Wagner on Mankind

On the second night of the Ring Cycle Wotan, the one-eyed King of the Gods, tells Freia, his wife, that he does not want to kill Sigmunde, his bastard, half-mortal son. Freia is angry at Wotan, and tells him he must not help Sigmunde, and he must kill him. Freia hates Sigmunde because he is a half-God/half-mortal fathered by Wotan himself. And she is mad at Wotan for a lot of reasons that she deserves to be angry at him for. Sigmund is the son of the mistress. Wotan protests that he does not want to kill Sigmund. Wotan tells Freia he has never helped him. Sigmund's life has been only misery and pain (true) but that he loves him because he has taken care of himself. He says that Sigmund, although he is not a God, can do things that Gods cannot do. He says all the Gods, and those he helps, despite all their powers, they are slaves to him. They depend on him.

Sigmunde, on the other hand, is a self-made man. He is free.

"A free man creates himself," he says.

That phrase stuck with me like a line of poetry. In Wotan's eyes, a single, brave man, who took responsibility for himself, had achieved more than all the Gods with their mighty powers, who lived beholden to him.

Who are we beholden to? Who holds power over us? Do we let that power sway us? Or do we hold strong, and make our own path, with no help?

Wotan betrayed Sigmund, who he loved almost the most. But then he betrayed almost everyone else, too.