Jackie Lentz: Outside Reading-4

Journal #4

April 30, 2012

            When I was younger the only constellation I could recognize in the sky was Orion. I read a myth about Orion, in which he was a young hunter who became a favored friend of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, and favored friend totally meant “man candy” but I didn’t know that when I was younger; but Apollo, her twin brother did not approve. So one day Apollo tricks Artemis into killing Orion, and Artemis becomes so sad that Zeus puts him up into the stars so that he may live forever. I thought this story was so tragic and yet lovely. I recently looked up the myth to write about and discovered that there are several versions to the myth of Orion. One in particular is rather heinous considering, Orion is a vile rapist who attempts to steal women away from their families through violence; which is the reason he is next to the constellation of the Scorpion, as he is meant to be forever running from the scorpion for all eternity. It is odd how in myths things can be distorted, and yet when a phrase can be mutilated within a matter of minutes in today’s society it doesn’t seem that weird after all. C.S. Lewis writes about the way myths are distorted in Till We Have Faces and I think he does a wonderful job of explaining how sad it would be for Orion to find out that his story was treated, or how he is viewed to some. I think anger on Oural’s part is not out of character and he does a good job of letting the reader feel the horribleness of that moment when she discovers that her story has been changed so tragically.