Loyalty

"Loyalty is rare. If you find it, keep it."

There is no better example of loyalty in The Odyssey than Eumaios, the swineherd. While many of Odysseus’s servants befriended the cheeky men that were shamelessly wooing their master’s wife and devouring his fortune, only a handful remained loyal, and Eumaious among them. He cared for his master’s pigs as if they were his own, even twenty years after Odysseus left, and in spite of the fact that he no longer believed he would see his beloved master again, his devotedness toward him never wavered.

It’s easy to be loyal to someone who is present, but being loyal to someone who has been away for so long is not, and it’s a lot harder to remain loyal if you think that person is never coming back. It’s also easy to be loyal to someone in good times – but what about in bad times? It’s very common to see people turn their backs on friends, who they used to support unconditionally, when the friends are hit by bad times.

It really hurts when we’re betrayed by the people who we thought we could expect unconditional loyalty from, especially when we need them the most. So, if there’s someone among your friends or family who is with you through thick and thin, like Eumaious was to Odysseus, count yourself blessed.  

Dilemma

Caught between Scylla and Charybdis

Extraída de: https://raftriestoworkthingsout.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/charybdis.jpg?w=625

You know the feeling you get when you have a decision to make, but no matter what you decide, the result will only be loss, pain or heartbreak? Imagine Odysseus' despair when having to decide whether to steer his ship closer to Scylla, a horrible six-headed monster with three rows of sharp teeth in each mouth, or closer to Charybdis, a terrifying whirlpool that swallowed everything that tried to pass by. What choice did he make?

"We passed up the strait, groaning loudly; for on one side was Scylla, on the other Charybdis swallowed up the salt water in a terrible fashion...when she swallowed up the salt sea, she showed deep down in her swirling whirlpool black sand at the bottom, and the rocks all round echoed a bellowing boom. Every man was pale with fear. As we gazed in our fear at the death on this side, at the same moment Scylla grabbed six of my men out of the ship...I turned,...saw their hands and feet already in the air swinging aloft in the clutches of Scylla; while they called aloud on my name, for the last time, in despair...Scylla swung them gasping up to the rock; there in the cave she devoured them, shrieking and stretching out their hands to me in the death struggle. That was the most pitiable sight my eyes ever beheld in all my toils and troubles on the weary ways of the sea."

Odysseus chose the lesser of the two evils, to lose six of his men instead of losing all his crew at once. Even so, he was devastated.

There are also other expressions that are used to refer to being in this type of situation; "caught between a rock and a hard place" and "between the devil and the deep blue sea" are two of the most common. Whichever phrase you prefer, we've all been there at least once in our lives, forced to make a decision with no pleasant options. I've been caught between Scylla and Charybdis several times (hence the name of my blog) and sometimes wonder whether I made the right choices or not. I've come to realize that it's OK not to feel remorse if you believe that the choice you made was truly the best, or "the lesser of two evils." Just accept the consequences of your decision and move on with no regrets.