Sirens

How well do you remember your Greek mythology? Well, in case you're a bit rusty, the greek king Odysseus, during his epic journey (aka the "Odyssey") had to return home to Ithaca after burning Troy to the ground. However, the city-state of Troy was a holy city devoted to the reverence of the god of the sun, Apollo. This bode poorly for Odysseus, since he had to return home over the Aegean sea to Ithaca. Now Apollo had a friend, a fellow god named Poseidon. Poseidon was the god of the sea (and of horses for what it's worth), and so he took it upon himself to make roguh seas and impede Odysseus' return. To make matters worse, during one of Poseidon's tempests, Odysseus' ship ran ashore on an island ruled by a hideous, cannibalistic cyclops named Polyphemus. He was big and angry, and he was also one of Poseidon's many illegitimate sons. Anyways, one thing led to another--polyphemus ate a few of Odysseus' men--so Odysseus poked out Polyphemus' single eye with a huge pointed tree branch. Odysseus and his men escaped and returned to their ship, but by now Poseidon was irate! He vowed to never allow Odysseus return home, so he crafted a whole host of obstacles to hinder Odysseus' voyage. One such of these hindrances were the "sirens". These beauties, (featured in O'Brother Where Art Thou?) tempted sea-weary men with their beautiful voices. Myth has it that once a man heard their voices they became transfixed by the sound and could not be deterred from following the voices to their source. There is much more to the story, and I could go on forever, but I won't. The relation of this story to my photo is simple. Just as Odysseus and many others were lured by the seemingly innocent and intriguing voice of the sirens, so too was the moth captured by the lure of light. In a world of danger and darkness, something reached out--a welcome in disguise--that eventually led only to the moth's crispy demise. And who says mythology doesn't apply to the real world. sheesh.