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| Pan and Psyche, Gustav Klim |
The girl was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen, sun shining through her golden hair. However, for the beauty that she possessed, the look of utter and complete despair was upon her lovely face. She emerged through the dense trees and threw herself into the the margin of the river, chest heaving with heavy sobs that echoed through the woods. I had never seen more pitiful of a sight so I called to her as kindly as I could.
She reeled back, alarmed at the presence of Echo and myself. It must have been a strange site for the woman, a mortal, in the presence of gods. I understood that there was something very wrong so I gazed at the girl, hoping to catch a glimpse of the sadness tormenting this beautiful creature. After watching the poor girl continue to sob into the river's edge, it came upon me that there must be an affliction of great extremes, an affliction that only love gone wrong can bring. I began to become increasingly more alarmed, as I realized that the girl was considering ending her own beautiful life.
In an effort to stop this madness, I called out to her in the most soothing of words I could muster, urging the beautiful girl to avoid death at all costs. I plead with her to end the pitiful sobbing and mourning for which I still did not know the real reason. With all the calming words I could find, I offered resolution by asking the girl to pray to Cupid, the greatest of the gods, in order to earn his favor.
The girl stared at me in wonder, not speaking a single word. However she offered great reverence to me as she simply walked away. I was bewildered at the strange behavior of this woman and looked back to Echo who was likewise confused. We sat for a moment discussing the strange encounter and decided to part ways, as there had been so much activity for one summer day.
Author's Note
This week, I decided to write the story from a different character in the story's point of view, something I haven't had the chance to do yet. In the story, we see the story of Psyche's despair from a outside, omniscient person's view. This storytelling option is great, as we can learn a lot about Psyche and her sadness of her husband leaving her. However, I thought telling the story from a different character in the story's point of view would be a cool way to learn more about the character's story.
In the original story, we see Psyche leaving her husbands house in a fit of sadness, as he had just fled from her. The god of the wild, Pan, found her at the edge of a river. We listen to the dialogue of Pan telling Psyche to pull herself together and stop mourning. I think this is a sort of "come to Jesus" talk and I really wanted the opportunity to tell it from Pan's point of view.
Bibliography Information
Story Title: Psyche's Despair
Book Title: Apuleius's Golden Ass
Year: 2013
Link to the original story: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/apuleius-psyches-despair.html
Kylie, I liked your retelling and I thought it allowed readers to view the story from a whole different side. As you said, in the original, readers understand why Psyche is sad, but Pan does not have this information. When he finds Psyche, all he knows is that she is beautiful and sad. From Pan's point of view, the most readers can do is make assumptions about why Psyche is the way she is, and I think that makes the retelling more interesting.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the way that you were able to retell this story! I think that you did a great job of keeping the original facts that were necessary to keep the story original but then you were also able to bring in a few new and different elements that allowed you to make it your own! Overall great job!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't familiar with this story, but you’re retelling of allowed me to grasp much of the plot while still doing something new at the same time. You do a good job portraying Pan’s confusion, which mirrors the audience’s own confusion if they are not familiar with the story. It’s a good story for getting people to go read the original, as it plants the question in the reader’s mind regarding what made the comely woman become so sad.
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