Procrustes is one of the darkest and most uncanny figures in Greek mythology, a blacksmith who hunted travelers on the lonely mountain roads between Athens and Eleusis. He had a special iron bed prepared to welcome the tired travelers he invited to his home; however, this bed was not an ordinary piece of furniture, but rather the first and most ruthless tool of standardization in human history.
Procrustes' rule was absolute: the guest lying on the bed had to fit it in length. If the guest was shorter than the bed, Procrustes tried to stretch him by pulling his legs; if the guest was longer, he cut and trimmed his limbs or height to fit the borders of the bed. He never allowed anyone to remain in their own measure, in their own unique existence. What mattered was not human nature, but the "flawless and uniform" measure prescribed by the iron bed. Until Theseus came along, laid this tyrant on his own bed, and gave him the exact same treatment, Procrustes continued to force everyone into his own mold.
Procrustes' bed today is our bodies, our lifestyles, our consumer habits, and our tastes. It is, for example, the aesthetic pressure exerted by the fashion industry, the media, and centuries-old pressures on women and the individual in general. The obligation to be size zero, symmetrical faces, aesthetic impositions... If bodies exceed that standard, they are forced to be filed down and shrunk with diets; if one feels lacking, attempts are made to bring them to that size through surgical interventions. As if everyone had to look with the same features, appear with the same thinness.
Today, where we must go on vacation is mandated; in the summer, everyone is required to share photos in the same popular coastal town and the same cove, and in the winter, post "winter mood" updates in the same venues. The brands that must be worn, the specific generation of coffees that must be drunk, the same type of minimalist furniture we put in our homes... All of them are the measurements of this secret bed. If your taste, vacation understanding, or lifestyle falls short of that popular mold (meaning it remains "ordinary" or "old"), you are stretched and tried to be forced into that trend; if you are different, slow, or original enough not to fit those standards (longer than the mold), you are filed down and declared "weird."
Today, this old fable has evolved into an even more terrifying dimension hand in hand with the digital age. Algorithms, explore pages, and social media feeds have carried that iron bed right into our pockets. Now, not just how we look, but what we love, where we go, what we consume and what we admire are all shaped according to the measure dictated by a single center.
Like those who perished in Procrustes' bed, today we are all tested by this pressure built on our own tastes, our own budgets, and our own natural flow. While slogans of "you are free, be yourself" are thrown at us, in the background, that iron scissors continues to clip, sending everyone to the same vacation, making everyone drink the same coffee, and pouring everyone into the same mold. The bed remains the same bed, the measure is fixed; and what remains is humanity losing its own self while trying to fit into that narrow mold.
Previous Tales in the Series:
https://www.arkhedijital.com/2026/08/fairy-tales-for-adults-1-simurg-and.html
https://www.arkhedijital.com/2026/08/fairy-tales-for-adults-2-narcissus-and.html
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