Apollo was an archer who was so arrogant that one day he challenged Eros, the Greek God of Love. Eros didn't like this, so he shot two arrows, one plated in gold, and the other in lead. The gold arrow worked as sort of a love potion, filling whoever it hit with lust, while the lead one made its target loath romance of any kind. Apollo was the eventual victim of the gold arrow, while Daphne, the river God Peneus' daughter was hit with the lead one. Apollo, feeling frisky, began to pursue Daphne, but she of course rejected his efforts. She called out to her father for help, so he turned her into a Laurel tree, a pretty backwards way to save someone, if you ask me. Apollo was so thirsty that he still lusted after the tree, so he made a wreath from its leaves, and wore it round his neck for the rest of his life. He also blessed this wreath with eternal life, so its leaves would never wither.
Eternal youth would be terrible. Being young is pretty cool, don't get me wrong, being a spry and energetic, but I wouldn't want to miss out on being old either. You just get to sit around and watch Matlock without anybody judging you, and call people rugrats or whipper-snappers completely non-ironically. I would hate to not experience any period of life, so for that reason, eternal youth isn't appealing to me even in theory. Just look at the Golden Girls, that would've been a pretty weak show with a bunch of young women. If we all had the option of eternal youth, there would be no Golden Girls, put that in your pipe and smoke it.
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