#Classical mythology

[cjbolan]

@ditoob It’s set a very high bar for Nolan’s “Odyssey”

Anyway I'm back on my bullshit!

You guys I'm absolutely insane about the 1997 Odyssey two parter, like sure they made some choices (and has the funniest Poseidon) (Every bit of CGI in there is a little bit funny) But!!

Alone the way he looks at Telemachus makes me forget anything bad happened in this movie

That's a man that wants to stay home!! He doesn't know about the impending doom that awaits him!! He doesn't know within moments of this people WILL drag him away, he doesn't know his family will suffer Endlessly yet!!

And he's SO done by the end

He's a man with a drive to go home, but he is reminded endlessly that he's just that - one man.

The pain in his eyes when Telemachus doesn't recognise him (WITHOUT DISGUISE!!) Heartbreaking, sobbing loudly. His only son, holding a weapon towards him and there is nothing he can do about it.

Or the little hold he has on Telemachus after all the bloodshed, the quiet "Tell your mother I'm home" Kills me EVERY TIME

He's home, he's made it home and he'll never leave again

[constanzarte]

Ferdinand Leeke, The Rhinemaidens, 1913

[zarekthelordofthefries]

You don't get Hestia as an option because what, you think I'm gonna make this EASY on you?

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: Crouching Figure of Atlas Artist: Baldassare Peruzzi (Italian, 1481-1536) Date: unknown Genre: figure study; mythological art Period: High Renaissance (Cinquecento) Medium: Pen and brown ink, over leadpoint or black chalk Dimensions: 20.6 cm (8.2 in) high x 13.4 cm (5.3 in) wide Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art

[katerinaaqu]

Odysseus’s ship

(Courtesy of the page people.hsc.edu)

Lo and behold the Penteconter a ship that has 50 oarsmen which most likely is a strong candidate on the ships used by the Greeks at the bronze age. (Known from other writings like Argonauts as well)

This type of boat has 50 oars (25 at every side) and a single mast and a sail. The sail was playing auxiliary purpose (the oars were still needed). So the ship was including 50 oarsmen, one navigator and a captain (roughly 53 people per shift) perhaps we can expect a few more people per ship if there is a change of a shift. We also do not count slaves and livestock.

So we expect that Odysseus started the trip from Ithaca to Troy with a crew somewhere between 625-725 people and counting the bare minimum losses at the trip more or less we get to have the people that oar back home. You can imagine also how tired his men were at the final parts of the journey when we expect the oarsmen were not sufficient even to row the boat (if they were less than 50) and they could not change the shifts

Honestly I understand why they wanted to stop at the island of Helios despite the fact Odysseus told them not to.

[t00thpasteface]

CHAKA!! tell her something good...

[little-miss-sad-eyes]

Just here to publicly thank Homer for giving us the best homosexual love story ever written (the Iliad) and the best heterosexual love story ever written (the Odyssey)

[glossc1]

born from an egg 🥚

[toyastales]

Beautiful craftsmanship and artistry.

[helpmeimblorboing]

Had a dream that Epic had an unfinished song called Love Remains in which the ghost of Achilles tells Odysseus that over the years he has been dead, all the desire for honour and glory he once held close had faded away, and the only thing that remained was the love of Patroclus, and I kind of wish I was a better songwriter because damn

[wordsmithic]

unpopular opinion but with the new tide of Greek mythology stories and retellings, Greek Cultural Sensitivity Readings are absolutely necessary. We are in 2024, with thousands of fics and retellings out there!! How is this not a thing yet?? There's vast improvement one can achieve by working professionally on their text with a Greek. I've seen it so many times!!

Also, duh, I'm offering the service BUT I want you to know that the situation with the inaccuracies of SERIOUS works is so dire that initially I didn't even do it for money. As a writer I just wanted to... fix things, to set a new standard for writers and the industry that sells us the most heavily Americanized pop-culture material and passes it as "authentic vibes of Greek mythology". (And of course there were writers who wanted to do right by their story and they had reached out to me. So kudos to them as well!)

Okay, but why does Cultural Sensitivity Reading make a vast difference and it's not just smoke and mirrors?

As a Greek, I am tired of well-meaning writers and authors butchering very basic elements of my culture. It's not their fault exactly, since they were raised in another culture with a different perspective. And nobody clued them in on how different Greek culture is from theirs, so writers sometimes assume that their culture is the default and they project that into ancient Greece. (Even published professionals like Madeline Miller have written "UK or US in antiquity" (with a very colonialist flavor) instead of writing "Ancient Greece". (Looking at you, Circe!)

Even writers who researched a lot before coming to me still had a lot of misinformation or wrong information in their text, easily verifiable by the average Greek. Again, not their fault. They can only access certain information, which does not include Greek scholarly work and scientific articles that DO offer valuable context.

Translation, accuracy, and meaning: If you ever wondered what a word means or how to pronounce it, here's your chance! There are Greeks like me who are knowledgeable and have a keen interest in antiquity and they will be able to read and compare ancient texts, and dive deeper into the work of Greek scholars regarding those texts.

If you want to create new words, you can do that as well! (It doesn't always work, but we can try. Greek is a really rich language and has a word about everything) If you use existing words, I can help you separate reality from fantasy in the context of your story.

(Do not assume we Greeks are ignorant of our heritage, or that we don't know how to research! Our archaeology sector is huge and archaeological museums are closer to most of us than your local Target is to you)

I guarantee there are things you never thought about Greece and the Mediterranean - from the ancient to the modern era. Sprinkling elements like phrases, types of interactions, customs, songs, instruments, dances, etc , into your text will make your text absolutely rich in culture.

Names matter!!! The genders of the names matter, diminutives matter (If I see one more "Perse" for Persephone I will claw my eyes out along with a few thousand Greeks), naming traditions matter!!! In many cases you should not even use a diminutive!!

You will be able to write about a foreign culture easily! Because of the continuity of Greek culture, you can even write a few more recent Greek elements to fill in the gaps. I can make sure they are not mismatched, and they will complement your ancient setting. I have observed a few things I didn't know we had since antiquity, but they make sense because our land has certain characteristics.

Non-Greek writers often miss the whole context of Greek culture! Do you know how Greek respect towards deities and parents looks like? What tones we use when we talk to our elders? When to use honorific plural - if your setting is more modernized?

Oh, and please let's avoid caricatures when describing Greeks?? (even fantasy Greeks) There can be heavy exotisation and odd descriptions of Greeks, as if we are another species. Even in published works. For many western writers it's difficult to catch, unfortunately.

The whole process is actually way easier than you think. You send me a text, I make notes and then we have some discussion on your vision.

It's always okay to seek guidance from the locals! You are not "guilty" when you admit you don't know! How can you know if you don't ask?? You can't imagine what relief and "πάλι καλά!!!" I read/see from other Greeks when I tell them another foreigner is using me for cultural sensitivity? Greeks want you to seek help and will NOT shame you for it!

(On the contrary, you have no idea how many eye-rolls Greeks do when they see a blatantly wrong thing in a story... Which has happened pretty often for many years now. Can we do better as an industry?? Please???)

You can send me a personal message to share your story, or ask what this whole cultural sensitivity thing is all about, or ask about what I have done so far and how I can help. But for the love of all that's good, don't let your story be another "generic greek myth retelling"! And don't let others sell you their generic greek myth retellings!!

[jacobpking]

After 170 hours and 2 different drawing tablets, its finally here: My Illustrated guide to the Odyssey!🌊

This is the single biggest proejct I've ever made, it almost took as long as both Trojan War pieces combined. Needless to say, it'll be a long time before I make another big project like this

I also want to give a huge thank you to @katerinaaqu who's been brilliant in giving me lengthy odyssey quotes translated from the original greek, and helping me brainstorm character designs. She's been incredible and this project wouldn't be as good as it is now without her

[ditoob]

Aeneas!

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: Young Marsyas (Marsyas Enchanting the Hares) Artist: Elihu Vedder (American, 1836-1923) Date: 1878 Genre: mythological painting Movement: Symbolism Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 94.5 cm (37.2 in) high x 136.5 cm (53.7 in) wide Location: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, United States

[constanzarte]

Jan Brueghel the Elder & Peter Paul Rubens, Flora and Zephyr, 1617

[doodlerose]

This is supposed to be children of Hero's who were killed by their parents, chilling in a field. Hopefully having a much peaceful afterlife compared to their lives.

Hippolytus- son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyte - who was killed by Poseidon as a wish from Theseus after being falsely blamed for Phaedra (Theseus's wife) suicide.

Iphigenia- daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra - who was killed in a sacrifice to Artemis in order to sail to Troy.

and Medea's and Jason's sons- who were killed by Medea for revenge against Jason, and after researching were not able to find definitive names for them in the play which is tragic. But I haven't read the play so I could be wrong.

Feel free to correct me if I got any information wrong :).