Achilles. Heel.

The terms "Achilles' Heel" has been on my mind as of late. I have been playing the video game Hades which is amazing, and it is bringing back some of my memories from high school where I would scour any library I could enter for every book on Greek myths and legends. For a long time I could recall the details of these stories vividly, dozens if not 100+ books, although I have found these memories have faded from conscious memory over time. 

In Hades (SPOILERS), they have a different take on how Achilles and Patroclus ended up arranged in the afterlife, with Achilles being led to Elysium, but Patroclus ending up elsewhere. Achilles could not bear the thought of Patroclus in a dismal afterlife, and so he signed a contract with Hades so that Patroclus could take his place in Elysium, and he would instead serve Hades in his house. Patroclus was saddened by this separation, to the point of seeing all existence as meaningless. This is a concept I have considered in these recent years, and that resonates with me to a degree, of being in your own depressing hell while in what would be heaven. It is up to the main character to reunite the two.

So this story, while it seems to not be in line with Greek mythology (several of the myths are rearranged, but the story is well done), started me thinking about other similar stories. It reminds me of the time I feel like I died, and found myself floating down a river into a cave with a group of others, which a friend later pointed out was spot on with "The Council of Nine," a Greek myth I had never heard of. In the myth, after Prometheus gives man fire, a council of Greek gods is established to determine how to prevent man from becoming like the gods. They decide that the best course of action is to split man in half, so the two halves are always looking for each other, for their own soulmate, rather than looking for ways to become like the gods. This was even more chillingly on point because in my personal experience they told me I could do anything, but that I could not go back. I replied that I had to go back, because "I finally found her," in direct reference to my soulmate. I felt a faint string still connecting me to my body, I willed to strengthen this connection (since I had already been told I could do anything at this point), and pulled myself back. 

This story of the council and their actions reminds me of the creation of Eve from Adam as well; the intentions of God for mankind are clearly different, especially since Adam's partner was presented directly rather than intentionally kept hidden, but the resulting splitting of the soul feels like the same maneuver. Even Adam's choice to defy God, after finding Eve eating of the fruit, is similar to the choice not to be separated from your soulmate, giving up paradise to stay with her. Admittedly this does depend on my image of the scenario, that Eve ate the fruit first and then Adam had to choose between joining her or staying with God, which is a possibility in the text. 

Genesis 3:6

"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it."

Additionally this got me thinking about a fairy tale I saw in The Storyteller, about a man who got a magic sack, and he could tell whatever or whoever he wanted to get into the sack and it/they would get sucked in. He used this on Death when it was his time to go, keeping Death tied up in the sack for some time, until he was finally ready to die. When he opened the sack though, Death disappeared as fast as possible, never to return to him. So the man wandered the earth, a weary soul in search of a way out. He got to heaven's gates but they would not let him in, so he asked someone there who he felt he could trust to take his sack, and once he was through the gates, to tell him to get into it, thus crossing the threshold. The other agreed in earnest but walked through the gates and lost all memory of life on earth, including the instructions regarding the sack. So the man wandered, evermore from the perspective of the story at its end.

So I recently heard the term "Achilles' Heel" again, but this time the emphasis made me hear it differently: "Achilles. Heel." This made me think of a possible solution, for if Patroclus had the sack of the man in the fairy tale, this would be like calling Achilles into it. This is the one in heaven remembering the instructions and calling the wanderer home. This is me remembering my soulmate and using the invisible string to return to my body in this realm so she and I would not be separated. This is the subtext of the Bible as I see it, establishing the Kingdom of God by using realm crafting to shape, with the lightest touch, the realm of God's soulmate, a realm apart from Creation but scooched over time so that there is a traversable space between these two places; rather than a forceful pull, this is a gentle call and a comfortable walk, and finally a (re)uniting that feels both intrinsically familiar and entirely brand new all at once. This is the establishment of eep, mind bogglingly complex but certain to be accomplished in this timeline with endurance, patience, determination, wisdom, love. It feels so close now, and it feels like my soulmate is clearly communicating through subtle tone shifts, in a way I can understand, precisely how close it is.