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Nothing feels worse than seeing Apollo, a strong god that DOES love his children, very important, smart and powerful get basically turned into a neglectful, sex addict person all to fit the story.

No, mythology Apollo LOVED his children, no he isn’t someone that only cares about sex. He isn’t a father that would actively allow his children to die or not care about them.

He would’ve remembered every single one of their names, he would’ve loved them, he would’ve even taken care of the other children.

Apollo was literally set up for failure. I love Rick but I’ll never forgive him for ruining Apollos potential. Apollo in mythology was a FATHER. And he still is. He loves and protects them and nurtures them. He doesn’t allow them to just die like nothing or forget their names.

He is a father.

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I was going through my gallery and I came across this that I made back in 2021. And tell me why he looks so old when he's supposed to be like 16 here. Like I know he was struggling with depression growing up but damn. His family really treated him like shit.

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If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

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How wonderful they were, those evenings when she would enter the dreamlike glow of her private apartments, divinely intoxicated on hot chocolate and champagne. She had always preferred warm, cosy spaces, far from the cold air of Versailles that froze her to the bone. In the Hall of Mirrors, the candles of the grand chandeliers had all been extinguished and the moon enveloped the palace in its soft milky light. It was then she would jump into her alcove bed to either fall straight to sleep or lay awake in a dream. Time flies so quickly when life is joyous and carefree. - Serge Gleizes on Madame de Pompadour, Laduree: Decoration and Inspiration

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livia cardew making fun of coriolanus for not being able to understand a poem’s meaning will never not be funny

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I'm always going to find it funny that Madame de Pompadour did the absolute most to prove to literally everyone that she and the king weren't sleeping with each other anymore. Like all the statues are wild tbh. Like we get it y'all talk instead of getting in bed.

Madame de Pompadour as ‘Friendship’, 1755. Commisioned by Madame de Pompadour from Etienne-Maurice Falconet to commemorate her transition from the King’s lover to his best friend.

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Jean-Marc Nattier, After (French, 1685-1766) Portrait of Madame Louise of France, n.d.

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This is Madame de Pompadour's best portrait.

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I was wondering how people approached straight sex back in the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries, and even before that if I'm going to be honest. Is it true that married couples had sex while fully dressed? Giving head was a thing only sex workers did? Men never ate their wives out? Why would they be ok with this? Is it just a myth and my assumptions are wildly wrong and you find this hilarious? I think you might have an answer, maybe

Well, in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe at least, you are right that people didn't usually have heterosexual sex completely naked....they weren't usually fully clothed but a lady might be wearing her shift and stockings, for example.

Oral sex is harder to assess. Nina Kushner found that, in eighteenth century France at least, most sex workers DID NOT give men oral sex. When fellatio is recorded in the police records of mid eighteenth century Paris, it is posited as something a bit weird, something inferior to a woman merely using her hand. I think this was probably the case elsewhere. As for cunnilingus, well....there are some refs to it in pornography, and men who knew where the clitoris is, like Casanova, certainly did it. But it is hard to assess because not many woman sat down and wrote about the sex they had with men in detail. If we take a pornographic book from the period, like Fanny Hill for example, we see no oral sex at all, but men do use more than just their penis to pleasure women, and vice versa.

Biggest thing to remember is that, pre-Victorian era, it was believed that, in order to conceive a child, a woman had to orgasm. She had to enjoy the sex in order to become pregnant. There's actually an instance in Pepys' diary where he asks one of his many extra-marital affairs if she enjoyed their intercourse ('did u cum' basically) and he is relieved when she says no. Relieved because that means she isn't pregnant. We must assume then that men generally believed in the idea that they should please women sexually, particularly in marriage (when sex was posited as something one did to conceive a child).

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JoJo’s Bourgeois Adventure

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This is so interesting I need to start doing my own research

Why is Hera so hostile to Leto in a manner that she isn't with the other lovers of Zeus? I can't think of any other woman who was targeted so much by Hera. One could say she didn't want Leto to give birth because her children would be a competition to Hera's children, but why bother her even after she had already given birth? Is it because Leto herself is also a threat to Hera?

Sort of I guess?

I don't think Leto would ever be a threat to Hera's role as the queen of the gods but Hera might see her as a competitor for Zeus' affection, even though I think Zeus would not marry someone else and replace Hera.

The twins are definitely a big reason why Hera begrudged Leto - it is outright stated in the Callimachus Hymn to Delos that the reason Hera especially targeted Leto was because she was told that Apollo would be dearer to Zeus than Ares is. Zeus is very proud of Artemis as well. As he himself puts it, he doesn't mind facing Hera's wrath for children like her.

But the continued hatred even after the birth of the twins (like sending Tityus to rape Leto) could have been for different reasons. This wasn't like one of those affairs Zeus would have with mortal women where he'd leave them behind once the child is conceived. Neither could Hera, despite her many attempts, get rid of Leto like she did with the other lovers. Not only did Leto give Zeus children that he loves dearly, she also stayed on Olympus despite Hera's hatred towards her (which isn't directed to any of Zeus' other divine mistresses, btw). It might have also been because Leto herself is dear to Zeus, if the way she's treated on Olympus is any proof. In the Homeric hymn to Apollo, Leto stands next to Zeus - in the Olympian assembly - to welcome their son. Hera is completely absent from the scene, as if Leto had taken her place even if temporarily. Now you could say this is because Apollo himself is such a powerful and glorious son in a way that no other son of Zeus is, so of course Leto would get such an honor (the hymn itself presents it this way).

But here's another instance - in the Iliad, when Hera goes to seduce Zeus, he is obviously very smitten but before getting into the action, he lists some of his lovers (I believe these were his favorite lovers, as a lot of others are not mentioned):

"for never has such desire for goddess or mortal woman so gripped and overwhelmed my heart, not even when I was seized by love for Ixion’s wife, who gave birth to Peirithous the gods’ rival in wisdom; or for Acrisius’ daughter, slim-ankled Danaë, who bore Perseus, greatest of warriors; or for the far-famed daughter of Phoenix, who gave me Minos and godlike Rhadamanthus; or for Semele mother of Dionysus, who brings men joy; or for Alcmene at Thebes, whose son was lion-hearted Heracles; or for Demeter of the lovely tresses; or for glorious Leto; or even for you yourself, as this love and sweet desire for you grips me now.’ (Book 14, trans. A. T. Murray)

Notice how when talking about most of them, he also mentions the children they bore to him but when Demeter and Leto are mentioned, he doesn't bring up their children at all despite them being some of the most accomplished kids of his. What's more, he takes Leto's name just before Hera's. I mean, this is an interpretation but it looks like not only did Zeus love Leto the most out of all his mistresses - giving her a place second to that of his wife, but also his love for her wasn't necessarily only because she gave him two amazing children.

Nonnus does something similar in the Dionysiaca (but this time Zeus is enamored with Persephone instead of Hera) but more notably, when Typhoeus attacks Olympus and Zeus is discouraged, Nike takes the form of Leto to encourage him and it's pretty telling of what Leto meant to Zeus.

One interesting similarity between Hera and Leto is that they both had a giant try to rape them. Porphyrion tried to violate Hera (Zeus inspired him to do this) and Tityus tried to violate Leto (upon Hera's order). Though both of them were killed, only Tityus got an eternal punishment in Tartarus of having his liver/heart eaten out by vultures so Zeus seems to have taken a greater offense at Tityus trying to assault Leto.

Again, I don't think Zeus would ever take anyone other than Hera as his permanent wife - she is irreplaceable to him. There's an entire myth about Hera leaving him and Zeus winning her back. Their relationship is obviously complex and involves all kinds of emotions including love and hate. But Leto is continually dear to him as well and that's something Hera can't do much about.

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I love it when artist shows Aphrodite having motherly affection to her children. ♡

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, 1824-1887

Venus and Cupid, n/d, terracotta, 51x60 cm

Private Collection

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Things We Love: Madame de Pompadour

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Louis d'Orléans, Duc de Nemours, in the Louis XV-era attire he wore to a costume ball held by Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace on June 6th, 1845. Nemours (1814-1896), who was visiting the UK with his wife, Victoire, was a younger son of France’s King Louis-Philippe and Queen Marie-Amélie.

An illustrious event, the mid-eighteenth-century-themed ball was attended by 1,200 members of the country’s highest-ranking elites as well as foreign dignitaries. Newspapers reported every detail, including the opening with a polonaise at ten thirty and closing in the small hours with the country dance called Sir Roger de Coverley, with a pause at midnight for supper. “[M]any wore the dresses of their own ancestors, copied from family portraits,” one reads in the following day’s issue of The Spectator.

Watercolour portrait by Eugène Lami, 1845.

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Louis XV being pleased when his mistresses almost died “in service” (aka, giving birth to his children or suffering miscarriages) is the reason why he is the most hideous king in my eyes.

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Louis XV, dressed in a military uniform.

Source

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So what do you think is the funniest event of all history? Hope you get better soon enough

Ahhh, there are so many! But one of my favourites involves Casanova at a Parisian operahouse. He had managed to snag tickets for one of Lully’s operas and he was not the only famous face there that night: Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV’s mistress was there too. She heard that Casanova was in the box beneath her and she was intrigued (he was the talk of Europe because he had just escaped the prison in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.) So, she leaned over her box and shouted down to him “Is it true?” Casanova replied “Is what true?”

“That you are from down there!” she continued to shout over the side of her box. “From down where?” Casanova said. “From Venice!” and before the words had even left La Pompadour’s lips, Casanova had already thought of a witty, inappropriate quip to impress her and make her laugh. He answered “Venice, madame, is not down. It is up!” (An erection joke)

The same night, Casanova’s companion in his box, the Duc de Richelieu, asked Casanova which of the two female singers on stage that he preferred. Casanova said which one he thought was prettiest and Richelieu replied, annoyed “She has ugly legs” to which Casanova said, sharp as a tack, “One does not see them. And besides, the first thing I always put aside when assessing a woman’s beauty are her legs”

Three words: oh my god