MAR 5, 2021: Mirthful Memes --- MYTHED OPPORTUNITIES [6]

original posting : (#1 -- March 5, 2021)
Aurora and Tithon
Cronus (Saturn)
Dryads
Eliyahu
Eos (Dawn's endless night)
Galatea

                                       Authors' Note:   Well, this is about as close as you can get to the bona fide Greek myth. In actuality, Eos became enamored of a series of mortal lovers, but wanted to get on with things, and eventually turned the formerly handsome Prince Tithon/Tithonus into a cicada (which does not match the rhyming scheme). Be careful what you wish for!

   The legend continued into Roman times, during which Aurora personified the role of Eos, and Jove or Jupiter the role of Zeus. Much later, the dilemma of the once-mortal hero was fantasized in the poem "Tithonus" by Alfred Tennyson. Also, the involved deities have been immortalized in human names for astrophysical phenomena.

  In any case, this story fits an immutable pattern in which we mortals get clobbered in interactions with Greco-Roman deities.

  Look further for a verse about Eos's astronomical protégé. 

Authors' Note: The nasty Greek deity Cronus, (sometimes transcribed as Kronos) has intermittently been conflated with the Father Time-like figure Chronos, but eventually merged with the more benign Roman god Saturn, for whom Saturday, the planet Saturn, and the harvest festival saturnalia are named.

In the harsh Greek version of the myth, the youth Cronus castrates his father, Uranus, at the urging of his peevish mother Gaia. Later, Cronus learns that he, too, is fated to be overturned by his own offspring, and devours them, except for Zeus, who escapes and eventually does overthrow him to become king of the gods.

Authors' Note: 

Eliyahu HaNavi -- ay-lee-YA-hoo ha-na-VEE-- (Elijah the Prophet) plays an important role in the traditional Passover Seder service. At the end of the multi-course dinner for family and friends, the fifth glass of wine is poured, but reserved for the prophet. The door of the home is then opened briefly, recitations from the Old Testament chanted, and the Prophet (who, some day, will announce the arrival of the Jewish Messiah) enters and may sip from the wineglass; children watch to see if the level in the glass really does go down. The distinguished visitor is not offered a dessert or any other food, and the door is not opened to let him out again, as I recall, but attention turns from the arrival of Eliyahu to the completion of the service, and finally the group singing of traditional songs.

  Note that Eliyahu may come by his reticence to use modern technology for good reason. Last week, Israel's chief rabbis decided that even in this plague-ridden year, video-conferencing is subject to the usual ban on the holiday use of electronics. 

Author's Note: The asteroid known by astronomers as 221 Eos is apparently a large orbiting body with a diameter of over 100 km. It has a potential, should it strike the Earth, to bring about an extinction similar to that produced 60 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaur population.

  Like most heavenly bodies, this one was named after a figure from Greco-Roman mythology, Eos (Aurora), the Goddess of Dawn; the irony is apparent. 

Authors' Note:   The ancient Greek myth about the Cypriot sculptor Pygmalion was recounted by the Roman poet Ovid in his epic work "Metamorphoses" in 8 CE. The name of Pygmalion's self-crafted ivory love-object was not recorded until French romanticists picked up the issue in the 19th century. In 1871, the British comic playwright W.S. Gilbert composed a modernized spoof in blank verse, "Pygmalion and Galatea", that became a successful hit, as did Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw's 1913 theatrical contribution, and its musical and cinematic adaptations (1956 and 1964 respectively) known as My Fair Lady.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume your review of the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until July 2025. 

As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. 

Most of the key elements, such as this one, are also assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.

The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres, also has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.