#Acrisius

[sarafangirlart]

Danaë in her tower

Sometimes her prison is an underground chamber (which is probably the version y’all are familiar with) but I like the one with the tower bc it ties her to Rapunzel, ever since I’ve realized their commonalities I’ve been thinking about them lol

I like to think Danaë took up several hobbies to pass the time much like Rapunzel, but unlike Rapunzel, she actually remembers her life before her imprisonment and misses her friends, the girls she’s playing with in the fresco are her cousins Nyctaea and Iphianassa.

[aliciavance4228]

King Acrisius: That bastard son of my daughter is a monster! A MONSTER!

Baby Perseus:

[mysterious-secret-garden]

Giorgio Ghis - Danae and the infant Perseus cast out to sea by Acrisius, 1543.

[atrumvox]

From Miraculous Birth to the Challenge with Medusa: The Legend of Perseus

Discover how an ancient prophecy forced the king of Argos to take extreme measures to secure his own future!

The story of Perseus is deeply rooted in Greek mythology, woven with dire prophecies and acts of extraordinary courage. King Acrisius of Argos desperately tries to escape his fate by locking his daughter Danae in a tower. Yet Zeus, through a divine ruse, reaches her, leading to the birth of Perseus—an hero destined for great deeds. Follow Perseus as he grows and prepares to face the terrifying Gorgon, Medusa, in a tale where bravery challenges destiny!

[sarafangirlart]

Ok but I wanna talk about Melampus and Bias for a sec so… Melampus was a soothsayer and is just an absolute mad I could rant about another time and Bias is just… some guy who tags along with him ig. Tho they where kings of Argos in the most insane way:

So the whole history of Argos and who ruled when is really confusing and varies between sources, but one thing to note about Proetus and Acrisius is that they were twins and constantly fought each other over the throne of Argos but eventually agreed to split the kingdom, Acrisius gets Argos and Proetus gets the newly made Tiryns.

Now I’m not sure when exactly Proetus split his kingdom with Acrisius but the whole Melampus situation means that he split his kingdom not once, not twice, BUT THREE TIMES.

Which means that his lineage would inherit very little and that they’d have to fight for control with a whole other royal family. Which makes Megapenthes trading kingdoms with Perseus make so much sense!

Megapenthes didn’t want to deal with that soothsayer and his nepo bro, so of course he wanted to have Argos but instead of going to war which obviously wouldn’t work he decided to go to Perseus, who at the time was traumatized and vulnerable and too ashamed to claim Argos, bc he knew that Perseus had limited options and would gladly take Tiryns even tho it’s a terrible deal.

So now I’m imagining Perseus going to Tiryns not fully realizing that having to other kings ruling alongside him would be infuriating, so in turn instead of dealing with all that, Perseus founded the city of Mycenae.

Bringing back old rubric that someone wonderfully called "greek forest", today's hero - Diomedes

(Click to the image for better quality)

I didn't plan to make this, but i keep seeing that people still stumble upon my old post with a greek family tree, and i really needed to correct myself.

In my old post i included Ares as the father of Porthaon and I need to say that it is late and roman variant and since my post still did not gone into oblivion yet i made this and i apologize for bad source checking.

(This one contains the most popular and old versions to my knowledge. I make these just for fun, so if you want to use it for something, better check yourself)

if you want, you may check my previous versions (beware of diomedes linage)

extended tree with a lot of people

odysseus' branch in detail

[sarnai4]

King Acrisius (to Danaë): I'm going to keep you from having babies.

Zeus: I took that personally.

[sarafangirlart]

When you are hating on Perseus this is who you are being mean to

[aliciavance4228]

Me: Please, don-

My brain: If Perseus accidentally killed Acrisius while competing in an athletic contest then doesn’t it mean that the very first impression Acrisius had on his grandson whom he haven't seen ever since he was a baby or so was him naked and oiled up before getting hit by the discus?

Me:

[mythologypaintings]

Danae Watching the Building of the Brazen Tower

Artist: Edward Burne-Jones (British, 1833–1898)

Date: 1872

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Description

In the 1870s Burne-Jones and his friend the designer, poet, and socialist William Morris collaborated on illustrations for Morris’s The Earthly Paradise (1868–70). The epic poem, composed of mythological tales from ancient and Nordic sources, served as an inspiration for Burne-Jones throughout his life. The story of Danaë is taken from the chapter “The Doom of King Acrisius.” Fearful of an oracle’s warning that he would die by the hand of his grandson, as yet unborn, the king built a tower “wrought of brass most cunningly” in which to imprison his daughter, Danaë. The god Zeus breached her “living tomb” and impregnated Danaë in a shower of gold; later her son, Perseus, unwittingly slew his grandfather. Here Danaë, already seemingly incarcerated in the narrow courtyard, watches the construction of her prison, her future foreshadowed by the rosebush whose blooms are confined in a cage.

[sarafangirlart]

Acrisius turning to Danaë: see? This is a daughter who is loyal to her father, you should learn from her!

"Sisyphus and Salmoneus, sons of Aeolus, hated each other. Sisyphus asked Apollo how he might kill his enemy, meaning his brother, and the answer was given that if he had children from the embrace of Tyro, daughter of his brother Salmoneus, they would avenge him. When Sisyphus followed his advice two sons were born, but their mother slew them when she learned the prophecy." - Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 60

Now that's an effective way of averting prophecy! Why bother with exposing the prophesied child(ren), which is something that always comes back to bite you in the ass, when you can simply do this instead?

[snufflysniff]

some rdr2 strangers as horses - part 1

!! THIS IS GOING OFF OF VIBES ONLY !!

Acri - Thoroughbred

Albert Mason - Black Forest Horse

Alphonse Renaud - Suffolk Punch

Algernon Wasp - Marwari

Andrew Bell - Mule

Charles Chatenay - Arabian

Charlotte Balfour - Oldenburg

Francis Sinclair - American Saddlebred

Hamish Sinclair - Ardennes

[ellies-rambles]

greatest apologies to every adult at my school for my inability to remember to schedule emails and thus sending emails at ~1 am

[doobydoobydoowau]

unless your prophecy says that your son is going to kill you, in which case change nothing about your life, treat them with respect AND FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS DON'T LEAVE THEM ON THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN FOR A SHEPHERD TO FIND

pspsps to all my mythological hellenic kings out there if an oracle gives you a prophecy that's all like "as long as x happens/doesn't happen nothing will go wrong ever and you'll be fine" RUN away you are not safe

[my-name-is-apollo]

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.

[whencyclopedia]

Perseus

Perseus is one of the greatest and oldest pan-Hellenic heroes of Greek mythology. Perseus famously killed the dreaded Medusa, a Gorgon with snakes as hair and whose stare turned men to stone. Perseus also carried out the daring rescue of Princess Andromeda from a monstrous sea creature sent by the god Poseidon to terrorize the kingdom of Ethiopia.

The Son of Zeus

Perseus is perhaps the oldest of the Greek heroes with depictions of his beheading of the Gorgon Medusa being amongst the earliest scenes from mythology appearing in art. Even in mythology, he is believed to have lived three generations before that other great hero Hercules, who was himself one generation before the Trojan War. Perseus' mortal father was Danaos and his mother was Danae, the daughter of Akrisios (or Acrisius), the king of Argos. However, Perseus, as with other Greek heroes, was believed to have had divine parentage, something which helped to explain how they could achieve such fantastic feats of derring-do, providing a link between men and gods and fullfilling their function as role models. In Perseus' case, Zeus was thought to be his real father after the king of the gods himself had slept with Danae when she had been imprisoned by her father. Akrisios had locked up his daughter in an underground prison made of bronze after an oracle had declared that his future grandson would kill him. Of course, this was no barrier to Zeus who entered the cell as a shower of gold rain. Naturally, when the child was born, Akrisios was unwilling to believe Danae's far-fetched story of the golden rain. Suspicious and still mindful of the oracle, he sealed up the mother and child in a wooden chest and had them thrown into the sea. Zeus did not abandon his filial duties, though, and a quiet word with Poseidon ensured sufficiently calm seas, so that the chest washed up safely on the shores of the Aegean island of Seriphos and was found by Diktys, a fisherman who took them in and cared for the castaways.

Continue reading...

[sarafangirlart]

Perseus’s guy friends: Pelops and Teutamides

They’re only really implied to be friends but as the saying goes: actions speak louder than words. Pelops and Perseus married off not one, not two, but FOUR of their children with each others, Perseus’s 4 sons with Pelops’s 4 daughters. Considering that marriage (especially back then) wasn’t just about the bride and groom, but about bringing their families together and building a friendship with them. Considering that Pelops and Perseus felt the need to do that multiple times would mean they liked and trusted each other a lot.

Now Teutamides is a lot less known but I think is just as important, when Perseus accidentally killed Acrisius during Teutamides’s father’s funeral games, Teutamides couldve easily reacted with hostility and exiled Perseus for what happened, but he didn’t. Instead him and the Larissians helped bury Acrisius and even made a hero shrine for him, which is definitely more than that old man deserved but it could’ve been done to cheer up Perseus. So I’d argue that they were definitely friends.