Sleeping beauty and the beast : Endymion/Selene and Kumbakarna/Saraswati

  Let's talk about two dudes cursed with epic naps and the goddesses who messed them up. Greek myth meets Hindu epic in the weirdest sleep clinic ever.

Endymion (Greek Mythology)

• Who: Son of Zeus. Apparently ridiculously handsome.

• The Setup: Chilling, sleeping in a cave on Mount Latmus. Enter Selene, the Moon Goddess herself. She sees him snoozing, thinks, "Dayum," and falls hard.

• The "Gift" (and Curse): Selene ain't playing the long game. She goes straight to Zeus (daddy issues much?) and asks for Endymion to get eternal youth, eternal sleep, and immortality. Why? So she could visit him every night while he's out cold. And yeah, "visit" means exactly what you think. She straight up violated the sleeping beauty. Every. Single. Night.

• The Outcome: They had FIFTY kids. (Fifty stars? Maybe. Fifty kids? Definitely a lot of child support Zeus ain't paying). Think about it: Fairytales have princes kissing sleeping beauties awake to then make love. Here? The goddess puts the prince to sleep so she can have her way with him. Nappily ever after? Guess women need the power of "NO" and maybe some impulse control too. 

  
  
  
  

Kumbakarna (Hindu Mythology - Ramayana)

• Who: Giant brother of the demon king Ravana. Huge appetite, even bigger heart – so pious and brave it scared Indra (King of the Gods).

• The Setup: Kumbakarna does hardcore penance – skipping food, sleep, everything – to earn a boon from Lord Brahma. He succeeds! Brahma appears: "Ask, my son!"

• The Divine Screwjob: Scared Indra panics. He begs Brahma's wife, Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge, Speech... and apparently shady deals), to mess with Kumbakarna's speech as he asks.
  

• The Curse (Disguised as Gift):

  • Kumbakarna meant to ask for "Indrasana" (Indra's throne). Saraswati made his tongue say "Nidrasana" (a bed for sleep).

  • He meant to ask for "Nirdevatvam" (annihilation of the Gods). Saraswati twisted it to "Nidravatvam" (sleep).

• The Outcome: Brahma grants the cursed request: Kumbakarna would sleep for six months straight, only waking for the other six. Worse? If woken during his hibernation... he dies. Guess what happens in the Ramayana war? His brother forces him awake. Kumbakarna fights... and dies. Moral? In Indian culture, waking a sleeping soul is a major sin. Bigger than some other stuff? Maybe.

The Moral Minefield: Who Done Worse?

So... which divine intervention is the bigger crime?

1. Option A (Selene): Putting a man into eternal sleep specifically so you can violate him nightly, resulting in 50 kids he never asked for? (Seriously, 50 kids? Talk about the ultimate consequence).

2. Option B (Saraswati): A dude skips food, sleep, all pleasures for years doing hardcore penance. He earns his divine reward. Then, purely because another god (Indra) is jealous and scared, you (Saraswati) sabotage his speech, twisting his righteous wish into a crippling curse of endless sleep and eventual death? You wreck his entire destiny right at the finish line.

Yeah. Chew on that. Both involve epic sleep, divine power plays, and a spectacular lack of consent or fairness. One's a creepy nightly violation, the other is cosmic-level cheating. Which grinds your gears more? The violation of the body, or the theft of a hard-earned destiny? Mythology doesn't do easy answers... just seriously messed-up bedtime stories.