Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Mary Beard reflects on the way the elderly - and their carers - are treated in society.
Once upon a time, according to ancient Greek mythology, the goddess of Dawn fell in love with a Trojan prince called Tithonus. She was so besotted with him that she went to Zeus, the king of the gods, to ask that Tithonus be made immortal. Zeus agreed, but Dawn had been foolish - she had asked for (and received) eternal life for her lover, she had forgotten to ask for eternal youth. The result was that Tithonus just got older and older and older, though he never died.
Dawn at first looked after him at home, "nourishing him with the food of the gods and dressing him in rich clothing", as one Greek poet put it in the 7th Century BC. But eventually, when he became absolutely incapacitated, Dawn locked the poor man away. Or, as the same poet goes on, "when awful old age pressed down upon him, she put him away in an inner room of the house and shut the shining doors". You could hear his "ghastly babbling" ever after, but he could not move a limb.
When I first came across this story, I took it as a cautionary tale about how difficult it was to deal with the almighty power of Zeus - if you ask a favour from the king of the gods, you had better take care to ask for exactly what you want, or it will be sure to rebound. Now, at 59 and a bit, it's perhaps no surprise that I see the tale of Tithonus also as a parable about old age and the various forms it can take. It reminds us that there is the world of difference between being a sprightly, albeit senior citizen and the degrading state of total dependence.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27342341
Once upon a time, according to ancient Greek mythology, the goddess of Dawn fell in love with a Trojan prince called Tithonus. She was so besotted with him that she went to Zeus, the king of the gods, to ask that Tithonus be made immortal. Zeus agreed, but Dawn had been foolish - she had asked for (and received) eternal life for her lover, she had forgotten to ask for eternal youth. The result was that Tithonus just got older and older and older, though he never died.
Dawn at first looked after him at home, "nourishing him with the food of the gods and dressing him in rich clothing", as one Greek poet put it in the 7th Century BC. But eventually, when he became absolutely incapacitated, Dawn locked the poor man away. Or, as the same poet goes on, "when awful old age pressed down upon him, she put him away in an inner room of the house and shut the shining doors". You could hear his "ghastly babbling" ever after, but he could not move a limb.
When I first came across this story, I took it as a cautionary tale about how difficult it was to deal with the almighty power of Zeus - if you ask a favour from the king of the gods, you had better take care to ask for exactly what you want, or it will be sure to rebound. Now, at 59 and a bit, it's perhaps no surprise that I see the tale of Tithonus also as a parable about old age and the various forms it can take. It reminds us that there is the world of difference between being a sprightly, albeit senior citizen and the degrading state of total dependence.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27342341
