orpheus last chant

i am i big fan of mythologies. and i came acros one legend that seems a never ending source of symbols. and a very good one for god.

procustus was a guy who , staying on the (only) road to athens stoped all travellers and made them sit in is bed. the thing was, if they were smaller than the bed he would try pulll them untill tehy would fit(and killing them in the process) if they were bigger than the bed he would cut off feet or head (and killing them in the process)

as such, many theist i have met proposed a certain moral lifestyle. mostly it was impractical. and i told them that it went against human nature and soemtimes even human common sense. and they proudly stated " well of course it is not according to human nature...it is something above it" god iso highg to overcoem your own limitations...it's a divine moral...above you...that's why you can't comprehend it
and at one point i did agree. i thought setting a standard that was above any human powers was the way to make us better. and it can be acceptable so far.

but after that we find out that if we don't meet that standard we are condemned, or we are blaimed. we are blaimed by our own limitations of will power, of thinking.

so we are given a strict, unchangeble frame to fit in. like the torture bed of procustus. we all are blaimed for our excesive parts that can't be squeesed into the frame, for our own congenital lacks.

the end of the legend is visionary, taken from this perspective.

theseus , a hero, comes and puts procustus in his own bed. and he does not fit. he get's his head cut off.

so i do wonder do the diffrent types of gods fit their own frame that they gave us to reach?

Inconnu

As there are no gods then they cant be applied to any bed. We have priests though and I know that they all fall woefully short of fitting the bed.

orpheus last chant

well not gods to fit the bed....but concepts

Wyz_sub10

I think this is better suited to MF&P because it deals more with specific theology than existence.

The Other Michael

Actually, theology tends to be a GRD topic, so I'll forward it there.

cheers,
Michael
MF&P Moderator (Maximus)

lpetrich

The name is

"Procrustes"

omnia

Although IIRC Procrustes changed (or hypothetically would change) to Procrustus or Procustus in Latin. I mix up mythical Greek characters quite often, unfortunately, because I read about them in Latin (or rather am made to translate Latin passages about them). You have no idea how confusing some authors are, especially when the try to use Greek names. Perfect example is "Euridicen," Orpheus' last words according to a retelling of their myth by Virgil. Now, although the Georgics are not exactly known for their accuracy, Orpheus and Euridice are a Greek myth, hence Virgil tries to use proper Greek grammar. To keep myself from babbling annoyingly about the grammar of dead languages, I shall say that he didn't quite manage it. But the -es and -os endings of names and places often change to -us in Latin.

Ack, and now I must restrain myself before I really display my geekiness. too late

orpheus last chant

the thing is, english is not my native language, for not messing the name up, i used a mythology site. it was procustus. so sorry, but i tryed.

any more myths that seem to enlighten us about religion....?