Myth
For a time, mortals did not share immortals’ ability to love - their love was entirely platonic. Sometimes they coupled, formed companionships, and sired offspring, but such acts were done to further family lines or build alliances, or simply for pleasure. They were beings of dust and clay, fashioned by clever Prometheus to be brought to life by the breath of Gray-eyed Athena; of all the graces that elevated them above other animals, the love that Golden Aphrodite and Eros of the gilded arrow hold dominion over was not one given unto them.
It was then that the hero Orpheus, famed for his musical talent, would be born to the Muse Calliope and Oeagrus, king of Thrace. Apollo, lord of the lyre, had given Orpheus his first, and trained him in its use. He favored Orpheus, who could wield all the world’s melodies that belonged to him with such prowess, who impressed even Apollo himself with the grace with which his hands would strike the strings of his lyre, the beauty of the notes that rippled forth, how the wind and stone seemed to ring in harmony with them. Although his flesh was mortal, Orpheus’ divinity was greater than most other demigods’, nurtured in the time he spent in Apollo’s own rich divinity, and so the love of immortals was in him.
When Jason set sail from Iolcos to Colchis in hopes of fetching the golden fleece and claiming his rightful throne, Orpheus was recruited as one of his companions, as well as Calais, a son of Boreas. Through their daring deeds that would later inspire bards and poets, Orpheus, in spite of himself, began to care for Calais. Passions rose in him quick as the tide and winds that carried them on, deep as the sea that they shared beneath them. Calais was not indifferent to him; they were close, and often shared nights in each other’s pleasure and company. But there was a tension, a stiffness; Calais saw Orpheus as no more than a friend, and that was all that was possible, as is the nature of mortals. Orpheus longed for Calais to feel the height of his passions, to know that he shared the depth of his love.
Overcome with heartache for the son of Boreas, he would sing of his desires and sorrows in the groves and clearings of his woods, sitting on a branch with his lyre propped on his lap to play. His clear voice would sound through the air in tune with the rich, silvery notes that sprang from his lyre; birds would cease their singing, the air itself seemed to hold still to listen to the sweet sound.
One evening, Orpheus’ anguish washed over him at once, threatening to drown him, and he let it flow from him in song, his graceful hands drawing bittersweet notes from his lyre that rang through the air. The streams seemed to slow to listen, tree branches leaned closer to hear. He sang of his despair, of his bitterness at this cold, unrelenting nature of mortals that would be the end of him; of how his heartache took every last drop from him, in tears that flowed unending on his cheeks. His grief resonated through the air, a shivering sorrow and despair that felt like the end of all days. Trees wept, choking sounds of mourning escaped the birds. His lament carried unto the heavens, where even the golden gods on Olympus wept in despair at its black hopelessness.
They beseeched Aphrodite, lady of love; Orpheus had made no prayer, but by the gods, was there truly nothing she could do to ease his anguish, lest they all be drowned in it? The answer was yes, she could; it was within her power to put love in mortals, and spare Orpheus his heartbreak. But the goddess of love was a vain one, and a vengeful one. Orpheus’ mother, the Muse Calliope, had been appointed by Zeus as judge in the matter of Aphrodite and Persephone’s shared lover, Adonis, and had ruled that each goddess would have him for half the year. The goddess was enraged; all the world’s love was her dominion, every passion and desire belonged to her, and she would be denied her own? So she stirred her divinity and granted the son of Calliope his wish - that mortals, and his love Calais, would love as immortals did - and the goddess set for them preferences in their passions. And, in her anger, she swayed Calais’ affections from Orpheus, putting in him an insatiable desire for women, and turning his preferences away from men. And, to further ensure Orpheus’ suffering, the spiteful goddess sent her son Eros upon Orpheus with his gilded arrows, to keep Orpheus’ heart forever torn for Calais. Not only would he still have no hope of winning Calais’ love, Orpheus would have to suffer seeing it be shared with another, and another, and another...
ANALYSIS
I wanted to make this myth be as rooted as possible in the real ones, so I tried to involve several different stories, most revolving immediately around Orpheus. To make a story accounting for the creation of sexual orientation, I decided it would be fitting to involve Aphrodite, because this fits into her domain. Having sexual creation be created specifically on its own was challenging, so I broadened the scope to have passionate love and all its facets be created, but still had sexual orientation be the focus by having it be Aphrodite’s means of dealing out her anger with Calliope.
When choosing the setting, I tried to pick a time as early as possible, as it would make sense for sexual orientation to be created in humans earlier rather than later. I also tried to make sure the setting made sense regarding which characters I would involve. To have less temporal complications due to characters and whatnot mixing, I kept the ‘cast’ simple, to only a few characters. The characters and the stories they already had served as scaffolding for this myth, the aspects to be picked apart or used based on whether they served the greater story or not. ended up choosing Orpheus as the ‘hero’ of this story, because of his famed musical talent and that he was said to have loved Calais, a son of Boreas and fellow Argonaut, in Phanocles’ Loves: ‘[he loved] the son of Boreas, with all his heart, and went often in shaded groves still singing of his desire, …’.
Several myths surround Aphrodite and Orpheus, and his mother Calliope. One such story recounts Aphrodite’s anger at Calliope for judging that Adonis, her lover, would spend half the year with Persephone, who also loved him. In a rage, Aphrodite stirs up the women of Thrace to tear Orpheus - Calliope’s son - apart, limb from limb (Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 7). Another story is that Aphrodite did this also to punish Orpheus for scorning the love of women after the death of Eurydice and instead turning to men. Other sources (.) have Dionysus as the cause of his gruesome death, saying because Orpheus chose to honour only the god Apollo, his previous patron, Dionysus, was enraged at his failure to honour him. So he stirred his maenads to go and tear Orpheus apart where he sat, playing songs as he waited for the sunrise (Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book X). While the sources that list this as Orpheus’ fate are many, and old, I chose to not include Dionysus in this tale, as he didn’t support the story, and chose to have Aphrodite instead - sexual orientation is in her realm of control, and she had a preexisting connection and motivation to harm Orpheus, so I decided to utilize those.
Orpheus’ parentage is also disputed, although Calliope is generally thought to be his mother (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 1.3.2, Argonautica 1.23, Seneca, Medea 625 ff) some sources specify King Oeagrus of Thrace as his father (Pindar, fragment 126), and some Apollo (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 14) . I decided to have Oeagrus as Orpheus’ father, mostly to keep Orpheus as a mortal. Because The stories do mostly agree on Apollo having taught Orpheus in the use of his lyre, and this also helped work around the problem that Orpheus’ being mortal posed: that he should also not have love in him. With Apollo being Orpheus’ teacher, it would make sense that Orpheus’ divine parts are nurtured with time in Apollo’s presence, so that he would have immortals’ love. Also, by having Apollo as Orpheus’ father, besides that making him full god, it would have made more sense for him to complicate Aphrodite’s punishment of Orpheus, whether that be Aphrodite not acting so boldly in fear of Apollo’s wrath, or Apollo retaliating against Aphrodite - so I had Oeagrus be Orpheus’ father.
Orpheus is hailed as the greatest ever musician in many works; his music is said to charm all manner of beasts, trees and rocks, and even gods. One claim about Orpheus, ‘at whose sweet melodies the swift stream stood still and the winds were hushed, when the bird, leaving off its own singing, came near him, the whole wood following after." (Seneca, Medea 625 ff), and another: ‘...Orpheus, a professional citharist whose singing caused stones and trees to move.’ (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 14) detail his power over such things.
The goddess of love has a long reputation and history in works of being quick to anger, whether it be over boasts or insults, her wraths are many. Her choices in punishment are as creative as they can be cruel, with lots of transformations, curses of love, and manipulation of lovers. In one case, the goddess was offended by Polyphonte of Thrace’s wish to remain a virgin. When she joined Artemis as her companion, Aphrodite cursed her with lust for a bear, and seeing her engage in such, Artemis stirred all beasts against her (Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 21). When trying to decide how Aphrodite would unleash her rage on Orpheus, I was not sure at first whether she should kill him as she does in some myths, or if she should impart him with some other horror like the aforementioned examples. I decided she would be satisfied with a simple curse of love, especially since she had already witnessed how utterly destroyed Orpheus already was in his heartbreak for Calais (she’d heard his painful lament); the spiteful goddess of love would think it perfect justice to cause his pain so surgically, so precisely, as is the way of love.
The story ends with Aphrodite bestowing passionate/romantic love on mortals, and, to inflict her rage on Calliope’s son, with it she created sexual orientation for mortals. Using her gift as her weapon, she twisted Calais’ desires so that Orpheus might never be their object - and made Calais straight, to punish Orpheus for the rest of his days. At first I was unsure if this was a satisfactory conclusion to the story, but since the creation myth is complete, adding more would have taken away from it. I considered making it so that Orpheus tries to take vengeance, or work some charm to get Calais to love him, but settled on an ending that would fit the greek tragedy model I aimed for - something tragic; Orpheus cursed to forever remain in love with he who could never return his love.
SOURCES
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 7 (trans. Grant)
Phanocles, Loves
Herodotus, Histories
Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 6 (trans. Fairbanks)
Seneca, Medea 625 ff (trans. Miller)
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book X
Pindar, fragment 126.9
Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 21
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 1.3.2
Argonautica 1.23
Orphic Hymn 24.12.
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 14 (trans. Aldrich)
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