Today marks the end of my first reading through The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. Despite having read it from cover to cover as slowly and deeply as I'm capable, I wasn't left with a great feeling of understanding at the end. Instead, I have a hundred new ideas floating around in my head with a tangled mess of webs connecting them.
At the end of the day, I know more about the characters of Zeus, Hera, Io, Europa, Cadmus, Harmony, Odysseus, and Helen, but it also illustrated how little of the whole picture I have. As humans, we often try to compartmentalize things in our mind. We are presented with problems, and we try to find the solution. However, myth doesn't fit into the nice compartments we construct. It's an enigma. The questions myths answer are mysterious and as Calasso says "...the answer to an enigma is likewise mysterious." (343)
What I have come to understand is that there isn't one true version of a myth. They're all true, even when they directly contradict one another. Whether or not Penelope was faithful to Odysseus in his absence, or if she slept with all of her suitors and gave birth to Pan, is not of great importance. Both stories tell us something important about human nature. In my own life, I've seen both sides of the story play out for young men who leave a wife at home when they go to war. Both stories ring true. For myth to be the precedent behind every action, it must enumerate every action.
Calasso is a rough initiation into classical mythology, but I'm overall satisfied with the reading experience. It took me out of my comfort zone and exposed me to a side of Greek mythology that I had yet to see. I hope to reread it very soon with a fresh perspective after finishing Metamorphoses and The Odyssey.
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