Illustrating the Female Experience

Jessie Alkire
Greek and Roman myths hold an important place in the history of the
world and its inhabitants. Many authors today have explored and reimagined
myths through many disciplines like fiction, poetry, and art. Irish poet Eavan
Boland uses myths related to women to observe issues of gender, especially
what it means to be a woman amongst the oppression of patriarchy. Critic
Karen Bennett argues that Bolands The Pomegranate reimagines Ovids
The Rape of Prosperina in order to explore the relationship between
mothers and daughters and the loss of innocence as a female approaches
womanhood and her burgeoning sexuality. She claims that both Bolands
poem and the original myth depict the cyclical nature of being a mother and
daughter, demonstrating the archetypal female experience. However,
Bennetts argument insinuates that being a mother is necessary and
definitive of the female experience. While I agree that the poem examines
the mother-daughter relationship and female sexuality, I do not believe it
demonstrates the archetypal female experience; instead, it simply explores
what it means to be a woman, including being a daughter, mother, or both.
Ovids The Rape of Prosperina is the most cited and influential
version of the myth of Ceres and Persephone. Due to its influence on literary
tradition, it is often used as the basis for contemporary interpretations of the
myth. Ovids version describes the abduction of Proserpina (the Roman
equivalent of Persephone) by Pluto, Lord of the Underworld. Not only is

Proserpina literally taken by Pluto, but her childhood and innocence are taken
from her as well. Ovid expresses this through a lexical set of floral imagery
like flowers, lilies, and violets (Hughes 52). Flowers take on a deeper
meaning, becoming a symbol of innocence and virginity. Prosperina is a
flower that has been plucked from the ground, losing her virtue as she is
taken to Hell and to Pluto as a wife:
He fell in love
And snatched her away
Love pauses for nothing.

Terrified, she screamed for her mother,

And screamed to her friends. But louder
And again and again to her mother.
She ripped her frock from her throat downwards
So all her cherished flowers scattered in a shower.
(102-109)

Proserpina, like her flowers, has been uprooted. She tries to clutch to her
childhood, friends, and her mother, but ultimately she, like her flowers, must
give up and fall. The rest of the poem focuses mainly on Proserpinas mother,
Ceres, goddess of agriculture, and her quest to find her daughter. It is clear
from Ceres intense emotions that they share a strong bond. Ceres longs for
her daughters return. However, Proserpina can only return home if she has
not eaten any food in the Underworld. Ascalaphus reveals that she ate seven
seeds of a pomegranate; therefore, she must stay in the Underworld as

Plutos wife half the year. Again, the emphasis on fruit and seed illustrate
the burgeoning sexuality of Proserpina as she leaves childhood behind.
Proserpinas coming-of-age cannot be reversed; she will never fully be her
mothers daughter again. This leads to the main purpose of the poem:
explaining the presence of seasons. Ceres happiness when Prosperina
returns to her creates spring, while her return to the underworld marks
winter.
Eavan Boland takes the myth of Persephone and places it in a modern
context in order to explore its contemporary themes of sexuality and motherdaughter relationships. Critic Karen Bennett argues that one of the first
changes Boland makes from Ovids version is that the narrator is not a
cohesive person; instead, she is both Persephone and Ceres all at once (21).
Early in the poem, the narrator says, The best thing about the legend is/ I
can enter it anywhere (Boland 6-7). The narrator can enter the poem as a
mother, a daughter, or even both. She begins as an exiled child in the
crackling dusk of the underworld (11-12). However, two lines later the
narrator is looking for her own daughter, transformed from daughter
Persephone to mother Ceres. It is clear from the lines I was ready / to make
any bargain to keep her (15-16) and I knew / winter was in store (19-20)
that the daughter is bridging childhood and adolescence. The narrator is not
ready for her daughter to grow up and is willing to do anything to stop her
from leaving childhood and, by extension, her mother behind.

The next stanza of the poem serves to explore the themes of sexuality
and coming of age. It jumps to winter when Persephone leaves Ceres to
return to the Underworld. Boland describes Persephone as an everyday
teenager: my child asleep beside her teen magazines / her can of Coke, her
plate of uncut fruit / The pomegranate! How did I forget it? (Boland 27-29).
Like Ovid, Boland uses imagery of fruit to emphasize female sexuality as
Persephone grows into a woman (Bennett 21). Sexuality is emphasized
further when Ceres says of Persephone, She will hold / the papery flushed
skin in her hand. / And to her lips (Boland 52-54). I believe the sexual
language in the description of the pomegranate stresses the sexual
awakening Persephone is undergoing as she comes of age. Boland
accentuates fruit further with lines like she put out her hand and pulled
down / the French sound for apple and / the noise of stone (34-36). Not only
does Boland come back to the pomegranate (pomme and granite make
pomegranate), but she also brings in the new element of the apple. The most
immediate connection I make with apple is the one Eve eats from the Tree of
Knowledge in Eden. The apple is largely associated with awakening Eves
sexuality, and it serves the same purpose for Persephone in The
Pomegranate.
In the last stanza, the poem explores the underworld as a metaphor for
coming of age to demonstrate the necessary female experience. The poem
begins to use stone imagery with words like rocks flint and rifts.
Bennett believes language related to rocks seems to bring the focus to the

underworld, a barren, empty place (21). Ceres does not want Persephone to
grow up and leave her behind, thus breaking the mother-daughter bond.
Therefore, I see adulthood as this sort of underworld for Ceres and
Persephone, a place of unhappiness and emptiness. However, Ceres also
realizes there are diamonds among the rocks. These diamonds show that
there is light among the darkness, optimism along with pessimism. Ceres
says, If I defer the grief I will diminish the gift (Boland 49). Ceres realizes
growing up is necessary for Persephone and all women. She must let go of
her daughter so she may undergo the process all women must go through to
become psychologically whole.
Bennett argues that The Pomegranate, while it does focus on
sexuality and the mother-daughter relationship, ultimately illustrates the
cyclical nature of the female experience. One way this is shown is through
the duality of the narrator as both Persephone and Ceres throughout the
poem (Bennett 21). This is clear through the lines And the best thing about
the legend is / I can entire it anywhere (Boland 6-7). The narrator possesses
the dual role or both a mother and daughter, so she can relate to both
Persephone and Ceres. The cyclical nature of the poem is further emphasized
by the end of the poem. Ceres says, The legend will be hers as well as
mine / She will enter it. As I have (50-51). These lines illustrate that both
females have undergone the same, cyclical experience all women undergo.
The repetition of will in the final lines of the poem (She will enter it, She

will wake up, She will hold, I will say nothing) shows the inevitability of
this female cycle of development.
Bennett believes this evidence suggests that Boland is emphasizing an
archetypal female experience; however, I believe this limits Bolands
message by insinuating all females must share the same experience as both
a daughter and mother. Bennett states, Ceres and Persephone are not
separate entities but merely two facets of the same eternal feminine
principle (Bennett 21). Claiming that Ceres and Persephone represent the
universal female experience, however, implies that motherhood is a
necessary part of womanhood. Bennetts argument completely overlooks
Boland as an author and the context of her writings. In her introduction,
Bennett describes Bolands writing as engaged in demythologizing,
particularly in regards to womens role (20). With such knowledge of Boland
as a writer, it is ridiculous to say Boland would provide such a limiting
message for women in The Pomegranate. Boland is interested in
disillusioning gender roles, not reaffirming them by claiming motherhood is a
necessary part of the female experience. Ultimately, Bennetts argument
places more constrains on womens roles rather than loosening preexisting
ones.
Not only does Bennetts argument that The Pomegranate
demonstrates the universal experience of women overlook Boland as an
author but minimizes the main theme of the poem: sexuality. Bennetts

argument places too great a focus on motherhood, making sexuality appear

as a means to an end. I do not believe this was Bolands intention. When the
poem is looked at more closely the reader can see the focus on sexual
awakening and desire rather than reproduction. The poem focuses on
teenage Persephones sexuality, not that of her mother as an adult. Her fruit
is described as uncut, so it can be assumed that Persephone has not
engaged in any sexual activity (Boland 28). Furthermore, while the language
in the poem expresses feelings of desire and sexuality, there are no
references to actual sexual activity or bearing children. Therefore, I believe
emphasis is placed on sexuality in itself, not reproduction. Sexuality is a part
of growing up for Persephone. It is not just a means to bear children and
become a mother but something for young women like Persephone to
explore and enjoy as they come of age.
Eavan Boland reimagines Ovids myth of Persephone in her poem, The
Pomegranate, to explore modern issues of coming of age through sexuality
and mother-daughter relationships. Karen Bennett places these more
significant themes in the backseat in favor of claiming the poem
demonstrates the archetypal female experience. However, this argument
suggests that motherhood is a necessary part of womanhood. Bennett not
only minimizes the theme of sexuality and coming of age but places further
constrains on what it means to be a woman. Ultimately, The Pomegranate
does not claim to demonstrate the universal experience for women. Instead,
it shows a variety of female experiences, including familial relationships,

coming of age, and sexuality. It does not regard one experience as better
than another but simply explores the many facets of what it means to be not
just a woman but a person.
Work Cited
Bennett, Karen. The Recurrent Quest: Demeter and Persephone in ModernDay Ireland. Classical and Modern Literature 23.1 (2003): 15-32.
Boland, Eavan. New Collected Poems. W.W. Norton: New York, 2008.
Hughes, Ted. Tales from Ovid. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux: New York, 1997.