Eros and Psyche

Psyche was one of the three daughters of a King. Amongst the daughters Psyche was very beautiful so much so, that she seemed like a goddess amongst mortals and soon became well known for her beauty. Men from far would come to witness her beauty, and soon, people started comparing her with Aphrodite and felt that Psyche was more beautiful than her. When Aphrodite heard about Psyche’s beauty, she was jealous and summoned her son, Eros (also referred to as Cupid in some stories) and ordered him to cast a spell on Psyche, so as to ensure that nobody would want to marry her. Eros flew down to the earth to follow his mother’s instructions.

Eros picked up one of his magical arrows (so that his magic could work as per Aphrodite’s desire), but at that very moment she opened her eyes. When Eros saw the beautiful Psyche, he was so moved by her beauty, that by mistake he pricked his own self with one of his magical arrows. As destiny would have it, he fell in love with Psyche immediately. In love, Eros regretted what he had done, so he sprinkled a magic potion on her eyelids to ensure that she found all the love and happiness in life. With a heavy heart, Eros left, but not before doing what his mother wanted him to do, albeit with a heavy heart.

Sure enough, as Aphrodite had willed, nobody was willing to get married to Psyche. Her parents were worried that they must have earned the wrath of the Gods, asked an Oracle to reveal her future. The Oracle said that no mortal would marry her, but there was a monster at the top of the mountain who would marry her and that they should leave her there adorned in mourning clothes.

Giving in to what was destined for Psyche, her parents along with her, headed for the mountains. When they were close to the peak, a gentle breeze lifted Psyche and took her to the top of mountain. On reaching the peak, she came across a beautiful palace decorated and lit up for a wedding. The palace was all set for a grand princely wedding but there were no guests. Psyche soon realised that there were invisible servants waiting on her and escorting her along. At night, when it was very dark, she felt the presence of a prince. The prince was very gentle and nice and assured her that he would love her no matter what. He was very romantic and Psyche instantly fell in love with him. But the prince made a condition, that she should never insist on seeing him, and if she did, he would have to leave. Psyche started living a life of romance and was happy in ignorance, that the Prince was none other than Eros himself.

Needless to say that Aphrodite was not aware of all this and Eros was happy with this arrangement. But during the day Psyche would feel lonely and started missing her family members. She pleaded with Eros, to allow her to get her sisters to visit her. Though Eros warned her that it would lead to trouble, Psyche would not hear, and Eros gave in to her request. When her sisters saw her opulence, they were jealous. When they came to know about Psyche’s unique relationship with her ‘husband’ and the fact that she had not even seen her husband, they were even more worried. They revealed to her about the Oracles prophesy and convinced Psyche that her lover was a monstrous creature. Psyche was falling prey to all this and one night agreed to check out on her husband as suggested by the sisters.

On the fateful night, Psyche went to bed with a candle and a dagger. If she found out in the light that the Prince was a monster, then she should kill him with the dagger. But in the light of the candle when she saw that her husband was the most handsome young man in the world, she was happy. In her delight a drop of candle fell on Eros who woke up to find Psyche staring at him. A disappointed Eros left the palace saying where there was no trust, there could be no love. Psyche pleaded with him, but it was too late. Psyche, was not willing to give up and decided that she would get him back, no matter what she had to do.

Aphrodite soon learnt about her son’s disobedience and decided to punish Psyche by making her suffer. Psyche by now had offered prayers to all gods to help her, decided to approach Aphrodite directly. This further infuriated Aphrodite, who decided to put her through trouble. On sighting Psyche, she dumped a pile of seeds of different kinds and ordered her to separate then by sundown. The pile would have taken Psyche hundreds of years to sort, but moved by her beauty; hordes of ants came from nowhere and did the job in no time. On seeing the work done meticulously, Aphrodite decided to give her a much tougher job.

This time she ordered her to collect wool from the fiercest man-eating sheep that lived in the midst of the thorn-bushes near the river. Psyche knew that attempting it would mean sure death, but she decided to do this for her love, even if it meant death. When she reached close to the thorn-bushes, she heard a voice which told her to wait till it got dark, when the sheep would leave the bushes and she could collect all the wool that was stuck on the thorns. When Aphrodite saw the wool, she was very angry with Psyche’s success. Aphrodite knew that she had been helped by some force, as both the tasks were beyond the might of a mere mortal.

Aphrodite then decided to test her once again. This time she was asked to fill a jar with the dark waters of River Styx from its source, which was from a huge waterfall. This was an impossible task, as the source was high above a mountain peak and it would be impossible to reach up there, as the rocks were steep and slimy. But as always, she got help here too. An eagle, supposed to be that of Zeus, took the jar from her hand and flew up to the source and returned the jar to Psyche.

Charon Psyche

By now, Aphrodite was raging in anger to see Psyche succeed in every instance, which seemed impossible. She tried one last time to get rid of her completely. This time she gave her a box and ordered her to take it to Persephone in the Underworld and ask her to fill the box with some beauty potion, as Aphrodite was worn-out and needed the potion to enhance her looks. However, Psyche was not to open the box once Persephone had given it to her. Psyche understood that this was her sure elimination, but she decided to give it a try. On

the way to the Underworld, she got advised by a voice from a tower, which told her exactly what to do. In the earth, she would find a hole and deep inside she would find the river of death. There she would have to give a penny to Charon, the ferryman who took the dead to the other side of the river. She was advised to carry some bread with her as Cereberus, the three headed dog which guarded the doors of the Underworld could be appeased only by that. Everything went as advised, and soon she got the box with the potion and was on her way back. But yet again the advice of not opening a box given to a woman, failed (This is Utkarsh Speaking: The Gift of Fire)! Psyche decided to see and probably use the beauty potion for herself. When she opened the box, she found it empty, but as soon as she opened it, she passed into a deep slumber.

Eros who had been silently helping Psyche right from sending the ants and advising her at each step decided that Psyche had gone through enough. With one of his arrows he revived her and sought the help of the gods, to win his love.

Zeus, who was aware of everything, said that Eros had proved his love for Psyche time and again and Psyche too had reciprocated by being patient and obedient in love, and decided that it was time to unite them. Since Psyche was a mortal and could not live with them like one, she was given the ambrosial nectar of the gods which made her one of them. Aphrodite was no longer jealous of Psyche as she didn’t resent a beautiful goddess and decided to bless the union of Eros and Psyche.

This love story of romance, patience and perseverance has given rise to many a well-known story in later times, the most famous being, ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

One more tomorrow for the Valentine Day! Keep reading!!

The myth of Adonis and Aphrodite

Front panel of sarcophagus with a myth of Aphrodite and Adonis.
Parian marble. Late 2nd century A.D., Mantua, Ducal Palace.

The Greek myth of Aphrodite and Adonis is an interesting myth of love, lust and rejection, peppered with revenge and jealousy. It’s a classic love saga with layers of symbolism. Let us first understand the birth of the main characters in the myth.

Aphrodite was born from the place where the genitals of Cronos were thrown after he was castrated by his son, Zeus. In art, Aphrodite is generally shown as a beautiful young woman standing on a scallop shell. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of beauty, love and carnal pleasures. Though she was married to Hephaestus, she was known to be having affairs with many other gods, Ares, the god of war being one of them (Read “Aphrodite’s Infidelity”   http://utkarshspeak.blogspot.in/2013/05/aphrodites-infidelity.html ) and mortals like Adonis amongst others.

Aphrodite

The birth of Adonis is a bit scandalous and different. It has many variations, but let’s refer to the most common version here. Adonis’s mother was the beautiful Myrrha, the daughter of King Cinyras. Myrrha’s mother would boast that Myrrha was the most beautiful of all and that her beauty surpassed that of even Aphrodite. This angered Aphrodite and she cursed Myrrha to fall in love with her own father, King Cinyras. Accordingly, Myrrha fell in love with her father, and without knowing what was at play, one night in the cover of darkness, Myrrha managed to seduce her father to sleep with her, after getting him drunk.

When the father discovered that he was tricked by his own daughter and that she was expecting his child, he chased her with a sword to kill her. The

Myrrh Tree

gods however took pity on the girl and changed her into a tree, better known as the myrrh tree, a tree which produces resin. Later, the goddess of birth enabled her to deliver a baby and Adonis, the baby was found near the myrrh tree. Aphrodite took pity on the baby and gave it to Persephone, the wife of Hades, the god of the underworld, managing to hide the baby from others, as it was a sinful birth out of incestuous relationship. Adonis was a child whose mother was also his sister and whose father was also his grandfather!

Baby Adonis grew up to be a very handsome man,

which made both Persephone and Aphrodite fall in love with him! Soon a fight broke up between the two as to who should keep the handsome young man. Zeus had to intervene, and it was decided that Adonis would spend one third of the year with Persephone, one third with Aphrodite and the remaining would be left on Adonis to decide. Adonis decided to spend the rest with Aphrodite, as he preferred to be on earth. However, Aphrodite was still not happy with the arrangement, as she wanted Adonis completely to herself. It is said that Aphrodite had seduced Adonis, into lazing around when at Hades, and enjoying him for the rest of the year, leaving Persephone fuming.

Venus and Adonis, 1794,
Antonio Canova (1757-1822),  *

Soon Adonis started spending more time with Aphrodite, however, popular versions say, that he wasn't quite in love with Aphrodite. Adonis loved hunting instead. Aphrodite had a premonition of hunting leading Adonis to some trouble. She kept warning him against hunting. She had an uncanny fear that some animal would want to take revenge on her by harming Adonis, especially lions, as she had cursed two lovers to become lions since she was upset with them over something (which is another story). To further dissuade him, she had warned not to challenge animals which charged back or came back at him, or were not scared of him.

Once, when Aphrodite left for some place, Adonis

The Death of Adonis,
by Giuseppe Mazzuoli, 1709
(Hermitage Museum)

charged into the forest for hunting. Soon he came across a wild boar, which had long tusks and started to chase it. The boar surprisingly could not be scared away and the hunt changed sides. The boar ended up chasing Adonis, and before long the boar plunged its tusks deep into his groin and killed him. Later it was found that the boar was no ordinary boar, but Ares, one of the lovers of Aphrodite, who was jealous of Adonis for taking so much of Aphrodite’s, attention and affection. Some versions say that it was Persephone, who had told Ares about the relationship, as she was jealous of Aphrodite! In a severely wounded state Adonis called out for Aphrodite, who turned back to the forest to find Adonis breathing his last.

The place where the drops of Adonis’s blood fell,

gave birth to beautiful red anemones, a flower found during the spring in the Mediterranean, and the rest of the blood flowed into a river, which today flows as the river Nahr Ibrahim in Lebanon, also known as the Adonis River.

Adonis, after his death went to the underworld, where he was greeted by Persephone. The very idea of Adonis being in the company of Persephone forever, made Aphrodite uneasy and she landed at the doors of the underworld, leading to another confrontation. Once again Zeus, had to intervene, and it was resolved that Adonis would now spend half year with each of them.

As mentioned earlier, the myth has layers of meaning. The story symbolises many things.

Adonis’s six month term can be seen in two ways. The first one is symbolic of man’s spending half his life with his mother and the other with his wife, the former being symbolised by Adonis being brought up by Persephone and the latter by Adonis spending his youth with Aphrodite. The other symbolism is the change in seasons. When Adonis spent time with Persephone, it was winter and when he came back to Aphrodite, he brought with him spring and summer, a time for love and romance, his relationship with Aphrodite. The struggle for Adonis was the perennial struggle for love (as life) and death. An important aspect of the myth was the death and resurrection of Adonis, which represented the perishing and the revival of the plants annually.

Adonis was the symbol of masculinity and good looks. Adonis, though born out of an incestuous relationship, which was out of jealousy of Aphrodite, ensured that Aphrodite, who brought disgrace to his mother, did not find love herself. Aphrodite was known for having many lovers, but never loved her own husband. Though she loved Adonis, Adonis loved hunting. The anemone flowers are a reminder to Aphrodite’s frustrated love. It is said, that the flowers, have a short span of life. No sooner they bloom, the wind pulls them down, as the flowers have weak and slender stems and cannot withstand slightest of the breeze! 

The theme of incest, though provoked by Aphrodite out of sheer jealousy, gets the disdain that the society understands or should. The incestuous relationship between the father and daughter, receives poetic justice, by Adonis avenging the trauma and pain that her mother underwent, in causing similar grief in Aphrodite, after his own death.

All in all an interesting Greek myth of tragic and unfulfilled love and lust.

* Aphrodite was referred to as Venus in Roman Mythology

Aphrodite’s infidelity

Here is an interesting Greek myth which talks of Aphrodite’s infidelity.

Let me introduce the characters first –

Aphrodite – goddess of love and wife of Hephaestus; she is also known as Venus in Roman mythology

Hephaestus – the blacksmith of gods, also known as Vulcan in Roman mythology, (the word ‘volcano’ gets its name from Vulcan; the ancient Romans believed that a volcano occurred when Vulcan was working in his forge making thunderbolts and weapons for the gods)

Ares – the god of war also known as Mars in Roman mythology.

Helios – the Sun god

Aphrodite and Hephaestus did not have a happy married life as Aphrodite never liked the old and lame Hephaestus. From his end, Hephaestus was too busy with his craft and did not make any effort to work on the relationship. Ares was a handsome young man, and soon Aphrodite and Ares were meeting at Hephaestus’s home, in his absence.

During one such escapade, Helios, who is everywhere during the day, saw them on Hephaestus’ bed. He reported the matter to Hephaestus, who was angry. Hephaestus planned to catch them red-handed. Hephaestus made a fine invisible net of bronze and laid it on his bed. He left for his work soon after. When Ares saw him leaving, he immediately came to Aphrodite and both headed for the bed. No sooner had they gone to bed, both of them were ensnared in the invisible net, so much so, that they couldn’t even move.

On getting the message from Helios, Hephaestus came back and caught them in the act. He made a lot of noise and called all the gods and goddesses to come and see both of them. The goddesses were embarrassed by the act of Aphrodite and so they all stayed back, but the gods came and took voyeuristic pleasure in seeing both in the act, with not a shred of cloth on them.

Some gods made fun of Hephaestus for making a marital issue public, while some envied Ares, while still others just laughed at the predicament. After much embarrassment, Poseidon, the god of seas, decided to mediate. He requested Hephaestus to let go of Ares after making him pay a fine for adultery. Poseidon even agreed to stand guarantee for the payment. Hephaestus released both of them and Ares immediately left the city. It is said that Aphrodite later gave birth to a child, who was named Harmonia (the origin of the word ‘Harmony’).

On the surface of it, the myth gives a moral message against infidelity, which I will skip as I am sure all the readers have understood it. Let me give you an insight into the symbolism of such myths.

According to some scholars, this was a comment on the art of blacksmithing -

Fire (i.e. Hephaestus) softens iron (i.e. Ares). In this work, as in any work, one needs to apply passion (i.e. Aphrodite). After the iron has been softened, one needs to use water (i.e. Poseidon) to cool it off. From this myth, one can surmise, that the essence of hot and dry and its opposite, i.e. the cold and wet, sometimes draw the universe together and sometimes pull it apart. When together, it gives birth to harmony. This is one of the most beautiful interpretations of an otherwise simple tale of infidelity.

Some scholars have gone ahead to say, that the union of Aphrodite and Ares amounts to adultery. According to them, the two are not naturally inclined to be together, and thus goes against the norm, but when together, produce harmony. Some scholars have interpreted the laughter of the gods too. According to them, the union of love and strife is a cause for joy, which is to be seen in the form of divine laughter as against the cynical as seen in the myth.

Whatever message one takes is on one’s own self, but one thing is for sure, the myth is pregnant with inherent symbolism!

Helen of Troy – A Greek Romance

For all those who are suffering from yesterday’s hangover of love and romance, here is another romance of mythical times.

All of us have read, or heard or even seen on celluloid the Greek romance of Helen and Paris of Troy. So what is it that has made the romance so well known that generations later, people recount it again and again?

Many of us know about the romance leading to war, but not many might know as what led to the romance in the first place. So let us start at the very beginning i.e. with the root cause of the romance which led to the massive war in which gods sided with mortals, something quite unheard of.

Apple of Discord

It all started in the heavens, with the episode better known as the Judgement of Paris. Eris was an evil goddess of Discord (conflict) and due to her nature; she was not invited to the heavenly gatherings. During one such gathering, she was the lone goddess who was not invited. She decided to avenge the insult by creating trouble, and trouble she did! She threw in the banquet hall a golden apple, on which was written ‘For the Fairest’. Quite predictably all the goddesses laid claim on it, but eventually it narrowed down to three of them, viz. Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. They asked Zeus, the King of Gods, to arbitrate, but better sense prevailed and he suggested that they go to Mount Ida and meet Prince Paris, who was supposed to be a good judge of beauty and let him decide.

Before we move further, Paris, though a son of the King, was guarding the sheep as his father was told that he would be responsible for the destruction of his country. The King had thus sent him away to the mountains, to keep him away from the country, lest the prophecy became true. The three goddesses reached Mount Ida and asked Paris to arbitrate on the celestial problem. Paris was amazed at the job, and could not believe his luck. However, his judgement did not rest on the actual beauty of the goddesses, but on the bribes that each offered to him. Hera promised to make him the Lord of Europe and Asia. Athena offered him victory of the Trojans against the Greeks, leading to the ruin of Greece. Aphrodite offered him the love of the fairest of all mortals (which was none other than Helen). Paris offered the golden apple to Aphrodite, much to the disappointment of the others. It is this judgement, due to which the great Trojan was fought.

Helen’s beauty was a subject of heavens and was the mortal daughter of Zeus from Leda. Every prince in Greece wanted to marry her and when all had assembled to ask for her hand, it was a gathering of who’s who amongst the rich and powerful. Helen’s father, or rather the husband of her mother, was scared to choose one, lest he offended the rest and invite the collective wrath of the mighty. He then extracted an oath from all, that all of them would stand by Helen’s husband, whoever he be, and if he faced any problem, then all would unite with the husband and fight the enemy. Each agreed as each wanted to be the husband. Helen’s father then selected, Menelaus and also made him the King of Sparta.

Aphrodite having won her title of the fairest took Paris straight to Sparta where he was received by Menelaus and Helen. To cut short the story, before anybody realised, love had blossomed and Helen had eloped with Paris. When Menelaus came to know about it, he called on all the chiefs of Greece, and sought their help to get Helen back. They all responded as they were bound by the oath.

The war between the Greeks and the Trojans was war of the epics. Heroes were made and killed. Gods sided with the central characters during the war. Gods like Zeus, Achilles, Athena, Hera, Apollo, etc. all took sides. Heroes like Odysseus, Menelaus, Hector were made and some died heroic deaths. The Trojans were destroyed (episode of the Trojan Horse, is etched in our memories) and the Greeks were victorious. I will spare the details of heroism of the bloody war, as our subject is still love and what’s a better love story than the one which has a happy ending?

Helen goes back to Menelaus, and the initial prophecy was proven that Paris would bring destruction to his country.

Needless to say, that the gods were behind the mortal destruction, all for vanity of three goddesses, which I thought, was a human emotion!