More
About the Greek God Apollo
An interesting and, better yet, "telling" story
to share with you about the golden-haired Greek Sun god
Apollo is that of his
tragic and
fated
infatuation
with
the nymph
Daphne.
The
Tragic Story of Apollo and Daphne
In this story the
beautiful river nymph, Daphne, was Apollo's first love.
How
this love for
Daphne
was
said to come about is that Apollo, thought to be the second
most powerful of the Olympian gods, had been making
fun of the
young god Eros (son of the goddess of love Aphrodite)
and had been bragging about how very weak and puny
little Eros was.
Wounding
Arrows of Eros (Cupid)
Known to most of us by his Roman name Cupid, in this version
of the story, the Greek god Eros was indeed the youngest
of the Greek gods.
Like
the great god Apollo (god of rationality), that
shot arrows of either insight or death,
the god Eros also had two very different types of arrows
(gold tipped and lead tipped) with which he pierced
the hearts
of mortals
(and occasionally the gods).
Eros'
gold tipped arrows evoked irrational desire and irresistible
attraction, while his lead tipped arrows filled the
mortal or
god with irrational disgust and repulsion.
To
the mortal (or god) wounded in the heart with Eros'
special
arrows, it was a wounding of desire (gold) or disgust (lead)
that suddenly, seemingly came from "out of the blue." The
mortal (or god) struck was then destined (and under
the compulsion) to
live out this wounding of the heart, often behaving in
irrational ways and committing mad, irrational acts
of passion.
The
Rational Struck Down By The Irrational
Getting back to our story... to show the powerful Greek
god Apollo (god of rationality) a thing or two for bragging
about how very weak and puny Eros was... the
god Eros
struck
Apollo
with one
of his (Eros')
gold
tipped
arrows. When struck by the gold tipped arrow, Apollo immediately
became inflamed with irrational desire and love for the
lovely
river nymph, Daphne.
However,
at the very same time, Eros struck the river nymph,
Daphne, with one of his lead tipped arrows of disgust
and repulsion.
Thus...
the more ardently Apollo pursued his one true love,
Daphne – the
more she (Daphne) became repulsed by Apollo. Apollo
pursued
Daphne relentlessly across the face of the earth, and he
would not (could not) give up.
Finally
– Daphne, exhausted and terrified, cried out to Mother Earth
for help. Mother Earth then transformed the river nymph, Daphne,
into a laurel tree. Apollo went away rejected and mournful.
And Eros proved to Apollo and all the other gods, just how
powerful he (Eros) was.
Can
anybody say, "Been there, done that?
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