Death as a Beginning: The Transformation of Hades, Persephone, and Cleopatra in Children’s and Youth Culture

Abstract

The motif of ancient beliefs about the afterlife and their present-day understanding appears increasingly in contemporary works directed to young audiences. The combination of mythology and history from ancient sources and popular culture works is fundamental for reception studies. The paper presents three cases of transformation of characters connected with ancient beliefs about the afterlife as protagonists in works directed to the youth: Hades as a villain from Disney’s works, especially Hercules; Persephone and Hades’s love story in three webcomics: Underworld Love Story and Hades & Persephone Shorts by Gau Meo and Hades’ Holiday by Elvishness; and the way Cleopatra VII Philopator’s image in Scooby-Doo! in Where’s My Mummy? differs from the usual representations of the queen.