Promises and Pomegranates

The myth of Hades, the god of the Underworld, and Persephone, the goddess of spring, appears in many texts. Ancient writers agree that Hades abducts Persephone while she is picking flowers. He sees her and becomes obsessed with her. Some writers agree on Persephone’s eventual enjoyment in her new role as the queen of the Underworld. This myth provides the backdrop for the tale of Kal and Elena. It not only frames the arc of their story and Elena’s eventual acceptance of the marriage but also foreshadows the couple’s equality and mutual consent within the relationship. Because it blends myth with a contemporary mafia setting, Promises and Pomegranates also fits into the growing subgenre of dark romance, where morally gray heroes, taboo relationships, and themes of captivity and obsession are central.

The beginnings of these relationships are similar, emphasizing Kal’s obsession with Elena and her own victimhood and powerlessness. Elena is lured away from her family by Kal, and Persephone is kidnapped by Hades. Unbeknownst to Persephone’s mother, Demeter, Persephone’s father, Zeus, gives Hades permission to marry her. Like Demeter, Carmen has no idea where her daughter is when she goes missing, unaware of the deal between Rafael and Kal. When Elena considers the similarities, she thinks, “even Hades took a wife. Emphasis on took” (86). Kal routinely objectifies Elena, especially early on, describing only her beauty and his arousal, though his feelings deepen, becoming much more loving; as this happens, Elena begins to shed her earlier disempowerment and enjoys the benefits of being Kal’s wife. This gradual shift from abduction to partnership echoes many retellings of the myth, where Persephone transforms from victim into a sovereign figure.

Some writers suggest that Persephone’s parents were overbearing and that her relationships with them left her resentful of duty. Ironically, she, like Elena, finds more freedom in her forced marriage because her husband develops a real respect for her. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a woman who traveled through the Underworld reports that she saw the goddess of spring, who “‘was sad indeed, but […] she was nevertheless a queen, the greatest one among the world of shadows, the powerful consort, nevertheless, of the king of hell!’” (“Metamorphoses Book V”). Elena has always felt the need to please her powerful father, and she endured her mother’s imperious and controlling behavior since birth. Although Kal initially allows her little autonomy, even this limited freedom contrasts with the rigid control she experienced under her parents. Elena sometimes misses home but experiences the benefits of being his wife: financially, sexually, and emotionally. This emphasis on freedom through captivity is a hallmark of dark romance, where heroines often discover new forms of empowerment within relationships that begin as coercive.

Elena gets a pomegranate tattoo, symbolizing her wish to be Kal’s “little Persephone.” It is a pomegranate that binds Persephone to the Underworld. Ovid writes that Persephone “wander[ed], innocently, in a well-tended garden, [and] pulled down a reddish-purple pomegranate fruit […] and, taking seven seeds from its yellow rind, squeezed them in her mouth” (“Metamorphoses Book V”). Because she ate something in Underworld, the Fates would not allow Persephone to leave permanently. This imagery makes the pomegranate an enduring symbols of desire, fertility, and entrapment, recurring in countless retellings from classical antiquity to modern fantasy and romance.

Persephone goes between the Underworld and the world of the living, maintaining a dual existence, similar to the dual identity Elena develops. In some ancient works, the goddess is styled “dread Persephone” due to the metaphorical darkness she acquires during her time with the dead. Similarly, Elena is sometimes sinister, such as when she carves into Kal’s chest or watches him torture Vinny, and at others, she is joyful and loving. Kal describes her as “a cozy spring afternoon, recent blossoms and fresh sea air carried across the breeze, [that] blot[s] out the ugly reality of everything else” (173).

Hades shares his power with Persephone, and they achieve a kind of marital equality unique among the gods; Elena and Kal achieve a similar parity, especially after she chooses to return to Aplana after their visit to Boston. One modern writer suggests that Hades and Persephone “have one of, if not the, most healthy romantic relationships out of [the] entire Greek pantheon, despite its inception” (Hinton, P. N. “Why We Keep Retelling the Hades and Persephone Myth.” Book Riot, 2022). This is primarily because Persephone “was in no way weak” and because “Hades support[ed] her in both roles. Unlike other gods before him, he wasn’t worried about being overthrown. He knew his power wasn’t diminished by hers in any way. Likewise, Persephone […] accepted her role by his side as his equal” (Hinton). Therefore, when Odysseus goes to “the house of Hades and of dread [Persephone]” in Homer’s The Odyssey, he is told to offer prayers to both Hades and Persephone (“The Odyssey”). Although Persephone may have been powerless at the beginning of her marriage, she achieves unprecedented equality and power because of her ability to embody life and death, light and dark, the beautiful and the frightening. Likewise, although Hades begins their relationship with violence and obsession, he develops a respect and love for his wife because of her strength and complexity. Miller’s retelling leans on this tension, blending mythic symbolism with mafia noir to show how love, even when born of obsession, can transform into a partnership of equals.