Blog #11 - The Judgment of Orual - Vickie GG

 I, Prometheus, great Titan and god of fire, maker of mankind, come before you today to judge the case of the mortal Queen Orual vs. the goddess Aphrodite and her son, Eros in the matter of the mortal-turned-goddess, Psyche. Having heard full complaint from all parties, as outlined in the writings of Queen Orual and discerned through my private counsels with Aphrodite and Eros, I give the following verdict: all the accused in this matter – Queen Orual, Aphrodite, and Eros – are guilty, but to different extents. I will show through my following justifications why Queen Orual shares the least portion of the guilt. Yet I also judge that even Aphrodite and Eros can be held only partially responsible. My most vehement judgement of guilt comes down instead upon as-yet un-accused parties, as shall be seen.

It is well known that “of all [my] creations, I most [love] man” (Prometheus 1). Thus, to temper potential bias in my decision, I begin with the guilty thoughts and actions of Queen Orual. Eros’s primary accusation against the lady Orual is that she ought not to have advised Psyche to look upon his face; he claims she did so out of jealousy and selfishness, not love of nor fear for her sister.

While there’s little evidence for Eros’s accusations early in Orual’s life, there’s ample evidence to support his claims onward from the moment where Orual learns Psyche is to be the Great Offering, and particularly after Orual meets Psyche again as a wife in her new home on the Mountain. Orual’s main fault is her envy of Eros’s relationship with Psyche. She says she “can’t bear it” when Psyche discusses her “lover…husband…Master of [her] house” (122), despite Psyche’s assurances that “I’m your own true Psyche still” (115). She feels envy upon learning that Psyche’s happiness is something she “can’t make” but that Eros can (138). She believes Psyche “left off loving” her because Psyche now has “a husband to love as well” (158). She shudders when Psyche says that her husband’s love “makes [her] love [Orual]…everyone and everything, more” (159) She bristles when Psyche fails to divulge full info about her relationship with her husband because Orual is a virgin and tells Orual “you know little of love” (162). And when the Priest at the House of Istra (i.e. Psyche) says that the sisters of Istra were “jealous,” Orual balks, protests a bit too much, and writes a whole book in her defense (245) – but one who is innocent does not need to vindicate themselves from would-be accusers (only real ones); if this aspect of the myth, which Orual claims is false, were actually false, then there's no need to be concerned. But perhaps Orual felt wronged by this myth because, deep down, she sensed it was more true than what she herself had previously thought the truth. All these many jealousies indeed could condemn Orual much.

Likewise, Orual shows much selfishness related to her sister.  When Orual visits Psyche while the latter is imprisoned prior to The Great Offering, Orual wishes Psyche shared her misery (wailing, laying her head in her lap) (69) as proof that Psyche loves Orual. Orual assumes it “cost her [Psyche] so little” (71) to “leave me [Orual] alone” (73). Orual complains “I made you little happy,” (74) that Psyche’s heart is “of stone” (75), and that “you never loved me” (76). Instead, Orual should be glad that Psyche is able to meet her fate with equanimity instead of selfishly focusing on her own loss of Psyche. Also, during the initial, very brief moment where Orual entertains the idea that Psyche’s palace is real, she is not happy for her sister’s good fortune but sad for herself, lamenting that “the whole world (Psyche with it) [was] slipping out of my hands” (118). Orual bemoans that “the world had broken in pieces and Psyche and I were not in the same piece,” even though the “piece” that Psyche is now “in” brings Psyche much joy (120). Orual intimates that Psyche can only love her husband or Orual (not both) and attempts to make Psyche feel bad for “choosing” him instead of her. “Is it nothing at all to you that you are leaving me, going into all that…turning your back on all our love?” (125). She sees Psyche going back into her home as “she went away from me into her terrible valley,” but instead of thinking about Psyche’s perspective – the happiness it brings her to be in her new home (129). Orual turned Psyche’s love for her (Orual) into a “weapon” (165), a wrong the mortal The Fox later echoes when he says that he was wrong to try to convince Queen Orual not to fight the Prince: “I was wrong to weep and beg and try to force you by your love. Love is not a thing to be so used” (204). These selfish moments are the most damning evidence against Orual.  

However, there’s at least as much and stronger evidence to suggest that – despite her moments of jealousy and selfishness – Orual truly and often selflessly loved Psyche and primarily convinced Psyche to view her husband’s face in order to protect Psyche from being deceived and harmed. Orual exhibits only love – no jealousy – when her sister is born, despite Psyche being beautiful where Orual is ugly (21-22). She is willing to make the hard trek to the Mountain to give her sister a burial (86-87), even though her Father will punish her greatly if she is caught. Orual knows (from experience bringing Psyche up) that she herself will likely “grieve her heart ten times more than yours [Psyche’s]” if she “denies” Psyche by telling her the (supposed) truth of Psyche’s situation (158). This proves to be true; after convincing Psyche to look upon her husband’s face, Orual says “I had won my victory and my heart was in torment. I had a terrible longing to unsay all my words and beg her forgiveness” (166). Orual knew she might lose her sister’s favor in trying to save her from her husband, but she was willing to pay that price. She endures both Psyche’s “scorn” and “un-love,” and an arm wound to try to protect her (169) Orual also fears her sister “is mad” (117); this is an understandable fear, since Eros would not allow Orual to see Psyche’s palace in plain, open daylight. (Eros does, in fairness, allow her a brief, nighttime glimpse (132-133), but even the least-thinking god should know such insubstantial evidence cannot logically stand in the mind of a mortal.) Thus, Orual is justified in wanting to bring her sister home and “cure her” (123). The Fox convinces her that her “god husband” is really just a “robber or runaway” – a mortal man, having his debase way with her (143). Would any honorable sister not try to save her beloved kindred from such a situation? In the minimal moments where Orual believes Pysche’s husband is the Shadowbrute and/or a god, she is afraid that Psyche is married to “some holy and sickening thing, ghostly or demonlike or bestial—or all three” (137). Again, would any honorable sister not try to save her, at any cost, from such an evil? And finally, Orual is willing to kill herself (164) and even Psyche in order to save her sister from her situation: “I would have killed Psyche rather than leave her to the heat or hunger of a monster” (137). Orual’s overwhelming love and sacrifice for her sister outweighs or at least comes near a draw with her moments of jealousy and selfishness.

Also, I spoke above of mitigating factors. There are two other mortals who are also culpable parties in this affair. Orual’s ill-treatment by her Father, as well as the actions and counsels of her beloved mentor, The Fox, also mitigate the extent of Orual’s minimal guilt for her moments of jealousy and selfishness and instead place a large portion of guilt upon her father and a medium portion of guilt upon her (well-meaning) Grandfather. Due to the ugliness of her face, and his general ill-temperament and cowardice (as mortals go), the King abused Orual greatly her entire life, nearly to the moment of his death. The King tells the Fox (in front of Orual) “see if you can make her wise; it’s about all she’ll ever be good for” (6). He makes her wear a veil at his wedding, which is how Orual first learned her face was ugly (11). He often calls her names like “curd-face,” “goblin daughter” and “mandrake root” (18, 26, 55). He physically abuses her regularly, often with little to no provocation (16, 57, 82). He blames her and says she deserves the abuse he gives her – “she wonders that I black her eyes” (60). Based on all this, I understand and am moved by why Orual holds on so dearly (even selfishly) to Psyche, one of the only people in her life to ever unconditionally love her. Who would not become “a craver” (305) of love – and try to hold onto it at all costs - if all they ever knew from their own Father was hate and abuse? The Fox shares in the guilt in an opposite fashion. Though he loved Orual truly and advised her as best he could, his inability to understand the jealous nature of the gods (for we are no doubt a lot predisposed to envy, as the many sacred stories tell and tell again) caused him to injudiciously state that Psyche is “prettier than Aphrodite herself,” likely the inciting incident that led to Aphrodite’s hatred of Psyche and her designation as “the Accursed” (38), wrath upon Glome, and eventual demand for Psyche as the Great Offering (55). And his unwavering assertion that Psyche’s husband must be a mortal man is a large part of what reinforced Orual’s decision to convince Psyche to reveal her lover’s face – the main act of which Eros accuses Orual as guilty.

And now, to the gods – what is their share in the guilt of this story? First, Aphrodite’s guilt is jealousy and revenge. Upon hearing the Fox’s words about Psyche’s beauty – and hearing them mirrored by the people of Glome, such as saying that Psyche is “Ungit herself in mortal shape” (32) – Aphrodite causes the plagues, ill weather, and many other issues that afflict Glome. She is also the one – through her Priest – who calls for Psyche to the Great Offering (55), out of jealousy and for revenge. And it is her jealous hatred toward Psyche that caused her son, Eros, to feel the need to hide his face from Psyche (242); had this not happened, there would be nothing here for which Orual must be accused at all, since she would have been able to see the palace and Eros, and thus feel joy for her sister’s new life. As for Eros, he could have unequivocally shown Orual the palace. (Aphrodite would not necessarily know with whom he shared that palace, if he did so.) He also could have showed his face only to Psyche; how would his mother have known? I suspect that Eros instead - much like Orual herself - was afraid to lose his love, for he knew well the story of what had happened when his mother showed her true face to her beloved mortal, Anchises (8). This, then, makes Eros at least as culpable as Orual for wanting to hold onto one he loves, though his mother – despite her loveliness – surely has the worst share of the guilt for her thoughts, emotions, and actions toward Psyche.

But now, we must come to the root cause of Orual’s moments of jealousy and selfishness, the main reason she is the least guilty of all parties who I’ve thus judged this day. Why was Orual such a “craver” (305)? Why did she hold on so tightly to Psyche that she rent her in two and had a hand in her banishment from Eros? All bad that ever happened to her sprung from her face – the unfair ugliness of it, such that I should never hope to see in any of my mortal creatures. Her father’s immense torment, her inability to marry and thus longing for someone – anyone – to love her – all come from this fact. And who is responsible for the individual makings of each human? Clotho, the Spinner, who is the creator of the artworks that are human lives (The Fates in Greek Mythology para. 4-5). Had Clotho graced Orual with a beautiful or even simply adequate face, it is likely Orual would never have been driven to such jealousy and selfishness as is understandable for one who is a “a thirsty animal” (296). For even the beautiful and wise Psyche – when thirsting much upon the Tree on which she was bound to be taken by the Shadowbrute – inelegantly licked rainwater off her hands when taken in unbearable thirst (110). But if a starving mongrel bites a man, can the dog be blamed? No, it is the ones who starved it who must shoulder the guilt. And if Lachesis, the Allotter, had not seen fit to give Orual so many trials in her life, or at least shortened the length of life during which she must face such trials, perhaps too Orual’s ability to cope the loss of what little love allotted her would have been the greater (The Fates in Greek Mythology para. 8) Thus, it is these two sisters who bear the bulk of the guilt for Orual’s actions; for, as the ancient wisdom teaches, though mortals of course have freedom of will and actions, they are predestined based on the proclivities certain to come about based on the factors given them at birth and can react to trials according to the visage and nature they are afforded.

For these reasons, in the case of the life of Psyche and the judgement of Queen Orual, I find the following parties guilty, in order of most-to-least guilt burden:

1. Clotho and Lachesis – Most and very guilty  
2. Aphrodite – Largely guilty
3. The King – Largely guilty
4. Eros – Moderately guilty
5. The Fox – Moderately guilty
6. Orual – Minimally guilty

While I hereby use my right of judgement to absolve Orual, The Fox, and Eros of any punishment – based on the negligible guilt and largely good intent of their actions, I will leave it to Themis and Poine to decide the just punishment for The King and Aphrodite. But, as we all know, neither Titan nor god has power over the Fates, and thus their reign of unfair dole-outs – in life and in death – sadly will remain unended.