Janelle Bartels

A Consideration of Violence, Sacrifice and Rebirth in Religion: Examining Death Mythology: Persephone, Hades, and Demeter As Embodiment of Ancient Greek Thought Janelle Bartels

This works uses death mythology, specifically the Ancient Greek myth of Persephone, Hades, and Demeter, to explore the notions of inherent violence, sacrifice, and rebirth in religion. The uniqueness of the human species and our ability to perform elaborate ritual and create deliberate myth is a necessary part of the structuring of religion. Religion legitimizes the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the human species. The idea of violence as a necessity in humanity and religion as a justification for this is examined more thoroughly in this work. As humans confront death, the notions of sacrifice and then renewal through rebirth demonstrate the cyclical nature of humanity and one of the most important functions of religion.