#blood of Zeus innocent quote

[thatonepersonwhocantwrite]

Y/n is Gender neutral

Apollo introducing Heron to Y/n and some other gods/goddesses

Apollo: that's Y/n they loves their personal space

Hermes with his speed comes barreling towards Y/n with the intention of giving them a hug but doesn't slow down in time cause Y/n and Hermes to tumble onto the ground

Apollo: that's Hermes he also loves Y/n personal space

[awaywiththefaeries120408]

Oh, obviously,” Reyna said. “Without you, I doubt Percy could find his way out of a paper bag.” “True,” Annabeth agreed.

I was thinking about this quote earlier, and now I present to you, a list (taken from my memory, so some examples may be missing) of everything Percy managed to achieve either without Annabeth in the picture or with very minimal involvement from her:

Fighting a fury (Alecto), and killing her

Fighting the Minotaur, and killing him

Resisting Clarisse’s bullying

Managed to pull off a difficult sword manoeuvre (according to Luke) on his first try (granted he did douse himself with water, but that was before Percy knew of his parentage)

Fighting against around 6 Ares campers whilst Annabeth stood there and watched

Fought a Chimera

Was the one to realise something was wrong at the Lotus Hotel and Casino and broke Annabeth out of her delusions

Dealt with Procrustes

Bribed Charon to take them into the Underworld

Possibly a questionable one, but I would say coming up with the plan to distract Cerberus. If you agree that the plan was basically ‘distract Cerberus with playtime’, (which Grover credits Percy with), the issue was not the plan but the items involved. Since if it was Annabeth’s plan originally why wouldn’t she just use the red ball straight away?

Fights Ares and draws first blood (or ichor, in the case of Ares)

In the fight against the Laistrogynians, Annabeth doesn’t show up until almost the end. Tyson does most of the work, why isn’t Tyson gettting credit, Reyna? 😡

Saves Annabeth from the Sirens

Alongside Tyson, fights Polyphemus

Is the one to give the Fleece to Clarisse, meaning Luke can’t get his hands on it. Annabeth calls him insane for doing this and says he’s ‘too nice’ and acts as though Percy is mad for trusting Clarisse to get back to camp.

Proves Chiron’s innocence and gets rid of Tantalus.

Fights and comes up with the strategy for defeating the Nemean Lion, with the help of Thalia, Zoe, Bianca, and Grover

Comes up with the strategy for beating Talos

Figures out how to escape the Spartoi at Hoover Dam

Captures Nereus

Works to convince Thalia that Zeus does care about her and not to sacrifice the Ophiotaurus

Fights Atlas

Holds up the sky

Deals with Geryon, first by cleaning the stables and then by killing him

Defeats his brother Antaeus (I will acknowledge that Annabeth tells him about Antaeus’s parentage though)

Eventually figures out that they need a clear-sighted mortal to navigate the Labyrinth (and a reminder that Annabeth admitted she had no idea what she was doing)

The entirety of the Stolen Chariot

The entirety of The Sword of Hades

Explodes Kronos’s ship with Beckendorf (the reason it didn’t go well is because of the spy, not because Annabeth was out of the picture)

Fights Kronos

Fights Hades and his army

Deals with the Hudson and the East, and by extension the monsters crossing the rivers

Fights the Minotaur (again)

Fights Kronos (again)

Deals with the Clazmonian Sow

Fights Hyperion with the help of the satyrs and nature spirits

Convinces Poseidon to come and help with Typhon

Continuously kills Stheno and Euryale

Manages to trick both Phineas and Gaea

Kills Polybotes with the help of Terminus

Defeats an entire cohort of Roman ghosts on his own

Becomes Praetor of New Rome

Causes a massive storm with Jason

Fights Otis and Ephialtes with the help of Jason and Bacchus

Comes up with the strategy (on the spot) for defeating Chrysaor

Defeats Akhlys on his own

Is at least part of the reason why Bob is in Tartarus to help them (the rest of the credit goes to Nico)

There’s probably a load more I’m missing, but that’s all I can remember up to the end of House of Hades. Is there a reason why Annabeth doesn’t bother to correct Reyna?

[brightdown00]

Why Hades x Persephone Isn't The Healthy Couple You Think They Are (Part 1)

TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of child marriage, sexual assault/abuse, unhealthy/abusive relationships

Oh, holy shit! I went there!

Brace yourselves, folks! You're in for a long, bumpy ride! I'm going to have to separate this into two entries!

Looking around on and offline, it's all too easy to get the wrong impression of Hades and Persephone. With all the fanfic and merchandise (e.g. Lore Olympus, Punderworld, Hadestown, Hades, Class of the Titans, Percy Jackson, A Touch of Darkness, Kaos, Blood of Zeus, Neon Gods, Super Giants ... the list is seemingly endless), you'd easily be forgiven for thinking, and I quote, they're one of the top three healthiest and most functional relationships in Ancient Greek mythology. (I actually saw a YT video on this.)

No, no. A thousand times, no.

The whole point of their relationship that people seem to be missing is that it's a toxic and abusive one, even by the standards of Ancient Greece, and I'll explain why in extensive detail below. (Source: Theoi.com and JSTOR)

Firstly, we need to dispel the baseless notion that Persephone wandered into the Underworld on her own, or that she made the choice to willingly leave with Hades, which came from an book written in the 1960s/1970s by Charlene Spretnak who claims that misogynistic men stole away Persephone's power and agency by making her a victim of Hades, because she wanted to get her daughter into Greek mythology and didn't want to tell her the truth. (Yes, because lying to your daughter about the very real historical misogyny in Ancient Greece is the feminist thing to do, amirite?!) It has led to an demonization of Demeter (who should be, by all accounts, hailed as an feminist mother in an era of oppressive patriarchy). There are literally NO versions of the myth (Homeric Hymn, Diodorus Siculus, Apollodorus, Claudian, Ovid) in which Persephone wasn't abducted, it's literally called 'The Rape/Abduction of Persephone' for a reason. There is even a famous statue of Hades violently kidnapping (a barely pubescent) Persephone in Italy!

In the Claudian version of the myth, Hades literally puts Persephone in chains: She saw Proserpine shut in the dark confines of a prison-house and bound with cruel chains.

Now, let's get into the other baseless notion (spread by YouTubers such as Overly Sarcastic Productions) ... that Hades didn't rape Persephone, he only abducted her because of a mistranslation, that rape and abduction are the same word. (Oh, please just kill me ...) That's not true, because 'rape' and 'abduction' are the same word in the LATIN language, not the GREEK language ... and they're used interchangeably because abduction always led to rape back in those days (and often these days!) You want proof that he raped her (or at least coerced her into sex)? Here it is:

"There he found the lord in his palace sitting on a bed with his bashful bedmate, very much unwilling, longing for her mother."

Regardless of the true translation, he was forcing her to share a bed with him, and why would he do that if they weren't having sex? In Claudian's version, Persephone was literally screaming about how she was inevitably going to lose her virginity to Hades as she was being taken by him: "Happy girls whom other ravishers have stolen; they at least enjoy the general light of day, while I, together with my virginity, lose the air of heaven; stolen from me alike is innocence and daylight."

People online bring up Overly Sarcastic Productions' video on Hades and Persephone as a rebuttal, and yet on OSP's website, she brings up the 'unwilling bedmate'. (OSP isn't a valid source of information  -  she admits that she deeply sanitizes these myths for her YT videos.)

I see people online defending Hades by saying that it's more of a forced marriage than a child abduction, which is true ... and they're also completely missing the entire point of the myth, which is why it's WRONG! It's true that in Ancient Greece (and elsewhere!), a man only needed to obtain the father's permission to marry his daughter, it didn't matter if her mother or the daughter herself disagreed. Even so, fathers in Ancient Greece (even Athens!) would at least inform their daughters of it, especially if the marriage was to another relative, hence why the Homeric Hymn goes out of its way to condemn Zeus for it. Yet, in the Claudian version of the myth, Hades threatens Zeus with releasing the Titans from Tartarus if Zeus did not comply with his demands for a wife and family. Ovid has Hades shot with an love arrow from Eros because Aphrodite did not want one more virgin goddess.

That's not even getting into how Persephone isn't just a young woman, she's implicitly an actual CHILD in these myths. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which is the earliest source of the myth, calls her 'Kore' (girl). Ovid's retelling of the myth in his Metamorphoses has this line:

Here Proserpina [Persephone] was playing in a glade and picking flowers, pansies and lilies, with a child's delight, filling her basket and her lap to gather more than the other girls, when, in a trice, Dis [Haides] saw her, loved her, carried her away--love leapt in such a hurry! Terrified, in tears, the goddess called her mother, called her comrades too, but oftenest her mother; and, as she'd torn the shoulder of her dress, the folds slipped down and out the flowers fell, and she, in innocent simplicity, grieved in her girlish heart for their loss too.

In Ancient Greece (with the exception of Sparta), the average age of marriage for girls was 12-14 to grown men twice their age, and if you were of the upper-class, then you would be married off to your half-uncle. Greece hasn't been pagan for centuries now, and yet girls as young as 14 were still being married off to old men for financial reasons in the rural countryside until 1970. Child marriage is still widespread globally to this day (the United States leads the Western world in child brides because of the Mormons and the Amish, with only 12 banning it by 2024, and two-thirds of teen pregnancies are conceived via statutory rape by men in their twenties).

Ancient Greece was a society in which young women and little girls alike would vanish off the face of the earth, and their mothers would never come to know of them again, either because they were dead and/or holed up in the basement of a rapist's house. This is because Ancient Greece was a society in which they regularly and routinely exposed baby girls to die, which created an severe gender imbalance in many city-states (mainly Athens), leading many men to resort to what we would consider in the modern era to be human trafficking (abduction and rape) of women and girls from city-states such as Sparta, Crete, Mycenae, etc. (The myth of Theseus and Ariadne also reflects this.) Mothers in Ancient Greece would pray to Demeter to bring their daughters back alive. The EXACT SAME literally goes on today, in countries like China, Vietnam, Thailand, Armenia, India (which was once invaded by the Greeks under Alexander the Great and adopted many of their cultural practices).

The grief and pain felt by Demeter and Persephone is still felt by mothers and daughters over the world. That's part of the reason why the incessant romanticization of this myth has a damaging side to this, it is not something we have left behind, and women still continue to fight against it. When we have a collective perception that this isn't a practice anymore, it's easier for it to continue, hidden in plain sight, while we dismiss mothers and loved ones for being "dramatic" and "ruining" a "love story", it becomes easier to turn a blind eye to the Demeters and the Persephones all around of us.

To be continued ... in Part 2

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)

Well, I've been afraid of changin'/'Cause I've built my life around you/But time makes you bolder/Even children get older/And I'm getting older too/Oh, I'm getting older too

"It's LANDSLIDE. LISTEN TO IT. Quoting Genius.com: Nicks wrote “Landslide” while in Aspen, Colorado, inspired, while looking at the mountains, by the thought that everything in her life she’d been building could come crashing down at any time. It became a tale of love and life artfully woven behind the metaphor of a snowy mountain avalanche."

Poll Runner: I love this song a lot. So peaceful and contemplative, yet raw and angsty. I had no idea Fleetwood Mac was behind it.

The Horse and The Infant (Epic the Musical)

Please don't make me do this, don't make me do this/The blood on your hands is something you won't lose/All you can choose is whose

"This is the murdering a baby song. And also the song about the sacking of Troy, which if you know Greek mythology is tragic and terrible for a whole bunch of reasons. Odysseus is given the task of murdering the baby son of Hector by Zeus (and fr my mind will be playing “A vision of what is to come, cannot be outrun, can only be dealt with right here and now” 24/7) and just the way the song presents bloodshed as an inevitability and essentially corners Odysseus into baby murder is haunting. And it’s only the 1st song in the album. It’s a smash opening and the reason Epic: the Musical has turned into basically my entire personality (for anyone who knows me irl)"

Poll Runner: The ENTIRE musical kicks off with this scene, the protagonist making an imposible choice between the future of his people, and the future of this innocent kid. Also the rest of the song is awesome, its powerful, badass, full of story and sets up Odessyus perfectly. I cannot recommend this musical enough, it fucks SO HARD.

[legendaryoikawa]

ares / suna rintarou / masterlist

pairing: suna x female reader

word count: 2k

synopsis: your stalker must’ve adore you so so much, he intends to kill for you.

quote:  “If you're that obsessed with someone, why would you kill her? Humans are full of contradictions.” - Ai Yazawa

genre: stalker!au, caters mature themes such as manipulation, voyeurism, public masturbation, murder, violence coercion, borderline obsession. 

note: i do not condone these behavior in real life. this is just a work of fiction. 

minors dni

taglist: @boosyboo9206 @dokisaki (can’t tag) @godjo@flavostella02 @heykoutaro (can’t tag) @aleacarnin@licitix@katsukis-sad-angel@k-sakura @dokisuki (can’t tag) @black-water-78​@throughtheinterstices​ @iloverarepares @newfriendjen @aizawaslovebot @ratatouille407​ @midnightartist​ @ya-kkun​ @daicrie​ @mochipk​ @kanesshiiweeb​ @134340-cm​ @svgafresh​ @annexerca​ @neavil​ @paigypol (can’t tag) @aggressivelyshoutsokay​ thank you for the love and support!

BE PART OF MY TAGLIST HERE

Truly an ace of all fools. 

Ares, the god of war. As Homer called him, murderous, bloodstained, the incarnate curse of mortals.

Name it, Suna knows every possible if not, unique ways to kill. He prefers the crowbar as it’s efficient and easy enough to send a person to their graves. For his very own pleasure. It fuels him especially when he sees those eyes that were once full of life drown down to darkness of death. 

Suna is known as one of the notorious lads at school. He never fails to leave an astonished look to every person he has passed by at school. People are stunned whenever he walks down the hallway with his school shirt unbuttoned and crumpled. His overall appearance is unruly with the noticeable scars that lingered on his face like ches. His disheveled jet black hair. Eyes that bore nothing but darkness. Chains dangling from each of his ears. His aura that is explainable and unassailable that could even strike the thunderbolt of the great god Zeus. 

Suna is handsome. He looks like bad news. Wild.

He wielded an enormous influence among girls. Some swoon at the mere sight of him; others even resorted to some chase yet ended up a crying mess. Boys even fall for his charms, but one sharp glance is enough to wave them off like flies. 

However, you on the other hand are not fazed by him nor his silhouette. Which made him to be drained by a pure soul like you. 

Suna is so private and closed like an abandoned establishment and that could be the sole reason why people want to pry into his life. He had everyone controlled on the palm of his hand but he can’t seem to play with you like he initially plans to. 

Suna has the patience of a boar. He shows signs of violence that it’s alarming. But people seem to be in love at his bad boy facade, no one dares to report him.

 He is a living contradiction. Suna is a ride, a deadly one.

He comes to school with his boisterous friends that look exactly like how he presents himself. You can always hear their uproarious banters about their lives, endless wolf-whistling. They are the group of boys you wouldn’t want to mess with. Especially the mysterious Suna. 

You made a promise to get the shit out of the tracks that had traces of the boisterous boy that is  Suna. 

Not just the boys that have brought out the never ending fiasco circulating around your highschool. There have been a high number of mysterious disappearances of students that you may have never heard of or slightly familiar to you that you cannot recall. Their skulls are cracked open with a brute force or a bullet to the head. Some are strangled, some are mutilated, and what makes it terrifying is that most of the victims are leading down to you.

You can still remember how Kang Hana spent her afternoon with you in the library for a philosophy project. You admit it yourself that Hana isn’t the preferable company. She’s too nosy, noisy and quite violent towards you as she keeps on hitting you on the arm whenever you spill something stupid. Nevertheless, you held no grudge towards the girl. And you were really stunned at the news of her sudden death. 

Oh, you didn’t know someone was watching from the windows of the library outside. Irritability bubbles inside his body like a brook. He allows no one to go near you, let alone to hit you like a ragged doll. He always had a thing for you, he didn’t know when it started but by the way you looked at him like you are almost something to be disregarded. He is drawn to you like a moth to the flame.

It is always in Suna’s system. His mind is a bully, gushing him to do things that would make him thrilled, something that could awaken his fantasies. 

He wants to kill. And he did. 

He stood in all his glory, wearing his uninterested look while scrutinizing the other students walking along the hall. There at the lockers he spots Kang Hana awkwardly fumbling with the entangled bag straps. 

His dark eyes bore into Hana’s figure. Eyeing her from head to toe. At this moment he is thinking of what he can possibly do with those limbs. Break it? Smash it? Mutilate it like how they do in the slaughterhouse? Suna approaches her figure, his switchblade ready in his windbreaker’s pockets. 

He breaths, trying to muster his oh-so-charming smile. “Hey.”

Hana raises up her gaze and she is surprised that the notorious Suna is approaching her. Only if she knew his real intentions. “Oh my god. Hey.”

Suna is charming. Quite egocentric. It doesn’t take him long to persuade someone to sp with him or to go out on a date with him. If there is something you should be afraid about Suna, it is his ability to deceive people without them knowing his real motives. He has a calm demeanor but sometimes his arrogance fuels him to be so wild-driven. 

He leads Hana to the abandoned establishment at the rundown part of the town. He made sure to give her a signal to meet him outside where no witnesses could see them. It’s always a step when considering crime, get rid of witnesses. 

At this moment, Hana starts to get excited because she has foreseen what could happen. For her it’s sex. For him, it’s blood. Suna draws his switchblade near her carotid artery. She widens her eyes but laughter resonates in the eerie place. 

She purrs. “I am a kinky person but I can try knife play.”

Suna doesn’t play. He draws the knife deeper to her neck until she realizes he is not joking at all. Kang Hana’s heart made a beeline for her throat and tried to make a f for her life but Suna had his strong hand gripping her hair. 

She struggles but after every move she dares, the knife further penetrates her neck. Beads of sweat are dropping down to her cheeks. A hot sticky liquid from where the knife is trickling down her neck, dampening her collarbones down to her bra. She cries loud. “What do you want?!”

Suna smirks. He misses the familiar scent of blood flooding in his nostrils. “Your life.” 

Her eyes widened in pure horror as the charming prince transformed quickly as a ruthless psychopath in just the blink of her eye. Hana tries to fight against his hold once again but Suna wants to finish off and not to take care of a wailing woman. 

He repeatedly lash out the knife through her neck. The impact of his pounds set out her blood gushing out, splashing his pale cheeks. His right hand is dripping with her hot blood. Suna’s chest rose as his breathing became ragged but overall he felt so alive and content. He stares at Hana’s figure sprawled on the floor bathing with the pool of her own blood. Suna felt so driven with just crimson clouding his vision. He runs his tongue on the rows of his pearly teeth, a sinister smile tugging the corners of his lips. He did it for you. 

The following days have been hell for you. No, you weren’t killed but you faced a frightening number of police interrogations for the victims were always drawing down to you. Like Hana, you were the last person she was with before her neck was slashed out like a cow in the slaughterhouse. The pulse of a blue and red strobe from the police mace being parked in the circular driveway. You stare at the officer's badge, his holstered Glock. The night air settles the eerie night, still, gauzy full of humidity. 

The interview lasts about a good hour but you are deemed innocent as Hana’s whereabouts where the crime took place didn’t match your activity. Her clothes are missing on the spot but the investigators found it drenched in this liquid they believed was an oxygen producing detergent didn’t match. Since the laboratory personnel couldn’t get any fingerprints from her body, it has been declared useless for the crime.

It has been weeks since you find yourself able to breathe again but it didn’t last long when you were bombarded with unknown and creepy messages that you couldn’t withstand at all. 

I know you. From everything you do, I know it all. 

You belong to me, your full name. 

I find it romantic to see how excited you look whenever I send these messages. Shall I start sending my pictures as well? Or the throne I made for you?

From morning you go to your mother’s flower shop to gather primrose to deliver to your grandfather that lives in the twenty second street downtown. 

Your favorite thing to do is to draw, my sweet. I am right, am I? I’m always right. 

I saw you talk to that small loser from class D. Now don’t ever talk to him again or you will see his head delivered right at your doorstep. I love you and I’m being the nice guy here. 

Do you perhaps like the idea of your friend's limbs personally delivered to you? Your pick. 

I am always watching you, your name.

Oh, you had a museum date with your friends? Don’t go, I am at your grandmother’s restaurant, she serves the ultimate broth soup. Too bad I can stop her from serving these delicacies. 

I know deep down, you love me too. Don’t you ever try to date behind my back without telling me. I did kill for you. 

Your parents aren’t home. Do you want me to visit?

So much love for you. Your long secret admirer :) 

I love you. I will kill for you. 

He isn’t joking. He knows everything about you. All the meticulous details no one knows but your family. Whenever you receive a message from him, your heart would pound against your rib cage. It terrifies you to the core that he exactly knows the precise details of your whereabouts.

 You immediately reported this matter to the police, to your parents but it didn’t settle the problem. The number isn’t traceable. They keep on insisting that the number used is from an unregistered sim. You fear for your life, your personal space, everything. 

You weren’t just experiencing the never ending terror of your stalker’s messages. But some of your things are now starting to disappear, from your bracelets, your baby pictures now, now, your white lacy underwear. 

You are blissfully unaware of the pair of eyes that follows every movement as you exit the school grounds. He looks down on his hand, gripping his favorite underwear of you. He had a picture when you wore the garment, and it was his favorite among all. 

He makes his way to his heavily tinted car, a smile never leaving Suna's face as he clutches the garment tightly on his hands. His soulless eyes stared back at him the moment he stared at the rear view mirror. And drives to the nearest convenience store. 

He keeps on fantasizing about you. The way your name rolls out of his tongue while jerking out never fails to send himself to ecstasy. He can’t wait to meet you, but one thing he is sure of, he will be watching you tonight. 

Suna is always a step ahead of his plans. He is meticulous and calculative. His plans never backfire for he knew what methods to use. For the days he has been killing he already knows how to get rid of evidence that could lead to him.  The boy’s got a sharp tongue as well, a serpent’s, he uses lies to cover up the real  Suna that hides behind the charming facade he puts front. 

He wore black. Black that is a mystery. Eerie. He wears a black bucket hat that covers his beautiful features that compliments his youth. Despite the dusk ebbing its way, his moles are always as alive as the constellation. He secures his mask tighter on both ears, as appealing as it sounds, he cannot show his face to you, just not yet. He had a thing to do, he had something to accomplish.

“Just in time” he breathed into the shadows. His eyes follow your figure marching down the dim lit streets. A smirk paints his lips as you still try to swat everything and thinking to yourself everything is still normal. But no, not until he is dead. He could have easily needle out your background from Kita but you were his and it gives him satisfaction whenever he discovers something about you. Things that aren’t open for others but just for him. 

He immediately hid behind a large tree, once you entered your home. He makes sure to secure a great and measurable distance from him to you, not so far yet so near. He clenches his fist, the idea of watching you undress from your windows sends him a big wave of pleasure. 

He begins to scramble up trying to get a hold of the strongest branch his forearm could manage. Some twigs tried to interrupt him midway but nothing can stop a hungry predator from lurking on his prey. He finds the perfect spot just parallel to your window.

“Fuck” he hiss as he felt his phone vibrate from his pocket. “What it is now  fucking Atsumu?”

“Lover boy, I forgot to place your camera in your bag, bye.” 

The camera is not his top most concern. He has his phone that is full of you. 

You were humming quietly. He follows your hands, removing your school blouse that left the boy’s mouth agape. His cock immediately hardens at the sight, and he cannot risk himself to jerk while on the tree. He scrambles immediately, carelessly fishing out for his phone to take a picture of you naked. 

Suna is always not satisfied with the bare minimum. He records you, doing your private thing in your room. He is biting hard on his lips, his erection sticking out painfully against his pants. He has to endure much longer till you have finished your routine applying lotion to your shiny long legs. Those legs that he can’t wait to touch. 

Suna left the place shortly. He’s astounded. You drive him wild and wild he is. You fuel the monster more. 

[whore-zier]

ok so I have a new shifting symptom where  really weird specific memories pop up in my head about me in my DR. this one is really funny to me so im going to tell it to you all.

(note: I scripted that the prophecy spoke about 8 demigods instead of 7 and I was one of them, and that Leo went to Ogygia and saved calypso but they were always completely platonic)

So this was like three months after the events of  HoO, and Camp Half-blood was on the yearly field trip to Olympus. I was reading this book on Greek mythology with Leo while we were on the bus to New York, and I read one page where it was talking about how the Greeks essentially thought that BigDick=Stupid (that's true btw google it), so every statue of the Greek gods portrays them as having small manhoods. 

I told Leo, and we couldn't stop laughing. When we got to Olympus Leo dared me to call Zeus a, and I quote, “Small Dick man”. Obviously, I was like “Dude no, I don't want to get smote.” and he said “I’ll give you ten bucks.” and I said “Deal.” 

So when we got there, I walked up to Zeus’s throne and said “Lord Zeus, how do you manage to get so many girls to sleep with you when you're such a small dick man?” and I made myself look all innocent.

The ENTIRE Olympian council started laughing, all except for Zeus, obviously. He was this close to blasting me but luckily my BAMF mom Demeter was like “Bitch no, shes my daughter and you KNOW you owe me after what happened with Persephone.” So all I got was that I was forbidden to come to Olympus ever again. 

when we were leaving, Leo was laughing and just randomly said “Gods, that was hilarious, I love you.” and I got all blushy and shy because we aren't dating yet and I’m a simp. :)

[laoch-rua-blog]

Mythologising the Hero; ‘Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori.’

Achilles drags Hector’s corpse before the Gates of Troy, fresco from the Achilleion palace in Corfu. 

 If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud  

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, 

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory, 

The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est 

Pro patria mori.

   (Wilfred Owens) 

 This quotation from one of Wilfred Owen’s poems vividly illustrates his experience as a WWI soldier.  A rude awakening to the realities of war versus the idealised image that had been indoctrinated.  He was educated in the Classical civilisations and would have been instructed in the Latin and Greek literary traditions.  The Latin phrase Owen used is borrowed from Horace’s Odes, which in turn was adapted from Hector’s speech in The Iliad.  However, Horace re-using of this snippet from Homer’s epic fails to capture the complexity of the original.  Hector expressed that sentiment facing into combat with a raging Achilles, with the knowledge of his own impending death.  Hector does not have a choice, he must fight and he will die.  Horace evokes the memory of the hero Hector in his repurposing of the line to convey a sense of patriotism but not the despair and the inevitability of death in war.  Contrary to the line of Horace’s poem, as Owens’ unfortunately discovered, there is nothing sweet or proper in the horrors of war.  When segmented or summarised, the heroic discourse is frequently interpreted as honouring the glory of war.  The narrative is often appropriated in order to create an image of idealised heroes to serve social or political interests.

 Heroes have been repeatedly misappropriated and reinterpreted, portrayed contrary to the original intent.  Pádraic Pearse, the Irish revolutionary of the 1916 Easter Rising, who in death would become a national hero himself, knew the value of this.  He summoned the warrior Cú Chulainn from Ancient Irish mythology to fulfil this purpose.  Pearse was an educator and wanted his pupils to follow in the footsteps of the warrior.  Pearse claimed the hero Cú Chulainn as a role model for his students, promoting him as an ideal despite him possessing what would have been considered at the time as many undesirable traits.  For example, Cú Chulainn often lost his temper and could not control his rage, transforming into a monster (ríastrad).  These aspects are deemphasised, instead choosing to focus on the self sacrificial hero, one Pearse used to forward his cause of an independent Ireland.  On the commencement of his school St Enda’s, he told the pupils,

 ‘We must re-create and perpetuate in Ireland the knightly tradition of Cú Chulainn, ‘better is short life with honour than long life with dishonour’;

‘I care not though I were to live but one day and one night, if only my fame and my deeds live after me.’’ 

(Pádraic Pearse quoting Cú Chulainn in The Murder Machine 1912) 

School book from Pearse school, St Enda’s

 The heroic sentiment conveyed in Pearse’s lines are strikingly similar to the story of the Greek warrior Achilles.  He knew that he could either have a short life with fame or a long life in obscurity.  With the perpetuation of Achilles’ hero cult through other channels such as condensed mythology compendia, etc., it is natural to assume that The Iliad would be a panegyric to the warrior.  However, synopses cannot give a true understanding of the intricacy of the epic.  The heroes are not monochromatic as those portrayed in Tyrtaeus’ poetry or in Perikles’ funeral oration [https://online.hillsdale.edu/document.doc?id=355].  The Iliad is not in celebration of this paragon of the hero but as a response to it.  Homer composed a narrative wrought with digressions and uncultivated social topics, in order to encourage audience exploration.  The audience is mindful of Achilles approaching death but it is a not neat line to this outcome.  If the plot is to be viewed in simplistic terms, the end of the poem does not hold any resolution; Troy is not sacked and Achilles is not dead.  The exclusion of these narrative ‘goals’ force the audience to narrow the focus on what is in between.  Attention is placed upon the warriors’ individual perspective as a participant in the war or the audience to probe the unexplored dimensions of the hero. 

 Let us examine the character of Achilles and his progression through the narrative, to illustrate how Homer problematizes the heroic paradigm.  The Iliad portrays the brutality of the Trojan War.  Nine years away from home and removed from society, tensions build and the social structure that bind the community together breaks down.  This disintegration can be viewed through Achilles’ character.  The depiction of Achilles prior to the war shows him to be even-handed, perhaps even lenient in comparison to the other commanders.  Hector’s wife, Andromache describes how during the sack of her native city, Achilles as the aggressor, stipulated on a burial for her father and chose to enslave her mother rather than kill her (6. 413-428).  Achilles also showed mercy to Priam’s son, Lycaon, selling him into slavery prior to the war (21. 35-41).  This is in contrast with the policy employed by those in charge, Agamemnon and Menelaus chose to annihilate all Trojans, demanding that ‘not even a man-child which a mother carries in her womb’ should survive (Homer, 6. 58-59).   This image of Achilles’ clemency juxtaposes with the degradation of his humanity as the poem proceeds.  After the death of friend Patroclus, Achilles does not feel pity for the supplicating Lycaon and initially denies funeral rites to Hector, ridiculing and mutilating his body, despite Hector’s dying pleas.  

 What provokes Achilles to reach this state?  In the opening of the epic, Agamemnon publicly insults Achilles and threatens his status.  Status is currency.  It is only through this τιμή (honour/value) that the hero can achieve κλεος αϕθιτον (imperishable fame) and in sense, immortality.  Agamemnon breaches warrior convention, he seizes Achilles γῆρας (prize), the captured daughter of Briseus.  In this way, he also his seizes his τιμή and the constructed social framework, which the hero has lived by, is weakened.  Τιμή motivates the warrior to fight and γῆρας is the physical representation of this.  Publicly challenging Achilles, threatens his τιμή and the destruction of this code means he earns no value as a warrior.  The removal of this social order destabilises Achilles; the Θέμις, the conventions the warrior ordinarily lives by, are voided.  When Agamemnon sends the embassy to restore Achilles’ τιμή and in an attempt pacify his anger, offers to pay additional γῆρας, he rejects it.  He desires τισις, payback.   Achilles argues that fighting is futile as each warrior receives the same μοῖραι [1] regardless of ability (9. 318-320).  The motivation for the warrior is lost and he not longer partakes in the reciprocal mores.

 Homer is exploring the heroic ideal; problematizing the motivations of the warrior.  The older warrior Phoenix encourages Achilles to question the position he is in, using the tale of Meleagros as an analogy.  This action of Phoenix mirrors the questioning function of Homeric poetry, a tale to provoke exploration.  Meleagros fought without γῆρας and his τιμή was meaningless.  Phoenix advises Achilles not to return to the fighting without consideration of this (9. 597-605).  Achilles rejects the need for social recognition, ‘I have no need of such τιμή: I think myself to be honoured in the apportionment of Zeus’ (9. 608-609). [2] Achilles no longer lives by θέμις.  This reiterated when Achilles expressed inconsequence at the gifts being presented after the death of Patroclus (1. 146-148) and those proposed by Priam (24. 560-570).  This rejection of the social ties of reciprocity, which is a fundamental of the warriors’ social order, expresses his withdrawal from the group and from society.

Amphora by Exekias painter, Achilles and Ajax playing game, c.540–530 BC, Vatican Museums

 Αριστεία, excellence, is another aspect of the Homeric hero, which is commonly portrayed as an attribute of the warrior.  The warrior can accomplish great heroic feats through their Αριστεία.  During their Αριστεία, the gods repeatedly breathe μένος, surging strength into the heroes in preparation for combat.  Μένος can be translated as bodily fluids, blood or semen, ‘the essence of life,’ but also be used to convey a rush of vigorous force by the hero.  Both understandings seem to be unconnected, however it is their connection, which is fundamental to the feeling of μένος.  The fluids give the hero impetus to surge and are also the consequence of μένος.  This μένος can also be destructive as it overpowers, verging on μανια, ‘uncontrollable frenzy’.  Andromache warns Hector, ‘Man possessed, your fury (μένος) will destroy you’ (Homer 6.407).  Diomedes is another character who possesses μένος.  His account is paralleled with Achilles, in that Agamemnon likewise publicly disrespected him (Homer 4. 370-400), however contrary to Achilles he does not become enraged (4. 413 & 5. 606).  In Book five Diomedes is filled with μένος, even attacking the gods Aphrodite and Ares.  Nonetheless, he exhibits self-control as he faces Glaukos in combat, when he discovers that they shared mutual relations.  The significance of Diomedes use of restraint is amplified by his continual comparison to his father Tydeus.  According to Apollodrus, during the war of Thebes, Tydeus was on the verge of achieving apotheosis for his heroic deeds in battle, when he descended into anthropophagy (Apollodrus III. 6).  The repeated allusion to Diomedes’ father, combined with his surging μένος, gives the impression that Diomedes could possibly have the same culmination as Tydeus and lose his humanity to cannibalism.  

 The death of his beloved friend Patroclus triggers a transformation in Achilles.  He rejoins the battle in a battle frenzy.  A sense of being on the threshold of cannibalism is also prominent in Achilles’ ἀριστεία.  Achilles informs a dying Hector of the futility in appeals to his humanity in requesting pity, as he is on the brink of bestiality.

 'Dog – do not entreat me by my knees or my parents’ name!  I wish there was a way that my heart’s fury could leave me to carve and eat your flesh raw.' (22. 345-347)

  Although Achilles does not succumb to savagery of Tydeus, he does struggle to contain the bloodthirsty μένος, escalating to μῆνις, god-like anger.  As an ἡμίθεον (half-god), a μεγᾰλόψῡχος (big-souled), Achilles’ humanity is stretched, as the force that compels him to excel in battle can move him to the verge his mortal limits.  Homer portrays the degradation of humanity as a ramification of warfare.  When these details of Achilles descent into the bestial are recognised, then the warrior or war itself does not appear in a favourable light.  Homer shows that war pushes the combatants to the edge of their humanity.  We meet Achilles again in The Odyssey as the eponymous hero travels to the underworld.  Odysseus tells Achilles’ shade that he is worshipped as a god on earth.  To which Achilles responded,

‘Don’t sing praise to me about death, my fine Odysseus!  If I could live on earth, I would be happy to serve as a hired hand to some other, even to some man without a plot of land, one who has little to live on, than to be king among all the dead who have perished.’ (11. 467-460) [3]

 He would rather be a poor landless peasant and alive than be a deified hero in death.  Homer questions this romanticised hero.  Yes, Achilles achieved imperishable fame, but to him it was meaningless.

 It is possible to examine The Iliad in terms of its didactic nature.  The knowledge is not given openly, but it is necessary to explore between the lines of the text in order to derive substantial meaning.  The Homeric hero is questioned as the model of a powerful warrior who attempts to create κλεος αϕθιτον, in order to be remembered, celebrated and worshiped as part of the hero cult.  The Iliad demonstrates the other side of war, the torment of the individual warrior and their struggle to keep their humanity.   Achilles’ character is pivotal to express this struggle as he is offered two prospects, long life in obscurity or certain death and fame.  In response to the custom of the celebrated idealised hero, Homer provides his audience with narrative in which it is possible to question the social milieu by presenting the internal struggle of warrior.  

 [1] Share/fate in life, as in each warrior comes to the same end, death.  This wisdom is reinforced in the divine realm as gods are repeatedly reminded not to save particular heroes as the all share the same moira.

[2] This quotation is from M. Clarke’s translation.

[3] Taken from Powell’s translation.

[arkita-shadow]

Hermes when he hugs us:

Y/n is Gender neutral

Apollo introducing Heron to Y/n and some other gods/goddesses

Apollo: that's Y/n they loves their personal space

Hermes with his speed comes barreling towards Y/n with the intention of giving them a hug but doesn't slow down in time cause Y/n and Hermes to tumble onto the ground

Apollo: that's Hermes he also loves Y/n personal space