The Laws of Nature: Rewriting the Myth of Demeter and Persephone in Peter Greenaway’s The Draughtsman’s Contract

Abstract

This article considers the rewriting of the myth of Demeter and Persephone contained in Peter Greenaway’s 1982 film, The Draughtsman’s Contract. Via a reconsideration of the various versions of the myth present in both the film and its classical sources, the article argues that the film uses the myth to offer a nuanced meditation on the situation of women in both the seventeenth century (when the film is set) and the late twentieth century (when the film was made). Reflecting back across the centuries, the film highlights how interpretations of the myth of Demeter and Persephone have tended to be defined by particular social, legal, and technological formations, rather than by any kind of natural order (for which the myth itself provides a speculative aetiology). In Greenaway’s film, within the limits of their social and material situations, the female characters rewrite the terms of the myth to achieve a qualified autonomy within a deeply patriarchal society.