CH. 14 - Myths of Love and Death

Question 1

Hero and Leander

Answer 1

• lovers on opposite side of the narrow Hellspont
• Hero was a preistest of aphrodite who would light an oil lamp in her window of the tower where she lived and Leander would swim across the straight (2km) and stayed with her until daybreak and swim home again
• a stormy night came and blew out the candle, without the light, leander lost his way and drowned
• the next day she looked down from her tower and saw his body
• she then flung herself from the tower in her grief, landing next to her lover

Question 2

Pyramidus and Thisbe

Answer 2

• lived next door to each other in Babylon, their parents refused to let them marry or even meet
• there was a chink in the wall of their adjoining apartments, they would whisper through this, and kiss the wall goodnight since they couldn’t kiss eachother
• they plan to run away together and would meet at the tomb of Ninus
• Thisbe arrived first and sat down under the tree, she was later started by a lioness (covered in blood from a fresh kill) and ran away, dropping her veil, which the lioness tore up and drenched in blood
• Pyramidus arrived and saw the bloody garment and assumed she was dead so he killed himself with a sword
• Thisbe arrived later and killed herself with the sword
• when their parents found them, they were moved by their love so they opted in to burying their ashes in one urn
• the mulberry tree that they died under has ever since been a dark red colour

Question 3

Aphrodite and Adonis (Apollodorus’ version)

Answer 3

• according to Apollodorus, baby Adonis was so beautiful that Aphrodite wanted him all for herself, so she hid him in a chest and gave him to Persephone to keep for her but Persephone also loved him and refused to give him back
• the two goddess took their issue to Zeus who said he will spend 1/3rd of the year with each goddess and the last 1/3 on his own but he always spent this 1/3 with Aphrodites
• his disappearance from the earth into the underworld would make the world cold and dead (winter) where seed would lay dormant in the earth, spring and summer was with Aphrodite

Question 4

Aphrodite and Adonis (Ovids version)

Answer 4

• Venus fell in love with Adonis when he was a man and became his constant companion (hunting)
• one day he was hunting a bull (Vulcan or Mars ins disguise) and wounded it with his spear, the bull then rushed and slashed him deep in the groin with it’s tusks
• she heard his cries but it was too late, she decreed the day of his death would be lamented every year
• she made a dark red flower spring from his blood on the ground (red rose)
• some other myths say that she was cut as she rushed to him and turned a white rose red with blood from her foot

Question 5

Psyche and her prophecy

Answer 5

• psyche was the mortal lover of Cupid, son of Aphrodite and deity of love
• a king and queen had three daughters, the youngest (psyche) being so lovely and beautiful that they paid her divine honours that they should’ve been paying to Venus
• Venus sent her sone cupid to visit psyche and get her to fall in love with a worthless man, he disobeyed his mother when he saw her and fell in love with her
• her father went to an oracle to ask when his daughter would find a husband as all of Psyches suitors would not approach as she was too beautiful
• the oracle said she will marry an evil spirit, feared by the gods, who would fetch her on the mountain top

Question 6

how was psyche’s prophecy fulfilled

Answer 6

• with great sorrow, her father left her on a hilltop where Zephyrus the gentle wind lifted her up and wafted her into a flowery valley of a fairytale palace
• cupid came for her in the darkness and made her his wife, he would always leave just before dawn
• she persuaded cupid to let her go visit her family, which he warned would bring her great unhappiness if they tried to get her to figure out what he looked like, she promised she wouldn’t and he let her go
• they terrified her as they were jealous and convinced her she was married to a terrifying monster and she had to kill him
• that night she lit a lamp and had a knife in hand when she figured out her husband was cupid. She was looking at his bow and pricked her finger with it, now she was even more in love with him
• she spilled the hot wax on him, burning and waking him, he was mad she finally realized who her husband was and he disappeared

Question 7

psyche searching for cupid

Answer 7

• Psyche somehow got the courage to visit the palace of Venus to try and find cupid
• Venus was pissed that cupid disobeyed her and also made psyche pregnant so she treated her poorly and gave her formidable tasks to perform

Question 8

Psyche’s tasks

Answer 8

• first task was to sort a vast heap of mixed grins into separate kinds by nightfall, a bunch of ants helped her complete the task
• second task was to fetch a hank of golden wool from a flock of murderous sheep, she breeze told her to wait until the sheep were asleep from the heat
• the third task, was that psyche had to fetch a jar of ice-cold water from the river styx at the top of a mountain, when she arrived she found it guarded by a dragon
• at that moment, jupiters eagle came down and snatched a jarfull of water
• final (fatal) task was to take a box (pyxis) and fill it with a days supply of Proserpina (persephones). She didn’t think she could do it so she was gonna kill herself but the tower told her how to get it
• she made it out of the underworld with everything she needed but the tower told her not to look in the box, she failed and fell asleep

Question 9

how does psyche wake up

Answer 9

• cupid misses her and brushes the sleep away
• she wakes up and gets the box to Venus
• while she is doing that Cupid is pleading to Jupiter to bless this love, which he gives him divine consent
• the story ends with all the gods at a great wedding breakfast to celebrate and their baby Voluptas (pleasure) is born

Question 10

Orpheus and Eurydices

Answer 10

• orpheus is the sone of king Oeagrus and the muse Calliope and was the supreme singer and musician of grek myth
• he married the nymph Eurydice only for her to die shortly after due to a snake bite
• he goes down to the underworld to try and get her, he sings to ppl to let him pass (cerberus and chiron)
• Orpheus pleaded and sang to the underworld and left them all crying and gagging, Persephone and her husband could not bear to refuse Orpheus’ plea
• they let him take Eurydices on the condition that he walk in front of her and not look back to see her until they had both regained the light of the sun
• some myths say he succeeded but others said he looked back too soon and she died again where he tried to follow by charon would not let him pass
• he eventually returned to Thrace where Thracian women tor him to peices, resentful because he had scorned them
• his head was thrown into the rive Hebrus, where it continued to sing
• the muses gathered up his remains and burried him in Pieria, it was said that the nightingale would sing over his grave
• he was immortalized as his lyre was set amongst the sarts as the constalation Lyra