Psyche myth.
Really enjoying these videos. Great work 👍
I thought the kidnapping was when Eros put Persephone in Hades' car, but, I could also see the "kidnapping" as Hades being unwilling to give Persephone up to Zeus.
The age thing is eh…this is a cartoon based on a problematic myth lol so I mean this is what it is and I do agree with Sam (who is handsome AF btw) that it would be a problem in real life for sure and the dynamic can be problematic. But I have the same attitude that that's just how things were in the past and Rachel Smythe has navigated this retelling pretty well and tastefully in my opinion.
I had always gotten the feeling that part of Persephone's attraction to Hades in Lore Olympus was because he actually is one of the few people not to treat her like a child. He mother aggressively kept her confined to keep her from growing, and then symbolically Persephone grows to giant size in a show of distress. I think part of her story is that she isn't a child, but people keep putting that on her, this childishness and lack of respect from the other gods, and Hades treats her like an adult with agency, which she's never really been treated as before. Especially since when Hades started interacting with her he thought she was like 1000. I think, at least…
I feel like Persephone can be seen as childish and naive but over the series its obvious that she is intelligent and mature in a lot of ways. Similarly Hades is immature in other ways.
I was watching these videos ( love them by the way) and noticed that you kept saying ares and persephone never were apart of her myth, but Ares and Apollo both attempted to court Persephone. They were both denied, with Apollo offering his lyre in exchange for her hand. Then Ares was willing to give up his affair with Aphrodite if he could take Persephone as his wife. Hermes and Hephestus actually also asked to wed Persephone, the later wanting to divorce Aphrodite for cheating on him and marry Persephone instead. I really like how Rachel showed all of these characters were drawn to Perse in the story. The first two obviously pursuing her and then Hermes with his dedication and slight crush on her. Even Hephaestus said he thought she was cool, which was just super adorable. Though, of course, the reason all these gods wanted to marry her was because Eros was shooting arrows at everyone for fun( in the myth. What a gremlin lol.
Sorry for the comment spam lol, blame it on my adhd. But it was also said that overtime Persephone grew to genuinely love Hades for the kindness he showed her. Before the abduction, Persephone was actually rapèd by Zeus producing a son named Zagreus, who was soon murdered when Hera allowed the titans to see him in her rage over Zeus’ rape of his own daughter. Though its always been unclear whether Hades rapéd her after kidnapping her based on which version you read. Although I guess its my love pf retellings that makes me hope he didn’t, sadly Im incredibly biased.
personally i love lore olympus but the hades and persephone relationship isnt my favorite since in the original story she was underage and probably about 12-16 while he was over 40.
I read lore olympus bacause of hadestown.