Tuesday, October 24, 2023

The glimpse of Persephone in Disney's "Hercules" that inspired "Lore Olympus"

I haven't remotely read all of it, but Rachel Smythe's Webtoon's comic "Lore Olympus" is terrific. From a new interview:
Q: I love that, I’m so excited for that. Actually, that brings me to my first question I have for you. When did your love for mythology start?

SMYTHE: So I liked it for a really, really long time, maybe since childhood? I think my introduction to it is really similar to a lot of people. So Disney’s Hercules came out when I was maybe a middle schooler, but I don’t know for sure because the education system is different here. But it came out, and I watched it. I was very fond of it, and loved it very much. Of course, we then see people who see something they like, and they need to research it a lot.

Me and my sister were very much into it. When we learned that Hades had a wife, I was like, “He has a wife, Why wasn’t she in that movie?” But she was actually in the movie—she’s like, in the background having a giant cocktail. Yeah, if you look at the beginning bit of it, she’s got a drink. A cocktail. Like that’s that big (gesturing). Like, baby, look out. She’s talking to some giant green man. But yeah, I loved it and researched it as a kid, and just consumed as much as humanly possible. And the rest is history!
I assume she means this, and the "giant green man" is Demeter: