The Paths of Love and Death
The heart beats faster and faster, while the breath in you lungs gets weaker and weaker. The world around you fades away, yet the focus of your gaze sharpens. You feel shy and giddy, powerful and invincible, all at once. There is no better feeling in the world as your mind shoots itself from one thought to the next. Are you living or are you dead? All that you know is that your entire life has changed in a single moment and from that time on nothing will ever be the same again. Falling in love is beyond compare. Poets and singers have been talking of love for ages and still have not succeeded in describing it in all of its disguises. Love is one of the most abundant emotions on earth and it is also one of the most mysterious for one cannot understand love until one has felt it. It is an experience that changes lives, opens doors, people begin life anew. Oddly enough, love has much in common with something that many would place at the opposite end of the spectrum: death. The ending that many view this as is a lie for death is a beginning. It forces people to walk a new course, one that is entirely unknown. The paths that love and death open to people can only be walked by those that have known love and that have known death. Love and death are intertwined affairs that exist in the past, present and future. Stories told about Hades, Antigone, Pygmalion and others today in the modern world continually link the two together. From obsession to suicide to eternity, this relationship echoes through the centuries.
Hades, the god of the Underworld, death itself, begins this bizarre liaison between love and death, for he was not immune to love. Persephone, the trim-ankled daughter of Demeter, was who he demanded for his bride. He stole her from amongst the flowers and while she rejected his overtures, he would not yield (Homeric Hymns, 3). His love for her was obsessive and controlling, perhaps not the most noble kind of love, yet it was a love all the same. One often feels the most sympathy for Persephone after a telling of this tale, but perhaps it is Hades who should be the object of our pity. He is the one who must live with the dead forever, always shut off from the warm breath of the living. He is the one who had to yield to Demeter and give his wife up for the better part of the year. Hades, who only wanted the girl as his wife, still ends up alone. Death gives love, yet death is not given it back. A sad, twisted beginning to this bond of love and death is what is learned here.
Antigone appears next on the list of events for love and death to make an appearance at. While her strong stance about her beliefs it what is at the center of this story, the suicide of her betrothed is what is really interesting. Creon comes upon his son “tumbled around her, hugging her waist, grieving for his marriage lost, gone under” (Sophocles, 53). The boy is so overcome by the unbearable agony of living without his love that he first tried to kill his father and, when failing at that, “took his blade and leaned on it, drove it half through his lungs” (Sophocles, 53). He kills himself so that, in death, he may be with the lady he loves. Haemon is unable to allow death to separate Anigone and himself, so he uses death to bring them together, forever. This is no silly, puppy dog crush that is quickly gotten over. The love envisioned in this world is strong and vital and will not be conquered by death. Death, in fact, becomes the tool that is used to prove the power of that love. It is a different tie that binds love and death in this story, yet they are still presented together.
Ovid pushes the two apart even more in his story of Pygmalion. Death and love are each shown at one end of the story and the relationship between them may easily be overlooked. The murder of the guests of the Cerastae led to Venus cursing the men and the women, who became ugly and hard and sharp (Ovid, 133-4). The sculptor, Pygmalion, could not bear to look upon these women and placed himself into seclusion (Ovid, 134). Yet, he was haunted by female beauty and when he created a woman out of ivory, he fell instantly in love with her (Ovid, 135). Venus even consented to bring the statue to life and the woman loved Pygmalion as he loved her (Ovid, 138). Strange as it may sound, none of that love would have occurred if the Cerastae had not killed their guests. If death had not stamped its mark on the ground, the woman would not have turned ugly, the sculptor would not have isolated himself from the world, he would not have been compelled to make a statue, he would not have seen the perfection of the woman, he would not have fallen in love with her and Venus would have had no reason to bring a statue to life. Death led to love in this story. Without it, the love that is so essential at the end would not have had a chance to form. Ovid told a tale using Pygmalion, which exhibits how strong the bond can be between love and death. Even when it is not obvious, the two cannot be without each other.
Love and death are as intimately entwined in today’s modern world as they were back when Hades was plucking unsuspecting girls from flower patches. If one were to listen to any traditional marriage vows, the phrase “until death do us part” immediately jumps out. The joining together of two people in love is marked by the mention of death. Entertainment has romanticized the idea that death cannot separate two people in love. Unlike Antigone and Haemon, however, these days the one who has died miraculously manages to come back to life or come back as a ghost or possess someone else’s body, in order for the lovers to be together again. The movie Ghost comes to mind when considering these ideas and many others do as well. The notion of love and death has not vanished from the minds of modern people. The relationship between the two has become idealized and mostly tucked away out of sight, for love is good and death is bad and never the twain shall meet, yet they come together all of the time. This modern world has not completely forgotten about this bond and it will not soon vanish from the world of the future.
Death and love, they are the two things in this world that so many people will experience and yet be unable to fully explain. Love can be joyous, difficult and gut-wrenching. Death can be the exact same way. They are similar in numerous ways. How many of us, though, would be willing to place them side by side, together, working as a team? It seems distasteful and slightly uncomfortable, for what do love and death really have to do with one another? The ancients understood that even Death, himself, needs love. They understood that love should not be separated by death and that it can bring love together again. They understood that death could lead to love and it is a sure thing that love can lead to death. Even modern, free-thinkers have placed love and death with one another. It is inevitable that they should have a strong bond between them. They are each doorways on to mysterious paths of life that only those who have experienced them can move down. One can be unsure what will happen after they fall in love and one can be unsure of what will happen after they die, but what one can be sure of is the fact that their love and their death will, together, change their life forever. There will never be a love without death and a death without love.
The heart beats faster and faster, while the breath in you lungs gets weaker and weaker. The world around you fades away, yet the focus of your gaze sharpens. You feel shy and giddy, powerful and invincible, all at once. There is no better feeling in the world as your mind shoots itself from one thought to the next. Are you living or are you dead? All that you know is that your entire life has changed in a single moment and from that time on nothing will ever be the same again. Falling in love is beyond compare. Poets and singers have been talking of love for ages and still have not succeeded in describing it in all of its disguises. Love is one of the most abundant emotions on earth and it is also one of the most mysterious for one cannot understand love until one has felt it. It is an experience that changes lives, opens doors, people begin life anew. Oddly enough, love has much in common with something that many would place at the opposite end of the spectrum: death. The ending that many view this as is a lie for death is a beginning. It forces people to walk a new course, one that is entirely unknown. The paths that love and death open to people can only be walked by those that have known love and that have known death. Love and death are intertwined affairs that exist in the past, present and future. Stories told about Hades, Antigone, Pygmalion and others today in the modern world continually link the two together. From obsession to suicide to eternity, this relationship echoes through the centuries.
Hades, the god of the Underworld, death itself, begins this bizarre liaison between love and death, for he was not immune to love. Persephone, the trim-ankled daughter of Demeter, was who he demanded for his bride. He stole her from amongst the flowers and while she rejected his overtures, he would not yield (Homeric Hymns, 3). His love for her was obsessive and controlling, perhaps not the most noble kind of love, yet it was a love all the same. One often feels the most sympathy for Persephone after a telling of this tale, but perhaps it is Hades who should be the object of our pity. He is the one who must live with the dead forever, always shut off from the warm breath of the living. He is the one who had to yield to Demeter and give his wife up for the better part of the year. Hades, who only wanted the girl as his wife, still ends up alone. Death gives love, yet death is not given it back. A sad, twisted beginning to this bond of love and death is what is learned here.
Antigone appears next on the list of events for love and death to make an appearance at. While her strong stance about her beliefs it what is at the center of this story, the suicide of her betrothed is what is really interesting. Creon comes upon his son “tumbled around her, hugging her waist, grieving for his marriage lost, gone under” (Sophocles, 53). The boy is so overcome by the unbearable agony of living without his love that he first tried to kill his father and, when failing at that, “took his blade and leaned on it, drove it half through his lungs” (Sophocles, 53). He kills himself so that, in death, he may be with the lady he loves. Haemon is unable to allow death to separate Anigone and himself, so he uses death to bring them together, forever. This is no silly, puppy dog crush that is quickly gotten over. The love envisioned in this world is strong and vital and will not be conquered by death. Death, in fact, becomes the tool that is used to prove the power of that love. It is a different tie that binds love and death in this story, yet they are still presented together.
Ovid pushes the two apart even more in his story of Pygmalion. Death and love are each shown at one end of the story and the relationship between them may easily be overlooked. The murder of the guests of the Cerastae led to Venus cursing the men and the women, who became ugly and hard and sharp (Ovid, 133-4). The sculptor, Pygmalion, could not bear to look upon these women and placed himself into seclusion (Ovid, 134). Yet, he was haunted by female beauty and when he created a woman out of ivory, he fell instantly in love with her (Ovid, 135). Venus even consented to bring the statue to life and the woman loved Pygmalion as he loved her (Ovid, 138). Strange as it may sound, none of that love would have occurred if the Cerastae had not killed their guests. If death had not stamped its mark on the ground, the woman would not have turned ugly, the sculptor would not have isolated himself from the world, he would not have been compelled to make a statue, he would not have seen the perfection of the woman, he would not have fallen in love with her and Venus would have had no reason to bring a statue to life. Death led to love in this story. Without it, the love that is so essential at the end would not have had a chance to form. Ovid told a tale using Pygmalion, which exhibits how strong the bond can be between love and death. Even when it is not obvious, the two cannot be without each other.
Love and death are as intimately entwined in today’s modern world as they were back when Hades was plucking unsuspecting girls from flower patches. If one were to listen to any traditional marriage vows, the phrase “until death do us part” immediately jumps out. The joining together of two people in love is marked by the mention of death. Entertainment has romanticized the idea that death cannot separate two people in love. Unlike Antigone and Haemon, however, these days the one who has died miraculously manages to come back to life or come back as a ghost or possess someone else’s body, in order for the lovers to be together again. The movie Ghost comes to mind when considering these ideas and many others do as well. The notion of love and death has not vanished from the minds of modern people. The relationship between the two has become idealized and mostly tucked away out of sight, for love is good and death is bad and never the twain shall meet, yet they come together all of the time. This modern world has not completely forgotten about this bond and it will not soon vanish from the world of the future.
Death and love, they are the two things in this world that so many people will experience and yet be unable to fully explain. Love can be joyous, difficult and gut-wrenching. Death can be the exact same way. They are similar in numerous ways. How many of us, though, would be willing to place them side by side, together, working as a team? It seems distasteful and slightly uncomfortable, for what do love and death really have to do with one another? The ancients understood that even Death, himself, needs love. They understood that love should not be separated by death and that it can bring love together again. They understood that death could lead to love and it is a sure thing that love can lead to death. Even modern, free-thinkers have placed love and death with one another. It is inevitable that they should have a strong bond between them. They are each doorways on to mysterious paths of life that only those who have experienced them can move down. One can be unsure what will happen after they fall in love and one can be unsure of what will happen after they die, but what one can be sure of is the fact that their love and their death will, together, change their life forever. There will never be a love without death and a death without love.
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