Hades forced marriage upon Persephone

The argument

The argument is that the account of Persephone's removal to the Underworld satisfies the definition of kidnapping on its own terms, and that no element of consent appears anywhere in it. Persephone did not choose to accompany Hades. She was taken down beneath the Earth against her will, and then forcibly married to the person who had taken her, so that the marriage compounds the original act rather than regularising it. The manner of the abduction is offered as evidence that it was not a departure she agreed to. One source records that "The appearance, abduction, and disappearance happened so swiftly that none of Persephone's companions witnessed the kidnapping. And though she called out to them—and plaintively called for her mother—no one heard her pleas". Proponents draw two things from this. The speed and concealment describe an act designed not to be seen, which is unnecessary where a person is leaving willingly. And her calling out, first to her companions and then to her mother, is the conduct of someone seeking rescue: she tried to summon help and was not heard. The argument then applies the definition directly. To kidnap is to steal, carry off, or abduct by force, and each element is present: she was carried off, the removal was accomplished by force, and it was done without her agreement. Nothing further is required for the term to apply. Responsibility follows from the same analysis. Hades is entirely responsible for the situation, having performed every action in it, while Persephone held no say in the matter at any stage, neither in the departure nor in the marriage that followed. On this account the conclusion is not a matter of interpretation but of naming what the story describes: she was kidnapped.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Perhaps there are several versions of the myth. Perhaps in some, Persephone went willingly. All stories are a little different, and who's to say whether Persephone went willingly or not.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise treats a single telling as a record of what happened, but the myth survives in variant versions across many centuries and authors, and asking whether Persephone consented applies a question of fact to a story with no fact of the matter behind it. [Rejecting P2] Applying a modern legal definition also misplaces the responsibility the conclusion assigns: in the principal early account, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Zeus arranges the match and Hades acts with his agreement, so even within the story Hades is not the sole agent the argument makes him.