Childrens book illustration by Willy Pogany for Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, From “A Treasury of Verse for Little Children” Selected by M. G. Edgar, circa 1908.
Description: Watercolour heightened with bodycolour, depicting three small children in sailor suits sailing a large clog named 'Daisy' on a sparkling sea, one of them straining on a fishing net, a kindly-faced moon surveying the scene.
“Mlle Pogany" sculptures de Constantin Brancusi en plâtre patiné ou bronze ou sur socles en calcaire et bois (1912-33) à l'exposition “Brancusi, l'Art ne Fait que Commencer" au Centre Pompidou, juin 2024.
Cavafy's fascination with Greek mythology and history presumes any debate inexpedient. Reading through the body of his poetic oeuvre, names and places underline context to visualize the scene. The poet restores Greece to its former glory in laconic, swift strokes of sentimental impressionism.
Willy Pogany ‘Demeter and Demophoon’, ink drawing, c. 1918
Make it medium rare, please.
It's one of the reasons of Cavafy's charm. Some of his works require deeper knowledge of mythology, dumbfounding with the amount of references crammed in just several short lines:
Hasty and inexperienced creatures of the moment,
it’s we who interrupt the action of the gods.
In the palaces of Eleusis and Phthia,
Demeter and Thetis initiate good works
over high flames and heavy smoke.
But Metaneira always bursts in
from the royal quarters, hair loose, terrified,
and Peleus always gets scared and intervenes.
Constantine P. Cavafy 'Interruption'
The poem talks about two specific myths - the one of Demeter seeking Persephone, and the other of Thetis's attempt to make Achilles immortal. But what it uncovers is not only the affinity between the two myths and two goddesses but also the underlying Greek emotional mentality that preconditioned wrath as the central subject of Homer's 'Iliad'.
Eleusis: Demeter and Metaneira
The myth of Demeter is well-known to most of us - it's basically one of the central stories of Greek mythology. The focus of this specific story is, however, shifted from Demeter's daughter and her matrimonial adventures with the suburban dad god of the underworld to the small episode in the palace of Eleusis. Here, Demeter stopped to get some rest during her quest at finding Persephone, and was welcomed by the local king and his wife Metaneira. In gratitude, she resolved to grant immortality to Demophoon, the royal couple's son. In secret, for some reason. Gods work in mysterious ways.
At night, giving him ambrosia, she tempered the baby in the fire to burn away his mortality. However, Metaneira, who accidentally walked in and saw Demeter holding her son in the open fire, got scared and spoiled the fun intervened (and can we blame her, really), thus successfully stopping the Demophoon's immortalization and causing the goddess's wrath. If anyone's curious, on some accounts, the boy died. In other versions, he was disfigured from falling into the fire, while third state the boy was just fine. Looks like this part doesn't really matter.
Phthia: Thetis and Peleus
Similar story happened with Thetis (an interesting character in her own right). After giving birth to Achilles, she naturally wanted to ensure nothing happens to her sweet baby boy (in those days, it obviously meant he would be able to kill all his enemies before they could kill him). One version of the myth explains his near invincibility by Thetis dipping him into river Styx.
The alternative follows Demeter's myth closely enough: the nereid held Achilles over fire, but the one who burst in was the boy's father, Peleus. Achilles didn't die, for sure, but ended up with that notorious heel of his unprotected enough to lead to the hero's eventual demise. The couple argued to the point of divorce where Thetis never actually forgave her husband. I wonder who Achilles could have been taking after in his infamous ire.
Cross-referencing: mythology and mentality
So it seems that anger was such a big deal in ancient Greece that it required the same story to be told with the participation of different characters to explain the initial benevolent motivation transforming into righteous ire. Anything that was done basically resulted in god(esse)s' wrath and subsequent violence. Moreover, such a response seem conscious enough to nearly break the fourth wall:
Thetis's anger echoes Demeter's bereaved responses in the [Hymn to Demeter]. Peleus's flashback evokes the Demophoon episode as an immediate model for Thetis's behavior.
J. Mira Seo 'Exemplary Traits: Reading Characterization in Roman Poetry'
I absolutely adore how Cavafy intertwines the two myths and shows exactly how basic mythological structure works. These are two separate stories - but the elements they share are not just similar but identical; they were ingrained in the mentality of people who told and retold the stories. I wonder why Greeks got off at children burning in fire though. There is a shared precious secret here that Cavafy noticed and allowed us to notice, too.
“Mlle Pogany" sculptures de Constantin Brancusi en plâtre patiné ou bronze ou sur socles en calcaire et bois (1912-33) à l'exposition “Brancusi, l'Art ne Fait que Commencer" au Centre Pompidou, juin 2024.
