Welcome to Folklore and Mythology Part 7: A Tale As Old As Time

I was recently asked by my therapist to go see the movie "The Shape of Water". It's a beautiful masterpiece, created by Guillermo del Toro. An adult fairy tale about a mute woman who falls in love with a sea "monster" (though I prefer the designation River God). He deserves every award he gets for this film.

It bears more than a few similarities to "Beauty and the Beast".

I was first introduced to Guillermo del Toro's work through the "Hellboy" movies and later "Pan's Labyrinth", one of my favorite movies by him. His work tends to be on the darker side. Well, that's not quite what I mean. He creates beautiful stories, full of life and light, against a backdrop of the dark, grim reality his heroes live in.

I could go on and on about del Toro's work, but that's not why I'm writing this post. I'll save that for a later date. I'm writing this post to talk about one of the most common stories in the public contentiousness.

The story about how beauty comes to love a beast.

There have been a number of modern retellings of this story, from TV shows to movies. One of the most famous movies to come out of the Disney Renaissance was "Beauty and the Beast", which was remade last year as a live action production. There's even a song in both versions (which I'm sure most of my readers are familiar with) that contains the lines "tale as old as time".

I've written about "Beauty and the Beast" before in this blog (click here to view if you're curious). I didn't go back and reread that blog post before writing this, so I might repeat myself a bit. It's a movie and story that I deeply enjoy, especially the Disney version. This story is what actually inspired me to write this series of blogs on folklore and mythology in the first place.

There are the very straight forward tellings of this story, including the Disney versions and "La Belle et la Bête" created by Jean Cocteau and also remade a few years ago (you can find the remake on Netflix as of this posting). There's a great analysis on YouTube comparing these two versions to one another by Some Jerk with a Camera and Kyle from Brows Held High. I cannot recommend this three part series more (click here for part 1, part 2, and part 3). It's hilarious and done to the Disney's musical version while they are running around Disneyland.

Then there are the tragic tellings of this tale. They usually take the form of thriller or horror stories, such as "King Kong" and "Creature from the Black Lagoon". It's where we get the famous quote "it was beauty that killed the beast".

But these are all more modern examples of this fairy tale. I'm supposed to be looking at folklore and mythology too.

Well, in the oldest known written story, "The Epic of Gilgamesh", there is a version of the story (sadly I'm not super familiar with it and can't write much on it). So, we know that the story of a beauty falling for a beast is as old as the written word.

The oldest version of the story that I am most familiar with, is the Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche (literally translates as Love and Soul). It has all of the classical myth troupes such as why you shouldn't piss off a powerful god, tasks that the hero (Psyche in this story) must complete, and the general god shenanigans we're used to from these stories.

But it also has all of the classic Beauty and the Beast troupes. There's a mysterious "monster" (really Cupid in disguise), an amazingly beautiful young woman who falls in love with him after a set amount of time, invisible servants who maintain a luxurious palace, and jealous family members nearly destroying the couple's happiness. It's honestly become one of my favorite versions of the story.

Because the story doesn't end with Cupid turning into a handsome prince. The story keeps going for a while. Cupid has already proven his love to Psyche, but Psyche must prove her love and devotion to him by convincing his mother, Venus, that she is worthy to love her son. And boy, oh boy, does Venus hate Psyche. The story ends, when Cupid and Psyche are able to convince all the gods (including a still kind of pissed off Venus) just how much they love each other and how far they are willing to go to be together.

It's a beautiful story.

It's also a story with a few problems. Like the majority of folklore and mythology, they are a product of their societies. They contain the morals and ethics that that society has. And, despite popular belief, morality and ethics are not a universal constant. As Mabel Pines said in an episode of "Gravity Falls": "morality is relative".

These stories change over time with each retelling. New generations bring new lessons and morals to the table and remove the ones that no longer fit within their society. We can even see this change over the past few decades with all the jokes being made about the Disney version having elements of Stockholm Syndrome (I personally don't think it does, but better people than me have pointed this out - click here for more information from Lindsey Ellis). Regardless of how I feel about it, this is a discussion/debate that still plagues the internet.

But it is true that it isn't the healthiest example of a relationship in the stories we constantly retell.

"The Shape of Water" is proof of this metamorphosis. Guillermo del Toro took a story we were all familiar with and told it in a way that was new, exciting, and reflected how our society has changed.

And this is what makes folklore and mythology so powerful. It isn't just that these stories are old and at one time taught as religious truth, but how we retell these stories. Beauty and the Beast really is a tale as old as time and it will continue to be a tale we tell. And so is the Hero's Journey and of Death. They teach lessons, explain the unknown, and reflect what are our values.

If you haven't seen it yet, go check out "The Shape of Water", "Beauty and the Beast" (both versions), and Jean Cocteau's "La Belle et la Bête" (the original and the 2014 remake). I can't recommend these movies enough.

I think I'm almost finished with this series of posts. I'm not sure how many more myths and folklore I'll look at. If there's anything you guys feel that I missed or a story/folklore/myth or topic you feel very strongly about, let me know and I'll look into it. I am planning on ending this series with a look at stories that go into the "End of Times" (spoken with a big booming voice and echo effect).

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.