Hades as a Modern Romantic Hero in Rachel Smythe’s “Lore Olympus”

In the mythic “Abduction of Persephone,” Hades kidnaps Persephone and tries to force her to remain by his side in the underworld. Rachel Smythe’s #Lore Olympus presents a very different version of the Hades/Persephone relationship, which includes remaking Hades into a romantic leading man. 1/13

In “Lore Olympus,” Hades is immediately enthralled by Persephone but does not kidnap her. Instead, a vengeful Aphrodite has a drunken Persephone placed in the back of Hades’ car to embarrass him. When he discovers her, Hades’ tenderly puts her to bed then drives her home. 2/13

Hades’ intentions are not platonic. He is clearly attracted to Persephone, who is clearly vulnerable; he first calls Persephone beautiful when she’s crouched on the floor in a revealing dress, seemingly crying. But he never takes advantage of her & the relationship quickly becomes more complex. 3/13

In her influential study “Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature,” scholar Janice A. Radway observes that many popular romance novels envision the ideal male hero/husband as a protector who can provide a version of either/both motherly or fatherly love. 4/13

On its own, there is nothing wrong with a desire to be taken care of. However, in Radway’s reading, popular romance novels often imagine the protective qualities of the ideal male hero/husband in ways that infantilize the heroine, who becomes childlike & dependent on the hero. 5/13

Smythe’s Hades resembles but revises this trope. By virtue of his relative maturity, the stereotypical fatherly hero/husband rarely grows or changes. But in “Lore Olympus,” Hades & Persephone’s lengthy courtship involves both characters doing a lot of changing & growing, sometimes literally. 6/13

As in any romance, there are obstacles, some of which can be viewed as politically problematic. For instance, while Hades & Persephone are effectively immortal, they’re sometimes troubled by their age gap, which is also an experience gap and power gap, since Hades is both a god and a king. 7/13

But presenting problems is not endorsing them. As Radway observes: “By picturing the heroine in relative positions of weakness, romances are not necessarily endorsing her situation, but examining an all-too-common state of affairs in order to display possible strategies of coping with it.” 8/13

In addition, we quickly learn that Hades’ attraction to Persephone’s vulnerability is partly because she reflects his own repressed vulnerability, stemming from traumatic abuse by his father. This transforms Hades’ seeming objectification of Persephone into a form of empathetic identification. 9/13

Thus, Hades is both a powerful father and a scared little boy, allowing Persephone, and readers, to inhabit multiple subject positions in relation to him and experiment with different ways and types of love and being loved, as well as different gendered power dynamics. 10/13

Much like Persephone, Hades is a highly changeable character embodying diverse desires. Smythe’s visualization of the character reflects this. In some ways, Hades is ideally handsome and glamorous; he’s tall, lithely muscled, has great hair, wears expensive suits & drives expensive cars. 11/13

But he’s also individuated in ways that give him a more unique or even threatening appearance. Compared to his brothers, Hades has a dramatically sharp nose that, in some images, is paired with sharp teeth. And his body, while ideally shaped, is covered with scars he prefers to keep hidden. 12/13

Instead of being aloof and tough, Hades is a figure of sympathy and empathy, a bad boy with a heartbreakingly vulnerable heart. While this arguably presents another impossible ideal, it’s also a fascinating portrait of a modernized romantic hero that clearly resonates with many readers. 13/13