9a-c: Love, Madness or Need

In these stories there is a factor in common, love. What makes this the most interesting is that it´s not love in a normal way as we see it today. Here love is taken to the extreme. Either there is too much or it lacks. It can be present and control the actions of someone to the point of Narcissus who drowned in love of his reflection in the water. We can also see that madness is in some way linked to love. The way I see it you have to be mad to give in your parents’ empire trying to marry your enemy. What I believe is the most incredible about the story of Scylla is that she barely knew the person. There might have been some physical attraction but above this there was no real love. This of course from a modern point of view, at the time this was written the parameters of love might have been different. We can also see that Scylla lacked love for herself, she sold her kingdom and herself to a man she didn’t know. After seeing this we can see that her punishment was what she deserved. In the case of Narcissus his love for himself took him to his own death. If you have as much ego as he had it is possible that you stop growing, stop seeing your flaws. Here is when you stop growing and stop being a better person. This could take part of our purpose here.

There is also another thing I noticed here. These stories are full of beautiful women and yet Narcissus was apparently the only one beautiful enough to match them. What is most shocking is that being the only man whose beauty outstands, this ends up killing him. Now is it because women were the only ones who deserved beauty according to the gods? Or could it be possible that this is written from a man’s point of view and therefore this is a subjective view of how things came to be this way. This is of course something to consider while reading this.

Finally the way see it doesn’t matter whether there is love or not, but there is always madness. In a certain way this is a constant. When Scylla gave herself to her father’s enemy she didn’t think of anyone but herself and only justified her actions with things she thought would be good for everyone. She did also not love herself for she didn’t think if that was the best for her of if he was really worth it. In all these three stories love or lack of love are taken to the extreme, yet this isn’t the way it really is. (Most of the times) We as humans need love but the way that is shown in these stories it’s just not rational. We must love enough so that its flame will warm us but not passionately enough for it to consume us.