Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Daphne and Eternal Life

In typical fashion of a God, Apollo starts something with Cupid when he challenges his skills at archery. Proving his ability, he shoots Apollo first, making him fall deeply in love with the virgin woman Daphne. At the same time, he shoots Daphne with a lead arrow, making her fall out of love, making her hate Apollo. Desperate for his newfound woman, he chases after Daphne until she reaches the river of her father, Peneus. When she arrives there, she's transformed into a laurel tree. Apollo sees this and is not happy, he just wants to be with this girl. As a gift/curse, Apollo grants her the gift of eternal youth. Her tree will always stay young and keep its beautiful leaves. This is both cute and creepy.

The idea of said eternal youth is a real double edged sword for me. On the one hand I want to be young forever obviously, to keep my ability, my potential fully fleshed out. I would be free from the negative effects of aging. But, it's also a scary thought, to have limitless time. If
I had millenniums  ahead of me, that's a LONG time! Wouldn't you tire out regardless? Even if your biology doesn't wear out? Would you turn into a Edward Cullen-like person, cold, emotionless, desensitized to everything? That sounds terrible, but hey infinite life right?

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