Skipped another day... hehe...
The story of Cephalus and Procris serves to remind us all that people didn't tell stories quite the same as they do now, because things just kind of happen. So Procris is of the house of Athens, the niece of Procne, who became the first nightingale, and Cephalus is a descendant of the King of the Winds and a hunter. The goddess Aurora falls in love with Cephalus and kidnaps him. He begs to be let go so he can be with his wife. Aurora assents but suggests Procris could have cheated on him. Cephalus goes back in disguise to test Procris's loyalty.
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| Zoom in on Cephalus' face. He does NOT fuck with Aurora!!!! |
"He made passionate love to her, always reminding her, too, that her husband had forsaken her. Nevertheless for a long time he could not move her. To all his pleas she made the same answer, “I belong to him. Wherever he is I keep my love for him.”
But one day when he was pouring out petitions, persuasions, promises, she hesitated. She did not give in; she only did not firmly oppose him, but that was enough for Cephalus." (272)
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| Not sure what Procris looks so happy about here. |
He yells at her because he's a bitch. And she leaves and forsakes the company of men. Which was the right thing to do. Unfortunately she eventually forgives him, and many years later he accidentally kills her while they're hunting.
So much happening there. So much to play with: Cephalus being flighty because he's a descendant of the winds - Aurora being so central to the plot and yet somehow not - Procris dying at the hands of her husband because men aren't shit - etc.
Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre's opera Céphale et Procris, with a libretto by Joseph-François Duché de Vancy, is a little different. This version makes its moral slightly more obvious. Céphale and Procris are not married, but Aurora still wants to fuck the former, and tells Minerva to tell her priestess that Procris should marry some guy named Borée. Then she kidnaps Céphale. When she eventually lets him go, she sends a fury of jealousy upon Procris, who runs away and agrees to marry Borée. Then Céphale goes to fight Borée and kills Procris in the process.
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| The beginning of the death scene of Céphale et Procris. Beautiful stuff... |
I suppose I'm not feeling the blog feeling today. I hope this doesn't indicate a permanent burnout - I simply can't let another hobby die out - something has to stick. Something has to stick!