Love is not Enough

The story of Alcyone and Ceyx is one of the most beautiful love stories ever written. What could be more romantic than going off to sea looking for adventure, while the woman who loves you is counting the days that pass after your departure. Even though this might be a great story, the characters' stupidity bothered me. Alcyone made two strikes in the story. First of all, he had the perfect woman for him. Alcyone loved him more than anything in the world. "if you die my life is over and I shall be cursed with every reluctant breath I draw." She's definitely a keeper. How can you abandon someone who cares about you so much to wander off to sail the seas.

Apart from leaving his loyal wife, she also warned him about the dangers in the sea. That's Ceyx strike two. "Once they've escaped my father's cave, those winds are wild and beyond anyone's control. As a girl I watched them come home exhausted and spent, and i learned to fear them them. Now I am petrified," Poseidon's own daughter just told him what would happen to him, and who would know better than his own daughter. Instead of heeding Alcyone's warnings, Ceyx departs on his journey, and just like Alcyone predicted, he dies in a storm.

Even though Ceyx made two strikes, Aphrodite then makes a home-run that wins the match, because Alcyone and Ceyx are transformed into birds, and live happily ever after. This is the transformation in the story, it is not only the physical transformation into birds, but Ceyx's transformation inside as well. Ceyx understands that he had everything he ever wanted, and didn't need adventures to find it. Alcyone was what Ceyx wanted, and his understanding transformed his life.

The other love story in Metamorphoses that amazed me was the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Unlike Ceyx, I felt pity for Orpheus. After he lost his wife because of a snake bite, he traveled to the underworld to recover his love. She was released under the condition that she would travel behind him, but he couldn't look back to check if she was really there. He did turned, and lost her forever. I found Orpheus to be a really interesting character, he was a daring musician, and he did his best to recover Eurydice. When he turned around and checked to see if Eurydice was there, he lost everything he had done. That stressed me out, I imagined he he must have felt, but I don't think I got close to a fraction of what he felt. So far, this story has been my favorite.