Hi, everyone! It’s Friday- Venus day!
My new electronic project with Wrath, Mnemosine, has just released its first single, Hard on Me. Yay! 🎉
I was in a very gloomy state of mind when this song was written, though.
Have you ever felt like no matter what you did, or how hard you tried, you always found yourself back at square one? Like a higher (or rather, a sadistic and cruel) being was messing with you for kicks and giggles?
Everyone will eventually get to a point in their lives where they feel like they’ve been abandoned by the gods. The terminology may vary: some call it a Saturn Return, others call it a Dark Night of the Soul… some might even call it a stroke of bad luck.
The fact is, existential despair is a universal human experience; and as such, several instances of it can be found in mythology.
If you prefer the Jungian approach to Greek mythology, then you probably see the gods as representations of different aspects of Nature (that includes human nature). Mythological narratives are viewed as blueprints of the human voyage throughout life and/or the process of individuation.
If you’re into tarot, then you may visualize the phases of that quest reflected not only in ancient stories, but in the Fool’s journey which is contained in the 22 blades of the major arcana.
In that sense, myths, like the archetypal images from the tarot, can serve as a map of the Soul— or Psyche, as Jung liked to call her (more on her later!)
Suffering enters the narrative when humans go against nature, either by negating certain aspects of themselves (thus creating shadow), or behaving in ways that violate its laws.
When someone acts like they are above Nature, they are in denial of their own humanity, equating themselves to the gods. Another name for this is hubris, which translates to excessive pride or arrogance.
That is when tragedy ensues. Just look at what happens in The Bacchae after king Pentheus chooses to deny Dionysus, the personified aspect of Nature known as madness or intoxication. The idea here is that when people act from hubris, the gods (or the Unconscious) will punish them accordingly.
Even though Pentheus (much like Orpheus) was torn apart by the bacchantes and turned into a human thyrsus*, at least he died.
Icarus, another prominent example of hubris, also met a tragic, but quick end. With his glued-on wings, he flew too close to the sun, and the glue melted. His father Daedalus had warned him, but Icarus wouldn’t listen, so he plummeted to his death: the end.
However, in Greek mythology there are fates far worse than death. Constant existential despair by means of repetitive, excruciating, and/or fruitless situations is one of them.
So in commemoration of Mnemosine’s first single, here’s my
Top 5 Poor Wretches Who Were Punished by the Greek Gods, in order of how badly it must have sucked to be in their sandals:
5th place: Atlas
The Titans were primordial deities that used to rule the earth before the Olympian gods won the war, establishing a new regime.
Atlas was a Titan god who defied the new ruler, Zeus. For that he was condemned to spend Eternity supporting the firmament on his shoulders. He gets fifth place because he wasn’t really human, and he did catch a break from his task by convincing Hercules to hold the sky for him “just for a little bit”.
4th place: Cassandra
Cassandra was a Trojan princess and priestess of the god Apollo, from whom she received the gift of foresight. Cassandra denied Apollo when he sought to win her affection, so she was cursed by the god to spend her life making accurate predictions only to be met with ridicule and disbelief. She gets fourth place because she did eventually die, breaking free from Apollo’s curse at last.
3rd place: Prometheus
This one is well known. Prometheus, the inventor of the human race, was proficient in angering Zeus. The king of the gods had confiscated the gift of fire from Humanity as punishment for some knavery Prometheus had been up to. To add insult to injury, Prometheus then stole the fire back from the gods and re-gifted it to humans.
He ended up chained to a boulder, to be visited daily by an eagle that would feast on his liver. It’s nightmarish to say the least, but he gets 3rd place because after centuries of punishment, he was finally freed by Herakles/Hercules, who shot the arrow that killed the eagle, putting an end to Prometheus’s torment. He was also technically not human.
2nd place: The Danaïdes
The Danaïdes were the daughters of king Danus of Lybia. All but one of them (there were FIFTY Danaïdes) murdered their husbands on their wedding night. For their crimes, they were doomed to carry water to fill a pithos (a large container used to store liquids or grain) for all Eternity, in order to wash themselves clean of the miasma (spiritual pollution) caused by committing murder. The catch was that the pithos had several holes, so the water would constantly leak out, meaning they could never be cleansed. They get 2nd place because 1 - they’re probably still out there carrying water, and 2 - this sort of reminds me of household chores and I’m particularly tired from cleaning all day. I never promised consistent criteria for rating these stories.
1st place: Sisyphus
Sisyphus was a king of Corinth and overall a horrible person. He had no regard for the laws of xenia (hospitality), and killed his guests just because he could. He also cheated death itself twice, and was super smug about it.
He rolls a boulder up a hill just to see the boulder roll back down. Forever. That’s what the gods thought he deserved, and I don’t exactly disagree.
According to Albert Camus, the absurdity of Sisyphus’s existence is comparable to that of all humans, and the only real question is: once we’ve learned that, do we choose to go on living? Do we accept, and even ‘own’ the absurdity of it all and just… roll with it?
Anyways, I’m not one for toxic positivity, so I’ll just be honest. Last year I was really going through it. Life felt like all of the punishments listed above plus a few others sprinkled in for good measure. I wasn’t exactly sure how I’d brought this upon myself, but I suspected I must have done something. It was crucial that I alchemize the suffering if I were to have any chance of surviving it.
I was hanging out with Wrath one evening after work, feeling particularly fed up with everything. He got his laptop and started to jam. I asked him to make something saturnine. The beat he made sounded kinda dark, and I loved that. Words came flowing out of me and they tasted like bitter, but blessed, balm.
That was how Mnemosine was born.
A year later, I’m feeling much better. But I know the wheel turns and the hard times are inescapable. Sometimes life is just bound to feel like the gods are so damn
Hard On Me
Pour into jars
ever empty
Rolling that boulder
up the hill
New liver
same eagles
Why are you so hard on me?
flew too close
Why are you so hard on me?
said the wrong words
Hold up the sky
to no end
True prophecies
on deaf ears
Why are you so hard on me?
flew too close
Why are you so hard on me?
said the wrong words
Cover art by the talented Trix! Brought to you by Paul Conneally of New Reality Records
What are your Top 5 punishments from mythology? 👀
Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed the song ♡♡♡
Have an amazing Venus day!
Love,
VA ♀
*thyrsus: a wooden staff covered in ivy, with a pine cone on top, a symbol of fertility belonging to Dionysus.
Images shown above:
4- Photo from the film “Tonneau des Danaïdes” by George Mélies (1900)
5- “Le tonneau des Danaïdes” by Charles François Prosper Guerin (French, 1875 - 1939)
I found this at a time of despair. Thank you for these words. Beautiful ✨💛🌞
this song is awesome!!! ahhhh!! i love it 🥺❤️ i love the vibe, the atmosphere and how artistic it is. you should release music on spotify. I'm going to sleep now but tomorrow I'm gonna listen to this way more!