LAST week, we left off with the name Troilus. This week, I scour my contacts and my memory for names of Baguio people named after Greek gods.
Right off, there is Achilles Costales, a professor at the UP Baguio. Achilles, in Greek mythology, is the son of the mortal king Peleus and the nymph Thetis.
Thetis was something, apparently, because both the gods Zeus and Poseidon were, the story goes, in love with her. However, there was this prophecy that whoever would be the son of Thetis would be greater than his father. This would not do for either god Zeus or Poseidon, and they withdrew from pursuing Thetis.
When Achilles was born, his mother, in her desire to turn him immortal, dipped him in the River Styx, said to have miraculous powers, including making one invulnerable. Styx was also the name of the goddess after whom the river was named and from whom the river derived its miraculous powers. Styx is also that, uh, rock band. Laaa-dy...
Achilles, son of Thetis, indeed became greater than his father. He was a hero of the Trojan War whose latest embodiment was by the actor Brad Pitt. I came away from the 2004 movie Troy really thinking, "Hector the brave, Achilles the god, Paris the... " Nevermind.
And here, we must pause on this journey on the Styx and think of Baguio. On Facebook, that platform we alternately love, hate, and love to hate, Achilles Costales posts a long letter that assails the Baguio government's current plan to turn that section of Burnham Park that was for decades home to the Baguio City Auditorium and later the Baguio City Library into a mammoth parking lot. We stand with him and the Baguio City-zens opposed to the commercialization of that area of the city park.
And next week, we must go there.