Grace in sacrifice: A study of Iphigenia and Persephone in myth and popular fiction

This dissertation explores the myths of Iphigenia and Persephone, with an emphasis on how their developmental stage as adolescents influences their responses within the myths. Their threshold position between childhood and adulthood and their role as daughters largely determine the course of their actions. As daughters of mothers who survived a particularly painful childhood, both Iphigenia and Persephone become particularly adept at caring for their mothers rather than being mothered by them. They were care providers in their own families before they assumed that role in the larger society. Before Iphigenia's sacrifice she asks her mother to look after her brother Orestes and not to be angry with Agamemnon, the father about to execute her. Upon returning from the Underworld, Persephone does not discuss her own journey but inquires after her mother's well being.; Both young women were worshipped as soteriological figures. Persephone and Demeter were worshipped at the Eleusinian Mysteries for several thousand years, while Iphigenia merged with the Goddess Artemis in some areas of Greece and was worshipped as a heroine and goddess.; The concern of the middle section of this work is the parents and families of the two mythological adolescents and the universal characteristics of adolescence as a stage of development, which emphasizes the quality of the adolescents' potential as well as their idealism in the face of personal danger.; The final section examines several contemporary works of fiction that contain facets of either one or both of these myths. The family structure in this fiction parallels, often to an astonishing degree, the pattern of dysfunction and pain rendered in the mythological stories. The insight gleaned here is that the dysfunction passes from generation to generation, much like the curse on the House of Atreus. The myths, therefore, along with their contemporary counterparts, offer us a dual vision into an archetypal realm.