The Unspeakable Girl: The Myth and Mystery of Kore (The Italian List)

A study of the ineffable figure of Persephone by the renowned Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Giorgio Agamben is the rare writer whose ideas and works have a broad appeal across many fields, and his devoted fans are not just philosophers, but readers of political and legal theory, sociology, and literary criticism. Agamben's intuition and meditation are fascinating, and not least when he turns his critical eye to the mysteries and contradictions of early religion. The Unspeakable Girl is a book of three richly detailed treatments of the myth of Kore. Kore, also called Persephone, and referred to poetically by the Greeks as "the unspeakable girl," was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, who was abducted by Hades and made queen of the netherworld. Kore and her story gave rise to a mysterious cult at Eleusis, the site of the well where Demeter mourned her lost daughter.