1. Revenge is to inflict retribution on someone for something they did. An example
I commonly see in today’s society and in high school is when a person spreads a
rumor about someone else and that victim retaliates or someone believes the rumor
and turns against the victim. For example, in my high school, someone’s house got
TPed and a rumor spread that this senior did it. The junior, whose house was
vandalized, believed the rumor and got revenge on the senior. She brought an egg to
school and, as soon as she saw the senior, she cracked the egg over the senior’s
head. The avenger, the junior, was very satisfied with her work. But when it was
proven that the senior didn’t in fact do it, the avenger felt miserable because many
students had scoffed at her.
Dawavantsie wrote one of the myths I had read called, “The Coyote and the
Water Plume Snake”. This story was about a coyote and a water plume snake that
become friends. When the coyote invites the snake over to his house, the very large
snake takes up all the room and the coyote has to stand outside. Then, as revenge,
the coyote makes himself a really long tail out of wood for when he goes to the
snake’s house the next night. The plan works and the snake had to sit outside. But,
as the coyote is leaving, the snake sets his fake tail on fire. The coyote doesn’t realize
until too late and ends up drowning in the river that was supposed to put out the
fire. The snake in this myth achieved his revenge on the coyote that was making fun
of him but the coyote didn’t achieve anything. Because of the coyote’s thirst for
revenge, he ended up dead.
Another myth I read this week was “Athena, Arachne and the Weaving Contest”.
In this myth, a vain mortal woman challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving
contest. Arachne, the woman, was overconfident and weaved scenes of fearful gods.
As revenge for the notion, Athena turned Arachne into a spider cursing her to be
forever stuck weaving. The avenger most definitely achieved revenge and seemed to
feel fine about it but Arachne had to be doomed with this terrible fate.
This myth can compare to the previous one in some ways and certainly contrasts
in others. The previous myth and this one are the same in the way that one person
was left feeling good while the other was doom to either death, or a terrible fate. But
some differences were the fact that in, “The Coyote and the Water Plume Snake” the
fight began between friends while in “Athena, Arachne and the Weaving Contest”
started off as almost enemies.
These three different examples of revenge are very different situations. The first
is just a very common misunderstanding gone wrong, the second is a prank gone
wrong, and the third is a feud between mortal and god. But they all end sort of
similarly. One person seems to be miserable while the other seems fine. In the first
story, the avenger was made fun of while the senior was fine. In the first myth, the
coyote ended dead and the snake was fine. In the second myth, Arachne was cursed
to be a spider and Athena was fine. But, in all the situations, it wasn’t always the
avenger on bottom. This one important similarity lead me to believe that revenge
isn’t worth it because at least one person ends on the bottom and there is no telling
if it will be you. I personally never thought revenge is sweet, it is more bitter.