Is Boredom Death's little sister?
So, in this post I'd like to explore the following questions.
<ol><li>
How are Death and Boredom related in Greek mythology? (Whenever I talk about personifications of death and boredom, I write them with capital letters)</li><li>
What types of boredom exist? (according to the Deutschlandfunk article)</li><li>
Why is boredom not always bad but also good and how to cope with boredom?</li></ol>
How are Death and Boredom related in Greek mythology?
According to Greek mythology, Thanatos (death) is the son of Nyx (night) and Erebos (darkness). Some of his siblings are: the Keres (violent death), Hypnos (sleep), Moros (doom), the Oneiroi (dreams), Momos (mockery), Oizys (misery), Nemesis (retribution), Apate (deceit), Geras (old age) and Eris (strife). I couldn't find a sister or brother of Thanatos that is a god or godess of boredom but in one resource it was claimed that Ania, a daughter of Eris, represents boredom: <a href="
https://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Minor_Gods/Algea/algea.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">
https://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Minor_Gods/Algea/algea.html</a> ("The Algea were the personifications of sorrow in Greek mythology, daughters of the goddess of strife, Eris. ... There were three Algea; Lype, personification of pain, grief and distress;
Ania, personification of distress, sorrow, and boredom; and Achus, personification of anguish.") That would make Boredom Death's niece. Or could Oizys, the goddess of misery, anxiety, grief, and depression, also seen as goddess of boredom? Can someone with a better knowledge of Greek mythology maybe shed a light on this?
What types of boredom exist?
According to the aforementioned German article, there are four types of boredom.
<ul><li>
situational boredom: we are bored because we have to wait against our will or are bed-bound because we're ill</li><li>
weary boredom: we find things we have to do boring, for instance certain job tasks</li><li>
existential boredom (that's the Death's sibling): we are bored with ourselves, our lives seem empty and lack meaning, we suffer from Weltschmerz.</li><li>
creative boredom: that's the only positive kind of boredom. It makes us creating new stuff, having new ideas, exploring new ways. Great things have been achieved because someone got bored initially. </li></ul>
What's your type of boredom right now? Is it situational boredom, because you're stuck at home and can't go out? Or weary boredom because you're tired of the same routines at home (e.g. you might find daily cooking inherently boring). Or you suffer from existential boredom and you have the feeling that your life has lost its meaning due to the current crisis? Or you enjoy creative boredom and pick up a new hobby or learn a new skill?
Why is boredom not always bad but also good and how to cope with boredom?
<ul><li>embrace it and take the opportunity to relax your mind or to be creative</li><li>look deeper into the underlying reasons for being bored, maybe you do lack some greater purpose for your life.</li></ul>
I might have lost some readers at this point already, who find my long ports boring and tedious. Well, what's boring for you, can be extremely interesting for someone else. A podcast that explores this is
The Boring Talks: <a href="
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05t3gr2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05t3gr2</a> ("Behind every boring subject is another layer of boringness you could have never imagined.")
What could be a topic that you're passionate about but everyone around you finds utterly boring?