Most of he myths I found were short descriptions without expansion, and my Demeter and her harsh journey of transformation began to take shape. One of my favourites is that Demeter rode winged serpents, the Ancient Greek dragons.

I slowly began researching Demeter and the cult around her, finding unknown to me myths and facts. A powerful Earth Goddess, the Corn mother and one of the few Gods that had managed to technically win against Zeus in their battle of will. Some years back, I went through a phase when all I wanted to read were Greek mythology retellings and in nearly none of them did I see Demeter the way I had imagined as a child.

This novel was born as a mixture of my own understanding of Greek mythology while growing up in Greece and my disappointment when I understood that the world didn't seem to view Demeter as I did. Dysfunctional family dynamics (could it be Greek mythology without it?) 'Winter Harvest' is a perfect fit for readers who enjoy mythology retellings and adult fantasy in the veins of 'The Witch's Heart' by Genevieve Gornichec and 'Circe' by Madeline Miller. I am so very, very excited to see my debut novel, 'Winter Harvest', coming out into the world in 2023. The novel combines various myths about Demeter, shaped like a fantasy novel which focuses on Demeter as a female goddess, struggling to fit into the patriarchal status quo of Olympus while she is constantly changing her identity in an attempt to find her place in the world and what it means to be female. Winter Harvest is a stand-alone feminist mythology retelling which explores Demeter’s place in the Dodecatheon and her harsh and painful life as she becomes a chthonic Goddess, linked with both death and life. Unable to contain her rage, she gives in to all she tried so hard not to become and begins a period of starvation that brings humanity to the brink of extinction as she embarks on a journey to find Kore, filled with humiliation, further betrayal and desperation which reshapes her Godhood and changes her in a way she never expected nor wanted. It stayed under her skin, always reminding her of its presence but never gaining control.Īll that changed when her precious only child, Kore, vanished from the face of earth and Demeter found herself alone in her quest to regain her daughter. This rage inside her didn’t cease or grow any weaker when she was freed by her youngest brother, nor when she and her siblings defeated Kronos and his allies during the Titanomachy, the war that forever changed Greece. From the moment of her birth, Demeter, the second born daughter of Kronos and Rhea, lived in darkness, trapped inside her father’s stomach, always fearing that inside her body a monster lived and she had to keep it caged.

Winter Harvest by Ioanna Papadopoulou