Apollo and Daphne

Apollo, god of many important things, pisses off Eros. Eros/Cupid then shoots Apollo with a gold tipped arrow (why couldn't the archer god (danger zone) undo this magical arrow?) that makes him fall in love with Daphne, daughter of the river god Penis. Eros shoots a lead tipped arrow at Daphne, which makes her not love Apollo. Apollo chases her until, to avoid rape, Penis changes Daphne into a laurel tree. Not one to leave empty handed, the god of many important things crafts a laurel wreath from the tree, and walks away beaten yet unbowed.

I think that Greek myths seem to be fairly inconsistent with what each god can and can't do. For example, if some puny river god can change someone into a laurel tree, why can't the son of Zeus change that person back? Also, how come a river god can turn someone into a tree? It would make more sense if it was a cattail or some kind of reed. And who the heck is driving the sun chariot while Apollo was galavanting after Daphne? Phaeton? And why could Apollo not catch Daphne? He might have wanted to be playful at first, but when the pursuit took a turn for the rape, it seems that he genuinely could not get to her before Penis turned her into a tree, which is a pretty lame performance for a god of many important things. 

I have no delusions about getting old and eventually dying, but I don't think that being young forever would be such a bad thing. Personally, I do not believe in a life after this one, so the idea of death as being the complete end of my conscious existence is one that I am well aware of. I think that it would be a huge relief to not be limited by death, to not know, in the back of your mind, that your life is ending one moment at a time. In The Iliad, there is a monologue by Zeus where he compares the immortal horses of Achilles to the Greek warriors. He says that the horses are wretched because they are immortal and yet have no way of appreciating or even becoming aware of this fact, living their lives as if they were regular horses when they could be much more. He also says that man is even more wretched than the horses because they are the only creatures on Earth who are doomed to die and are aware of this fact, so no matter what they do, their ultimate fate can never change. However, this is coming from being who has never experienced the knowledge of his own impending death. If you looks at the behavior of the gods in The Iliad, they are shown to be petty, immature, and shallow, and I believe that this can be attributed to their eternal life because, having an infinite amount of time, each moment and event means almost nothing to them. Some say that it is death that allows heroism to exist because only through the knowledge of our own death and our infinitely precious moments can we understand true sacrifice. However, I believe that accomplishment can be achieved through less dramatic means. I value knowledge and, specifically, using knowledge to create or improve technology that will benefit society. To be given an infinite amount of time to acquire and apply my knowledge would, to be honest, be a dream come true. 

This pretty much sums up middle school
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