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infected sufferer can turn each personal occurrence into a stepping stone for a cleaner, happier life. Envy like pride and avarice strikes the weak and plagues the mind. Philip Bailey stated it best in his A Country Town when he remarked, “Envy s a coal comes hissing hot from hell” (Bartlett 55). In mythological text, Hera is the epitome of envy. Although Zeus proved to be an unfaithful mate by courting Europe, Dana , the virtuous Alcmena, Leda, and Io, Hera s persecutions of his concubines and illegitimate offspring exudes with fiery envy. Hercules received a great deal of Hera s torment. This half-god bastard although destined to be praised and honored was the principal suspect of Hera s vengeance (de Loverdo 128). This wrathful goddess cast down a fit of madness into the head of Hercules that caused him against his will to savagely murder his wife and children (Macpherson 59). An additional instance involved the lovely maiden Io. After being transformed into a cow, Hera ordered a beast with 100 eyes to guard her. Zeus aided her escape from the sentinel. But befor!e he could transform the youth back to normal, Hera unleashed a maddening fly to antagonize her for the majority of her life time (Guthrie 159). When the young maiden, Callisto, “lied down” with Zeus, this envious wife turned Zeus paramour into a bear. Many years later, Hera lured Arcas, Callisto s son, while hunting into Callisto s bear cave. Unaware of his relationship with the beast, Arcas fitted an arrow to his bow and prepared to fire, but Zeus emerged, seized his beastly mistress, and ascended back to the heavens where she shines as the Great Bear. Hera still angered ordered Poseidon to refuse her admittance into his waters. As a result, this constellation never dips below the horizon (Switzer 23). From these accounts, the Greeks feared Hera and her extreme acts of random torment. In the same way, the tale of Cain and Abel demonstrates the evil unleashed by an envious character-trait. Cain killed his brother because of his uncontrollable envy. Both brothers mad!e offerings to the Lord, but Abel offered valuable “fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock,” while Cain offered “some of the fruits from the soil” (Genesis 4:3-4). The Lord looked with favor at Abel s sacrifice but dissatisfaction at Cain s. Because of this dishonor, Cain escorted his brother into the desert and slew him. When he returned to Eden, the Lord, knowing what had transpired, informed Cain that because of his envious action he was cursed to restlessly wander the earth (Genesis 4:6). These two scenarios illustrate the dangers of harboring such an immoral quality. Both Hera and Cain were looked down upon for the evil character trait he/she stood for. It is important though to understand the underlying lessons that express the evils of envy.Humanity has existed for over two thousand years, and yet the same human traits of lies, deceits, and immoral acts remain within each soul today. The Book of Common Prayer pleads in The Littany “from all blindness of heart, from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness, Good Lord, deliver us” (Bartlett 54). Mythological and biblical texts are quite interesting to review for throughout the centuries times have changed; yet people s nature and inclination towards these three vices remain inherent. Once we achieve a higher understanding of the warnings of pride, envy, and avarice, only then can humanity as a whole stand up to the problems and questions that plague our future. Once the deeper meanings of these parables from history are understood, the common moral code becomes evident where only a stone wall stood before. After the enriching meaning of the literature produced by the authors of past or present is interpreted, the! fact is acknowledged that morality is universal.

Bartlett, John. Familiar Quotations. Toronto : Little, Brown and Company, 1980. Buursma, Dirk R. The NIV Topical Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan : Zondervan Bible Pub., 1989. Coolidge, Olivia E. Greek Myths. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co., 1949. Guthrie, W. K. C. The Greeks and Their Gods. Boston : Beacon Press, 1968. de Loverdo, Costa. Gods with Bronze Swords : Historical and Archaeological Foundations of Greek Mythology. New York : Doubleday & Co. Inc., 1970. MacPherson, Jay. Four Ages of Man. Toronto : MacMillan Co., 1962.Switzer, Ellen. Greek Myths : Gods, Heroes and Monsters. New York : Atheneum, 1988.