The Curse of Apollo

In university anthropology classes religion is often described as an activity thought up by humans in order to frame certain social practices or perhaps to keep everyone from going crazy.

These classes tend to view the desires and intentions of dieties as extensions of human desires and intentions. I am relectant to believe everything has such a quick and easy explanation.

But let Freud have his say. He has a wealth of examples in the mythologies of the Greeks.

For example, the professor who taught my class on the Republic once noted that if an ancient Greek were to hear the message: "God loves you," He would take it as a warning or possibly a curse.

Greek love -which we may loosely refer to as that physical desire discussed in the Symposium, eros- is a very, very human love. Consider how the average man or woman would pursue someone if they had unrestrained power and you have a glimpse of the gods' eros.

In the Greek stories there were many who were "loved" by the gods, and one such person was that legendary prophetess, Cassandra.

Cassandra had the unfortunate fate of crossing into the eyes of Apollo. Apollo, the shining, favored son of Zeus loved Cassandra. Or perhaps we should say that -physically speaking- he loved Cassandra.

When Apollo learned that Cassandra did not share this same love for him he became angry. Indeed, what creature would fail to respond to the eros of a god?

So Apollo placed on Cassandra what was considered by the Greeks to be a tremendous curse. Cassandra was given the ability to foretell the future, but no one would ever believe her. In some versions of the Cassandra narrative the Trojans mistook her for a mad woman and locked up.

At this point some discussion on Greek culture would be well in order. To the Greeks a person's worth was largely in the eyes of their polis -or perhaps we could say the general public of their city-state.

Individuality was often considered a trait of the barbarians. For indeed the barbarians spoke a strange tongue ... to the Greeks it sounded like "Bar bar bar bar ..." And who would want to live with someone who could not communicate themselves to others?

Well, Cassandra certainly did not.

Cassandra's homeland, Illium, fell into the hands of the Achians. She was taken to Greece as the concubine of Agamemnon. It was revealed to Cassandra that his wife, Clytemnestra, would soon kill both Agamemnon as well as Cassandra.

Cassandra tried to warn Agamemnon, but her warnings fell upon deaf ears. Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon and then Cassandra.

Here we see that the height of Greek tragedy is to be misunderstood. No one can appreciate the misunderstood person except for that person alone and perhaps the gods (who are usually hard to find and quiet). A misunderstood person is an alien to his peers -an outsider without honor.

And how did this compare to the method of the God of Israel?

Like Apollo, Jehovah wanted those he favored to be set apart. He gave his people ten ways they were to be set apart, and he gave them the sign of circumcision. Why would someone want to obey the ten commandments? Why would they want to be circumcized?

The gentiles had difficulty understanding the Israelites.

When Israel turned against God, he sent prophets to them who were even more set apart. They had unusual practices: sometimes tearing the clothes off their backs, rebuking kings, one poured water on a dead bull and expected it to catch on fire, one went naked for a time, and another sat for an extended time in dung.

In Ezekiel's case he was told by God to preach to a people who would never understand him.

And they were told that 'to be loved by the world was hatred toward God'.

Then God sent Jesus. Jesus was a man who lived a different life. The public had mixed views of the itinerate carpenter's son. Eventually they coopted the Romans into having him put to death.

But Jesus was different from everything in the Greek mythology.

From the begininng of his ministry he taught the people saying:

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The word "blessed" is the Greek word "makarios" which can be translated as "happy". Jesus is saying the followers who were insulted, persecuted, and lied about because of the truth were truly the happy ones.

As for myself I have little difficulty believing the cult of Apollo had its origin in the human mind. But who could have conceived that to be insulted, persecuted, and falsely accused was a wonderful happiness? Someone with a very different view of the world.

The Greek gods often gave their followers spectacular misfortunes. One wonders if they would have been willing to live under the same curses they issued to the people.

Jesus, on the other hand, not only told the people they were blessed when they were insulted, persecuted, and falsely testified about -he lived out the blessing in his own life.

One of the greatest curses of Apollo's love was to be affected by the gods and misunderstood by the people. One of the greatest blessing of Christ's love is to be affected by God and misunderstood by the people.

What about you? Is there something different about you that God has done in your life? Do you consider it to be a blessing? Does it bring you happiness?