Rhodopis

I chose to do a deeper reading of page 270 and the section I'd like to expand upon carries into page 271. I found on page 270 was the very confused history of a courtesan named Rhodopis. The story that is most commonly told about Rhodopis is that of greek slave girl who is being held by an Egyptian master.

"One day Rhodopis was out bathing. An eagle snatched one of her sandals from a maid's hands. The bird flew to Memphis, where it dropped the sandal from high in the air onto the Pharaoh's lap as he was judging people's disputes out in the open. The Pharaoh saw that it was a beautiful sandal. He sent men all over Egypt to look for the woman it belonged to. They finally found her, in Naucratis. She became the Pharaoh's wife. On her death, the pyramid was built in her honor." (The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, pg. 270-271)

This story was recorded by a greek historian named Strabo and, as you most likely noticed, it is reminiscent of a story you're more familiar with, Cinderella. This isn't the only account of the girls life though.

The other story involves a young Greek man by the name of Charaxus. He came from the island of Lesbos with a shipment of wine to make his fortune. What he found instead was the most beautiful courtesan he'd ever seen and his fortune began to disappear. The account survived through the writings of Sappho who pleaded with her brother Charaxus to return home before that foul strumpet spent every last scrap of his wealth. According to Calasso, "Herodotus was shocked when it was suggested that the Micerine pyramid had been built for Rhodopis. How could a buliding "that had cost countless thousands of talents" belong to a hetaera?"

A fact that both stories agree upon is that, while in slavery, Rhodopis made friends with another slave by the name of Aesop. The life of Aesop is left widely up to speculation as well, but there's no doubt that he was a great story teller. Was Rhodopis' fairy tale ending some how related to her fable weaving friend? It's hard to say, but the story caught on and the Micerine pyramid is sometimes referred to as the Courtesan's pyramid.

Rangi and Papa

Ranginui and Papatuanuku are the sky father and earth mother in the Maori mythology. The Maori people are the indigenous Polynesian people that inhabit what is now New Zealand. The story starts with Rangi and Papa who exist locked in an eternal embrace. In the cramped space between them, they give birth to a pile of children.

Their children live in this claustrophobia inducing darkness for far too long. Tumatauenga, the father of mankind and the god of war, is the fiercest of his brothers and longs to be experience light and day time. He suggests to his siblings that they slay their parents to be rid of the eternal night. Tane, father of the forests talks him down from violence and suggests instead that they push their parents apart.

Rongo, Tangoroa, and Haumia-tiketike work in combined efforts to push their parents apart but fail miserably. It falls back to clever Tane to once again rush in and save the day. After several attempts, Tane decided to try pushing up with his strong legs rather than his hands. With a mighty heave, he tosses Rangi into the heavens.

Everyone is overjoyed with this development, with the exception of Tawhirimatea, the god of storms. He is furious with his brothers for breaking up their parents. The children planned to stay with their mother, Papa, for nourishment, but Tawhiri follows Rangi into the heavens. And now, he sends his diabolical children the winds, rains, and storms to torment his brothers and their children until the end of time.

Order Amongst Chaos

The axis mundi represents more than just the physical center of the world in most religions. It is also the cultural center and exists near to the culture that perceives it. The further you travel from the axis mundi, the more chaotic the world grows. This idea is tied to divinity in most, if not all cases, as it is usually a divine being who brings order to the primordial chaos of the universe. The chaos is either ordered by an intelligent being or the chaos gives birth to new gods which impose order, but it stands to reason that the place closest to the divine is where you'd find the most order.

What represents the axis mundi varies quite a bit from place to place. In most cases, the object is something large, such as a mountain, column, or tree that stretches far up into the sky. However, Leonardo DaVinci also saw his Vitruvian Man drawing as a microcosm of the universe, with man's navel as the center of everything. It's a little solipsistic for my taste, but to each their own. I happen to know that the center of the world is Yggdrasil, because I've carried it on my back, Atlus style.

But How Did it All Begin?

A simple enough question, but that is rarely indicative of the answer's simplicity. The problem lies entirely on the silly little word "all". What is all? It's beyond our scope as humans for sure and it makes answering the question impossible. How can we answer for everything when we are not even aware of what everything is?

In the story of Zeus and Europa it's made clear that their story doesn't begin with the event currently being presented. It goes back to Zeus and Io who started the circle of abductions in the family line, but it goes further back than that. Without the coupling of Zeus and Hera, there would have been no abduction. Without the coupling of Kronos and Rhea, there would be no Zeus and Hera. Without the coupling of Ouranos and Gaia, there would be no Kronos and Rhea. It's at this point where the classical mythology runs into the same problem that all mythologies present. Where did Ouranos and Gaia come from?

Like a parent trying to answer their child's barrage of "why"s, there is a point where our knowledge and understanding fail. What was the universe like before the Big Bang? Where did Ouranos, Gaia, Apsu, Tiamat, Rangi, Papa, Vishnu, or Yahweh come from? Fortunately, a good story doesn't have to account for everything. A good story starts where the intrigue does. If myth is the precedent behind every action, then it only needs to encompass the actions that effect our lives. For Europa, the story begins with Io because that is where the abductions begin and that is the defining event of Europa's life.