Congratulations on a well-deserved Curie!
You have sooo many memorable images and great lines. I love this:
he’s just a minor deity, second-rank at best.
and this (so many of us can identify with it):
Maybe he loved her too much and spoiled her and never taught her her proper place.
This is awesome:
the nightmarish blue bird that bears the face of his dead daughter. There’s no love for him left in her eyes, now her eyes are cold and vicious, and they scare him even more than her huge wings flapping madly and the plaintive caws. ‘Why, why father?’ she cries as she swoops through the air.... and isn't this just typical of the gods, to punish, to trap, to prolong the suffering:
If she could kill herself, she would throw herself from the window of the bedroom they once shared. She’s tried that many times, but her stupid wings won’t let her fall.
And isn't it just human, to find a way to torment her tormenter!
Well done!
Heart wrenching, but beautiful.
Thanks, Carol! As a kid, I must have read a hundred times the book of Greek myths, and yet I didn't know this one... I just looked it up yesterday....but I've always hated Hera, so mean...
In many of those stories, dead characters are often granted some sort of compensation, turn them into stars and what not. It's always presented as such a wonderful gift from the gods, but really I don't see how being turned into a bird is supposed to make up for all that you've lost.