One day Theseus was on his way back from a hunt, when he came to the Acheloüs River, which was swollen with rain. He couldn’t cross, so the river invited him into his house, because rivers have houses in Roman myths. Theseus and his companions entered and joined a feast. Others had been invited, and they all began telling stories. Acheloüs reminisced about a particular island. He had loved Perimele, and she loved him, but her father objected and threw her off a cliff, because that’s par for the course in Roman myths. The river Acheloüs caught her, and prayed to Neptune to turn her into an island, which Neptune did. This miraculous event moved everyone who was listening, except for one: Pirithoüs. “He laughs at those who believe, and was a mocker of the gods and hostile in mind” (inridet credentes, utque deorum / spretor erat mentisque ferox, Ovid, Metamorphoses, 8.613-614). “‘You are telling falsehoods, Acheloüs,’ he said, ‘and you imagine that the gods are too powerful, if they give and take away forms’” (“ficta refers nimiumque putas Acheloe potentes / esse deos” dixit, “si dant adimuntque figuras,” 8.615-616). And Pirithoüs had a good laugh at those who believe in an almighty God.
“They were all shocked and did not approve such words” (Obstipuere omnes nec talia dicta probarunt, 8.617). Lelex, mature in mind and age, reproved Pirithoüs, “Boundless is the power of heaven and it has no limit, and whatever the gods have wanted has been accomplished” (Inmensa est finemque potentia caeli / non habet, et quidquid superi voluere, peractum est, 8.619-620). And then Lelex proceeded to tell the story of Philemon and Baucis.
One day Jupiter and Mercury disguised themselves as men and went through a certain neighborhood, looking for a resting place. At a thousand houses they inquired; from a thousand houses they were turned away. At last one little cottage opened to them: the home of Philemon and Baucis. Philemon and Baucis had married young, and in that little cottage had grown old. Their hospitality in this story has become iconic: they stoked the fire and boiled a cabbage with bacon, they spread a homely blanket on their couch for their guests to sit, they set the table (putting a broken piece of tile under the short leg to make the table even) and laid it with olives and cherries, radishes and roasted eggs, nuts, dates, plums, apples, grapes, honeycomb. They had poured wine early in the visit, and their bowl of wine wasn’t depleted no matter how many cups were drawn from it.
As they marveled, Jupiter and Mercury revealed themselves: “‘We are gods, and this impious neighborhood will pay its due penalties,’ they said. ‘To you is granted to be exempt from this evil’” (“di” que “sumus, meritasque luet vicinia poenas / impia” dixerunt; “vobis inmunibus huius / esse mali dabitur…” 8.692-694). The gods took Philemon and Baucis on a walk up the hill to gaze over the town. “They turned their eyes and beheld everything else submerged in a lake; only their house remained” (flexere oculos et mersa palude / cetera prospiciunt, tantum sua tecta manere, 8.699-700). The evil inhabitants of the neighborhood had been drowned, and the house of Philemon and Baucis turned into a temple.
For their piety and hospitality, the gods offered to give Philemon and Baucis whatever they asked. They asked to be caretakers of the temple and to end their lives at the same time so that one wouldn’t have to bury the other. Jupiter and Mercury granted their request. Philemon and Baucis continued to grow old together, then one day as they were facing each other, reflecting on their home, they began sprouting leaves, said a quick goodbye, and turned into twin oak trees, because people turn into random stuff in Roman myths.
Now Lelex told this story to rebuke Perithoüs. You don’t mock God or despise His power. Many pagans had that basic premise right, even though they wrongly spoke of “gods” rather than the one true God. If Perithoüs mocked us for believing that Jesus could feed five thousand men with five loaves and two fish, we would be right to rebuke him, and to do so for his own sake, since his blasphemy will not end well for him. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7). Lelex got that lesson right. We don’t want to see Perithoüs buried under a lake for scoffing at God. We want him to repent and believe rightly about God and live.
At the same time, scoffing does have a place in the Christian life, just not scoffing at the things of God. It’s fun to scoff at Roman myths, and after enjoying the kernel of truth in them to throw away the shell. If Perithoüs wants to mock the idea of Neptune turning somebody into an island, we’re right there with him. We’ll also mock Lelex for thinking that God turns people into oaks as a reward. I think I’d rather have been drowned in my home than live as a tree. With rewards like that, who needs punishments? We’ll stand with Elijah and mock the prophets of Baal: “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened” (1 Kgs. 18:27). Stupid false gods!
A key to the Christian life is knowing what to take seriously and what not to. We regard the Word of God seriously and see it as it is: holy, inspired, inerrant, the words of eternal life. This Word tells us of Jesus and all He has done to save us; of the true God actually becoming a man and visiting us; of a real eternal life, not as oak trees, but as resurrected saints. Everything in accord with the Word of God is commendable, and everything contrary to it is laughable. The Lord grant that we revere and mock appropriately.
In Christ,
Pastor Richard
Painting: Philemon and Baucis by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1658
