Response to Blog Four

Okay, let’s go with The Coming of the Messiah. I think this myth is most prominent in fairy tales. Wouldn’t you agree? I absolutely love fairy tales, particularly fairy tales in the form of Disney Movies, so I think that Sleeping Beauty would be a marvelous (and obvious) example.
The Coming of the Messiah is a myth in which something goes horribly wrong and one person (or a group of persons I suppose) comes along and fixes it for everyone.
In Sleeping Beauty a baby princess is given the “gift” (I’d say it was a curse) of death by a rather grumpy fairy. All of the other fairies are giving her gifts that more like blessings. They gave her beauty, wit, grace and musical talents. But then here comes along Miss Grumpy Pants Maleficent ruining the party by making it so that at the age of sixteen, this baby princess will die.
Here enters Messiah number one: Merryweather
Merryweather is a good fairy. She tries to reverse the spell, but that would make the story absurdly short and uneventful. So she instead is able to make it so that Princess Aurora will not die on her sixteenth Birthday, but fall asleep until she is awakened by her prince charming. And to keep them from grieving, Merryweather makes it so the entire kingdom will fall into slumber along with their princess.
For her protection, Princess Aurora is raised by the good fairies for sixteen years. And even though they know about the curse (or gift or whatever it’s supposed to be), the fairies do a rather lousy job of watching over her. Maybe it doesn’t matter anyway because if she was supposed to prick her finger and fall into a deep sleep, she was going to.
So a spinning wheel magically appears before Aurora while no one is looking. She is drawn to this spinning wheel and next thing you know she’s pricking her finger on a spindle, just as Maleficent planned, but she didn’t die. She fell into a deep sleep, just as Merryweather intended. And the entire kingdom fell into a deep sleep as well. How terribly awful!
But wait! There is no need to fear. For here enters Messiah number 2: Prince Philip.
Hooray for true love. This daring young man comes along to save everyone from eternal slumber. He kneels next to his sleeping beauty, and with true love’s first kiss, unbinds her. She and the kingdom awaken and they, most likely live happily ever after.

So there we have it. Sleeping Beauty = The Coming of the Messiah.
Hooray.

~Nadia