#coronis

Thanatos no longer comes to collect the archer god’s dead. Hermes has to crouch down to where his brother cowers over the corpse and give him words of comfort and dry his tears and pry his hands away from the limp body. He promises that he will bring his darlings to Elysium and that they will be fine and free of pain. And still every time his big brother cries and begs for him to let their soul remain in the body he can hold, begs Hermes to finally let him cross the border to the underworld himself. And every time Hermes listens and embraces him and let’s Apollo bury his face in the crook of his neck knowing exactly that he won’t bring his loves back and would never let his beloved brother leave this earth.

Apollo punishes the raven for letting Coronis cheat. But he literally put a bird on babysitting duty. That's like asking a goldfish to do your taxes. Why on earth did he blame the raven for not protecting Coronis when it literally did what it was supposed to do - call him when trouble arrived?

What was the raven supposed to do? Pull out a sword and fight Ischys to the death Dark Souls style?

Animals in Greek myth when associated with gods do appear to have an important and active role to play. For example Poseidon send a dolphin to find Amphitrite for him and show him her whereabouts or how in some myths it was Zeus's eagle to fetch him Ganymedes instead of Zeus himself etc

Sometimes the notion doesn't need to make sense I mean it didn't say necessarily that Zeus transforming into an eagle he became a super-sized eagle or that the eagle he sent was super-sized. Ganymedes was lifted in the air anyways, but instead it shows that the animal in question has some specific role to play and failing to do so means punishment.

Now Apollo accusing the raven is not included to every myth. For instance in Hesiod it is only mentioned that the crow informed Apollo on the affair and that the crow was in one general essence a servant not that it was bestowed the specific duty. In Apollodorous we do see the aspect of the curse but not spelled out exclusively that the crow was ordered by Apollo to watch over her but Hyginus did and in that version Hyginus doesn't say that the crow was in charge of notfying Apollo but it could even be implied that it was supposed to protect her physically etc however here are some explanations I can think of as to why the raven was cursed;

Show that the gods have human emotions Gods just like humans are emotional and they react. Similarly to someone lashes out to someone else at the receiving of bad news or feeling triggered by something else, similarly a god might as well react in anger and grief. It doesn't necessarily make logical sense as a reaction but it is something people sometimes do.

An affair is a slow process For ancient Greeks cheating was sometimes seen worse than rape. Because rape was considered a crime of passion while cheating was a slow process that took time and effort and planning and not to mention deceit. So it was somethin that one expects to have lasted some time. The raven not spotting it sooner and coming to him only after the deed was done after so long angered the god that might as well consider the bird an accomplish at that stage instead of ally

The bearer of bad news is oftentimes paying the price As it often happens, someone who bears bad news is often the one to receive the yelling or the scolding even if they are not directly responsible. This is a rather human behavior because when someone is under intense psychological condition and lash out they often lash out to the first person before them aka the one that sent them the bad message

The allegory for crows being bad omens Given that crows were oftentimes considered bad omen this myth shows why in one essence. That the crow already brings bad omens to Apollo and so this myth presents the lore of this omen of bad luck

Knowing even then of her sleeping with Ischys, son of Elatus, and of her lawless deceit, he sent his sister, raging with irresistible force, to Lacereia, since the girl lived by the banks of Lake Boebias. [35] A contrary fortune turned her to evil and overcame her. And many neighbors shared her fate and perished with her; fire leaps from a single spark on a mountain, and destroys a great forest. But when her kinsmen had placed the girl in the wooden walls of the pyre, and the ravening flame of Hephaestus ran around it...

Apollo & Asclepius (+ Coronis)

Ignore Apollo's design being different, I'm experimenting with how I draw him

Baby Asclepius is cute 😭 LOOK AT HIM

It's dark. It's seething. Its image of Fate pushing the scorned speaker to complete his foul, terrible work of killing the man who stole his lover away from him is particularly powerful and it's always evoked this gruesomely tragic evolution of a glassy eyed Apollo stumbling through the streets, weak-legged and trembling from the betrayal growning more and more wrathful 'til he can think of no other course than to aim his bow and shoot. The price of betraying his trust is death and Coronis betrayed so much more than just his trust by taking Ischys as her lover.

The song itself captures that sensation of building wrath so well too. From the lonely guitar and vocals at the beginning which evoke this lonely, stripped back but distant grief to the way the singer is practically screaming his refrain of "Your work here isn't done" by the end, accompanied by the full blasting of instruments and an omnious chorus at his side, everything about this song is centered around building stakes, building realisations, building tensions and it creates this feeling of the speaker growing closer and closer with each new verse and chorus that adds to his anger.

There's also the absolute treasure trove of lyrics that work so well for specifically this tale. A brief overview of some of my favourites include;

- There's a crow overhead singing "Oh, Death is my friend."

- And though you think your time has come, the wheels of Fate have spun. Death has declared your work here isn't done.

- There's a girl on my heart safe ashore in her lover's arms

There's just such a vivid image to be drawn here - of Apollo's emotions being swallowed by his rage, of his resolve to end everything the more he bears witness to Coronis' brazen affair. There's even a strong female voice in the first two verses which seem to egg the speaker on in his spiral - a perfect opening to include Artemis who wishes for her brother to hunt that which brought him such pain alongside her. An Artemis who reinforces just what Coronis has done, an Artemis who does not want her brother to repress his anger after such grave an insult just because love was once there.

To me, it was perfect. Apollo's killing of Coronis was a crime of passion, an execution he sometimes cannot even bring himself to commit according to who is telling the tale. It's a wretched situation, harrowing, suffocating and cruel but if not by Apollo's hands, Coronis would simply die by another's. She cannot live after what she has done. The gods simply would not allow it.

AND THEN MY BIAS WAS COMPLETELY WRECKED BY LORD HURON.

Now, let it be known, I am a huge Lord Huron fan. Strange Trails is perhaps the most Apollo-coded album I've ever heard and songs like Yawning Grave and The Balancer's Eye capture such a visceral, gorgeous portrait of cosmic grief and anger that they haven't really left my brain since I first listened to them. Still, 'Setting Sun' from their Lonesome Dream album completely flew under my radar. Maybe it's because the commercial version is so much snappier than the Alive from Whispering Pines recording, maybe it's because I just hadn't listened to Lord Huron's discography in a while but my god. My god.

This song has it all; a quiet menace in its music, a strong male singer who sounds only barely restrained, an absolute HOST of lyrics that are so wonderfully perfect for the scenario -- after getting over how wonderful the song itself is, I immediately dethroned Your Work isn't Done because ultimately, 'Setting Sun' has something in abundance that 'Your Work isn't Done' minimised in order to focus on the wrath driving the song forward.

And that's love.

Setting Sun is so powerful because it's not just a revenge ballad - it's a dirge, a breakup song, a lament, a regret manifesto. So many times during the song, the speaker wonders when his lover stopped loving him. He recounts intimate moments and wonders if his lover was thinking of the other man when she was enjoying herself, wonders if anything she'd said was even real. And I love that so, so much.

Ultimately, Apollo adored Coronis. As inevitable as her death was, he regretted every second of it. No matter how angry, no matter how betrayed, no matter how intensely he was shamed, he still loved her. He weeps for her when she dies, he screams and grieves and cries when he's faced with her corpse. In some tales, no matter the cocktail of emotion driving him, he simply cannot bring himself to kill her. He'd rather cry in Artemis' arms and take his anger out on his own servant than hurt her. His own father has to dispatch Ischys since Apollo can't even bring himself to hurt that which Coronis once loved. Of course, in this case, Apollo's going to kill someone but the point is, it's not a decision of pure anger so much as its this complicated, horrible mix of resolve and lost love.

And my god does Setting Sun capture this conflict, passion, grief and love so well. UGH, I'm vibrating just thinking about it -- there are so many points where I hear its lyrics and can vividly picture Apollo, jaw clenched looking Coronis in her eyes and quietly confronting her.

Coronis, returning home at twilight after spending the day with Ischys to Apollo stringing his bow, "Oh? Is he ready to die for you baby? No, but you know I would."

Coronis lying to him about who she's spent her time with and Apollo's soft, near pained, "Does it hurt when you lie to me? If you asked, I would set you free."

I even really love the image of a Coronis who runs away from Apollo upon realising what will soon happen, not to escape his arrows but to warn Ischys who does not know what will happen. Of Apollo getting into his stance, taking aim at them and gathering his strength as the final refrains rings out "I know I'll never reclaim your love and that's as hard as it gets, so I'll be taking a life when the sun sets."

Other favourite lines of mine include;

- Oh, is he ready to die for you baby, now that the deed is done?

- Tell me when did I lose your love? Was it him you were thinking of?

- And I could never betray your love, you had me heart and soul. You might never have known it girl, but I was all yours.

And ultimately, I just like this conflicted portrait of premeditated murder much more than the crime of passion 'Your Work isn't Done' paints. Crimes of passion - especially when Apollo is concerned - are tragic in their own right, but in Coronis' case, I think I prefer it so much more when there's no way for Apollo's action to be misconstrued for anything other than what it is, especially since he goes on to cut Asclepius from his mother's corpse then carry on with building her funeral pyre. I think there's something so much more impacting about Apollo being unable to hide away from Coronis' blood on his hands and him having to raise Asclepius with those selfsame hands.