New day, new haiku!
This one is for Phaedra, a Cretan Princess and sister of Ariadnê.
Though I know of her, she is one woman of myth I do not like.
After her sister ran off with Theseus, Phaedra herself fell in love with his son, Hippolytus. When he rejected her, she decided to write a letter to Theseus, saying that he had violated her and Hippolytus was killed.
Now the matter of his death varies from myth to myth. In one variant, his father cursed him, using one of Poseidon's curses to do so - i.e. a sea creature dragged him to his watery death. In another variant, his own father ended his own life, and another said that Dionysus sent a bull to do the deed.
To make things worse, Phaedra was his STEP-MOTHER, the second wife to Theseus. *Lyn gaves herself a big facepalm*
Given all this, strangely, she was seen as a tragic character in mythology. Personally, I don’t understand why because I found her to be spiteful [and that honestly hasn’t changed when I read more on WHY she was so ‘tragic’].
In a small variant myth, Hippolytus rejected the Goddess of Love herself to stay faithful to Artemis, for his faith in her was unshakeable. [I still find that to be very admirable as hell.] As expected, Aphrodite was enraged by his ‘snub’ and to punish him, she cursed Phaedra to fall for him. So
I think what makes me dislike her is the whole ‘If I can’t have him, no one can’ attitude. Just because of his willingness to honour a goddess, to stay faithful to her, a woman [or women] sought to effectively destroy him for it! And what better way than with her words, right? Words may be light but they carry so much weight, this applies to us all. Everyone one regardless of gender.
They are the most powerful and dangerous thing in the world in my opinion. Ironically, the name Phaedra is derived from the word ‘phaidros’, meaning "bright" and well, I don’t see much that is bright about her because shes not being painted in a good light. [Pun intended!]
There is a variant myth of Theseus taking Hippolytus’ life after reading Phaedra’s letter and in her grief, she took her own as that is not what she wanted.
I suppose what makes me dislike her is how situations like this happen in day to day life, which is not only sad but also really scary too. Even with the myth of her doing what she did because she was cursed by Aphrodite, to me that is no justification. Words are like actions, they all have consequences. I know we are all human and all, but the lesson I took from this is to mind what I said because it may come back to haunt me. At some point in our lives, we have all said something that we regret. But we live and learn and grow. Especially in this day and age now.
Anyway, thank you all for growing followers, I'm forever humbled and grateful for the support 🙏🌹💜
Here's the link for the growing collection:
https://hellopoetry.com/collection/132853/the-women-of-myth/Be back tomorrow with another one!
Much love,
Lyn 💜