Daniel Williams: Till We Have Faces, Entry 1

In Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis reworks the myth of Cupid and Psyche into a tale about the harmfulness of possessive and selfish love. Most obviously, Orual harms her sister, Psyche, when she selfishly demands that Psyche leave her new godly home so that Orual may continue taking care of Psyche. But Orual's selfishness and pride is also harmful to herself, as it wrongfully motivates her hatred of the gods, who have sincerely sought both her happiness and Psyche's.

The fact that Lewis utilized mythology to tell this story reminds me of how Classical playwrights would themselves rework myths to tell their own stories. Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles all took myths that they were familiar with and spun them into commentaries on all sorts of contemporary issues. Lewis is essentially continuing this Classical practice and revitalizing an ancient myth in order to express his ideas. I think Lewis therefore captures the true spirit of mythology in this book. By means of myth, he is able to express beautifully and poignantly his philosophy while adding to it the depth and significance the myth itself has carried throughout its history.

Lewis even provides an interesting commentary on myth itself in the story. Orual, while traveling through foreign lands on a tour, wanders off and comes to a little temple in the wilderness. This is the temple of a new goddess, Istra (Psyche), and Orual hears from the priest the mythical tale that gives the account of this goddess. As it turns out, details of the story, which was indeed based on the real events that occurred between Orual and Psyche, have been modified. One such modification particularly offends Orual: according to this myth, the two sisters of Psyche ruined her happiness because they were jealous. Orual, angered at this, considers it to be more of the gods' cruelty. Yet interestingly enough, at the conclusion of the story Orual finally admits that she did in fact act out of jealousy, and that she knew exactly what she was doing at the time of those fateful events.

I think that this is a suggestion by Lewis that myth, while it may not always be concerned with historical details, can communicate realities to us that history (or memory) cannot reveal. It was this myth told by the priest that  reflected the reality of the situation far better than Orual's memory did. In that sense, the myth was far truer than the history. By writing Till We Have Faces, Lewis not only expressed a valuable lesson about love, he also brilliantly demonstrated why he thought that mythology ought to be valued by his readers.