Several days later, atop a lonely island.
Stars scattered across the sky, the night as tranquil as water, Themis leaned back in her chair, perusing through the dozen or so parchnt scrolls titled "Aesop's Fables Collection."
The stories within were concise and powerful, with apt taphors and vivid imagery, and the language was both witty and humorous. Reading them carefully, each contained hidden wisdom, offering insights to people of varying ages and creatures in different states of mind.
Soon, Themis finished the first dozen fables, her attention then captured by an intriguing story among them.
The gist of it was that a father, for the sake of a sacrifice, killed his daughter, the mother harbored resentnt, colluding with her lover to kill the father, and the son, in the na of revenge, killed his mother.
And the verdict of arbitration was that the son should be released as innocent.
This kind of just revenge should be forgiven.
"Is such a judgnt not too absurd?"
After contemplating for a mont, Themis lifted her head, looked toward the figure beside her, and shook her head with a frown.
Luo En, the author, considerately poured a glass of ice-cold honey water for the Goddess of Justice and explained with a smile.
"In the son's eyes, the mother is rely the killer of his father, an enemy. Setting aside the concept of mother, isn't avenging his father a righteous act?"
Themis briefly pondered and solemnly retorted.
"If the son is innocent, then what fault does the mother have, who avenges her daughter? There's no need to whitewash her act of kin-slaying. If their sins offset one another, he is rely the killer of an innocent woman."
Luo En paused to think for a mont and countered using the content of the story.
"According to the judge, the father is the true sower, the mother rely a vessel of conception, the father is more important than the mother. The righteousness of the son avenging his father is nobler than the mother venting personal spite, and should indeed be forgiven."
The Goddess of Justice traced her fingertips across the parchnt scroll, her expression calm and solemn.
"In nurturing children, the father provides the seed, the mother the warm chamber; the offspring carry the bloodseed nurtured by both. And the maternal instinct to propagate and protect the offspring is the foundation of the world's birth. Isn't the mother's act of seeking justice for her daughter, therefore, even more noble?"
Imdiately afterward, Themis seed to think of sothing and the corners of her lips lightly turned up.
"Besides, if judging from the equity of parental status... a child can be without a father, but not without a mother. Even Uranus, the Father of Heaven, was propagated by Mother Earth Gaea. Doesn't this imply—that the mother, created the father? And isn't the mother avenging her daughter all the more rightful?"
After hearing this line of reasoning, Luo En could not help but acquiesce, his eyes flashing with a subtle expression.
In fact, this anecdote was derived from Ancient Greece by playwright Aeschylus, who adapted it into a drama based on a mythological tale, "Orestes."
In the famous future Trojan War, the commander of the Ancient Greek forces, King Agamnon, encountered storms at sea; to appease the God of the Sea who had brought the tempests, this father sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to Poseidon (originally Artemis, but of course, the God of the Sea was chosen to take the bla).
Agamnon's wife Clytemnestra, seeking revenge for her daughter, committed adultery and murdered Agamnon upon his triumphant return ho after ten years. Her lover took control of the power.
Agamnon's young son Orestes was only twelve years old at the ti and fled abroad, swearing to avenge his father when he grew up. Years later, Orestes indeed returned ho and, together with his sister Electra, killed his own mother and her lover.
Having avenged his father but now mired in the grave sin of matricide, Orestes went mad, incessantly haunted by The Furies, finding no peace, and had to flee everywhere.
It was Apollo who eventually guided him to Athens to seek the fair judgnt of Goddess Athena.
Defending Orestes, the Sun God claid that the father was the true sower, and a person could have just a father without a mother, just as Athena was born from the head of Zeus.
Ultimately, Athena, forced to take sides, cast the deciding vote; Orestes, the matricide, was proclaid innocent and returned to Mycenae to ascend the throne.
If the Goddess of Justice had been involved and had thrown Gaea's argunt that she asexually created Uranus, the Heavenly Father, in Apollo's face, surely the expression on the Sun God would have been quite a spectacle.
After all, the original Heavenly Father was created by the mother; should not the mother's act of revenging her daughter by killing the pitiless father be even more comndable?
Don't forget, that Heavenly Father was castrated by his son Kronos at the behest of Gaea.
If Apollo dares to claim again that the father's status is higher than the mother's and that avenging the father is more justifiable, he would be slapping the face of that old grandmother of Greece.
Of course, this theory Luo En can also apply for his own purposes.
After all, between him and Zeus, there exists the blood feud of matricide.
Since the Goddess Themis, upholding "justice," views the mother's status as higher than the father's, wouldn't it also be right to avenge his mother and kill that old thing of Olympus?
Thinking this through, Luo En's eyes narrowed slightly, his question loaded with ill intent.
"So in your view, should the son who killed the mother for his father be sentenced to death?"
Themis still shook her head, pondered for a mont, and responded.
"If I were to judge, I would choose exile, not the death penalty."
"Oh? Why is that? This is the grave cri of matricide."
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