Belle and Persephone

A little bonus on Myers-Briggs and Greek mythology

When I think of certain protagonists in animated Disney movie musicals, I think of the ENFP aspiring Broadway actress or actor.

Ariel (of The Little Mermaid) sings, “I want to go where the people are.”

Rapunzel’s innate charisma (despite her being isolated her entire life) causes a bar full of thugs to confess in song that they, like she, have dreams.

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And Hercules wants to go “where the crowds will cheer.” (Notice in that song he’s a left-hander. Makes sense somehow!)

Then there’s Belle.

Belle lives in a small town and feels it’s a bit limiting, but she doesn’t have plans to leave. She and her father have a good relationship. She’s an introvert. A bookworm. She reads fairy tales and fantasy novels. She’s an incurable romantic.

And everybody thinks she’s quite a peculiar girl.

Belle doesn’t go to find her adventure. Her adventure finds her. And she takes the responsibility to see it through.

Belle, like Persephone, is an INFJ.

To me, true INFJs are very rare. My fellow INFPs are much more numerous. And we iNFPs can seem a bit INFJish at times, but the true INFJ is deeply powerful, like Belle and Persephone, and that’s a quality in a personality that just doesn’t happen all that much.

Image by MythologyArt from Pixabay

Like Persephone, Belle is drawn against her will into a kind of Underworld and into a relationship with someone ghastly. Hades snatches up Persephone to live in the dank, unfriendly-to-immortals Land of the Dead, and at first it seems like the last place she’d want to be. Belle is trying to rescue her father in a scary, trackless forest, but finds herself imprisoned in a castle with only candelabras, teapots, and a enraged talking buffalo for company.

It’s down deep. Deep in the subconscious depths.

That’s where INFJs thrive, however. On the outside they can seem meek and mild, but their spirits are made of adamant. They have that special J quality of wanting to see things through to the end, finishing, making the ideal real.

INFJs are not afraid of going to where things really matter.

Belle has the admirable quality of standing up to the scary Beast, and softening him because she won’t let him get away with just being bitter and angry. In real life you don’t always tame the partner with anger issues, but if anyone can do it, it’s an INFJ.

Then, of course, there’s the un-cursing part. (Belle: “This is all my fault” — the default INFJ apology.) Because love conquers all, and love is an INFJ superpower.

We don’t see the relationship between Persephone and Hades as clearly in the myth.

My longer take on Persephone is here.

Yet when Persephone eats pomegranate seeds, binding her to Hades forever (six months at a time, of course), there is a sense that she has done what she has done willingly—that she has accepted this match, problematic though it may be.

The result? Persephone becomes, in other myths, the Queen of the Underworld, the one who decides which heroes get to come and go from her realm. She also acts, paradoxically, as the perpetual young woman about to be married, an inspiration to all Ancient Greek brides.

No other Greek goddess has such a complex makeup of qualities.

And what about us INFPs, we who do lack that final, admirable quality of caring so much we will see things through to the end? We, like Hephaestus, are more about creating than relating. INFJs, though creators, are in the end relaters.

It’s something that all INFs, to me, should consider. How much are you committed to having wonderful, ideal human relationships, and how much are you committed to creating something that you are incredibly proud of?

Both? Sure. Absolutely. You are beautiful!

And for those readers who have come this far, thanks for your time and here’s a coupon (code: MU37U) to use for a free copy of Zeus Is My Type!, my Smashwords ebook about Greek Mythology and MBTI.