Friday, July 26, 2013

Bad Boys, Bad Boys

Question: Making this question short (pun intended) - how would you guys handle the legend of Procrustes, Poseidon's other (in)famous son?

Sometimes, Scions go bad. It's a thing that happens. They might go bad because they've been mistreated by their parents or pantheon, because they've suffered some misfortune that permanently scars them, because they've been corrupted by a minion of the Titans or even just because they were flawed or unstable to start with. That doesn't mean they can't still do awesome and legendary things, but it usually means those legendary deeds are not the most positive the world has ever seen.

Procrustes, the infamous king who forced travelers to fit into his guest-bed by either stretching them with rack-like tools or cutting off limbs that were too long, is one of those Scions-gone-bad. No myth explains why he was hell-bent on murdering any traveler unfortunate enough to come his way (except maybe a side implication that he did it in order to rob them), but the crime of breaching the sacred rules of hospitality was one of the most serious and swiftly punished in ancient Greece, and he was inevitably put down for his actions.

It's probably not a coincidence that Theseus, another Scion of Poseidon, was the one to kill him. It's likely that Poseidon himself refused to tolerate his wayward son's actions, and sent his brother to provide swift and brutal punishment.

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