A Greek Love Story, (we all know so well)

Psyche was one of the three beautiful daughters of a King. However, Psyche was so beautiful that she seemed like a goddess amongst mortals.

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 put 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 was so charmed by her beauty, that he fell in love with Psyche, but could not go against Aphrodite’s wishes. So along with his mother’s wishes, he sprinkled a magic potion on her eyelids to ensure that she found all the love and happiness in life.

Sure enough, as Aphrodite had willed, nobody was willing to get married to Psyche. Her parents were worried and consulted an Oracle, who confirmed to them that sure enough no mortal would marry her, but there was a monster at the top of the mountain who would marry her.

Giving in to what was destined for her, her parents left her at the top of mountain. On reaching the peak, she came across a beautiful palace decorated and lit up for a wedding. The palace had everything to take care of her including invisible servants and attendants. At night, in the 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 vanish. Psyche started living a life full of romance and was happy in ignorance, that the Prince was none other than Eros himself.

Soon Psyche was feeling 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 that she had not even seen her husband, they started filling her in with all that the Oracle had said and convinced her to see her monstrous husband.

So one night, she went to bed with a candle and a dagger. If her lover was a monster, then she would kill him with the dagger. That night, when she saw under the light of the candle that her husband was none other than the god of love himself, she was too delighted. 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.

Aphrodite soon learnt about her son’s disobedience and decided to punish Psyche by making her suffer. She punished Psyche by making her go through a number of torturous tasks, which she fulfilled, albeit, with the help of Eros, who was helping her secretly.

Zeus, the king of gods, intervened and decided to get Eros and Psyche united, as both had proven their love for each other.

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

Why write on Mythology?

Somebody asked me the other day – “Why do you want to write on Mythology?” and I shot back by asking “Why not?” But then let me explain.

Mythology has been a part of our lives right from our childhood, especially in India. As children we are fed on stories of all the mythical heroes of Indian mythology and we grow up either idolising the characters or the slightly curious ones end up having more questions as they grow.

How can someone be born out of a sacrificial alter? How can someone not die for ages? How can someone move mountains, fly like a bird, fight like a warrior and romance like Casanova? All these and many more, besides the common ones like who am I and where did I come from?

As one grows older and is introduced to other literatures, one realises that there is more to mythology in other cultures too. English Literature is replete with references from Greek mythology and some of them have become part of daily usage. Statements like “a herculean task”, “the issue will open a Pandora’s box”, etc. are part of our parlance.

So what is it about mythology that has lent it continuity for ages? Some of the things we read are far from rational or rather quite anti-science – then what is it that has still got it going? Is there something more to it than the spoken or written word? Were the writers or the perpetrators of these myths trying to tell us something which might have some relevance? Or is it that these continue to be institutions of ideals in the present day of no-morals, no-hero times?

It is this underlying truth that I am trying to bring forth through this blog. I want to know, what is behind all this that is so logic-defying in today’s times, but still manages to hold us spell-bound. In these modern times, how are the epics still being so relevant and being told and retold in so many different ways? I hope to bring all this and more thru this blog.

Welcome to my Blog.

Welcome to my Blog. The title sounds familiar? Well Ms. Rand could sue me for plagiarism, but I just can't help but use her line......this line has stuck on me ever since I read the 150page monologue by John Galt more than 20 years back!

But this blog is not about her, its about - what is in me and my ever-troubling mind. So what better way than to blog?

What am I going blog? Mythology is a pet subject and will be writing on mythology quite extensively, both Indian and World. All about the fantastic world woven by the myths and the very rationale of such stories.

But that won't be all. There will be more.

Wait and watch......and keep reading.

Send me your views, questions and opinions.

Utkarsh

Happy Diwali to all my readers!!!

utkarsh

Dhanteras

‘Dhan’ means wealth and ‘teras’ means the thirteenth day of the month. Dhanteras is a day better known for the worship of Goddess Lakshami, the goddess of Wealth. Why on this day and what is the significance of this day?

According to the myth of samudra manthan – the churning of the ocean, during the churning many things came out of the belly of the ocean. Among them, one of them was Goddess Lakshami. Since she came out of the ocean on this day, this day is considered to be the birth-anniversary of the goddess. Thus started the practice of worshipping the goddess on this day.

Dhanteras is also known as Dhanwantari Trayodashi. According to the same episode of samudra manthan, amongst other things, this day also saw the appearance of Lord Dhanvantari, the physician of the gods with Ayur Veda, a treatise on medicine for mankind. Dhanwantari Trayodashi is also a celebration of the gift of Ayur Veda to mankind given by Lord Dhanvantari.

Finally, another myth tells us why we light a lamp the whole night on the day of Dhanteras. According to the myth, it was destined that the son of King Hima would die of a snake bite in sleep, on the fourth day of his wedding. His wife who was very intelligent decided to defy destiny. On the fateful day, she collected all her wealth and jewellery and kept it at the entrance of her bedroom. She then lit up the whole room with numerous lamps and started singing songs and telling stories, non-stop to her husband.

In the middle of the night, Lord Yama came in the form of a snake to take away the life of King Hima’s son. But the son was not able to fall asleep due to the non-stop story telling of his wife. Also, the numerous lamps, blinded Yama and he could not enter the bedroom. Yama in the form of the snake then decided to wait, and went and sat on the heap of wealth and jewellery. The night passed and the hour passed off, thus not giving Yama a chance to take the life away. Yama had to leave, thus giving the King’s son a lease of life. Dhanteras is thus also known as a day of Yamadeep-daan a practice from then onwards, to keep a lighted lamp on for the whole night as an act of benevolence towards Yama, the god of death.

It is worth noting that Hinduism is probably the only religion or culture where wealth is worshiped and the same is not looked down upon as crass or overt-indulgence in materialism. To all who say that wealth is to be shunned, can take a back-seat for at least today, as it is only impractical to deny the importance of wealth. A day like this enables one to differentiate between the worship of wealth and the indulgence of wealth. So go ahead and pay your obeisance to the Goddess of Wealth who might be knocking at your doors!