slenderbeak: The Comfort of Myths

slenderbeak: The Comfort of Myths: 'Alcyone...found herself flying, beating the air with wings newly-formed. Changed into a sorrowing bird, she skimmed the surface of th...

The Comfort of Myths

'Alcyone...found herself flying, beating the air with wings newly-formed. Changed into a sorrowing bird, she skimmed the surface of the waves. As she flew, a plaintive sound, like the lament of someone stricken with grief, came harshly from the slender beak that was her mouth.'

(Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XI Ceyx & Alcyone Transformed, 1955 Penguin

Alcyone and Ceyx were Greek mythological figures transformed into Kingfishers. The myth has it that because the pair disrespected the gods by calling themselves respectively Zeus and Hera, Zeus sent a thunderbolt to the ship carrying Cecyx. Then Morpheus (god of dreams) appeared before Alcyone and told her of Cecyx's fate. She threw herself into the sea in grief. But the gods took pity on the pair and transformed them into Kingfishers.

Alcyone was the daughter of Aeolus, god of the wind. He is said to have restrained the winds at this time and calmed the waves so that his daughter could lay her eggs in safety on the beach. These
'Halcyon Days' are seven days either side of 21st December when storms never occur.

In Greece today there is still a kind of reverence paid to this period and people look forward to the 'Alkionades' period of calm and peace in the midst of adversity.

On the Subject of Wars, Reflection and Plots

At our next Classics meeting we are discussing and reading from Euripides' play The Women of Troy. This play is about what happened to the women and children of Troy after the famous battle. Euripides wanted to show the Athenian audiences what had been done in their name to the people of the island of Melos when they tried to stay neutral in the war between Sparta and Athens. In 416 BC the Athens fleet, 'diplomats' on board, was sent to sort out the Melians. Their idea of diplomacy was to tell the islanders to join Athens or die. They refused. All the men were executed, the women and children sold as slaves and Melos was colonised by Athenians. The Athenian state was established.

Through the words of Cassandra, Women of Troy issues a warning against the futility of aggression and war and like most of the plays of the Ancient Greeks it asked society to reflect. I think reflection is a very underrated human capacity. If  we allow ourselves to reflect we have at least a chance of avoiding aggression and other actions we may come to regret afterwards.

Apparently Euripides didn't have a plot for The Women of Troy and this freed him up to develop a reflective theme without recourse to suspense, surprise or cliffhangers at the end of scenes. For some reason I feel encouraged by this thought.