Maroula

So Joseph was there in prison.  But the Lord was with Joseph…  ~ Genesis 39:20b-21a

We’re going to stay in Greece for our next story, as it connects Psyche’s story to the Snow White tales quite nicely.  I should warn you however: I’m going to end the tale today at the saddest part.

It’s worth it, though.  I promise the redemption on Thursday’s blog is as wonderful as today’s trials are sad…

Maroula

Maroula is a beautiful princess with loving, protective brothers.  However, inflamed with jealousy over her beauty, “the mother of Erotas” devises a plan to kill her.  True to Snow White tales, she disguises herself as an old woman and takes a magical golden apple to tempt the poor princess.

Now, who is the mother of Erotas?  This gets tricky, as my source’s source is a German retelling of a Greek fairy tale…basically, it’s at LEAST three times removed from its original.  We can assume the original Greek was translated into German, and then the German into English, and my guess is that there was a slight error in translation over time.  Although there are two possibilities,^[1] the more likely one is that Erotas should be rendered “Erotes” – which is an important distinction.

“Erotas” is not a word.  The Erotes, however, were winged gods of love and desire.  Their mother was none other than Aphrodite (we knew her as Venus in Psyche’s tale).  Seeing as how Aphrodite was tangled up in one Snow White story, it’s not too much of a stretch to see her as the villain in this story.

Maroula’s Troubles Begin

Now, Maroula’s brothers would confine her in a tall tower “so that no one could harm her” when they left the palace.  This seems a little overprotective, but perhaps it is warranted.  In the ancient world, beauty was a double-edged sword, after all.

Maroula takes the golden apple from the mother of Erotas, takes a bite, and falls “unconscious.” Fortunately, her brothers are able to remove the apple piece from Maroula’s mouth, which causes her to awaken.^[2]

As with all subsequent “evil queens,” the mother of Erotas needs to be reassured that her rival is dead.  She holds a mirror to the sun and asks the sun (in rhyme of course) who the most beautiful woman in the world is.  Many of the Snow White tales feature the “evil queens” asking the sun, rather than a mirror, about their beauty; this is because, like a mirror, the sun’s light reveals the truth.

Naturally, the sun says Maroula is the most beautiful.

The mother of Erotas then takes a magic ring to Maroula.  Like all Snow Whites, Maroula didn’t learned her first lesson, and when she put on the ring she “fell lifeless to the ground.”  Rings were the second most common way for Snow Whites to die, so this fits squarely into the Snow White pattern.  This time, the brothers cannot revive her.  They build a golden coffin for her and place it in the forest near their palace.^[3]

As with most Snow White tales, a prince finds the coffin and brings it to his palace.  He opens it, sees the beautiful Maroula, and “quite by chance” takes the ring off her finger.  She wakes up, they marry, and after some time Maroula gives birth to twins.^[4]  (Fortunately, this is different from many other Snow White tales, which feature the prince creepily pining away at the coffin for some time before the girl awakens.)

Alas, like many of our Snow Whites, this does not ensure a “happily ever after.”

Maroula’s Lowest Point

The prince’s mother, the queen, is jealous of Maroula.  So, “one evening she went to Maroula’s room, cut off the two children’s heads, and threw the murderous knife…onto Maroula’s bed to direct suspicion towards her.”^[5]

Horrified, the prince orders an equally gruesome consequence: Maroula’s hands are “to be cut off and sewn into a sack…with the bodies of their children.  The sack would be hung around her neck and then she would be chased away from the palace.  Thus it happened.”

…Shocked?  So was I.

How could this situation possibly be redeemed?  Maroula has lost everything – her home, her family, her future.  She literally carries the weight of a crime she never did around her neck.  Perhaps she was foolish to keep taking things from strange old women…but still…Foolishness does not warrant such a terrible consequence.

A Biblical “Lowest Point”

As I was describing this tale to Andrew, once again wondering what to make of it, he mentioned it reminded him of the account of Joseph in Genesis.

If you stop Joseph’s tale at his lowest point – when he is thrown into prison – it mirrors this tale a great deal.  If you stop the story with Joseph in prison, he has lost everything – his home, his family, his future, even his position as head slave of Potipher’s house!  Perhaps he was foolish to tell his brothers about his dream to rule over them…but still…Foolishness does not warrant such a terrible consequence.

However, as the Bible reminds us, Joseph was not alone.  Neither is Maroula.  The truth is, we need stories like Joseph and Maroula.  We need to know that when we’re at our lowest point, God does His most miraculous of deeds…

Sources

[1] The other possibility is that she is the mother of the Eurotas River.  The mother of the Eurotas River was a simple water nymph (http://www.theoi.com/Potamos/PotamosEurotas.html).  She would have been a local deity, not one universally known and worshiped, nor would she have such power as “the mother of the Erotas” seems to have.

[2] Heidi Anne Heiner, “Maroula and the Mother of Erotas,” Sleeping Beauties, 156.

[3] Ibid., 156.

[4] Ibid. 157.

[5] Ibid. 157.