Calasso Page 8

      Calasso began the book by telling Europa's story, and traces back to many other stories which most of them are about abductions. This relates to the three levels of relationships with the gods. Violence and rape are wrong, but without abduction and rape there would be no story, however, question is, why are these mythologies led by abductions instead of other forms of violence, or couldn't these mythologies be more romantic? In other words, why couldn't people make these stories sound like the women fall in love with their kidnappers and willingly have their children, then become gods?

      In fact, I think these women actually more or less fell in love with their kidnappers, either consciously or unconsciously. In page 8 of "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony," Herodotus noted: "To abduct women is considered the action of scoundrels, but to worry about abducted women is the reaction of fools." He stated that, any man who is smart wouldn't give a thought about the women who were abducted, because clearly if they didn't want to be abducted, they wouldn't have been.

      I certainly agree with this idea, because I think back then, women cherish their virginity so much(at least in Asian culture) that they would even kill themselves if they get raped. I believe in the ancient time, many women would rather be paragons of chastity than to live with a corrupted body. However,despite anyone who is mortal would have the fear of death, Greek stories often focus on revealing the ugly side of human beings, thus the gods were portrayed human-like. Rape, abductions, and violence are the essential elements to make these mythologies special and eternal.

      I think what Herodotus was also trying to say was, men who were concern about those abducted women could cause troubles. For example, the abduction of Helen led to the Trojan War, and the abduction of Persephone caused the season of winder, darn winter!    " “