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Persephone
The author revitalizes the ancient Greek myth of the goddess of fertility and queen of the underworld by setting it in the seedy underbelly of latter-day Mexico
200 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1967
About the author
Homero Aridjis
117 books64 followersHomero Aridjis, a Mexican writer and diplomat, was born to a Greek father and Mexican mother; he was the youngest of five brothers. As a child, Aridjis would often walk up a hillside near his home to watch the migrating monarch butterflies. As he grew older logging thinned the forest. This and other events in his life caused him to co-found the Grupo de los Cien, the Group of 100, an association of one hundred artists and intellectuals that became heavily involved in trying to draw attention to and solve environmental problems in Mexico.
Aridjis has published 38 books of poetry and prose, many of them translated into a dozen languages. His achievements include: the Xavier Villarrutia Prize for best book of the year for Mirándola dormir, in 1964; the Diana-Novedades Literary Prize for the outstanding novel in Spanish, for Memorias del nuevo mundo, in 1988; and the Premio Grinzane Cavour, for best foreign fiction, in 1992, for the Italian translation of 1492, Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla.1492 The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Aridjis has taught at Indiana University, New York University and Columbia, and held the Nichols Chair in Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of California, Irvine. The Orion Society presented him with its John Hay Award for significant achievement in writing that addresses the relationship between people and nature. He received the Prix Roger Caillois in France for his poetry and prose and the Smederevo Golden Key Prize for his poetry. In 2005 the state of Michoacan awarded him the first Erendira State Prize for the Arts. Eyes to See Otherwise: Selected Poems of Homero Aridjis is a wide-ranging bilingual anthology of his poetry.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Aridjis has published 38 books of poetry and prose, many of them translated into a dozen languages. His achievements include: the Xavier Villarrutia Prize for best book of the year for Mirándola dormir, in 1964; the Diana-Novedades Literary Prize for the outstanding novel in Spanish, for Memorias del nuevo mundo, in 1988; and the Premio Grinzane Cavour, for best foreign fiction, in 1992, for the Italian translation of 1492, Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla.1492 The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Aridjis has taught at Indiana University, New York University and Columbia, and held the Nichols Chair in Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of California, Irvine. The Orion Society presented him with its John Hay Award for significant achievement in writing that addresses the relationship between people and nature. He received the Prix Roger Caillois in France for his poetry and prose and the Smederevo Golden Key Prize for his poetry. In 2005 the state of Michoacan awarded him the first Erendira State Prize for the Arts. Eyes to See Otherwise: Selected Poems of Homero Aridjis is a wide-ranging bilingual anthology of his poetry.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 15, 2022
The immediacy of love usually dazzles us and we want to
hold it fast. But love, like light and thought, is a long-term
force we're still not able to tolerate.
As for our doubts which others' failures cause in us, we seek
the exception, we want to be realities in the passing mirage,
alter its contours and what we are.
We shoot our arrows at a vague date, and our poor darts
don't even reach the next minute, they disappear as soon as
they're shot, leaving traces of something that fluttered.
What we weave in solitude is unraveled by the doorbell's
ringing, by the wind rattling an open window, by a man and
a woman who aren't part of the plot and who watch us with
burdensome curiosity.
*
But things only exist in their own time, and with rare
exceptions, the confidence needed for action lasts only as
long as the effort is required, and what we thought was
lasting is ended almost imperceptibly and without last rites,
and the pain we fear is not the pain it should have caused
us, but a different one, the pain of not being able to feel it,
of facing situations we've already lived through. Because
pain can only exist in our memory, within that orbit of
obsolete beings and things known to have lost their time.
*
All happiness lasts but a moment, and the time that follows
is only good for remembering what we have lost.
*
We told each other that memories wouldn't be
possible if time didn't move backward; that the wisest among
men, the least subject to time, is he who remembers best.
*
Beauty belongs to whoever can name it at the moment.
hold it fast. But love, like light and thought, is a long-term
force we're still not able to tolerate.
As for our doubts which others' failures cause in us, we seek
the exception, we want to be realities in the passing mirage,
alter its contours and what we are.
We shoot our arrows at a vague date, and our poor darts
don't even reach the next minute, they disappear as soon as
they're shot, leaving traces of something that fluttered.
What we weave in solitude is unraveled by the doorbell's
ringing, by the wind rattling an open window, by a man and
a woman who aren't part of the plot and who watch us with
burdensome curiosity.
*
But things only exist in their own time, and with rare
exceptions, the confidence needed for action lasts only as
long as the effort is required, and what we thought was
lasting is ended almost imperceptibly and without last rites,
and the pain we fear is not the pain it should have caused
us, but a different one, the pain of not being able to feel it,
of facing situations we've already lived through. Because
pain can only exist in our memory, within that orbit of
obsolete beings and things known to have lost their time.
*
All happiness lasts but a moment, and the time that follows
is only good for remembering what we have lost.
*
We told each other that memories wouldn't be
possible if time didn't move backward; that the wisest among
men, the least subject to time, is he who remembers best.
*
Beauty belongs to whoever can name it at the moment.
May 8, 2008
An incredible book-length erotic/pornographic poem, written in a condensed present-tense style that sears and shakes you.
February 10, 2023
Well, the weather’s changing and the leaves are dying, so you know what that means? No, not football, goddamnit. It means that Persephone has made her return to the underworld. You probably forgot all about how spring only comes every 6 months because Persephone (put some respect on her name for all the hard work she does) leaves the underworld and makes her return to earth. So you’re probably wondering why the goddess of fertility and all around life of the party lives in hell. Well, long story short, she was abducted long ago, and made queen of the underworld, but don’t feel bad, she knows how to see the bright side of everything, in fact she is the bright side of everything. Hades may be a hater, but Persephone is such a positive vibe that the underworld just really isn’t the underworld when there’s a queen like her around, shining as bright as she does.
This book is an erotic poem, the retelling of Persephone. But in modern times. However, here, she isn’t the queen of hell per se, but more of a whore in a dingy brothel. This place is as seedy as it gets too, it’s so dark that it’s said that sunlight has never even touched the inside. But you don’t need sunlight when Persephone is around. She’s still the goddess of fertility, just in a more physical way, home-girl still knows how to lighten up the place, but just specializes in making other things grow. This was a really good read, a reminder for how much happiness your main squeeze (or any squeeze) can bring into your life. All happiness lasts but a moment, and the time that follows is only good for remembering what we have lost, just like the seasons that come and go. If you’re missing that light from your life, then it’s probably because you already are the light you’re looking for, so get your sexy ass out there and brighten up someone’s day. Because beauty belongs to whoever can name it at the moment and at this moment I'm going to name you all Persephone.
This book is an erotic poem, the retelling of Persephone. But in modern times. However, here, she isn’t the queen of hell per se, but more of a whore in a dingy brothel. This place is as seedy as it gets too, it’s so dark that it’s said that sunlight has never even touched the inside. But you don’t need sunlight when Persephone is around. She’s still the goddess of fertility, just in a more physical way, home-girl still knows how to lighten up the place, but just specializes in making other things grow. This was a really good read, a reminder for how much happiness your main squeeze (or any squeeze) can bring into your life. All happiness lasts but a moment, and the time that follows is only good for remembering what we have lost, just like the seasons that come and go. If you’re missing that light from your life, then it’s probably because you already are the light you’re looking for, so get your sexy ass out there and brighten up someone’s day. Because beauty belongs to whoever can name it at the moment and at this moment I'm going to name you all Persephone.
Did Not Finish
December 10, 2024An erotic poem telling the story of Persephone and set in a Mexican brothel.
I didn't finish it, or even get very far through it.
I didn't finish it, or even get very far through it.
April 13, 2023
lectura patrocinada por mi hermana
April 6, 2018
Homero Aridjis, on his birthday April 6
A poet of raptures, of visions, and of the language of dreams as described by Gaston Bachelard, Homero Aridjis charts the action of a dream navigator's theory of aesthetic value and historical poetics, immerses us in sounds which are the shells of speech, and gives us this praxis as a lever with which to change the balance of power in the world.
With the tools and methods of a classical scholar and the passionate lyricism of a poet fully immersed in the human condition in all its kaleidoscopic possibilities, Homero Aridjis lets us see with him a world in which the shadows of the past are ever present, a world in which the themes and symbols which connect us are infinitely reflected as in a set of mirrors, an annotated world in which present actions bear the weight of their shadows. As with the augmented reality descriptors seen through virtual glasses, or what we would have once called prefigurations, this history is ever present and echoes throughout the now in all his work.
Among his great books are the masterpieces Persephone, a reimagination of the classical myth of the underworld goddess set in a brothel which represents his homeland, and the great historical novels 1492: The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile, and The Lord of the Last Days: Visions of the Year 1000, both exploring the dialectics of good and evil in context. Beyond this there is the poetry collected in Eyes to See Otherwise, and the beautiful and unclassifiable book Time of Angels
A poet of raptures, of visions, and of the language of dreams as described by Gaston Bachelard, Homero Aridjis charts the action of a dream navigator's theory of aesthetic value and historical poetics, immerses us in sounds which are the shells of speech, and gives us this praxis as a lever with which to change the balance of power in the world.
With the tools and methods of a classical scholar and the passionate lyricism of a poet fully immersed in the human condition in all its kaleidoscopic possibilities, Homero Aridjis lets us see with him a world in which the shadows of the past are ever present, a world in which the themes and symbols which connect us are infinitely reflected as in a set of mirrors, an annotated world in which present actions bear the weight of their shadows. As with the augmented reality descriptors seen through virtual glasses, or what we would have once called prefigurations, this history is ever present and echoes throughout the now in all his work.
Among his great books are the masterpieces Persephone, a reimagination of the classical myth of the underworld goddess set in a brothel which represents his homeland, and the great historical novels 1492: The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile, and The Lord of the Last Days: Visions of the Year 1000, both exploring the dialectics of good and evil in context. Beyond this there is the poetry collected in Eyes to See Otherwise, and the beautiful and unclassifiable book Time of Angels
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews