In our last post we posited that because Orual, "also shall be Psyche," she shares in Psyche's task of making the gods beautiful. This is supported by the fact that in her visions, Orual sees herself assisting Psyche in her tasks.
How does Orual go about this not in visions, but in the physical world?
Orual makes the gods beautiful by beautifying the people and the society that worships them. She does this by transforming, perhaps revolutionizing, the three pillars of Glome society: its government and laws, its economy and learning, and the House of Ungit itself.
Under King Trom the palace was, in the words of Orual, “sprawled with the slaves' babies and my father's bastards.” The king appreciated the male slave who would impregnate many females, as it led to more slaves. Thus, the castle was essentially chaos: there was no order and not even a sense of family. The king had his way and then it was left to everyone to fend for themselves. No wonder there were thieves, sluts, and blackmailers in the castle!
Unlike King Trom, a proper biblical monarch will guide his nation towards great spiritual stature. To ensure constant awareness of this mission the biblical king must keep with him at all times a Torah scroll. Furthermore, he is limited in number of wives, wealth, and number of horses (strength of army). The king must never think of himself as divine, as King Trom does, but instead he must reflect the divine.
Orual succeeds in transforming the castle such that it reflects the divine. How does she accomplish this? She first hangs Batta the blackmailer and mafia kingpin amongst the slaves and servants of the castle. This is not only a just punishment, as Batta's manipulations certainly led to the death of others, but also serves as warning to everyone else. Second, Orual reduces the overall number of slaves. Some slaves she sells, others she frees. She plays matchmaker and marries them off and they become her most loyal subjects. In this way she established order and justice in the palace.
With order established in the palace Orual could (without hypocrisy) reinvigorate Glome’s code of laws. The Queen revised and publicized the laws enabling everyone to discern right from wrong. The importance of this should not be overlooked. Moral people must follow a moral code, but murky, subjective, and unclear principles and laws leads to immorality. By bringing civil order to Glome, Queen Orual reflects the pious biblical monarchs who guided their people towards justice and righteousness. Thus, she makes the gods beautiful.
The accomplishments of Orual in this sphere parallel Psyche’s task of separating seeds. Psyche too needs to transform chaos into order. She needs to discern one type of seed from another. Should the seeds have been planted as they the crops would be bastards, all mixed up, and the farmers who planted them would not know how to treat the mixture and help them grow. Psyche (with the help of the ants) brings order and clarity to the seeds.
The economy of Glome under King Trom was agricultural, relying on growing crops, animal husbandry, and hunting. While the kingdom had silver mines they were chiefly used, according to Orual, as a punishment rather than as a source of income. Under Queen Orual the mines became both a source of prosperity and a means of turning productive slaves into productive freemen. Other ventures of the Queen also improved the Glome economy. She deepened the Shennit river, opening Glome to greater trade, she built a bridge and cisterns, and brought in good bulls and rams to improve the animal stock.
Glome’s economic improvement came hand-in-hand with educational changes. Orual has the Fox buy books and men start learning to read. The knowledge learned further catalyzes economic development and, as we will see below, brings direct changes to the House of Ungit.
All of this work of Orual parallel’s Psyche’s second task, that of getting fleece from the golden rams. The fleece is, presumably, to be used by Ungit to make beautiful clothes. In Glome, the solid economic base spurred by Orual again beautifies Ungit. People have more to give to the gods, people are happier with the gods, and, with improved education, people can study the stories of the gods. By making Glome prosperous Orual again makes gods beautiful.
Finally, Orual beautifies the House of Ungit itself. In fact, perhaps her first decision as “queen” is to give the good farmland known as the Crumbles to the House of Ungit. This helps ensure Ungit's self-sufficiency. Orual also supports the elevation of Arnom to the office of the High Priest. Arnom, in turn, brings beauty and light to Ungit's house. He opens windows and lets in more light and generally makes the house cleaner and more becoming. Most revolutionary, Queen Orual helps the House of Ungit purchase a new Ungit, an idol of Aphrodite. This statue, in the eyes of Glome, was “wonderfully beautiful and lifelike,” and the marvel of pilgrims. Clearly, this made the gods beautiful in the eyes of the people.
What may have been an even more significant change in the House of Ungit was the attitude of the High Priest Arnom. How the friendship arose between Arnom and the Fox is not shared in TWHF. Nonetheless, Arnom is the only one in the entire book who uses the Fox’s actual name (though at that point in time he still as slave). The influence of the Fox on Arnom is transformational. Arnom is the first to read the new books purchased by the Fox. Further, Arnom learns from the Fox to speak of God as a philosopher.
The synthesis of paganism and Greek philosophy within Arnom and into the House of Ungit itself, results in the rise of a truer religion (as expanded upon by Dr. Ronda Chervin here). This, then, catalyzes the emergence of the real beauty of the gods.
This task of Orual parallels Psyche’s task of retrieving a cupful of the water of death. For Orual’s introduction of philosophy into Glome cannot, by itself, bring about a proper society. It must be tempered by belief in the gods and an objective moral code, or it too will lead to death.
The final task of Psyche is to retrieve beauty in a casket from the Queen of the Deadlands and bring it back to Ungit so that Ungit will become beautiful. This has no apparent parallel performed by Orual. Yet, it turns not only Ungit beautiful, but Orual as well. We’ll talk about how next time.
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