What a curious piece of Christian mythology! I mean..for the most part, Christianity doesn’t go in for the transformations that Ovid made famous in Roman mythology. There aren’t a lot of metamorphoses.
I’ve been hearing this line for most of my life and I never realized its origins. I thought it was just Ophelia being crazy – saying quirky non-sequitors. Self-identifying as an owl maybe. Or her father as a baker. It felt like a fairy tale moment.
But no. This is a story about the savior transforming an ungrateful kid into an owl. That’s a Willy Wonka God right there. That’s Zeus shit.
And the story is that the baker was trying to provide some charity, bread-wise, and this girl got in the way. And was transformed into an owl for her behavior. An owl.
And presumably the baker, who now has no daughter but an OWL, is all like – “Oh praises be to the savior.”
Like – I thought the Christian god was supposed to be all forgiveness and mercy – aside from the wrath and punishment, of course. It feels like the “Christian” thing to do would be to say, “Hey kid, that’s not so nice. Maybe try being charitable. But, you know, I’m the Savior, so I forgive you. And even though I COULD turn you into an owl, I am definitely NOT going to. Because mercy. “
