Taking Persephone: The Rhetoric of Consent in Rachel Smythe's Webtoon Lore Olympus (2018)

Abstract

Lore Olympus is a webtoon that reimagines the taking of Persephone in an animated, comic style. In this paper, I discuss the rhetoric of consent through a visual analysis using the intersecting fields of classical reception, feminist rhetoric, and digital humanities. I use two versions of the taking of Persephone for my analysis: Ovid’s Metamorphoses and “The Homeric Hymn to Demeter.” My analysis is split into two parts, with the first being a visual analysis of 4 panels of the webtoon, focusing on how each depicts the rhetoric of consent. The second part of my analysis is focused on the rhetorical devices within the text that serves as visual metaphors to symbolize layered meaning to readers. My findings suggest that Lore Olympus does not allow its female characters agency in removing the aspect of consent using concepts such as voyeurism and class systems to strip female characters of their agency.