OUR LADY OF THE... THRU FLOWERS [UNEDITED]
Added 2024-11-20 15:51:25 +0000 UTCI love this musical so much!
Comments
My take (spoiler free, obsessed with this show, classics major, write about greek myths a lot) is that they aren't painting Hades as *evil* the way that a lot of modern interpretations do because of, as you said, the attempts to equate Hades with a devil. We get some of it in Chant, that Hades misses Persephone when she's gone and has built this giant factory style kingdom both to keep him warm without her and to impress her when she's there, and we've seen since Living It Up On Top ("You're late") & Way Down Hadestown ("you're early" "I missed you") that the other seasons are getting shorter and winter is getting longer because Hades is coming for Persephone earlier and earlier (no fall, just winter) and sending her back later (no spring, just summer), and people are dying because of it – it's also what Orpheus foreshadows in Living It Up On Top ("And if no one takes too much / There will always be enough", but Hades is taking too much: resources for his factory but also too much of Persephone) and now nothing is growing because it's almost always winter so no one has any food, people are freezing to death, etc So on one hand, Hades is the antagonist (bordering on villain in certain songs) of Orpheus and Eurydice's story, yes. But on the other hand, if you focus on Hades and Persephone's songs, Hades is a tragic lover much like Orpheus – both of them love a woman and lose her and would do anything, including defy the very laws of nature, to have more time with her The stories of Orpheus & Eurydice and Hades & Persephone are two of my favourite myths of all time (matched only by the Iliad & Achilead and Eros & Psyche) and I really love the way that this show parallels their relationships, especially that Orpheus' song is actually the song of Hades and Persephone, but depending on which relationship lens you watch from, Hades' role in the story totally shifts which I just find absolutely fascinating (i could talk about this for hours but i will shut up for now)
Maddie
2025-01-03 02:38:26 +0000 UTCAs an extension of that, I think this also highlights the precarious beauty of choosing an artist's life. Some can make it work. Many don't get that lucky, and they face homelessness, starvation, and potentially having to join the grind anyway. Orpheus was a poor boy because he's a musician. Eurydice tried to join him in that life, got too cold & hungry to bear it, and gave in to a more assured future under the grind - which then separated her from Orpheus (and that freer way of living) and deadened the parts of her that she loved.
Bean of Glory
2024-12-03 19:38:18 +0000 UTCI love that you picked up on the aspect of losing who you are, or were, in the grind of capitalism. 8 hours a day or more of doing work that hurts or bores you to keep a roof over your head, your phone on, your fridge full, where you go home and do chores and family care and sleep as the dreams and interests you had when you were younger fade away. You have no energy or time left to be who you were. Then you start to let go of who you were because it hurts to remember. Waste your precious free time on dark thoughts like that? Hell no. You need to be able to get through tomorrow at work, and the next day, and all the days after. It's much easier to forget, to get by.
Bean of Glory
2024-12-03 19:24:39 +0000 UTC
