Eternal Life without Eternal Youth - Tithonus vs Bhismar

 Tithonus was a king in ancient Greece, and like many Greek myths, a goddess fell in love with him. The goddess of the Dawn, Eos, loved him very much, but he was a mortal, meaning that eventually, he would die. She went to Zeus, King of the Gods, and asked him to grant Tithonus immortality. Zeus accepted, but Eos forgot to ask for eternal youth along with the immortality(did she really love him if she made stupid mistakes like that for him?). Tithonus lived forever from that point onwards, but became an old, senile hag(did he tell people to get off his lawn?), basically a bag of flesh on bones, babbling nonsense endlessly(he's in public office? Not really a long step from king to politician.).



An ancient vase depicting Eos taking Tithonus for some reason.



Bhishma was the crown prince to King Shantanu, who fell in love with a fisherman's daughter (Shantanu, not Bhishma here). Shantanu asked the fisherman for his daughter's hand in marriage, but the fisherman stated the condition that his daughter's child must become king. Shantanu was forced to refuse as he had already promised the throne to Bhishma(couldn't he just force the fisherman to give him the daughter's hand in marriage?). Shantanu fell into despair, and Bhishma found out why from a minister of his, as his father did not want to tell him(so his father didn't want Bhishma to fix his problems? Seems like some elaborate scheme here.). He rushed to the fisherman, and promised to relinquish the throne for his father's happiness. However, the fisherman was not convinced, stating that there could be conflicts with Bhishma's children vying for the throne(we got a smart one here, huh). To convince him, Bhishma took a vow of lifelong celibacy(no children or marriage), and for his oath, he was rewarded with choosing his time to die. However, he was not granted with eternal youth or eternal healing. He was summoned for war later by his children, and was shot 50 times in the chest with arrows, yet could not die for he had not ended the war. Eventually, he accomplished his task slaying great warriors from the other side and died finally after the many weeks in terrible pain.

A statue of Bhishma depicting him in armor during war.



So, what's the deal here? We see two people getting eternal life in some form, but because they were foolish enough to not get eternal youth with it, were screwed over, kind of like buying a desktop and then not getting a monitor, making it useless(who does that?). The life lesson? Read the contract twice, or you'll probably find yourself in a vice.


Read the Contract Twice, or You'll Find Yourself in a Vice.  

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