The Origins of Love cont.

Here are a couple of longer stories I cut out of the original post because it was long and unwieldy and they generally didn't add much, but the stories are interesting anyway!

Let me present to you the story of Achilles and Patroclus. In Homer’s Iliad, these two men were not explicitly lovers, however in the archaic and classical Greek periods they very much were depicted as lovers, especially by the previously discussed Plato. Furthermore, Shakespeare portrayed them as lovers in Troilus and Cressida, so I’m taking it as gospel (nice reference there, right?). Achilles and Patroclus were close comrades during the fight against the Trojans (yes, the guys with the horse) but Patroclus was killed by Hector during a successful military manoeuvre against the Trojans. Achilles had chosen not to partake in the battle because he fell out with Agamemnon, but upon learning of Patroclus’ death, he immediately falls deeply into his grief despite having been earlier portrayed as steadfast and unbreakable. He stops eating and returns to the battlefield, despite having been assured that he will die, in order to avenge Patroclus and to kill Hector. He successfully kills Hector, and then drags his body around the city of Troy attached to his chariot… but as anyone with a fatal flaw will know, Achilles was killed not long after when Paris slayed him with an arrow to the heel. Achilles demanded that his ashes be mixed with Patroclus upon his death, which tells you how close their relationship was if you ask me. If it isn’t obvious here, this story of love, whilst less definitive given Greek perspectives of homosexual relations, is once again tragic. Once Patroclus dies, Achilles is willing to give up everything, his entire life’s purpose becomes dedicated to avenging Patroclus, but really how happy can a love story between two male Greek soldiers be?

The closest I could find to a true love story happy ending in Ancient Greek mythology is the story of Psyche and Cupid, but I find it to be incredibly problematic. I’ll tell it briefly, but first, you must realise that Cupid only felt in love with Psyche because he accidentally scratched himself on the arrow that was supposed to make Psyche fall in love with something hideous. Then Psyche’s father consults an oracle and finds out Psyche is destined to marry this terrible dragon-like creature that even the Gods fear. So obviously he prepares her for a funeral, but she gets saved by a wind god, Zephyrus and guided to a pitch-black bedroom where a being (THAT SHE CAN’T SEE) has his way with her and after this happens a few times she becomes pregnant. Eventually, Psyche’s sisters convince her to try to kill this being but accidentally finds out that it’s Cupid, who then leaves. Yep, in the Greek’s greatest love story, one of them straight up abandons the other after essentially raping her (by modern and decent standards.) Psyche goes through some trials (as often happens in Greek mythology because the Gods love messing with us mere mortals) and she is reunited with Cupid, after he has made a deal with Zeus that involves Cupid helping him out whenever a new mortal woman takes his fancy. At their wedding banquet, Zeus says that this union will redeem Cupid from his history of provoking adultery and sordid liaisons. Now I’m sure you can see why I’m not a fan of this specific myth, but in case you need more conclusive proof; the myth of Psyche and Cupid is often used as a paradigm of how gender unity falls apart when faced with competition for heterosexual relations. Sure, this is an interesting perspective that is probably evidenced by high schools across the globe, but still doesn’t quite sit right… However, my wish here is not to get onto a feminist debate (I’ll save that for another time) but rather to display another example of ‘love’ in Greek mythology. I say ‘love’ as I truly don’t believe that this is an example of love, because neither character discussed truly fell in love with the other; Cupid fell in love because of his arrows, and Psyche fell in love without knowing who her lover was, and then tried to kill him. There is no doubt that there is plenty of tragedy in this story, but it has nothing to do with the tragedy of love because it is not a love story, but rather a discussion of fidelity amongst Gods.