Modern Reception
In 1934, Igor Stravinsky based his melodrama Perséphone on Persephone's story. In 1961, Frederick Ashton of the Royal Ballet appropriated Stravinsky's score, to choreograph a ballet starring Svetlana Beriosova as Persephone.
Persephone also appears many times in popular culture. Featured in a variety of young adult novels such as "Persephone" by Kaitlin Bevis. "The Goddess Test" by Aimee Carter, and "Abandon" by Meg Cabot, her story has also been treated by Suzanne Banay Santo in “Persephone Under the Earth” in the light of women’s spirituality. Here Santo treats the mythic elements in terms of maternal sacrifice to the burgeoning sexuality of an adolescent daughter. Accompanied by the classic, sensual paintings of Frederic Lord Leighton and William Adolphe Bouguereau, Santo portrays Persephone not as a victim but as a woman in quest of sexual depth and power, transcending the role of daughter, though ultimately returning to it as an awakened Queen.
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