 since the creature seems to be made from humus, from dirt. This was one of the hundreds of fables collected by the Roman slave-turned-grammarian Hyginus more than 2,000 years ago. The myth of cura reflects the human condition. Care and anxiety, concern and worry, the multiple meanings of the Latin word cura, are part of what makes us who and what we are, and it's hardly a self-aggrandizing narrative.