#Hyginus

[katerinaaqu]

Question who is your favorite character in Greek mythology?

Like in general? Including epics and tragedies and myths etc?

Odysseus. Straight out

I find myself relate to him in so many ways and his torments and trips and mistakes always speak to me differently; the perfect combination of someone you might consider "prodigy" but shaped and carved by hard work and life, a complicated personality that even the ancient Greeks had trouble placing.

Some like Homer or even partially Sophocles and Statius named him their hero; complicated and controversial and so human. Others like Hesiod named him almost an anti-hero. Eurypedes or the Romans pictured him almost a villain.

Warrior or a sneaky coward? Noble or a man that is thirsty for the love of the crowd no matter the price? A rape victim or a cheater?

It gets me so intrigued that not even the ancient sources could handle him and so many different writers pictured him in a negative light while writers like Homer or Statius picture him as of noble heart but controversial nature and ways. Writers like Conon in August Augustean times wrote Odysseus capable of stabbing at the back the very man that admired him and respected him to gain fame while Homer writes him as a man who would throw himself on the sword to make sure his men would come back alive. Hyginus makes him a planning and scheming man who would frame an innocent for treason and set an elaborate plan to do it while Pausanias mentions a crime of passion or at least not as planned and thorough as Hyginus mentions etc.

So yeah I believe that Odysseus is my favorite especially as presented by Homer; a man full of contradictions. He is the man that would jump in front of a 6 headed immortal dragon for his men but the same man conquered a city by the night against all ethics to finish a war. The same man that refused to steal from a cave that belonged obviously to a monstrous creature and decided to give them the element of doubt was the same man that conquered the city of Ismarus, killing the men and enslaving the women and taking the resources from it. The same man that jumped in the battle to save Diomedes against all personal safety was the same man that was holding his army back till the right and safest moment to fight. The same man who had no problem facing the behemoth of a man Ajax, called his name almost for last when he volunteered to face Hector so that he would have as fewer possibilities be chosen as possible. The same man who killed 108 young vigorous men in his own home was the same who was embracing and kissing his son his wife and his loyal slaves. A strong and ruthless king but also a king that rules like a father to his people.

And also most importantly; a man that could be anyone of us. He stayed alive and survived by seer will at times. No demigod or superhero. He was a man like everyone of us; showing to generations to come the strength of mind and willpower.

I just love Odysseus!

[galusandmalus]

Theseus has a history of kidnapping children.

 "Chrysippus, son of Pelops, whom Theseus stole from the games"  "Theseus, son of Aegeus and Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, along with Pirithous, son of Ixion, carried off the maiden Helen" people always forget that theseus kidnapped MULTIPLE children.

These two events are BOTH from Hyginus, Fabulae, hell Chrysippus is kidnapped TWICE in his work. that's so fucked up, this kid gets all the wrong attention... he and helen and Miletus should make a support group.

[lesbian-iphigenia]

OKAY BUT THIS MYTH IN HYGINUS, FABULAE??? THIS BEING ELECTRA AND IPHIGENIA'S REUNION??? HOLY SHIT

[sarafangirlart]

This is so funny but also strangely wholesome.

[litcest]

Semiramis and Ninyas

According to the Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, Semiramis was the Queen of the Assyrian Empire. He writes about her in the second book of Bibliotheca historica (c. 60-30 BC), often quoting Ctesias' Persica from circa 5th century BC, a text which is now lost.

However, all indicates that Semiramis wasn't a real person, but a legendary ruler based on the real Queen Shammuramat of Assyria, who ruled besides her husband from 824 to 811 BC and then besides her son until her death in 798 BC.

In some versions of the legend of Semiramis, she has a incestuous relationship with her son, and he later murders her.

Histories, by Herodotus

The oldest preserved mention of Semiramis comes from Herodotus's work from c. 430 BC. In Histories, Semiramis is first mentioned in Book One as a rule of Babylon, who had built notable constructions on the city. In Book Three, it's stated that one of the city's gates was named in her honor. No further details about her are given.

Bibliotheca historica, by Diodorus Siculus

Semiramis was born in Syria as the daughter of the goddess Derceto (which is another name for the Phoenician Astarte) and a human man. When Derceto gave birth, embarrassed to gave laid with a mortal, she exposed the child and then killed herself. However, doves found the child and nursed her until she was found by a shepherd, who named her Semiramis and took her in as a daughter. When Semiramis reached the age to marry, officer Onnes fell in love with her and asked for her hand.

When King Ninus laid siege of Bactra, Onnes, who was the King's general, began to miss his wife, and so invited her to the battlefield. When she arrived, she notice some flaws in Bactra's defence and, along with some soldiers, managed to sneak in and capture the city.

Ninus became infatuated with Semiramis' beauty and brilliance and ordered Onnes surrendered Semiramis to him. Onnes refused at first, and, when threatened by the king, he killed himself. This allowed Ninus to freely marry Semiramis and make her his queen.

Ninus and Semiramis had a son named Ninyas, and shortly after this, Ninus died, leaving Semiramis as the queen. During her reign, she build many walls, bridges, temples and palaces, and made of Babylon one of the most influential and rich cities of the region. She refused to marry again, instead taking many lovers and then killing them.

On a visit to Egypt, Semiramis learned from the Oracle that Ninyas would conspire against her, causing he to disappear, from mortal realm but reach eternal fame. After being wounded in battle against India (which she was trying to conquer), Semiramis returned to capital, where Ninyas tried to take the throne from her. Instead of fighting against him, she passed him the crown and disappeared.

Nicolaus of Damascus

Nicolaus lived from c. 64 BC to somewhen after 4 AD. His works survive only in fragments and, in one of these fragments, we find an account of Semiramis' death.

Nicolaus writes that, according to Ctesias, an eunuch convinced Semiramis' sons with Onnes that, if Ninyas became king, the two of them would be killed and that the only way to prevent that would be for the duo to kill their mother and usurp the throne. However, as they plotted to push Semiramis off a cliff, a servant heard and told her. So Semiramis summoned her sons and the eunuch and dared them to strike against her in front of all of Assyrians.

The story cuts off at this point, but one can presume they didn't dare to kill her.

Narrations, by Conon

This text doesn't survive to us in it's entirety, but the gist of it's content has been preserved through one-paragraph summaries in Bibliotheca of Photius. It's dated between 36 BC and 17 AD.

According of Photius, Conan's ninth tale was about Semiramis, who Conan said to be the daughter (not wife) of Ninus and that:

"Semiramis, having slept with her son whether secretly and unaware or else knowingly, took him openly as her husband and from that, what was disgusting before, having sex with your mother, became good and legal for the Medes and Persians"

This is the oldest account I can find of Semiramis having committed incest. It's important to note that Photius wondered whether Conon had confused Semiramis with Atossa, a Persian queen that is sometimes referred as having married her brother, Cambyses II, and other times is given as the wife of Darius the Great and mother to Xerxes.

Fabulae, by Hyginus

The Fabulae by Hyginus is a collection of tales and lists written circa 1 AD. In his lists of "woman who killed their husbands", Hyginus cites Semiramis for killing Ninus, indicating that there must have been a version of the story that went this way. He also says that Semiramis killed herself in Babylon, by throwing herself into a pyre.

Moralia, by Plutarch

In Plutarch's writting (c. 1st Century) Semiramis is depicted as a concubine of one of Ninus' servants, until the king fell in love with her. She then manipulated Ninus into granting her the throne and then ordered the guards to kill him.

Historiae Philippicae, by Pompeius Trogus and Justinus

This one is a bit tricky to date, because while Historiae Philippicae was written by Pompeius Trogus circa 1st Century BC, the work has only been preserved through an summary written by Justinus in the late 2nd or early 3rd Century AD.

Pompeius' version must date from around the same time as Conan's writings, and it's interesting that, according to Justinus, Pompeius also mentions Semiramis incestuous desire for her son, however, in this version, the relationship wasn't consummated, as Ninyas kills her when he finds out she wants to sleep with him.

Also in this version, she takes the throne after Ninus' death, but does so disguised as a man, claiming to be Ninus' son (I guess no one questioned that the only son, Ninyas, was an infant when Ninus died). It was only after many "noble actions", having proven her right to rule, that she revealed herself a woman.

Chronicron, by Eusebius

In this work, written in the 4th Century, Eusebius cites the historian Cephalion, who lived in the 2th Century. According to Cephalion, Semiramis killed her own sons and then was killed by Ninyas.

The sons she killed are, presumably, the ones she had by Onnes.

Historiae Adversus Pagano, by Orosius

This massive history book from the 5th Century by Roman historian Orosius contains another variant of the Semiramis legend. In this account, she doesn't have a child with Ninus. Instead, she births a son from one of the many liaisons she had after becoming the solo queen.

This son is unnamed and it's not mentioned to have succeeded her on the throne like Ninyas usually does. In fact, nothing is said about Semiramis final days or what came after.

"She finally most shamelessly conceived a son, godlessly abandoned the child, later had incestuous relations with him, and then covered her private disgrace by a public crime. For she prescribed that between parents and children no reverence for nature in the conjugal act was to be observed, but that each should be free to do as he pleased."

Ecloga Chronographica, by George Syncellus

Writing from the 9th Century and referencing Ctesias', Syncellus says that Semiramis built many tombs, one for each of the lovers she buried alive.

De Mulieribus Claris, by Giovanni Boccaccio

Entering the Middle Ages, in this work composed between 1361–1362, Semiramis story gets even more 'sensational' additions: Boccaccio writes that, not only was Semiramis in love with her son, but she also created a chastity device, that was placed in every woman of the household, to prevent any other to have sex with Ninyas.

Boccaccio also adds that some belief that that Ninyas killed Semiramis out of jealousy of her having other lovers, or perhaps because he feared that a new child of hers could try to challenge him for the throne.

The Book of the City of Ladies, by Christine de Pizan

In The Book of the City of Ladies, from 1405, Semiramis is mentioned if have married Ninus, who died in battle after giving her one son. She then ruled over Assyria and waged war, adding new lands to her empire. She married her own son for she did not want another woman being crowned queen and because she believed only her son was worthy of being her husband.

de Pizan justifies Semiramis incestuous marriage by saying that, at the time there was no written law against it and that Semiramis wasn't a Christian and so shouldn't be judged by those morals (nice historical relativism of de Pizan's part).

References:

Archibald, Elizabeth. “Sex and Power in Thebes and Babylon: Oedipus and Semiramis in Classical and Medieval Texts.” The Journal of Medieval Latin, vol. 11, 2001, pp. 27–49.

Stronk, Jan. Semiramis’ Legacy: The History of Persia according to Diodorus of Sicily. Edinburgh University Press, 2017.

Worrall, Victoria Eileen. Representations of Semiramis from Antiquity to the Medieval Period. 2019.

[nakeddeparture]

UPDATE: CDB-Barbados. The two officials on leave are said to be Dr Hyginus Gene Leon and Andrea Power (MP Kerrie Symmonds ex-wife).

https://youtu.be/xj0UViSXzj8

What were they caught doing??? Have your say. Naked!!

Like/share/comment/subscribe on YouTube (it costs you nothing). Press the notification bell 🔔.

[mizuno-marmalade]

hiiii it's been a little while. the horrors persist but so do i. tropical rouge girlies to brighten ur day ✨

[xtarmie]

Tropical Rouge! Pretty Cure

[transthomastaylor]

It’s definitely not explicit, and I think it’s fair to assume that even if they didn’t do it at the same time, it was roughly around the same time. I mean, how often do you stay the entire night at a temple? Not knowing the myths Hyginus is drawing from, I would say the threesome reading sounds most plausible to me. Anyway, here’s the Latin:

Neptunus et Aegeus Pandionis filius in fano Minervae cum Aethra Pitthei filia una nocte concubuerunt. Neptunus, quod ex ea natum esset, Aegeo concessit.

Thank you, Theoi, for letting me know of this version of Theseus’ conception that vaguely makes it sound like Poseidon and Aegeus had a threesome.

[likethexan]

Headcanon: when Hephaestus chained Hera to her chair, it took a night before Dionysus could convince him to free his mother. Hera spent overnight trapped in that chair in contempt and guilt. Zeus, for all his sleaziness cheating, and arrogance over his wife, never left her side during this. He wouldn’t sleep in his marriage bed nor in the bed of another that night. He slept right next to her on his own throne, clutching his hand with hers, their rings gently gleaming.

[katerinaaqu]

I will reblog my thoughts on it when the pool is done! Hahahahaha. Please let me know at the comment section your reasoning behind the decision that would be great!

[galusandmalus]

cephelus and Procris get a happy ending?????????? maybe???

we all know the story of Cephalus as one with a sad af ending, where he accidentally killed his love after finally being free from Eos. but I stumbled upon a strange ending after that by Lembus "The god told Cephalus, when he was consulting the oracle about children, to have sexual intercourse with whomever he should encounter first. He met a bear and through intercourse with the bear (arctus), he begot a woman, by whom it is said that Arceisius was appropriately named" -Heraclides Lembus, On Constitutions HMMMMMMM A BEAR HUH GEEE it kinda REMINDS me of how a different god Did bear things "She chose to occupy herself with wild-beasts in the mountains together with Artemis, and, when she was seduced by Zeus, continued some time undetected by the goddess, but afterwards, when she was already with child, was seen by her bathing and so discovered. Upon this, the goddess was enraged and changed her into a beast. Thus she became a bear and gave birth to a son called Arcas" -Hesiod HMMHMM HMMMM goddess of the hunt sure is connected to bears. but its not like she would be connected to the cephalus/procris myth-

"When Diana saw her, she said to her : ‘virgins hunt with me, but you are not a virgin, leave my company.’ Procris revealed to her her misfortune and told her that she had been deceived by Aurora [Eos the Dawn]. Diana, moved by pity, gave her a javelin which no one could avoid, and the dog Laelaps which no wild beast could escape, and bade her go contend with Cephalus. With her hair cut, and in young man's attire, by the will of Diana [Artemis], she came to Cephalus and challenged him, and surpassed him in the hunt. When Cephalus saw that javelin and Dog were so irresistible, he asked the stranger to sell them to him, not knowing she was his wife. She refused. He promised her also a share in his kingdom [of Phokis]; she still refused. ‘But if,’ she said, ‘you really continue to want this, grant me what boys are won to grant.’ Inflamed by desire for the javelin and the Dog, he promised he would. When they had come into the bed-chamber, Procris took off her tunic and showed that she was a woman and his wife. Cephalus took the gifts and came again into her favour." -Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae

wow Procris uses a disguise> "devoted to the arts Diana [Artemis] loved . . . [After begging for Prokris' forgiveness she returned to him and] she gave me [Kephalos] too, as though herself were gift of small account, a hound [Lailaps] her own Cynthia [Artemis] had given her, saying ‘He'll outrun them all.’ The javelin too she gave me which you see." -Ovid, Metamorphoses 7. 732 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM wowie thats CRAZY, right she really gained favor with artemis/ diana just by being sad af

I THINK lembus was trying to make a connection of the bear BEING procris somehow returned by artemis/diana. the bear connection to the goddess, the fact that the bear never gets a name but the child birthed from the union IS. and in other sources THAT CHILD IS THE CHILD OF CEPHELUS AND PROCRIS "Procris. By her Cephalus had a son Arcesius, whose son was Laertes, Ulysses' father" -Hyginus, Fabulae

ladies and gentleman and that person over there I think the bear and Procris might be the same. i think the god is artemis/diana. and I think I might be in denial about a very sad story. this is my interpretation of Lembus's work.

happy ending jumpscare

[mooniehilton]

I have a proper scanner now, so here's new and improved scans of Laura postcards from the Enoshima Aquarium collab + a card from the Kirakira Card Gum Collection!

[pahsy-paints]

揺らめく大海原！キュアラメール！

[litcest]

Myrrha and Cinyras

Perhaps you have heard of Adonis, lover to Aphrodite and Persephone, the most beautiful man in the Classical Antiquity. What you may not have know is that Adonis is the fruit of a incestuous relationship between Myrrha (also called Smyrna in some texts) and her father Cinyras (other times names Theias).

The most well known version of the myth comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, published in 8 AD, but the myth is older than that, and other variants of it survive to this day. For the Metamorphoses, I'll be using Brookes More's translation from 1922, with the revisions from 1978.

Metamorphoses, by Ovid

The poem about Myrrha can be found in Book X, starting in line 298, under the title Myrrha Transformed to a Tree. It consists of Orpheus telling an audience of the origin of the myrrh tree.

Myrrha had her pick among suitors, but who she really wanted was her father, Cinyras, King of Cyprus. She knows that her desire is wrong, although she also knows that it's not technicaly a crime:

"Ah, may the sacred rights of parents keep this vile desire from me, defend me from a crime so great—If it indeed is crime. I am not sure it is— I have not heard that any god or written law condemns the union of a parent and his child."

And complains she wasn't born in a land where mothers and son, as well as fathers and daughters, can get together:

"But it is said there are some tribes today, in which the mother marries her own son; the daughter takes her father; and by this, the love kind Nature gives them is increased into a double bond. Ah wretched me! Why was it not my fortune to be born in that love-blessed land?"

Cinryas comes to asks Myrrha which of the suitors she wants to marry and she cries in her father's arms, saying that she wants a husband like him, to which he replies that she's a loving daughter. That night, knowing she would have to a pick a husband soon, Myrrha decides that, since she can't wed her father, it's better to hang herself.

As she prepares to do so, a maid enters and room and stops her. The maid asks what's upsetting Myrrha, and, at first, she refuses to answer. Eventually, Myrrha confesses her love for Cinryas and the maid promises to help.

Luckly for Myrrha, her mother is away celebrating the festival of Ceres (Demeter), so Cinryas is drunk and alone. The maid tells him that a beautiful girl is interested in being his mistress and, furthermore, she's Myrrha's age. Cinryas gets interested and tells the maid to bring in the girl. Even thought she felt great guilt, that night Myrrha goes to her father's bedroom.

Officially, it's said that Cinryas doesn't recognizes Myrrha, but I call that bullshit. He must have wanted his daughter in some level, as I believe he had accepted this girl only because she was Myrrha's age. And he then he goes on to call the 'unknown girl' "daughter"? As if he's roleplaying her being Myrrha.

He chanced to call her “daughter,” as a name best suited to her age; and she in turn, endearing, called him “father”, so no names might be omitted to complete their guilt.

She returns to Cinryas room many nights, and they always have sex in the dark, until one day Cinryas decides to light the room and see the face of his new mistress. In shock, he learns that it's Myrrha he has been sleeping with. This reminds me of Eros and Psyche, when Psyche hides a candle so she can see her husband and then tragedy ensues.

Upon seeing Myrrha, Cinryas gets his sword and tries to kill her, but she runs. For nine months she wanders the land while pregnant, until she's too tired and begs the gods to help her. They anwser by transforming her into a myrrh tree.

The baby she conceived with her father is birthed from her tree form with the help of the goddess of childbirth and grows to become a beautiful man, handsome enough to win the love of Venus (Aphrodite), which is a poem of it's own.

"That son of sister and grandfather, who was lately hidden in his parent tree, just lately born, a lovely baby-boy is now a youth, now man more beautiful than during growth."

So this thing about incest-babies being always 'deformed' and 'retarded' is a modern invention. These ancient stories have the offspring of incestuous unions as being beautiful enough to marry a King or a Goddess and strong and wise enough to become a leader themselves.

Fabulae, by Hyginus

Another ancient collection of tales, the Fabulae by Hyginus, written circa 1 AD (before Metamorphoses) gives a similar account to the previous one in the Chapter 58:

Smyrna was the daughter of Cinyras, King of the Assyrians, and Cenchreis. Her mother Cenchreis boasted proudly that her daughter excelled Venus in beauty. Venus, to punish the mother, sent forbidden love to Smyrna so that she loved her own father. The nurse prevented her from hanging herself, and without knowledge of her father, helped her lie with him. She conceived, and goaded by shame, in order not to reveal her fault, hid in the woods. Venus later pitied her, and changed her into a kind of tree from which myrrh flows; Adonis, born from it, exacted punishment for his mother's sake from Venus.

Chapter 242 of the same book says that Cinyras killed himself once he discovered he laid with his daughter.

Bibliotheca, by Apollodorus

Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, written around 1st century AD, is a collection of Greek poems and stories, and it was attributed to Apollodorus, until they realized it hadn't been him to write it and so it became Pseudo-Apollodorus. But anyway, I bring up this texts because it offers three possible origins for Adonis in Book III, chapter XIV. Two of them are not relevant for us, but the third one is. Using Panyasis as his source, Pseudo-Apollodorus, says that Adonis was the son of Thias, King of Assyria, and his daughter, Smyrna.

In consequence of the wrath of Aphrodite, for she did not honor the goddess, this Smyrna conceived a passion for her father, and with the complicity of her nurse she shared her father's bed without his knowledge for twelve nights. But when he was aware of it, he drew his sword and pursued her, and being overtaken she prayed to the gods that she might be invisible; so the gods in compassion turned her into the tree which they call smyrna (myrrh).

Metamorphoses, by Antoninus Liberalis

Written between 2nd and 3rd century AD, its the most recent among these selected texts. This account is very similar to the others, with the major difference being that Thias never tries to kill Smyrna. Here, their affair lasts months and when he shines the light on her, she gives birth in shock of being found out. She's then transformed into a tree by Zeus and Thias kills himself.

[cure-papaya]

have a lauratastic new year