Monia (why there are different sexualities)
Monia longed for a lover all her life. She spent the better half of her youth praying to Aphrodite, but Aphrodite never answered. Due to this, Monia prayed and prayed, neglected her duties as a person of society, and her neighbours believed her to be a lazy and delusional woman.
During her prayers, Monia would often slander other gods and goddesses, claiming that Aphrodite was the only one that could give her the perfect partner. Her slandering eventually included Hera. Under other circumstances, Hera would not have cared, however, Monia stated that Hera could never measure up to Aphrodite because of her failed marriage. Hera took offence to this, especially from a lazy mortal.
Monia believed that Aphrodite would not answer her prayers because she was just a mortal woman, and she had nothing to catch Aphrodite’s eye. In her despair, Monia decided to gain Aphrodite’s affections, she would be the one to bring back Aphrodite’s lover, Adonis. No mortal could do it, not even the goddess herself, but Monia’s misery painted a delusional picture in her head, and she set off for Adonis.
She was unsuccessful, seeing as she was ill-prepared, inexperienced, and was neither clever nor resourceful. Her days spent weeping in Aphrodite’s temples did her no justice, as she was unable to journey far before her body gave out. Not even a day passed after she left when she had to turn back due to her poor physical conditions.
Years later, Eros visited Monia as an order from Aphrodite. Aphrodite believed that Monia would be a better person, but after many years of no change, Aphrodite wanted Eros to get rid of Monia by cursing her to fall for an inanimate object, putting a stop to her uselessness. When Monia saw Eros, she thought her prayers would finally be answered, and that a love arrow would strike her and someone else.
Eros laughed at Monia, asking her why she thought she deserved a lover after defaming other divinity. He questioned why Monia was so lazy and delusional. Hera, who had been waiting for her revenge, decided to inflict her madness onto Monia at that exact moment, believing that it would further rub salt into the wound that Eros had made.
It backfired. Monia’s desperation, the influence of Hera’s madness, caused her to rip Eros’s bow and arrows. She fired haphazardly into the sky. Eros tried to stop her, however, it was risky and too difficult to come out unscathed.
The arrows flew, striking whomever it pleased, whenever it pleased. People fell in love with whoever they wanted to, regardless of their gender. New romantic love blossomed between friendships, allies, neighbours, enemies, and more. Eros, greatly inconvenienced by Monia’s actions, cursed her to be alone forever, while Hera’s madness persisted. He meant to clean up Monia’s mess, but after realizing how much more she would suffer seeing the love that could never be hers, he allowed it to fester and grow.
Analysis
The story is an explanation as to why there are many different sexualities in the world. It introduces a new character that invokes the wrath of Hera, Aphrodite, and Eros by being so desperate for a lover that she is willing to neglect her duties as a person of society. However, this myth also acts as a warning to those who believe they are entitled to something without putting in any effort or work to obtain what they want. I chose not to follow any preexisting plots from Greek myth, but take elements—such as goddess personalities, powers, relations, and more—to create this story.
Firstly, I chose to use Aphrodite, Hera, and Eros as the gods that are involved in the conflict because of their divine powers. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was a large part of the story. Aphrodite was portrayed as a colder and harsher divine being, one capable of deceit and humiliation of others. I coupled this element with a new one, giving her a little bit of kindness, as in the last paragraph I mentioned that she was waiting for Monia to become a better person before she gave her a partner. This is because as the goddess of love, I believe there is always a softer side, one that is worth mentioning, instead of all the hardships that are associated with romantic love. This is also due to Monia’s kind words towards Aphrodite over the years that caused Aphrodite to put off Monia’s punishment and endure her whining. However, for most of the story, I gave Aphrodite the silent and cold portrayal, with the intention of cursing Monia eventually. This element was taken directly from the story of the Lemnian women, making them stink and causing their husbands to leave (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 114). Since most of the stories of Aphrodite’s wrath include falling in love with the wrong things or turning into animals, I decided to combine the two elements and plan that Aphrodite wanted Eros to make Monia fall in love with an inanimate object.
Lastly, I mentioned Hera to tie her into the story of inflicting madness. Hera is the queen of gods, the goddess of marriage, and the goddess of women. It would have made sense if Monia prayed to Hera as well, showering her with the same affections that she did with Aphrodite. However, Monia did not, instead, she slandered Hera’s name, which leads Hera to drive her mad. The feelings of anger and a bruised ego are very much anthropomorphism, and it is another element of the myth that I decided to incorporate into the story. One instance of may that is familiar is how in Herakle’s story, Hera also curses him with madness, driving him to kill his children (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 72). However, this is still drastically different from this particular story as the two mortals that Hera cursed are almost total opposites of each other. This was intended, as I wanted to show that Hera would not hesitate to smite whoever she wanted just because they got on her bad side. This new element allowed me to further develop the story, as it would be too irrational for Monia to just wrestle the bow and arrows out of Eros’s hands. The other reason why I did not have Hera curse Monia right away was because of the uncaring attitude to a mere mortal slandering her. And even after being offended the first time, I believe Hera would be wise enough to withhold her anger for a better time to inflict optimal amounts of damage, and what better time than right after Eros breaks Monia’s heart (oh the irony!).
As for Eros, I believed that he would be the one to carry out Aphrodite’s wishes, as he made an appearance in Aphrodite’s birth story (Hesiod, Theogony 176), where he accompanied Aphrodite. Eros was important in the storyline as a crutch for Aphrodite, as I could not see how Aphrodite would want to curse Monia herself, seeing as how Monia has put her on a pedestal her entire life. Again as Eros is Aphrodite’s companion, he would have little trouble in assisting her, and I do not believe he is afraid of inflicting harm on others. This element of his indifference to harm is inspired by the lines “... the winged god rules ruthlessly throughout the earth and inflames Zeus himself…” (Seneca, Tragedies 186), where it can be seen that Eros cares very little, and is actually fairly chaotic. To further add fuel to why Eros would be so willing to hurt Monia, it’s subtly implied that Monia had also slandered him during his prayers to Aphrodite. It is known that gods and goddesses take out their rage on mortals when they feel wronged, so I believe this would be justified in Ero’s mind. Also, obviously, Eros’ bow and arrows play a very large part in the consequences of the story, as they are the reason why there are many different sexualities in the world. Although this was the end goal, I feel that the build-up to the story was equally as important, as it shows off the second theme of the story regarding how Greek people should have lived.
With that, the story also has an underlying element of Hesiod’s Work and Days, as it tells the person how they should live and how they should work. The lines “...If you want to garner Demeter’s bounty, in season, and have each crop grow when it's due…” (p. 441-442), “... But if you keep making a nuisance of yourself You won’t get a thing…” (p. 453-454) (Works and Days, p. 441-454). I used these specific elements to ensure that Monia would have no way of getting what she wanted, because she did not do as she was supposed to, instead she was that “nuisance” and in the end she did not get the “thing” she wanted. These lines mention what would happen if one was not responsible for their duties, and that is in essence what happened to Monia. The overall consequence of this story ends in Monia losing any chance of finding a lover. This is directly due to her laziness as seen in the story.
Works Cited:
Hesiod, Works and Days. Translated by Lamberton, Robert, Lombardo, Stanley, 1943, Hackett Pub. Co., 1993, Indianapolis. p. 443-455
Homer and Hesiod, Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica. Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 2020, USA.
Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library. Translated by Sir James George Frazerm, Loeb Classical Library Volumes 121 & 122, Harvard University Press, 1921, London
Seneca, Tragedies. Translated by Miller, Frank Justus, Loeb Classical Library Volumes, University Press, 1917, London