#ancient greek monsters

[mask131]

Greek monster myths (1)

Various mini-articles loosely translated from the French « Dictionary of Feminine Myths », under the direction of Pierre Brunel. (You could also translate the title as “Dictionary of Female Myths” – the idea being all the myths centered around women)

Article 1: Gorgô

[Note: this mini-article is distinct from the mini-article about “Gorgons”]

The appearance of Gorgô, at the end of the eleventh chant of the Odyssey, is meant to cause fright – not just to Odysseus himself who is just done with invoking the dead, but also to the audience hearing this rhapsody (the Phaeacians listening to Odysseus’ tale), and to the very listener of the Homeric poem. Gorgô forms the dominant peak of this “evocation of the dead” (nekuia), she is the “chlôron déos”, the “green fear”. Odysseus’ mother, Anticleia, just disappeared back again nto the Hades – the hero wishes to summon other shades, such as those of Theseus and of his former companion Pirithous, “but before them, here is that with hellish cries the uncountable tribes of the dead gathered”. And Odysseus adds: “I felt myself becoming green with fear at the thought that, from the depths of the Hades, the noble Persephone might sent us the head of Gorgô, this terrible monster…” (633-635). It is barely an apparition, it is the possibility of an appearance, but it is enough to terrorize the living.

Jean-Pierre Vernant, in his work “La Mort dans les yeux” (Death in the eyes), establishes the link which ties together Gorgô and Medusa. Because Gorgô is more than a singular unification of the three Gorgons: she is a superlative form of Medusa, she is what happens when her petrifying gaze survives beyond death. By studying the depictions of Gorgô in ancient statues, Vernant establishes two fundamental traits: the faciality, and the monstrosity. He explains that “interferences” take place “between the human and the bestial, associated and mixed in diverse ways”. Maybe Gorgô is, as Vernant suggests, “the dark face, the sinister reverse of the Great Goddess, of which Artemis will most notably be the heir”. But Gorgô is also placed in the function of watchful guardian of the world of the dead, a world forbidden to the living. The mask of Gorgô expresses the radical alterity of Death and the dead.

Article 2: The Graeae

Daughters of Keto and Phorkys (they are thus also called “The Phorcydes”), sisters of the Gorgons, these divinities of shadows, which were born as elderly women and doomed to share one eye and one tooth for all three, appear exclusively in the tale of Perseus and Medusa.

The most ancient mention of the Graeae comes from Hesiod’s Theogony, which only counts two of them and names them Pemphredo and Enyo (Enyo was also the name of a goddess of war within Homer’s Iliad). The third of the sisters appears within a fragment of the Athenian logographer Pherecyde: Deino (“The Dreadful”), later called Persis by Hyginus (in his “Preface to fables”). Other authors, like Ovid, prefer to stick with two Graeae. Hesiod makes a quite flattering portrait of them: he makes them elegant goddesses with a “beautiful face”, even though they were “white-haired (understand “having white hair due to old age”) since birth”. And while their very name means “old women”, the Antique iconography actually follows the Hesiodic model: the depictions of the sisters as disfigured by the effects of time are quite rare… At most the artists will just put a few wrinkles. These mysterious hybrids between youth and old age, virginal seduction and sinister ugliness, finds an echo within a few lines from Aeschylus “Prometheus bound”: “Three ancient maidens, with swan bodies, that share a single eye and a single tooth, and who never receive a look from the shinng sun or the crescent of the night.” Aeschylus had an entire tragedy written about them (Phorcydes) which was unfortunately lost – but Aristotle wrote about it in his “Poetics” and implies that the play insisted on their monstrous aspect, placing them within the legendary area known as “the gorgonian fields of Kisthene”, and closely associating them with their sisters, of which they form a reversed image. Indeed, the Gorgons have a very powerful eyesight which no mortal being can face, while the Graeae have an extreme form of blindness. This trinity of women, old by nature, can also be understood as the antithesis of the three Charites, the Graces which embodied eternal youth.

The Graeae seems to have only a role within the myth of Perseus. And, outside of a few details, this legend does not change much from Pherecyde to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, passing by Lycophron, Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca, and Hyginus’ Astronomy. In all those versions the Graeae are the jealous keeper of the secret path that leads to the Gorgons, and Perseus must steal their eye in order to obtain the knowledge needed to reach Medusa. However, Pherecyde did change an element: according to him the Graeae do not protect the path leading to the Gorgons, but rather the path leading to the nymphs that hold the magical items Perseus needs to fight Medusa.

Due to their limited presence in Greek mythology, the Graeae have quite a poor cultural posterity. In the 19th century Goethe will remember them: in his “Second Faust”, Mephistopheles appears under the guise of “Phorkyas”, a monster with only one eye and one tooth. In the world of paintings, Edward Burne-Jones, who created a true “Perseus cycle”, had a strong interest for them: he worked for a very long time on a painting of the Graeae. Their face is barely visible, but the cloth that wraps itself around their body is menacing ; they are within an arid desert, under a dark sky heavy with clouds – they perform a sinister dance, in a mockery of the Graces. Perseus comes to steal their eyes, and the grey color that invades all the nuances of the picture symbolizes the unique presence of those strange crones, both disquieting and pitiable.

Article 3: Echidna

Echidna, “the viper”, is according to Hesiod the daughter of Phorkys and Keto, themselves born of Pontos, the Sea, and Gaia, the Earth. Echidna’s sisters are female monsters like her: the Graeae, and the Gorgons. Hesiod describes her as having half of the body of a “fair-cheeked nymph”, while the rest of her body is the one of an enormous, big, cruel, spotted and terrible snake which “lies within the secret depths of the divine earth”. Echidna as such belongs to this large mythological family of snake-women, of which the most famous case in France is the fairy Mélusine. But unlike Mélusine, Echidna can never leave the snake-half of her body, and thus a better French heir would be Marcel Aymé’s depiction of the vouivre with her cohort of vipers.

Theodore de Banville, when he imagines Hesiod scolding him for sanitizing Classical mythology, makes of Echidna the symbol of the archaic mythology: he tells him that he is “making a toy out of the history of the gods” by depicting Love as “a sweet child, free of carnivorous appetites, ignored by the Furies and by bloody Echidna”.

Echidna precisely appears as a being led by an amorous desire within Herodotus’ tales, that he claims to have collected among the Greeks of Pontus Euxinus: as Herakles was sleeping, Echidna steals his horses away. She only agrees to give them back if he sleeps with her. When Herakles leaves her, she tells him that she will bear three sons from their union. He advises them to only keep with her one that would be able to bend a bow just like him, and to force the others to leave. She does that, and this favorite son is supposed to be the one that created the Scythian people. This meeting between Herakles and Echidna might be derived from the famous encounters between Herakles and three of Echidna’s other children: the Nemean Lion, the Hydra of Lerna, and Cerberus.

In Aeschylus, Orestes compares his mother, Clytemnestra, to “a horrible viper”. Sophocles has Creon call Ismene, which he believes to have helped Antigone, “a viper that slid in my house against my will to drink my blood”. These examples show a link between the Ancient metaphorical speech, and the mythological allusions. Indeed, only the context can allow us to determine if these authors meant “viper” as a common name, or as a proper name: as “Viper”, “Echidna”. But it confirms the idea that, in Ancient Greece, Echidna is a monster born of an archaic fear of the women, and embodying their supposed perfidy.

[illustratus]

Andromeda by Arthur Rackham

[allseeingmurph]

Ariadne, the Minotaur, and Phaedra—probably didn’t have the best sibling relationship, all things considered.

[sarafangirlart]

“Even if Perseus only killed Medusa to save Danaë he still values the life of one woman over another” fucking yes??? That’s his mom??? And Medusa is not only a monster but a stranger??? Danaë sacrificed so much and been through hell and if Perseus wasn’t willing to conquer the world for her there’d be something wrong with him.

[champion-of-love]

Cupid, giving advice to people in Ever After: Awww, it's okay if you chickened out of your confession. It's your choice when to do it, and if you think that the timing wasn't right, then follow your heart. Love is like-

Cupid, giving advice to people in Monster High: Kieran, you gràson. What do you mean you were afraid of Spelldon rejecting your confession? He's been dropping hints that he likes you all year long and Hades-forbid if I see another text from him about being obsessed with your accent in the Greek Freaks groupchat we have, I'm locking you both in a coffin til the next millennia-

[chimeride]

Hecatoncheir (artiodactylamorphe), the 240th Known One.

[medusaspeach]

Classicstober Day 3: Asterion ✨ I did two sketches, so up both of them go.

[theoihalioistuff]

"He refers to the sea monster as Triton's dog. [...] When the gods wanted to bind Zeus, he (knowing this from Thetis) honored the other gods, but sent Poseidon and Apollo to serve Laomedon. Laomedon honored Apollo with sacrifices, supposedly as a reward for his service, but he did not honor Poseidon, who had served him and fortified Ilium.

When Poseidon did not receive his due after the appointed time of service, he, being angry with Laomedon, sent a most terrible sea monster which flooded the land by spitting out the sea. Compelled by an oracle, Laomedon dressed his daughter Hesione in royal attire and exposed her to the monster. Herakles, passing by and having been promised immortal horses from Laomedon (which were given to him as a ransom by Zeus for having abducted his brother Ganymede), built a high wall and stood armed by the mouth of the monster. When the monster opened its mouth, he jumped into it all at once. After cutting it up from the inside for three days, he came out, having lost all his hair." ~ Tzetzes ad Lycophron. 34

Interesting to find a version of Apollo and Poseidon's servitude that accounts for Apollo's support of Troy and Poseidon's (usual) opposition. Also the detail of the sea monster being Triton's dog is adorable (and sad) and Herakles coming out hairless is hilarious.

[knoxrobbins]

With nothing else to lose out on her own with her sisters, Medusa passes the time building marble statues of the things that remind her of when she was once human... however on this day, a boy has wandered into her sanctuary.

A follow up to that Medusa piece I did years ago, it was really fun doing the Anton Bogaty style and felt like exploring it again.

[batcavescolony]

I just explained this to someone and I thought I'd make a post for it on here too.

Shrouds in Percy Jackson are like this right?

But their siblings decorate and make them out of silks with decorative embellishments on them?

The empty ones are burned after a quest to symbolise that the person they were made for came back from a quest ALIVE.

The lack of cemetery at chb shows that when they burn Silena, Charlie, Luke, Lee, Castor, everyone's shrouds, they have their bodies in them. They're being cremated.

[illustratus]

Theseus and the Minotaur by Edward Burne-Jones

[prismolovesfanfiction]

"wow they have the voice of an angel" my sailor in christ you are being ensnared by a siren

[sarafangirlart]

Medusa’s story is already tragic as is with her being the only mortal in her family, so why add rape to her story? It feels more like torture p*rn than anything else and besides there are tons of victims of sexual violence in mythology so why add more?

You want to know who was a victim of patriarchy and sexual violence only to be demonized in later tellings? Helen of Troy. She was extremely sympathetic in the Iliad yet ppl treat her like she’s a whore both in antiquity and modern times

Also Athena wasn’t “helping” Medusa stop passing that around as fact.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy August 1st 2024 Patreon Update.

First Thursday of the month so it’s time for another patreon update.

This time we have a variety of small but impactful changes to show off in the change log below, including a nearly complete ruleset for gorgon investigators!

Don’t forget, for a limited time, you can pick up a pdf copy of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy for free by joining the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club!

CHANGE LOG 

Copy-editing Progress: Thoroughly copy-edited up to p. 118.

WHOLE BOOK

We changed the top and bottom margins on each page to be smaller. Need to get fan feedback over whether this improves readability or not. 

CHAPTER 1

Copy-editing and cleanup, rearranged the order of many sections and changed some heading names. Overall huge improvements to the clarity and readability of the whole chapter. 

Added important sidebar about the intent of some of the chapter 1 sections

Fixed massive oversight/outdated text/miscommunication on how Base modifiers interact with Penalties and Composure. If you reread any section, reread “Rolls, Modifiers, and Consequences” as well as “Composure.” The short version is that even while being capped by Composure, Base modifiers are supposed to be able to negate penalties. So even at Composure 0, a total modifier of -2 penalty + +3 Base would total to 0, not -2. All traits and modifiers in Eureka were written with this interaction in mind, but it was communicated very poorly up until now. Thank God we caught that before the final release. 

Gave the defining of Investigative Rolls vs Non-Investigative Rolls its own section

Changed the term “Investigation Roll” to “Investigative Roll” due to “Investigation Roll” sounding too much like it was its own skill instead of a category of roll. 

Changed the title of the “Flat Composure Damage” section to “Meeting Basic Needs”

Added a new way for investigators to take flat Composure damage: Going a full day without shelter. 

Added a new section called “What Does a Session Look Like?”

Codified retroactive Investigative Rolls and gave them a -3 penalty.

Slight changes to Jumping during Jumpscares

Moved Jumpscares to Chapter 3

Changed the Tick Modifier for traveling by Flying to -5 instead of -4

Moved all the information from “Effective Use of the Ticking Clock” to just be under the “Ticking Clock” heading, it did not need to be a separate heading.

Added bullet points to the entire chapter.

Made tiny fixes to Third-Person Verbiage section

CHAPTER 2

Changed “Inventory in Eureka” to just “Inventory”

Started copy-editing Chapter 2. Did lots of cleanup, rearranged the order of many sections and changed some heading names. Overall huge improvements to the clarity and readability of the chapter, but the copy-editing of Chapter 2 is still a work-in-progress. 

Arranged the sections in step-by-step character creation order.

Started putting example skill ratings underneath each skill.

CHAPTER 3

Better clarified rules for equipping weapons. 

Moved Jumpscares to Chapter 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

Fixed a sentence that was unfinished. 

Made it so the venom from venomous animals counting as chase obstacles does not kick in for 1D6 Ticks. 

CHAPTER 7

Added that NPCs can also have the Comfort and Medicine skills

Added “Torture” section

CHAPTER 8

Fixed some typos in thing from beyond sections

Made a few small clarifications in thing from beyond section, such that their “chewing” replaces the usual Submission Hold. 

Minor fairy clarifications

Added ability to influence weather to fairies

Added ability to cause poltergeist activity to fairies

Added Changeling to Misc. Supernatural Creatures 

Got rid of How Monsters Can Regain Composure section. Moved some of it to Chapter 7 as homebrewing advice, and instead put the amount of Composure restored by preying on people and how the monster interacts with normal means of restoring Composure like eating and sleep at the top of each True Nature. How many Composure Points a monster gets back for preying on victim will now be unique to each monster type. 

Updated how much composure wolfmen get for hunting. It is 1 Composure to eat a human, and 2 Composure to eat a human alive. 

Better codified fairytale witch true nature. 

Added Changeling Misc. Supernatural Trait

Added two new pieces of art

Minor vampire clarifications

Several thing from beyond clarifications. 

Made it so monsters require 21 Investigation Points for a Eureka! instead of 18.

As a temporary fix, since monsters are getting reworked as a whole (their actual abilities are not changing much, just how we format and structure them in the text), we have made it so that every Monster investigator gets one extra free Mundane Trait. 

Made major progress on the gorgon playable monster. It is still a work-in-progress, but should be mostly playable in this draft of the rulebook.  

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[champion-of-love]

Cupid, swirling around her sparkly pink drink as she talks: It took me fur-ever to learn all the fairy tales that my classmates had. And I'm sure there's boo-sands more I don't know!

Deuce, sitting on the same table as her and eating ambrosia-dipped treats: At least they only have one ending? That they're trying to break free from, I mean. I still can't wrap my mind around all the possible versions that my story could end up.

Manny, eating a spread of meat, cheese and fruit while occasionally sneaking a treat from Deuce's plate: Why'd your old man even decide to send you there? We're myths, not fairy tales.

Cupid, slamming her hands on the table to dramatize her point: Haven't you guys been listening to me? Like half of their stories end in tragedies. What's more Greek mythology than that?

[chimeride]

Greek Sphinx, the 236th Known One.