Unemployed Valkyries?

The Valkyries would have been in the unemployment fund if they lived in modern times. No object and no purpose.

“The female commandos of Scandinavian mythology,” writes Marilella Antonopoulou, editor in chief at the website Ladylike.gr. The Valkyries, flying over the scene of battle, carry the lifeless bodies of the most heroic warriors to Valhalla for the sake of their master, the god of war and death, Odin. The Valkyries were “treated by the Vikings as servants of a high cause.” In a comparison between Greek and Scandinavian mythology, Valhalla is identified with the Champs Elysees. In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields were the destination of heroes and the virtuous.

But where did the Valkyries go?

In this day and age, I wonder what kind of work the Valkyries could offer? What virtuous and heroic warriors, who would fall for their country or for any other glorious cause, would they carry to paradise? Since discussing the Valkyries with a friend, I have been trying to think of even one example of a virtuous man and/or heroic warrior who “fell in battle,” and I keep failing. This is because I look for heroes among those who claim to be striving to make this country a better place, among those who do so professionally and full-time. I am looking to find one among them, and although my knowledge of history is very poor indeed, I may have to go back many decades to find just one example.

Today, however, I started to think again with a slightly more relaxed mind and began to make calculations.

At Tempe, 57; at Mati, 104; outside Pyrgos, 600 (give or take); in Thessaly, 17 (not counting the 229,192 animals); and so many others, isolated cases, victims of “circumstances” (?). And how many others…

Who are all these heroes who sacrifice themselves for this country, heroic and worthy warriors, who sacrificed themselves without being asked, so that this world may learn in such a cruel way that it must become better, but at the same time it fights tooth and nail to prove that it is getting worse. And what do all the rest of us do, “innocent” observers of this tragedy, who do not speak out, who do not stand up, who are afraid of our own shadow, who look at our own self-interest? Where is our responsibility in a society where silence has become an institution and the “Facebook revolution” a so-called public dialogue?

Greece proudly marches for the March 25 National Independence Day, with flags raised, in a society that is dwindling. Discounts on everything. In education, health, culture, democracy.

We sweat about grades, without caring about education. We strive for degrees without caring about knowledge. We embrace success, even if it represents the result of complicity and indignity. And then we whine about our mess.

I ask all of us to stop being so superficially substantive and so essentially superficial. Because next time the Valkyries will carry us too. We too will become the modern-day heroes of the 8 o’clock news.

Marina Selini Katsaiti is associate professor and chair of the Department of Regional and Economic Development at the Agricultural University of Athens.