A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions of the Myths of Narcissus and Persephone in Averno

ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions of the Myths of Narcissus and Persephone in Averno Un enfoque psicoanalítico de las recepciones combinadas de Louise Glück de los mitos de Narciso y Perséfone en Averno SANAE KICHOUH AIADI Institution address: Universidad de Almería. Departamento de Filología. Edif. Dep. de Humanidades y CC de la Educación II (Edif. C). Carretera Sacramento, s/n. 04120 La Cañada de San Urbano Almería. Spain. E-mail: sana[email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-6665-2736 Received: 30/11/2022. Accepted: 19/06/2023. How to cite this article: Kichouh Aiadi, Sanae. “A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions of the Myths of Narcissus and Persephone in Averno.” ES Review: Spanish Journal of English Studies, vol. 45, 2024, pp. 145–169. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24197/ersjes.45.2024.145-169 Open access article under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CCBY 4.0). Abstract: In recent years, mythological retellings have garnered increasing acclaim. One such example is Louise Glück’s book of poetry Averno (2006), in which she blends the myths of Narcissus and Persephone. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, a narcissus serves as bait when Hades abducts Persephone. However, in Glück’s contemporary rewriting, Persephone seeks to escape her authoritarian mother by embracing Hades, whose perspective is given in “A Myth of Devotion,” but the ultimate outcome is that Persephone is controlled by both her mother and her husband. In the present paper, I shall first address the reception of the myths of Persephone and Narcissus in Glück’s “A Myth of Innocence.” Then, I shall analyse sexuality, trauma and marriage in “A Myth of Innocence” and “A Myth of Devotion” from a psychoanalytic perspective, while also exploring the motifs that occur in Glück’s appropriation of the two myths in question. Keywords: Louise Glück; Averno; Persephone; Narcissus; psychoanalysis. Summary: Introduction. Classical Receptions. Psychoanalysis: Sexuality, Incest and Trauma. “A Myth of Innocence” and the Myths of Persephone and Narcissus. Incest and Trauma. Marriage as Metaphorical Death. Conclusions. 146 Sanae Kichouh Aiadi ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 Resumen: En los últimos años, los relatos mitológicos han obtenido una aclamación cada vez mayor. Un ejemplo de ello es el poemario Averno (2006) de Louise Glück, en el que combina los mitos de Narciso y Perséfone. En el Himno Homérico a Deméter, un narciso sirve de cebo cuando Hades secuestra a Perséfone. Sin embargo, en la reescritura contemporánea de Glück, Perséfone busca escapar de su madre autoritaria abrazando a Hades, cuya perspectiva se da en “A Myth of Devotion,” pero el resultado final es que Perséfone está controlada tanto por su madre y como por su esposo. En el presente artículo, abordaré primero la recepción de los mitos de Perséfone y Narciso en “A Myth of Innocence” de Glück. Luego, analizaré la sexualidad, el trauma y el matrimonio en “A Myth of Innocence” y “A Myth of Devotion” desde una perspectiva psicoanalítica, explorando al mismo tiempo los temas en la apropiación de Glück de los dos mitos en cuestión. Palabras clave: Louise Glück; Averno; Perséfone; Narciso; psicoanálisis. Sumario: Introducción. Recepciones clásicas. Psicoanálisis: sexualidad, incesto y trauma. “A Myth of Innocence” y los mitos de Perséfone y Narciso. Incesto y trauma. El matrimonio como muerte metafórica. Conclusiones. INTRODUCTION Recent years have witnessed the rise of mythological retellings, with many authors addressing myths in their work. One such author is Louise Glück (1943–), an outstanding American poet who has written thirteen books of poetry, two of criticism, and one novel. This prominent author has received many awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1985, the Pulitzer Prize in 1993, the Bollingen Prize in 2001 and the National Book Award in 2014. She was Poet Laureate of the United States from 2003 to 2004 and received the 2020 Nobel Prize for poetry. In her work, she typically draws on several different literary traditions, such as theology (from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament), Greek mythology and fairy tales. Among her books of poetry containing vivid retellings of mythology are The Triumph of Achilles (1985), focusing on Achilles; Meadowlands (1996), dealing with the Odyssey; and Vita Nova (1999), addressing Orpheus. In addition, Glück’s poetry book Averno (2006) considers the Demeter and Persephone myth. As Isobel Hurst has explained, the poems in Averno “evaluate and interrogate the significance of love and death with a decided inclination towards the peace of the afterlife” (75). Regarding Glück’s writing, Tanzina Halim, Rizwana Wahid and Shanjida Halim have aptly remarked that “the end of human life is one of the central themes of Glück’s poetry” (436). Meanwhile, Henri Cole has highlighted the plainness of Glück’s poetry, observing that she “is not a poet of elliptical fragmentation—she goes deeper. With her simple A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions . . . 147 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 vocabulary, dramatic juxtapositions, and subtle pacing, the poems seem to be more in conversation with Blake, Yeats, and Eliot” (98). Similarly, Glück appears strongly influenced by Sylvia Plath and the confessional style (MacGowan 159). As Robert Baker has contended, “Louise Glück is surely a confessional poet in some basic sense. She returns time and again to a series of wounding predicaments in her intimate life” (131), combining this with psychology and metaphysics (Bartczak 74). Indeed, autobiographical experiences form a constant theme in Glück’s writing. From an early age, she felt controlled by her mother and constantly longed for her approval (Glück, Proofs 6). As a way of breaking free from this, she stopped eating to gain control over her body, although she notes that this enterprise was ultimately unsuccessful: what I had thought of as an act of will, an act I was perfectly capable of controlling, of terminating, was not that; I realized that I had no control over this behavior at all . . . I understood that at some point I was going to die . . . I didn’t want to die. Even then, dying seemed a pathetic metaphor for establishing a separation between myself and my mother. (Glück, Proofs 11) I consider this quote imperative for an understanding of Persephone in “A Myth of Innocence,” which appears in Averno.1 Contrary to Glück, Persephone’s strategy to free herself of her mother’s control is to embrace Hades, the god of the dead. Glück states that “poems are autobiography, but divested of the trappings of chronology and comment, the metronomic alternation of anecdote and response” (Glück, Proofs 92). There is no doubt that Glück reflects her personal experience in her poetry in general and in this poem in particular.2 Previous studies of Glück’s work have examined the myth of Demeter and Persephone in Averno in isolation (Spann; Azcuy, “Louise Glück’s Twenty-First Century,” “Persona, Trauma and Survival,” “Louise Glück’s Irenic Poems”; Hurst, “‘Love and Blackmail,’” “An Autumnal Underworld”; Frankel; Zhou) and in combination with the book’s autobiographical dimension (Keniston, “‘Balm after Violence’”; Brown; 1 Glück’s poem “Pomegranate,” included in The House on Marshland (1975), was her first rewriting of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, but she returned to the same theme later, in four separate poems in Averno (2006): “Persephone the Wanderer,” “A Myth of Innocence,” “A Myth of Devotion” and “Persephone the Wanderer.” 2 See Morris 29–30; and Pereira 142–59 for Glück’s poetical motifs. For the sake of brevity, my analysis will focus on “A Myth of Innocence” and “A Myth of Devotion.” 148 Sanae Kichouh Aiadi ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 El Bakary), or have explored the reception of the myth of Demeter in combination with psychoanalytic themes (Wong; Gosmann; Yezzi; Cooke), inviting a consideration of narcissism and trauma in Glück’s writing (Morris; Keniston, “‘Balm after Violence’”; Sastri; Bartczak). Other studies have concentrated solely on autobiography without considering the myth of Demeter and Persephone (Chiasson), while still others have focused on a particular poem, namely “October,” in reference to the 9/11 attacks (Keniston, “‘Balm after Violence,’” “‘Not Needed’”; Kočan Šalamon). None, however, have analysed the myth of Narcissus in association with “A Myth of Innocence,” encouraging me to fill this gap. Unlike previous studies, my research suggests that the myths of Narcissus and Persephone are pivotal in Glück’s rewriting. By depicting Demeter as an authoritarian mother and Persephone as wanting to escape from her control, Glück successfully blends the myths of Persephone and Narcissus.3 It is thanks to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter that these two myths dovetail so neatly because it is there that the tale first appears of the narcissus flower used as bait to lure Persephone to marry Hades,4 and now in Glück’s appropriation of the myth the abduction is deployed as a metaphor for marriage. In this case, Narcissus’ story is embedded in Glück’s retelling of the myth of Persephone.5 Therefore, in this study, I shall explore how the myths of Persephone and Narcissus are blended in Glück’s “A Myth of Innocence.” In addition, I shall analyse sexuality, trauma and marriage from a psychoanalytic standpoint in both “A Myth of Innocence” and “A Myth of Devotion.” Finally, I shall conclude by 3 On Narcissus, see Favre 1071–75; and Grafton et al. 620. On Persephone, see Doudoumis 1539–46; and Grafton et al. 254–55. 4 Glück’s The Wild Iris (1992) lends a voice to various kinds of flowers, demonstrating her extensive knowledge of these. Glück constantly refers to the idea of a doppelganger, e.g., Narcissus and his reflection in the pool, or the Demeter-Persephone duality (see Powel 253). The myths of Narcissus and Persephone are two independent stories, but Glück justifies this connection through Narcissus, who metamorphoses into the narcissus flower. 5 Glück has not written about the myth of Narcissus in her poetry, but in American Originality (2017) she addressed the mythical story and correlated it to psychoanalysis and literature; see Glück, American 8–22. Moreover, the contemporary psychoanalytic concept of narcissism is present throughout Glück’s poetry. This interest in psychoanalysis started with her anorexia nervosa (Glück, Proofs 10–12). On the anorexic experience in Glück’s poetry, see Vembar. A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions . . . 149 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 discussing how Glück revisits the classical tradition in her portrayal of these mythological characters in both poems. 1. CLASSICAL RECEPTIONS Reception studies explore “on the two-way relationship between the source text or culture and the new work and receiving culture” (Hardwick 4). Anastasia Bakogianni has observed that “Classical reception focuses on the way in which the classical world is received in subsequent centuries and in particular on those aspects of the classical sources that are altered, marginalized, or neglected” (97). Recently, reception studies related to Greek and Roman texts have aroused increasing research interest, raising the profile of classical receptions (Hardwick and Stray 33–34). Reception studies encompass a variety of disciplines (Brockliss 11) and form part of the classical tradition which has “studied the transmission and dissemination of classical culture through the ages, usually with the emphasis on the influence of classical writers, artists and thinkers on subsequent intellectual movements and individual works” (Hardwick 2). In fact, according to Maarten De Pourcq, classicists use the classical tradition as a shield to protect their study of the ancient sources (222). As for the reception of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, Glück seems to draw on various sources. The first is the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which tells the story of Persephone (Foley 28–64), who was abducted by Hades while gathering flowers in a meadow (HDem. 1–21). Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, cannot find her daughter and in despair, stops plants from growing.6 Zeus then sends Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back (HDem. 30–341). Once in the world of the dead, Hermes explains the situation to Hades, who agrees to let Persephone go, but before she leaves, he informs her of the honours she will acquire as his wife and puts a pomegranate seed into her mouth (HDem. 342–74). Persephone and Demeter are reunited, and the goddess of the harvest restores the vegetation. However, because of the pomegranate seed, Zeus decides Persephone will spend one-third of the year with Hades and two-thirds with her mother and the other Olympian gods and goddesses (HDem. 384–452). In the two Ovidian versions7 and 6 See Brunel and Karakostas 515–20. 7 Ovid’s Metamorphoses (5.341–641) and Ovid’s Fasti (4.393–614). 150 Sanae Kichouh Aiadi ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths (1962),8 Persephone reaches for the pomegranate, from which she eats a few seeds and thus dooms herself to spend part of the year in the underworld and the other part with her mother. In Glück’s Averno, “Persephone the Wanderer” (I) follows the ancient sources, encapsulating Demeter’s reaction to the loss of her daughter— stopping all vegetation from growing—as “the goddess of the earth / punishes the earth” (2–4) and “It is snowing on earth” (46), where winter echoes Demeter’s coldness and pain while Persephone “is lying in the bed of Hades” (51). Persephone’s marriage to Hades transforms her from a maiden—Koré—to the goddess of the underworld—Persephone. Thus, in “A Myth of Innocence,” “The girl who disappears from the pool / will never return. A woman will return, / looking for the girl she was.” (23–25), while in “A Myth of Devotion,” Hades tells Persephone, “you’re dead, nothing can hurt you” (46), summarising Persephone’s situation as goddess of the underworld. This is further explained in “Persephone the Wanderer” (II), where “Persephone / is dead. She dies, her mother grieves—” (1–2), but “if Zeus will get her back, / winter will end” (73– 74). However, Zeus commands Persephone to spend one-third of the year with Hades and two-thirds with her mother. 2. PSYCHOANALYSIS: SEXUALITY, INCEST AND TRAUMA The discipline of psychoanalytic studies emerged in the nineteenth century. Among the central concepts in psychoanalysis are sexuality, incest and trauma. Sexuality is indeed very present not only in our everyday life but also in literature; as Jeffrey Weeks has soberly remarked, “sexuality is not a given, it is a product of negotiation, struggle and human agency” (19). In this paper, sexuality will be regarded as a natural impulse regulated by social convention when exploring “concepts such as repression, sexual drives and the libido” (Jackson and Scott 5). However, certain sexual practices encourage trauma, which as Caroline Garland has explained: is a kind of wound. When we call an event traumatic, we are borrowing the word from the Greek where it refers to a piercing of the skin, a breaking of the bodily envelope. In physical medicine it denotes damage to tissue. Freud 8 In an interview, Glück explicitly cites D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths (1967) as her source of information about the Demeter and Persephone myth (Gosmann 220). A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions . . . 151 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 (A General Introduction) used the word metaphorically to emphasise how the mind too can be pierced and wounded by events . . . (25) Although there are many possible traumatic events, not all traumas are the same: some are more devastating than others (Garland 26). Such is the case of incest, which entails major trauma (Jacobs 104). Incest, therefore, is one of the most traumatic sexual practices, and it generates what is known as incest trauma. This conceptualisation resonates with Freud’s understanding of primary narcissism. As Freud explained, “a human being has originally two sexual objects—himself and the woman who nurses him—and in doing so we are postulating a primary narcissism in everyone, which may in some cases manifest iself [sic] in a dominating fashion in his object-choice” (“On Narcissism” 88). Primary narcissism seems to be the starting point of sexual attraction, leading to Freud’s understanding of the Oedipal complex, which is also related to trauma and may lead to incest (Jung et al. 73). Moreover, Freud developed the Oedipal trauma theory, opening “the door to serious consideration of incest as a problem for psychoanalytic investigation and treatment” (Klett and Rachman 46). Furthermore, by uniting mythology and psychoanalysis, this theory endowed Oedipus with a new psychoanalytic association (Bowlby 806). However, it also generated the dilemma of whether the child is to blame for the incestuous sexual act. As Susan Klett and Arnold William Rachman have noted: Influenced by the Oedipal complex, analysts, parents, authorities, and social institutions suggested that the child’s sexuality seduced the adult. In actuality, it is the adult’s sexuality that is at issue . . . the child partner is extremely vulnerable, in a position of unequal power, status, and control, the adult seducer does not have to cope with the difficulties of an adult relationship. He/she literally seduces an innocent. (129) Thus, sexuality, primary narcissism, incest and trauma are interrelated. All of them can be applied to Persephone because she encounters them all simultaneously when gazing at herself in Glück’s pool, where Hades seizes her. 152 Sanae Kichouh Aiadi ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 3. “A MYTH OF INNOCENCE” AND THE MYTHS OF PERSEPHONE AND NARCISSUS Persephone “was the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and her mother loved her so dearly she could not bear to have her out of her sight. When Demeter sat on her golden throne, her daughter was always on her lap; when she went down to earth to look after her trees and fields, she took Persephone” (D’Aulaire and D’Aulaire 58). When Persephone was first abducted in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, “she still hoped / to see her dear mother” (HDem. 35–36, Foley 4). Yet, as Valerie Estelle Frankel has remarked, in contrast to the original myth, “A Myth of Innocence,” “sees Persephone seeking an escape from life so close to her mother that she has no identity of her own” (43). Hence, Persephone is no longer presented as someone emotionally attached to her mother, but rather as a child suffocated by her mother’s control: One summer she goes into the field as usual stopping for a bit at the pool where she often looks at herself, to see if she detects any changes. She sees the same person, the horrible mantle of daughterliness still clinging to her. (1–6) Glück is playing here with different allusions. Firstly, it is summer, which indicates that Persephone is under her mother’s care because summer falls within the part of the year when Persephone is on earth. This allusion may have been taken from D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, where only winter represents the time she is away from her mother (D’Aulaire & D’Aulaire 62). Secondly, the pool where Persephone is gazing at herself represents the first allusion to Narcissus. Much more implicitly, “A Myth of Innocence” depicts the moment in the myth of Narcissus when Echo falls in love with him, but he rejects her love as he had done before with the many others that had become enamoured of him. Therefore, condemned to love his own image, Narcissus dies after falling in the pool when trying to reach his reflection (Met. 3.339–510). Nevertheless, in D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions . . . 153 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 unaware that he had fallen in love with his own reflection,9 Narcissus “sat smiling at himself, forgetting to eat, forgetting to drink, until he wasted away and died” (D’Aulaire and D’Aulaire 92). Narcissus gazes at his reflection in the pool10 in the same way that Persephone does in “A Myth of Innocence” when she stops “for a bit at the pool where she often / looks at herself” (2–3). However, Persephone sees “the horrible mantle / of daughterliness still clinging to her” (5–6), whereas Narcissus becomes besotted with his mesmerising reflection. Meanwhile, in the Metamorphoses, once Narcissus realises that the image he has fallen in love with is his own, he understands the enormity of his curse and prays to escape from his body (Met. 3.437–473), as Persephone does in “A Myth of Innocence” (30–31), both thus longing for death. Another aspect that unites Persephone and Narcissus is the fact that both undergo change. The former becomes the goddess of the underworld and the latter a narcissus flower. Glück’s allusion to Narcissus is more than justified as “Ovid’s Narcissus appears to be the psychoanalytical subject par excellence—split into two, desiring in vain, impelled by a desire born of lack, captivated by an image he can never possess. What is more, he knows how it works. He has been demystified” (Vallury 82). The moment Narcissus becomes besotted with his own image, he is doomed to failure as he will never attain his love object. However, as Victoria Graham-Fuller and Robinson Hazel have observed, the myth of Narcissus represents much more than that because the “interaction of Narcissus and Echo is set during adolescence, during which a young person begins to emerge from childhood dependence, through defiance, curiosity and experimentation, towards a relatively established adult identity” (10). I suggest that to leave childhood behind is exactly what Persephone seeks. Moreover, the fact that Persephone wants to see “if she detects any changes” (4) indicates that she is impatient for change, longing to leave her body and become a woman who is no longer attached to her mother; however, she only sees “the same person” (5), a child who is still under her mother’s care. The mantle that clings to her is a reminder of Demeter, who tears her veil in grief at her daughter’s loss (HDem. 40, Foley 4). Nonetheless, in Glück’s rewriting of the myth, rather than being proof of 9 See also Ovid, Metamorphoses 421, on how Narcissus falls in love with his reflection which for him is the “other.” 10 See Ballesteros González 50. 160 Sanae Kichouh Aiadi ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 escape and wants to share the same fate as Narcissus, but Hades reminds her of her immortality. In my opinion, she is doomed to relinquish part of who she is—the earlier version of herself—for the sake of who is now her husband. The girl must become a woman. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the narcissus is described as a “lovely toy” (Foley 2), which Ann Suter has contended is a reminder “of the toys that brides dedicate to Artemis on the eve of their weddings. Here, Persephone is giving up her childhood, her narcissus, her toy. Athurma is a rare word, occurring only six times in archaic epic” (56). In “A Myth of Devotion,” Hades selfishly makes Persephone his wife, but he fails to consider all that becoming his wife entails: That’s what he felt, the lord of darkness, looking at the world he had constructed for Persephone. It never crossed his mind that there’d be no more smelling here, certainly no more eating. Guilt? Terror? The fear of love? These things he couldn’t imagine; no lover ever imagines them. (29–36) Hades neither cares about Persephone nor considers her feelings because she is only the desired object, nothing more. He refuses to contemplate either his own guilt or the guilt that Persephone will feel because she believes herself to be responsible for her abduction. Similarly, he ignores both the terror that she will feel at being with the lord of darkness and her fear of love, since her route to marriage was abduction, which will always render “love” terrifying to her. Stalking, abducting and manipulating Persephone is how Hades makes her his wife. Love, here, seems to be a lie: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions . . . 161 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 A soft light rising above the level meadow, behind the bed. He takes her in his arms. He wants to say I love you, nothing can hurt you but he thinks this is a lie, so he says in the end you’re dead, nothing can hurt you which seems to him a more promising beginning, more true. (41–48) Hades almost comes close to feeling guilty about lying to Persephone, which is ironic as his abduction of her had been carefully calculated from the moment he carried her away. Therefore, pretending to care about Persephone is only further proof of Hades’ self-exonerating discourse, and is the reason why Persephone subsequently questions her perception of events. However, Hades forces Persephone to rely on him to determine what happened and what did not, and his manipulation works, as is best illustrated when Persephone returns to the pool where she was abducted in an attempt to find answers. There, after a moment of confusion, she realises that she was the one responsible for what had happened to her.15 Here, marriage seems to represent the death of the self and Persephone’s path towards resignation and trauma (Morris 102), trauma she will never be able to overcome, as she is doomed to repeat the same cycle. It seems to me that this poem could be a metaphorical representation of marriage. First, Persephone wants to escape her home and her mother’s authority. Then, just as in the original myth, she is lured by Hades, and as soon as she is distracted, he carries her away, making her his wife. Persephone desired a change, but her new circumstances are nothing like what she had expected. She is trapped and has no way of escaping her new situation. As Freud remarks, “Marriage brings fresh sexual traumas. It is surprising that the wedding night does not have pathogenic effects more frequently, since unfortunately what it involves is so often not an erotic seduction but a violation” (Studies on Hysteria 141). Freud’s understanding sheds light on the traumatic side of Persephone’s marriage. Manipulating someone into intimacy encourages the awakening of new traumas, confusing the victims and leading them to wonder if this was truly 15 See Jordan 62 for further understanding of self-attributed blame. 162 Sanae Kichouh Aiadi ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 what they wanted. This alludes strongly to sexual assault, which furthers Persephone’s trauma. CONCLUSIONS Louise Glück finds a way to merge the myths of Narcissus and Persephone by establishing a correlation between both tales. The first hint of this association is the new locus Glück gives to the story of Persephone. Unlike the ancient myth, she has Persephone observing herself in a pool as Narcissus did. Both maiden and adolescent see an image in the pool that draws their attention. The former is horrified by her condition as a daughter because it reminds her of Demeter’s authoritarian approach to motherhood, while the latter is spellbound by what he sees. As a result, Persephone feels compelled to escape her body in order to throw off the shackles of her mother’s control, and Narcissus wishes for the same thing, to free himself from the curse of having fallen in love with his own image. In Glück’s contemporary appropriation, Hades is portrayed as a stalker who spies on Persephone, waiting for the right moment to carry her off. Taking advantage of Persephone’s prayer, Hades appears and takes her away, leaving her confused and making her wonder whether death was what she really wanted. I contend that the confusion she experiences indicates the degree of trauma she undergoes. She is traumatised both by her mother’s control and by her marriage to Hades. Ultimately, she is possessed for part of the year by Demeter and for the remaining part by Hades, which results in her emotional devastation. When Persephone wonders whether or not her prayer was answered, we perceive her sense of deception as she discovers that marriage is nothing but a trap. Persephone is stuck in a state somewhere between physical life and mental death, unable to overcome her limitations as she will never be able to develop a strong sense of self because of the power Demeter and Hades hold over her. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work on this article has been sustained by the Research Group HUM- 741. I wish to express my gratitude to Lucía Presentación Romero Mariscal and Susana Nicolás Román, who read an earlier draft of this article and encouraged me with illuminating support and critical advice. I am particularly grateful to the anonymous reviewers, whose observations and A Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions . . . 163 ES REVIEW. SPANISH JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES 45 (2024): 145–169 E-ISSN 2531-1654 comments have led to substantial improvements in the final version. Any remaining inaccuracies are my sole responsibility. REFERENCES Ambrosio, Giovanna. On Incest: Psychoanalytic Perspectives. Routledge, 2018. Azcuy, Mary Kate. “Louise Glück’s Twenty-First Century Persephone the Wanderer: Redefining Earth’s Dominion.” Forces of Nature Natural (-izing) Gender and Gender (-ing) Nature in the Discourses of Western Culture, edited by Bernadette H. Hyner and Precious McKenzie Stearns, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009, pp. 112– 31. 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