3 ms·
If I talk to you about the story of Demeter and Persephone's descent, that is a coherent story. If you present that story to me and I counter with "Ah but these
by vorpalhex 4y ago
If I talk to you about the story of Demeter and Persephone's descent, that is a coherent story. If you present that story to me and I counter with "Ah but these people over here believe Demeter and Persephone are the same person!" I haven't one-up'd your story.
That some distant group of people had contradictory beliefs about a well known myth doesn't mean there isn't a widely accepted canon.
Nor does this mean that in that common canon that we've secretly revealed that Persephone is Demeter in disguise. In the main canon, they ARE mother and daughter.
The existence of what is basically fan fiction doesn't mean the canonized works are less canon or that people aren't aware of the main canon!
- shadowgovt 4y agoWhat does it mean for a canon to be "widely accepted" when we're talking about fragmentary historical documents? Believed by the most people (how would we know)? Discovered first (an accident of archaeology)? Part of the literary chain that leads to the stories we tell in modern times (but which "we")? I think this concept is less simple than one might want.