Fickle Fortune

 Circe by Madeline Miller is a fictional, embellished account of the Greek god, Circe.  Wait.  How can a fictional god, who is fiction in the first place, be "fictional and embellished"?    Well, the author is skilled and inspired.  Madeline Miller weaves a tale that holds your interest and curiosity to continue to read.

The story is about the birth of Circe by Perses, her mother, and Helios, her father.  Perses is a niad and Helios is god of the sun, which makes Circe, a nymph.  All these gods are dysfunctional.  They are very fickle.  Circe seems different.  She tries to be compassionate and fair.  Eventionally, however, she crosses the line when she turns her sister into a sea monster.  For this, she is sent into exile, forever.

Turning her sister into a sea monster was the first time that Circe learned that she had a talent for witchcraft.  Exiled to an island, she honed her craft.  A few sailors come to her island.  One of them is Odysseus and she has a child by him. The child grows up and inadvertently kills his father.  His brother and stepmother come to the island and the four of them live together.

Athena, who was patron of Odysseus comes to offer his legitimate son, a kingdom.  He doesn't have the temperament to want it.  Circe's son claims it. 

Yes, the book is a hit.  It is well written.  But I hate these Greek gods.  Even though I'm reading a good story, I can't help but feel that I am wasting my time reading about fickle gods.  Thank God, I have the One True God who loves me.  I trust Him to turn all the bad into good.  He is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.  You couldn't trust those Greek gods.  My Trinitarian God is the One, True, God.

Patroclus the Hero

 The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller was a birthday present. My friend that gave me the birthday present said, "You'll love this book." Just upon appearances, I turned my nose up.  What's appealing about Greek mythology.  It looked boring.

It didn't take long, however, before I was intrigued.  I was in the story.  The tale is told by Achilles' soul mate, Patroclus.  Since Patroclus who wasn't loved by his father, anyway, had accidentally killed another boy, he was exiled forever, from his homeland. Patroclus was exiled to the homeland of Peleus, where other wayward boys were sent.  Patroclus didn't fit in his original home and he doesn't fit in this new place either.  However, Peleus' son, Achilles takes a liking to Patroclus and they soon become inseparable friends and lovers. 

Achilles is the son of a champion, Peleus, and a sea nymph.  The sea nymph, Thetis hates Patroclus from the "get-go." Everyone loves Achilles because he is beautiful and strong.  The two boys grow up together.  We see them get trained for fighting, music, and the healing arts by the centaur, Chiron.  Life is good.

Enter the beautiful, Helen.  She had so many suitors, that instead of killing each other for her hand, they agreed to honor her by vowing to protect her and whomever husband she chose. She chose Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, and king of Sparta. Paris disregarded the vows and kidnapped Helen, setting off the war that had a thousand ships launched to Troy to get Helen bac. k.

The reader knows from predictions that both Patroclus and Achilles are killed.  This is a Greek tragedy.  Patroclus is killed indirectly by Achilles' stubbornness and anger.  Achilles is offended because Agamemnon takes his concubine, Briseis, and refuses to fight anymore.  As the Greeks lose and the men see their comrades die, their resentment toward Achilles turns to hate.  Patroclus can't stand it.  He doesn't want to see Achilles hated, so he puts on Achilles' armor and goes into battle, as Achilles.

Surprisingly, Patroclus fights well and is only stopped from scaling the wall to Troy by the god, Apollo.  Patroclus is grievously mourned by Achilles, but he still narrates the story for us. Achilles goes crazy and kills the Trojan hero, Hector.  Still, in a rage, Achilles dishonors Hector by dragging his body around the city, three times.  Achilles has gone mad and is no longer interested in living.  He gets his wish when Paris kills him.

A tomb is built for Achilles but as his last wish was to have his ashes mixed with Patroclus', the tomb only has Achilles' name on it.  Thetis, Achilles' mother doesn't was Patroclus' name on the tomb.  Only when, after a time, Patroclus' spirit talks to Thetis, and convinces her of his love for Achilles, does she add Patroclus's name to the tomb.

The last image we have is of Achilles and Patroclus walking off, hand in hand, together.

My "take away," love lasts.

Tantalus

 There are many gods in Greek mythology.  The god Zeus had mighty powers and handed down cruel punishments.  Tantalus was a king that was wicked and always testing Zeus.  One time Tantalus killed his own son, Pelops and served him in a stew.  He did this to see how smart the gods were.  The gods could tell that the stew wasn't right, but Demeter wasn't paying attention and ate the shoulder of Pelops.  That is why when the gods put Pelops back together, his shoulder was missing.  So he wore a prosthetic made of ivory.

To punish Tantalus, Zeus made Tantalus go forever thirsty and hungry.  In Hades, Tantalus stood in a pool of water and every time he bent to take a sip the water receded away from him, and every time he went to take a bite of the succulent fruit hanging right in front of him, he couldn't reach it.

Aren't you glad we have our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is all merciful?  Did you note that Tantalus' sin was to test the gods?  That's hubris.  Tantalus thought he was smarter than his gods.

But we shouldn't feel smug that we know our Lord is omniscient and we would never test Him.  After all, we test God every time we do what we want, when we know God wouldn't approve.  Who do we think we are?

                                                     by Gioacchino Assereto public domain