Ondine's Curse

When I was researching siren myths, and I read the one about the Ondine's Curse, I was stricken with sudden inspiration to write a poem. I did not find the motivation, however, until a couple of days later. Here's what five minutes of Muse-frenching looks like. For me, anyway.

Her eyes told of the mysteries

Of deep and dark and endless seas,

With dainty lights, an angler fish--

The deadly, silent predator.

She parted then her lips to sing,

And o'er the waves and rocky shores

Her song did sound; her voice did ring--

A somber, haunting melody

Within the ocean's roar.

Many have in prose and verse

Warned of dreadful Ondine's Curse,

Which grips your heart and stills your breath

And drags you ever down to death.

Many die for want of sleep,

For fear of meeting with that deep

And shadowy realm of dark despair;

That awful pall--the Ondine's lair.

They say that when you hear her song,

Life for you will not be long;

And then will toll the final bell;

One last farewell, the Ondine's spell.

~2/14/12

Acheria the Fox--a Basque Folktale

The Basque are an interesting people. For those of you who've never heard of them, they live in a region known as Andorra (which is actually its own country) in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. Much of their folklore hasn't been written down until recently. I picked up some "light reading" from the library for inspiration for this blog, and this story was included in the book. (Check the Sources section of this entry--it's really a cool book.)

A fox was lazing around in the sun one day and realized that he was hungry. He had been watching a shepherd bring his flock to graze, and decided to steal his milk and cheese. The only problem was that he had the wit, but lacked the physical ability to accomplish the feat.

So he enlisted the help of a wolf, telling him, "The shepherd leaves his flock in the field every morning while he stops at home to make his cheese. Go out to the field and howl, and the shepherd will leave his work and hasten to protect his sheep. While he is distracted, I will steal his milk, and share it with you." The wolf agrees to the plan.

When the fox found the milk, however, he took off the cream, drank the contents of the jar, filled it back with dirt, and replaced the cream on top. He then delivered the vessel to the wolf, and said, "Since the top is much better than that which is underneath, he who chooses the top will have only that, and the other gets the rest."

The wolf, not happy with having only the cream, says, "I will have what is at the bottom."

The fox took the cream, then, as well, and gave the wolf the jar of dirt. When the wolf became angry, the fox simply shrugged and said, "I suppose that is how the shepherd makes it."

Another day, the fox was watching a boy pass by on the road with dinner for his father in a basket under his arm. The fox resolved that he wanted that dinner, so he solicited the aid of a blackbird, and told him, "When the boy passes by, go in front of him, and he will try to catch you, putting his basket down in order to reach you faster. I will steal the basket, and share its contents with you."

The blackbird agreed. When the boy chased after him, the fox grabbed the abandoned basket and ran off with it, declining to give the blackbird his share.

After he had eaten, he thought to himself, "The wolf and the blackbird are now my enemies. Surely some misfortune will befall me if I stay here. I must cross the river and move on."

So he went to the ferryman and said to him, "Ferry me over the river, and I will tell you three truths."

The boatman agreed. The fox jumped into the boat and as the man pushed off from the bank, said, "There are some who would have you believe that maize bread is better than wheat bread. They are lying; wheat bread is always better. That is the first truth."

When they were in the middle of the river, the fox spoke again: "There are some who will tell you, 'What a fine night! It is as clear as the day!' That is a lie. The night can never be as clear as the day; the day will always be clearer. That is the second truth."

When they reached the other bank, the fox said, "Oh, sir! Your trousers are worn! And I fear that they will get worse if you do not ferry people over who will pay more than I."

The man admitted the truth of the fox's third statement, and the fox leapt out of the boat and onto the bank.

(The story is meant to be told orally, and ends with, "And I happened to be standing there, and heard these three truths, and I have never forgotten them since.")


Source:
Nye, Robert. "Acheria the Fox."Classic folk-tales from around the world. London: Leopard, 1996. 111-113. Print.

Happy Valentine's Day.

If you're into that sort of thing. Personally, I despise the holiday, but I know that there are some who like it. Besides, I needed inspiration for a blog post. So, I decided I'd acknowledge the holiday with the myth of Eros and Psyche.

There was a king who had three daughters, all beautiful. Psyche was the youngest, and she was so lovely that people often mistook her for Venus Herself. The real Venus didn't take too kindly to that, obviously, so she sent her son, Eros, to shoot her with one of his arrows, making her fall in love with some wretch, the most unsuitable for marriage that he could find.

Upon seeing Psyche, Eros hesitated, fumbled, and cut himself with his own arrow, thus causing him to fall in love with Psyche instead. Seeing that her plan A had backfired, Venus then cursed Psyche. No mortal man would ever woo her for her hand in marriage. Noticing that Psyche had no suitors, the King went to an oracle for advice. The oracle suggested that he should dress her in wedding garments and leave her up on a mountain, where Zephyrus takes her away to a distant valley. There sat a beautiful palace, where invisible servants attended to Psyche's every need. Her mysterious host, who was in actuality Eros, would visit with her at night, warning her that she must never look upon him, or ask to know who he was, or he would be forced to leave her, and the palace would disappear forever.

Psyche was content for a few years, but then she grew homesick. She asked her host if she could visit her family and let them know that she was alive and well. Reluctantly, Eros agreed.

When Psyche told her sisters of her good fortune, they grew envious, and told her that her captor was, undoubtedly, some wicked, hideous beast who was fattening her up for slaughter. They gave her a knife and instructed her to wait until he was asleep, light a lamp, and cut his head off.

That night, after Eros had retired, Psyche went to do as she was told, but when the light shone on Eros's face, she froze. Realizing in horror the horrible deed she had been about to perform, she dropped the knife. The hand holding the lamp shook so much that some hot wax dripped onto Eros's shoulder, waking him up. He gave her a look that was at once angry and sorrowful, and vanished, taking the palace with him.

Distraught, Psyche went off in search of Eros, eventually coming to Venus. Venus, of course, did not approve in the least of her son being in love with a mortal woman, and so she set tasks for Psyche that she was sure the poor woman could never complete.

The first was to separate a mixture of seeds by nightfall, which would have taken days, had the ants not helped her. The second was to gather golden wool from magic sheep, which she would have gone to do immediately, had some reeds not cautioned her to wait until they fell asleep and gather it from the bushes. The third was to fill a vase with water from the Fountain of Forgetfulness, which was at the top of a mountain. There were two caves in the mountain, each one housing a fierce dragon. Psyche was too terrified to climb to the summit, but Jupiter's eagle grabbed the vase and filled it for her. When Venus saw these three tasks accomplished, she grew still angrier at Psyche, and set her a final goal: to take a box, travel into the underworld, and ask Persephone if she would be kind enough to part with some of her beauty.

Taking two pieces of barley bread for Cerberus, and two coins for Charon, she ventured down into the underworld and sought an audience with Persephone. The goddess agreed to Venus's request, but Psyche was cautioned to never look inside the box. But of course, as we learned with Pandora, ancient Greek women had a tendency to allow their curiosity to overcome them, and so she opened the box a crack. A powerful force overcame her and put her into a deep, comatose sleep. Fortunately for her, however, Eros just happened to pass by and spot her lying there. He woke her and took her back to Venus, then went to Mount Olympus and asked Jupiter if he may make Psyche immortal, so that she could marry Eros. Jupiter consented, and there was a great feast to celebrate the occasion.

Source:
Cole, Joanna, and Jill Karla Schwarz. "Eros and Psyche." Best-loved folktales of the world. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1982. 180-186. Print.

Siren Songs

My least favorite holiday is on Tuesday, and I had a couple of ideas pertaining to how I would acknowledge it. One was a Greek myth, Eros and Psyche, which I will be posting in a couple of days. The other has become the topic of tonight's post: Sirens.

The creatures known as sirens are human-avian hybrids found in Greek mythology, most notably Homer's The Odyssey. They are described as having the bodies of birds and the heads of women. They sit on rocky shores and sing, drawing sailors to their untimely deaths. In his quest to return home from Troy, the hero Odysseus was forced to sail past their island, and had his crew plug their ears with wax so that they could not hear the sirens' song. Odysseus himself, however, wished to hear what they sang, so he ordered that he be tied to the mast.

Alkonost

Russian artist Ivan Bilibin's depiction of an Alkonost

A very similar creature in Russian mythology is the Alkonost. It, too, is a bird with the head and the upper torso of a beautiful woman. Their voice is supposed to make those who hear it forget about the world around them and its troubles.

Huldra
In Scandinavian folklore, a Huldra was a beautiful woman with the tail of an animal, most often a cow or a fox. In some legends, she would seduce men, rewarding those who could satisfy her and killing those who failed.

Lorelei

Die Lorelei; photo taken in June, 2008, by my aunt

A personal favorite of mine, Lorelei or Loreley is the name of a rock on the eastern bank of the Rhein. Die Lorelei is also a water spirit who sits upon said rock, combing her golden hair and singing to sailors, drawing them to dash themselves upon the rocks with her song. Back in '08, I had the opportunity to see the rock, upon which sits a statue of the maiden.

Read Heinrich Heine's poem here:
http://ingeb.org/Lieder/ichweiss.html

Undine
A figure in the folklore of Western Europe, notably Germany, the Undine is a water spirit who, born lacking a soul, can gain one by marrying a mortal man and bearing his child. In a German legend, Ondine (or Undine) was one particular nymph who did just that, forfeiting her immortality in the process. Shortly after the birth of their child, however, Ondine discovered that her husband had been unfaithful to her, and so she cursed him, saying that should he ever fall asleep again, his breath would cease, and he would die.

"Undine's Curse" is the historical name for an actual congenital ailment. Read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undine%27s_curse

Rusalka
The Rusalki were Slavic demons, resembling mermaids, who would lure men to the river bottom to their deaths. Many legends state that the Rusalka are the spirits of women and children who suffered violent or untimely deaths, often water-related, whose souls are not at rest.


Sources:
"Alkonost - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkonost>.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren#See_also
"Huldra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huldra>.
"Lorelei - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorelei>.
"Undine (alchemy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondine_(mytholo
"Rusalka - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusalka>.