Vulnerability + Power = Agency in Rachel Smythe’s “Lore Olympus”

When critics & scholars talk about the representation of women in pop culture, they often talk about “agency.” Typically, if a female character has agency, she’s more fully realized & less generic. But what does agency look like? The depiction of Persephone in #LoreOlympus offers some clues. 1/12

Agency can be considered a form of strength; agentic characters are strong because they can make their own decisions. These decisions may invoke generic tropes. But to demonstrate agency, they must be “in character,” that is, extending from a strongly conveyed sense of who a character is. 2/12

Sometimes, the association of agency with strength leads to debate about what strength should look like: does a physically strong female character automatically have agency if she’s otherwise extremely generic? Kate Beaton has fun with this question in her “strong female character” comics. 3/12

The association of agency with strength can also cause confusion about whether strong female characters can have flaws. Can a woman be strong if she’s sometimes weak? Can she be heroic if she’s selfish? Can she be smart if she’s naïve? In “Lore Olympus,” the character of Persephone says yes. 4/12

In “Lore Olympus,” the character of Persephone is simultaneously very physically powerful and very physically vulnerable. She’s also heroic and selfish, extremely smart and extremely naïve. These contradictions are represented both narratively and visually. 5/12

Narratively, Persephone is first presented as a comparatively young goddess who devalues her seemingly minor role in the pantheon. Later, she’s revealed to be a very powerful force of creation and destruction, whose capabilities threaten–or promise–to transform ancient hierarchies of power. 6/12

In addition, Persephone’s naïvety as a girl raised in rural settings on Earth who is compelled to navigate the urban and (seemingly) urbane politics of Olympus is juxtaposed her repeatedly underscored intelligence; she comes to Olympus on a prestigious university scholarship. 7/12

Visually, Smythe often shows Persephone transforming quickly, even instantaneously, between postures of vulnerability and strength, self-doubt and confidence. This is distilled in a scene where Persephone first encounters Hades’ aggressive dog Cerberus, guardian of the Underworld. 8/12

Initially, Persephone is dramatically vulnerable with the dog’s teeth at her exposed neck. But she rejects Hades’ attempt to rescue her, instead inhaling a calming breath before proceeding to tame the dog who immediately becomes putty in her hands and forevermore remains her friend & guardian. 9/12

Persephone’s contradictions speak to her complexity which in turn speaks to her possession of agency. She is a strong character not because she’s always physically or emotionally strong or socially powerful, but because when she does reckon with vulnerability, she’s always in-chaarcter. 10/12

Persephone’s contradictions let Smythe to play with tropes without blindly following them. Readers are compelled to observe both the mobilization of tropes and the subversion of tropes. This creates an atmosphere of self-reflexivity, wherein tropes can be interrogated and challenged. 11/12

Ultimately, “Lore Olympus” is neither realistic nor mythic. But it does reappropriate classical myths to tell a fantastical story underpinned by realistic emotional conflicts. Persephone is a goddess, but a defiantly human one, whose tapestry of flaws and strengths give her agency. 12/12