The elopement narrative is a modern, not an ancient, invention. Our earliest explicit narrative of the rape of Persephone depicts it clearly as a rape, and this is followed all the way through the ancient period in Greek and, later on, Roman literature.

Persephone is mentioned in multiple archaic Greek poems, so our knowledge of the narrative goes back through to the beginning of the history of Greek literature. The Homeric poems mention Persephone only as Hades’ wife and do not mention a narrative, which is unhelpful for our question here, but Hesiod’s Theogony reports that Persephone was “snatched away from her mother” with Zeus giving her to him (Hes. Th. 913-914), elements that line up with other accounts. Given that Hesiod only spends eight metrical feet (a line and a third) on the description, though, we mostly don’t get much by way of details.

Where we really get our fullest account of the rape of Persephone is the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, also archaic although likely later than the Homeric and Hesiodic poems. Dating the Homeric Hymns is complicated and highly contested, but the Homeric Hymn to Demeter is usually agreed to be 6th century BCE or earlier. While the Hymn, as the name might suggest, is in large part dedicated to Demeter’s grief after the loss of her daughter and her time on earth, the poem opens with a narrative of the rape of Persephone. And the hymn is quite clear that it is a rape:

He seized her, against her will, on his golden chariot,
And led her away, crying out with tears. She wailed in a high-pitched voice,
Calling upon father Zeus, the highest and best. (h.Dem. 19-21)

So the Hymn to Demeter doesn’t leave any ambiguity on this question. It’s a rape (the verb used in the Greek is even a fairly violent one), Persephone is unwilling, and more comments further on in the poem confirm this again as Demeter tries to find out what’s happened to her daughter.

Other major narratives of the rape pick up details from the Hymn, and continue to emphasize the unwillingness of Persephone in the narrative, some versions adding to rather than diminishign the violence. Apollodorus’ account follow the Homeric Hymn to Demeter’s narrative, including the larger narrative structure of Demeter’s travel to Eleusis and what happens there. Ovid’s account in the Metamorphoses actually compounds the violence of the story by featuring a nymph who tries to intercede in the rape and ends up an additional victim of Hades’ violence. The 4th century CE De Raptu Proserpinae, by Claudian, has Diana and Pallas attempt to fight Pluto off, only to be prevented from helping by Jupiter. Both of these Roman versions, then, depict additional violence against protectors and third parties who attempt to prevent it or to reason with Pluto.

So the ancient tradition is actually quite clear and consistent on this point. Hades/Pluto, with the cooperation of Zeus/Jupiter and sometimes Venus’ interference or involvement, abducts an unwilling Persephone/Proserpina. Some particulars, like location (Sicily, Crete, Boeotia, etc.), vary narrative to narrative, but the same general account of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter provides the model for the story throughout antiquity.

I’ll be frank, given just how explicit the ancient narrative sources are the Persephone is raped and abducted violently and against her will, I’ve always found certain contemporary narratives around Hades and Persephone more than mildly problematic, to put it lightly. I’m not an expert on the modern version and how it evolved, though, so hopefully somebody else can help out on that front!