#greek delight

[bercecero]

would you like to undress him? would you like to run your fingers over his chest?

[botanyshitposts]

ah to be a fat bumblebee in a pollinator garden or restored prairie…..

[red-moon-at-night]

After doing some research on the types of pets people had in ancient Greece, I'd like to imagine that Helen is the sort of person who has a whole menagerie of birds — and she loves each and every one of them very, very much.

It fits well with her being good at mimicry, you know. Talking and imitating and singing with her beloved birds 💜

Close up under the read more:

I had to include that one necklace from the minoan 'saffron goddess' fresco because it's my favourite thing Ever

[my-name-is-apollo]

Having a "I've connected the dots" moment on why Zeus is so affectionate with Apollo, and I don't know why I'd never considered it before that Apollo's youth could be a reason.

Iamblichus, The Life Of Pythagoras (trans. Guthrie)

So there was this sentiment that young boys are the dearest to the gods, and the gods are especially attentive towards their requests. And since Apollo is a perpetual young boy himself, with Zeus being the one to grant him this gift in one version, it makes sense that Zeus has granted so many of Apollo's wishes. He spared Prometheus and Periphas upon Apollo's request even though he was personally offended by them. He agreed to suppress Gaia and Athena upon Apollo's request when it came to the oracular business. He even revived Asclepius to console Apollo despite Apollo's frankly disrespectful reaction to Asclepius' death.

Apollo might be fearsome, powerful, and even reckless at times but when he kneels down in supplication, all Zeus sees is his little boy that he loves so much, and he can't help but give in to his requests (well, most of his requests at least). And as far as the text is concerned, and if I'm interpreting this correcltly, Apollo's youth is interestingly tied to his helpful nature because besides using his own powers to help the humans, Apollo can also help them by supplicating to Zeus on their behalf, as Zeus is more likely to grant a request when it's coming from him.

[gingermintpepper]

One of my biggest pet peeves is the assumption that something has to be sad for it to be tragic.

I've always been a big believer of the 'Apollo has an awful love life'/'Apollo is plain unlucky with love' line of thinking but it does bother me that the general reasoning for that statement is given to the concept of 'Apollo is somehow undesireable and thus rejected' (Cassandra/Daphne/Marpessa) or 'his lovers die young and thus their love is unfulfilled' (Cyparissus/Hyacinthus/Coronis). I personally think that's a very unfortunate way of looking at things - not only because it neglects the many perfectly cordial entanglements and affairs Apollo has had, both mortal and divine - but because it presents a very shallow interpretation of the concepts of love and loss and how loss affects people.

Apollo can still grieve lovers that have a long, healthy life. The inherent tragedy of an immortal who knows his lovers and children will die and cannot stop it does not stop being tragic simply because those lovers and children live long, fulfilled lives. The inherent tragedy of loss does not stop being tragic simply because someone knows better than to mourn something that was always going to end.

What is tragic is not that Apollo loves and loses but that loss itself follows him. Apollo does not love with the distance of an immortal, he does not have affairs and then leaves never to listen to their prayers again. He does not have offspring and then abandon them to their trials only to appear when it is time to lead them to their destinies. He raises his young, he protects the mothers of his children, he blesses the households that have his favour and multiplies their flocks that they may never go hungry. He educates his sons, he adorns his daughters and even in wrath he is quick to come to his senses and regret the punishments he doles out.

Apollo loves. And like mortals, there will always be some part of him that wishes to protect the objects of his affections. Apollo, however, is also an emissary of Fate. He knows that the fate of all mortal things is death. He knows that to love a mortal is to accept that eventually he will have to bury them. There is no illusion of forever, there is no fantasy where he fights against the nature of living things and shields his beloveds from death. Apollo loves and because of that love, he also accepts.

And that, while beautiful, is also tragic.

[icarusbetide]

the hamburr moment in nonstop and why it's the turning point for their relationship

i read a great post about musical hamburr by @just-mebs and how burr's actions after the war can be interpreted as a desperate longing to regain hamilton's respect, attention, admiration after hamilton has already moved on. i wanted to point out that musical burr did get a second chance to regain that affection, and he didn't take it.

during non-stop, hamilton knocks on burr's door in the middle of the night -a private, vulnerable setting- and tells him, straight-up, that he's the better lawyer; that he wants burr on his side, writing the federalist papers with him. when burr rejects it, hamilton tries to persuade him one more time: "do you support this constitution? then defend it". but burr? he says he's going to wait to see which way the wind will blow, and that's that. hamilton moves on from burr and this moment is the final blow that did it.

it's so ironic that in the middle of the song where musical burr is literally narrating all the times that hamilton is beginning to surpass him, there's an interlude where hamilton offers a hand for burr to join him (as true partners who complement each other if we put our hamburr goggles on), and he doesn't get it.

also, the laurens interlude comes on right before non-stop. once again putting our hamburr glasses on: john laurens is the passionate, go-getter that hamilton ditched burr for during my shot - we can assume that if laurens had lived, hamilton would've just written the federalist papers with him. but no. laurens dies, so hamilton turns to his old friend/crush/mentor/rival for help and partnership, who doesn't see the opportunity for what it is.

aaron burr's biggest obstacle, john laurens, drops dead, and he still fumbles the ball.

this moment in non-stop is a crucial one that's often overlooked, probably because it's quick, and burr never mentions it again because it's insignificant: to him, it's just another time when he was being cautious. but for hamilton, it's the moment when he decided that this guy isn't going to change. the war is over, their physical lives aren't at risk, but burr is still incapable of taking a stand when it matters. it adds more context as to why hamilton's angry and uncooperative when burr runs against his father in law and later runs for president. he's convinced that burr doesn't stand for anything except himself. (and in the musical, honestly for good reason. his big i want song is about being "in the room where it happens". he never says for what. he never explains what he wants to do in the room, not like jefferson or madison who want to "stand up for the south".)

so by the time act 2 rolls around, hamilton has already dismissed burr. he pushes him aside saying "decisions are happening over dinner." burr is resentful? jealous? missing hamilton's admiration and respect? and he thinks that he can regain it by simply being open and forceful - going "i learned that from you" while campaigning for president. he's still missing the bigger picture. it's not about being aggressive and forceful. it's about having a conviction to be forceful about.

this blindness on musical burr's part also impacts how audiences relate to him because i hear so many times that "omg burr just wanted to be in the room where it happens, and hamilton kept it from him :(". burr's the one who rejected that shot - and he didn't need it, because he does technically end up where he wanted! he's there during the cabinet battles, he's dancing and prancing with the jefferson-madison duo, but they aren't a true trio. he's not in the room because he doesn't add anything to it. that inability has nothing to do with hamilton's sabotage, and everything to do with why he's not admired or seen as a true confidant like in the old days.

mandatory disclaimer: this is fully about musical hamilton, a lot of this is entirely fiction and separate from the historical figures!

[ink-stains-and-constellations]

Sing, Muse, of these millennia-old characters from ancient epics who we ship and write fanfiction of.

[doyoudrew]

hey i'm gonna order doordash what's everyone want from maxine's

[sarafangirlart]

I’ve complained about Stray Gods a lot but I will say that I dig most of the designs, I like that the Minotaur is kinda based on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, there’s even a ballroom scene that seems based on the one in the movie

[bercecero]

Come swim with me! The water is cold but i am burning hot!

[necrotic-nephilim]

i recently remembered DickTim Week 2024 is happening very soon and i looked at the prompts again to see if i could get anything out for it and. the Hades & Persephone AU prompt for day 1 has got me really thinking so here's a vague concept i plan to write.

i've been pretty burnt out on modern Hades & Persephone retellings because of how they always seem to fall into the same generic "innocent wide-eyed girl runs from her evil mean mother into the arms of a dark mysterious man because actually she went willingly and chose to marry him" which has gotten repetitive for my tastes. (for clarity i don't care if this retelling is your cup of tea personally, so long as you're not actively trying to rewrite the original myth and claim untrue things about it, if this is your favorite flavor i sincerely hope you enjoy the buffet i just have little interest in it since it feels overdone for me and exhausted of it's supposed commentary atp)

but? but. biblically accurate Hades & Persephone AU has me all kinds of interested. because wait listen so hear me out right. Hades!Dick and Persephone!Tim, obviously. i feel it'd be more loosely inspired by with themes and imagery (though playing with death and nature powers could be interesting, i haven't decided) rather than explicitly making them gods and all. but. something dark and fucked up where Dick and Bruce are especially estranged. maybe to do with Jason's return, maybe to do with them just clashing and having their usual explosive arguments. and Bruce knows the peace needs to be kept, if he and Dick are at odds then everyone starts to pick sides and things just fracture so he needs a peace offering.

and the peace offering is Tim.

Bruce (the stand-in for Zeus) offers up Tim. agrees to have Tim move to Bludhaven and be Dick's... whatever Dick wants him to be. knowing that with the implication comes the likelihood of Dick grooming Tim. and Tim has no real say and is hesitant to put up a real fight. he doesn't want this, he knows what this is going to imply Dick will do to him, but he also knows if he says no things have the possibility to just... fall apart. so he's the unwilling bride, dragged off to the metaphorical underworld (Bludhaven) with Dick, away from his family, his friends, the life he built.

and on the flip side, i think weirdly enough, your best pick for the Demeter stand-in is *Jason*. just, hear me out on that. not necessarily on the side of it being motherly, but on Jason being just estranged enough from the Batfamily to be the one willing to call it out for being bad and wrong and raising bloody hell to get Tim back. maybe it's because Jason wants Tim for himself, maybe it's truly out of a concern for Tim to have autonomy, i'm toying with the idea of it primarily being Tim's POV and him genuinely not knowing which of these is true. (and the truth possibly ends up being a complicated middle ground) and because i like Helena, i think you can use her as the Hekate stand in, the one who strikes a tentative alliance with Jason and tries to go find Tim and bring him back. Tim stuck with Dick, getting groomed and hyperaware of it, possibly even getting fucked the whole time as well, knowing he can't go back without causing massive issues for Dick and Bruce because well, Bruce did promise him to Dick. so he has to adjust his whole life, try to figure out being a vigilante in this new city with Dick breathing down his neck the whole time.

and then much like the ending of the myth, a sort of compromise is struck that's a shaky deal for everyone involved. Tim is put on an essential timeshare, going back and forth between Gotham, where he has friends and family and a support system, then getting dragged right back to Bludhaven with Dick in this brutal cycle that he slowly gets used to and stockholm'd into even liking it. Dick isn't so bad, once he gets used to the quirks of their unbalanced 'relationship'. the sex is even something he can adjust to as well. not quite a happy ending but one that sits in this realistic grey area that becomes Tim's life.

i will write this, eventually, but i don't know if i'll get to it before DickTim Week ends so by posting the idea i'm essentially putting it out into the world so the peer pressure holds me accountable. i just. really like the potential of making Hades/Persephone AUs as fucked up as they can be simply by adhering to the source material and making it a raw story of being stolen away and forced to like this new home you didn't ask for.

also a less fleshed-out aspect of this idea i have ties into Persephone becoming the Queen of the Underworld when she's taken and how the transition from Kore to Persephone could be reflected in Tim. how he makes the best of the worst situation and becomes something far more dangerous and dark when he's in Bludhaven, possibly takes on a new vigilante name/identity and leans into the worst quirks of his personality he tries to tamper because there's no point in not going full tilt Obsessively Weird if he has no choice anyway and it being one small way he takes back his autonomy, and that inevitably making Dick *more* into him, because he gets to see Tim finally just. let loose.

[the-overanalyst]

what enemies to lovers is:

person a and person b mutually hate each other for personal reasons at first

person a and person b are told to hate each other for societal reasons at first

what enemies to lovers is NOT:

person a hates person b at first, but person b relentlessly pursues person a until they finally give in

[windsweptinred]

Can we start a petition for Stephen Fry to retell the Silmarillion? The same way he did the Greek myths.

[blantheia]

Junon à Nauplie (1889) Hector Le Roux. France.

"In Nauplia [in Argolis] . . . is a spring called Kanathos. Here, say the Argives, Hera bathes every year and recovers her maidenhood. This is one of the sayings told as a holy secret at the Mysteries which they celebrate in honor of Hera." 

 Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 38. 2

[hermesmoly]

Hello! from one lover of ZeusxHera to another, I would like to share with you a little piece that caught my attention while I was looking for Adonis content in case you didn't know yet!

Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 7 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190) : "Those who dive from the top of the rock [of Leukade on the island of Leukos in Western Greece] were, it is said, freed from their love and for this reason: after the death of Adonis, Aphrodite, it is said, wandered around searching for this. She found it in Argos, a town of Kypros, in the sanctuary of Apollon Erithios and ‘l'emporta’ after having told Apollon in confidence the secret of her love for Adonis. And Apollon brought her to the rock of Leukade and ordered her to throw herself from the top of the rock; she did so and was freed from her love. When she sought the reason of this, Apollon told her, it is said, in his capacity as a soothsayer, he knew that Zeus, always enamored of Hera, had sat on this rock and been delivered from his love." - theoi.com

Another translation: Photius Bibliotheca. 152-153. Bekker - Those who leapt off the cliff are said to have freed themselves from erotic desire. And this is the story that lies behind it: it is said that, after the death of Adonis, Aphrodite wandered about in search of him until she found him in the city of Argos in Cyprus in the sanctuary of Apollo Erithios. She carried him away [for a funeral], having told Apollo about her love for Adonis. Apollo took her to the Leucadic Rock and ordered her to jump off the cliff. As she leapt, she freed herself of her love. They say that when she inquired about the reason, Apollo replied that as a seer he knew that whenever Zeus felt desire for Hera, he would come to the rock, sit there and free himself from the desire.

Interesting, right? I realize that it seems like a convenient way to justify Zeus' adultery, though I admit that I enjoy the interpretation of Zeus as a hopeless romantic who falls in love but still loves and stays with Hera. However, I also like the interpretation of Zeus fulfilling his role as the Father of Gods and that his love for Hera hinders that, that it is so great that he must let go of it. Like it matters to him, like his love for her is his hidden weakness. Much like Hera's weakness is also Zeus, when he doesn't listen to her, cheats on her or forgets to treat her as an equal.

the Leucadic rock! ❤️ I think I've read this once here on tumblr, but I wasn't sure it was true until now! Thank you for sharing the sources :>

I think it's Quite Interesting that Zeus keeps the whole "throw my love away" a secret (Apollo only knows because he's a seer). I mean on paper it makes sense, Hera might not take it lightly as a wife ("Is my love that disposable?") but on the other, it could resolve most of Zeus and Hera's issues if he was just honest. But then again, duty. The way Zeus and Hera function- Zeus creates heroes and gods and Hera challenges them, and Hera's jealousy is a main motivator to all this. Could she challenge Heracles and Dionysus if she wasn't jealous? Would Artemis and Apollo be born on Delos if Hera didn't declared Leto to not give birth on terra firma? It's a lot to think about.

And to your last point, I agree so much. Funny how we get a prime example of Hera being Zeus' weakness in the Iliad where the Trojans start losing thanks to Zeus being distracted by his wife and had sex with her with more passion than the first time they did it together.

[ravencromwell]

The poem evokes human greatness and human vulnerability. People are “godlike” in their courage and skill, but even the greatest mortals fall and clutch the dust between their bloody fingers. The beautiful word minunthadios , “short-lived,” is used of both Achilles and Hector, and applies to all of us. We die too soon, and there is no adequate recompense for the terrible, inevitable loss of life. Yet through poetry, the words, actions, and feelings of some long-ago brief lives may be remembered even three thousand years later.

--Emily Wilson's introduction to the Iliad