#hate being Cassandra from Greek mythology

[renard-rogue]

I live in a country that just banned an entire app because they didn’t like what was said on it and how people connected. But, please, continue to tell me how we live in the freest country, and how I shouldn’t be worried as a queer person about my rights getting taken away, when they just violated one of the base principals of free speech?

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

Greek mythology has evolved over the course of hundreds of years, and with all those… retellings now, it’s gotten me thinking about just how many people have been spreading false details of myths through word of mouth to the point of becoming the most common interpretation, when if you were to look back in history, a great number of them were only recently made up, barely a a few centuries prior. Example of this is King Midas and his turning his daughter into a gold statue. I remember this part having been included all throughout my childhood, only to find out it was never part of the original myth but a recent addition in a book from 1852. (suddenly, the daughter being aptly named “Marigold” makes a lot more sense.) My ask is: which commonly told misconception of this type regarding any Greek myth is most infuriating to you and why?

oh my god misinformation can be INFURIATING smh

Let's start off with the Apollo misinformation.

"He raped Persephone/is a serial rapist!"

First of all, no he did not. LO, toss yourself into an eternal blaze and incinerate.

and secondly- he's not a serial rapist. There's only two accounts of rape, specifically Dryope and Creusa, but that depends on interpretation and the source so if you want to discard it, you can. No one can tell you you can't.

"UwU Apollo's love life is terrible!"

do i even need to say anything?

"Athena hates women!"

hell to the fuck no. the evidence people use for this is the Medusa Myth: Ovid's Version, and CONVIENTLY IGNORE THE ONES WHERE SHE HELPS WOMEN ESCAPE BEING RAPED!! AND THAT OVID IS THE ONLY ONE WHO DOES THIS!!

Even with the ones where she punishes the victim, the older versions do not have that! She made Nicymene her eternal owl companion, for heaven's sake!

"Hermes/Dionysus/Hephaestus is the only unproblematic god! UwU"

uh... *waves Leuconoe/Choine/Philonis around* no matter which version you go with, Hermes/Mercury does rape her...

...and in the Dionysica Dionysus rapes like two women...

...and Hephaestus tried to rape Athena... (oh wow, would you look at that...it's like Athena would have *gasp* sympathy for assault survivors...)

...See the double standards? :/ Ignores Roman/late Greek literature when it's convenient, and then exaggerates it to suit their own needs.

"Demeter is a terrible mom!"

GET OUT OF MY HOUSE NO ONE DISRESPECTS THE QUEEN

"Hades only kidnapped Persephone because Zeus told him too!"

Hades is his own man and wasn't being held at gunpoint to abduct her. He did so on his own merits. From a literal perspective, what was stopping him from just. you know. talking to her. kidnapping was not necessary.

(yes, yes, i know about the symbolic perspective, hence my use of 'literal'.)

"But Hades and Persephone are the only ones who don't cheat!!"

uh, nope. Hi Adonis, Minthe, how're you doing?

"But Adonis was more of a son to Persephone!!"

uh, NO. Even the ancients saw them as a couple!!

"Artemis is a girlboss who hates her brother!"

*kicks open door* OUT!

"Orion's the only man Artemis ever loved!"

how dare you disrespect my boy in this way Apollo was the first man she ever loved and no one will be able to replace him how dare you-

-and how dare you disrespect Hippolytus in this way he did not die in the name of all aroace people to be disrespected like this smh

"Zeus's only quality is how he fucks around!"

look, I've joked about this before but I know that's not all there is too him and that it has a symbolic representation.

Sure would be nice if people focused on that more :)

also anything that villainizes Aphrodite or Hera. god forbid women do anything.

"Clytemnestra is a girlboss who did no wrong!"

OH MY GOD THE DOUBLE STANDARDS.

funny how people fawn over Cassandra one moment and then COMPLETELY FORGET HER EXISTENCE to becry the woman who murdered her!

AND ALSO GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO HATE APOLLO FOR CURSING HER WHEN THEIR STORY IS LITERAL ABOUT A WOMAN'S AUTONOMY BEING RESPECTED!!

AND GUESS WHAT!! APOLLO AVENGES HER DEATH!!

anything that is "UwU Achilles!" omg i am sick of it.

that bitch had everything coming. he deserved everything he got. Tenes, Troilus, and Hemithea did NOT deserve what he did to them! APOLLO AND PARIS HAD EVERY RIGHT TO TAKE HIM DOWN!

i'm probably forgetting some but here's the one that popped into my head :)

[sarafangirlart]

Did Kaos even explain why the three humans “destined to destroy Zeus/the Gods” are specifically Eurydice, Caeneus and Ariadne? Because if they really wanted a “we hate the gods” story shouldn’t the chosen three be. severely wronged or abandoned by the gods / the fates?

Like Oedipus? Lamia? Cassandra? Daphne? Arachne? Callisto? Hell I’d even watch a smackdown of Clytemnestra vs Artemis or Menelaus and Helen vs Aphrodite any time then watch a whole other boring show following the same bad story tropes.

They don’t really explain it no, but I was so eager for it to be over I likely missed it, this show seems surprising hesitant to show the more gruesome side of mythology, if they adapted the story that Caeneus was raped by Poseidon and they show how angry and miserable he is about it I would’ve totally been on board, tho someone mentioned that considering the current social environment is especially hostile towards trans ppl nowadays, having someone transition after assault could be bad “pr” so to speak, tho I don’t think we should bend a knee to transphobes/terfs and make representation that’s more palatable and presentable, human experience is messy and we shouldn’t shy away from that in an attempt to make bigots less hostile towards minorities bc they will always be hostile.

If they show Eurydice being angry about Aristaeus not facing any consequences for trying to assault her I’d understand that too mythology Eurydice has zero beef with Hera, but she could feel resentment towards Aristaeus and by extension Apollo (since he’d likely defend his son), gods rarely face consequences for assaulting mortals, Euripides’s Ion tackles that subject way better than all of these “Gods bad” modern retelling (tho I wish Creusa didn’t forgive Apollo bc that mf didn’t even have the balls to show his face).

Instead of Ariadne, who usually gets a happy ending and becomes a goddess herself, how about going with Apemosyne? Another Cretan princess. Her story is extremely depressing, she’s screwed over by a god and her own family, considering that half the show takes place in the underworld she’d fit right in. Considering she’ll be “coworkers” with Hermes it would especially suck for her. But considering that Dionysus is made to be one of the “good ones” even tho in mythology he brainwashed women into slaughtering their families, they’d probably portray Hermes as such too, since he’s usually simply the comic relief in adaptations anyway.

That’s another thing, they water down the gods who are supposed to be good guys and make the “bad guy” worse, in this version Hades never kidnapped Persephone that’s just propaganda in universe. The Fates and Furies are goddesses but in this show they’re against the gods bc of that meander water thing? Don’t they drink it too?

I think they realized that their hesitancy means that they won’t be showing us bad things the gods actually did and so they make up random bullshit like Hera owning tongueless priestesses and Zeus killing a kitten. Cassandra is in the show but she’s more of an exposition machine tho it’s hinted she’ll play a bigger role in season 2, but why couldn’t she be one of the three humans destined to destroy Zeus? Why aren’t any of the Trojans destined to destroy Zeus? Why do they have to be saved by Greeks? Sure Zeus in mythology had a soft spot for them but he still planned the destruction of their city (could be a decent metaphor for an abuser who says that they love their victim while still abusing them imo) but Kaos Zeus doesn’t have that goodwill towards the Trojans so why not have them rightfully take him down? In the final episode Andromache and Ariadne team up and agree to fight against Olympus, tho that reminds me of Acrisius in the Clash of the Titans remake being more of a dumb dumb than he is in the myths and started a war against Mount Olympus only to unsurprisingly fail.

I really dislike how the Trojans are portrayed in the show, clearly they are supposed to be allegory for modern middle eastern refugees in Europe yet all the main Trojan characters are played by white actors. They have such a racially diverse cast but they seem uninterested in actually representing the diversity of the Mediterranean and mythology as a whole.

[dootznbootz]

Me: Almost done listening to the Iliad on audiobook, and planning to listen to the Odyssey next

Me: Goes on youtube to find a quick summary to listen to before hand

Me: Clicks on a promising video

Video, in the first 30 seconds: Haha he cheats on his wife!

Me, in a bad mood now, even though I should have seen that coming: Never-fucking-mind, then

Yep. ;~;

Quick tip for ya: Honestly don't trust really ANY "Youtube" summary of it. Especially the ones where they are mostly trying to be "entertaining" and/or "funny" instead of educational. Also they mostly likely won't be "respectful".

I'm not saying this as a "don't trust any academic source! Historians are evil!!!" I'm saying this as a "there are very biased and very opinionated folks out there and I recommend going over multiple sources just for you to get your own opinion formed on it as well!".

I mean...Madeline Miller?

And you know what? I'll vent about how much I hate Robert Graves' takes on Greek Myth. >:(

I once got an old used book about mythology by Robert Graves and I was excited to read it! But it was genuinely just...so fucking MEAN. Insulting to stories, calling them stupid, flip-flopping on "Goodhearted" to "malicious". It seems like he was a bit more of a critic and/or thought his "headcanons" as "fact". (I say this as someone who has many headcanons and gets real silly with it. At a certain point though, YOU GOTTA STATE THE FACTSSS)

An example from it: (talking about Menelaus and Helen's marriage) "Yet their marriage was doomed to failure: years before, while sacrificing to the gods, Tyndareus had stupidly overlooked Aphrodite, who took her revenge by swearing to make all three of his daughters--Clytemnestra, Timandra, and Helen--notorious for their adultries"

Very much dislikes Odysseus, (like holy crap, even his good deeds are said mockingly) while he seems to "like" Menelaus, still calls him stupid. Seems to really like Paris?? like "Oh yeah, he needed Aphrodite to help him steal a woman who didn't love him but he's just a guyyy~"

"Athen now inspired Prylis, son of Hermes, to suggest that entry should be gained into Troy by means of a wooden horse; Epeius, son of Panopeus, a Phocian from Parnassus, volunteered to build one under Athene's supervision. Afterwards, of course, Odysseus claimed all the credit for the Stratagem"

He implies Helen and Odysseus possibly having romantics when he sneaks into Troy to steal the Palladium. Implies Odysseus made up Cassandra's rape by Lesser Ajax, as "Cassandra did not support the charge".

"Little Ajax's alleged violation of Cassandra was dismissed by reputable mythographers as an Odyssean lie"

Implies that Odysseus was only angry about Pallamedes embarrassing him, NOT BECAUSE HE NEARLY KILLED HIS BABY AND MADE HIM GO TO WAR. He implies "Icarius' daughter (Penelope)" to be another "victim" (???) of Odysseus? He also kissed poor Calypso goodbye and seems determined to never talk about how much Odysseus cares about his family. only that he wants to go home, Penelope being an afterthought.

This is a "Greek Mythology book"...and yet it's biased as fuck. :/

And ofc, people deny Odysseus being a victim.. Obviously there is sexism at play here, with the "Oh Odysseus loved it! He was getting laid!" despite being held at PigPoint and literally getting fucking raped and crying everyday. ;~; it's very disheartening and honestly disturbing.

Honestly I recommend reading/listening to at least 2 (or more) to try and get a "full picture" as just like Madeline Miller and Robert Graves, there are biases in each one. (Emily Wilson is very biased for example) Some of them while favorable toward Odysseus, also favor Circe and Calypso. Some mock Menelaus and Helen. It depends.

Like I've read 8 translations of the Odyssey (I like it :3 you don't have to be insane like me though. <3 ) and all basically say the same thing with the Goddesses as "It was not a good time. He adores Penelope."

Two or three is probably enough, and that's also if you just wanna know if there's any differences between events based on the translator. so sometimes if you wanna know the differences in wording (as some translations have very cute wording) you can just find that part in the Odyssey that you are curious to see if there are differences. :)

I hope you have fun!

[athena-rocks]

I hate Percy Jackson.

I hate the plot that is, and many MANY parts of it. Now that’s not to say the actors are bad or anything, in fact I think they’re incredible. I haven’t watched the show or read the books but from the clips I’ve seen those actors are amazing and deserve respect and praise. But I am going to go over everything I have against the show in this mini essay of mine.

Like the show and want to counter my points? Feel free to! Leave a comment, reblog with your response, send an ask, all is welcome! I may think very strongly on my points but that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to hear others out, but please welcome my response as well (also anon is on so if you have thoughts but don’t really feel confident sharing them on your account you can send by anon instead, still gonna get answered and no judgement passed :) )

NOW! ONTO MY RAMBLINGS!

First of all, Athena. As someone whose name is literally ‘athena-rocks’ I’m sure you can guess that I feel very passionately about this and have a lot to say.

The first thing I want to bring up is the whole child thing. Athena is a virgin goddess why does she have a child? From what I understand Annabeth is born from her mind, as in thought. Which is immensely stupid. The only account of asexual reproduction I can think of is Hera and the birth of Hephaestus, but even then she had a pregnancy and he was born, he didn’t just show up?? The only being I can think of that just pop up is Chaos, who is seen as both a God and a thing, it is, it’s primordial, so are Athena’s children in this also primordial? No they’re demigods.

Also the idea that Athena just abandons her children? No! There’s literally a myth that directly opposes it! Erichthonius!

Erichthonius is the first king of Athens, before Athens got super amazing and awesome and totally cool and really popular and thus got the totally cool founding myth of Athena vs Poseidon. He was born after Hephaestus tried to assault Athena, he’s autochthonous meaning born of the earth. Some of Hephaestus’s… seed, got onto Athena’s thigh, she wiped it off and threw it to the earth as she ran away and Erichthonius is born.

Now Athena has no obligation to this child, it’s not hers in any form, it came from the man who tried to assault her, yet she still chooses to look after and raise the child! There! She has no reason to do this but does, so why she would abandon the children that she does have an obligation to?

And by all accounts I can find Erichthonius had a good childhood, he’s half snake creature thing and when the daughters of Cecrops (who Athena had given Erichthonius to with him in a basket and told them not to open it while she did something) saw him and were horrified Athena either drove them mad so they killed themselves or dropped a mountain she was carrying in rage. So she cares about him.

Now, the Medusa thing.

Medusa was a monster, the original Greek myth she was always a monster. I understand the appeal of a woman who can defend herself from any man who would dare harm her by just glaring at them, but can’t she just have always been that? Can’t she have just always been a powerful monster who can always protect herself? I’m mostly upset at the Medusa thing in this context because I’ve seen people shipping her with Athena, which is weird as Athena is not only a virgin goddess but a mythological figure who was and in some sense still is worshipped to this day.

There are myths that also actively oppose this, when Cassandra was raped Athena was so furious she drive lesser Ajax mad so he killed himself and for 1000 years they had to send maidens to become Athena’s priestesses to appease her. But Medusa being raped by Poseidon, someone who she’s been known to have beef with? No. Fuck her.

AND ARES!!

Ares who killed someone for harassing his daughter, A BAD FATHER?? A CRUEL MAN??? Anger issues? Sure! I can accept that! But bad father? No.

I think the PJO series just hates the idea of war God’s being good parents and it shows.

I’ll end here, but if anyone would like to add on to this post or argue against me please feel free to. Just don’t be an asshole, I’m fine to discuss peacefully I’m not fine with just being flat out attacked.

Thank you for reading!

[talkingwoman]

Call me Cassandra….*

Having a history of offending members of the Charmie fanhood, many of whom will not even see this post since they blocked me, I will nonetheless state my bona fifes openly. I love Armie Hammer and I love Timothée Chalamet. Being older, more educated, and a practicing professional provides me with apparently annoyingly inconvenient insights when discussing the two men I love and the years since CMBYN changed so many lives. The upset in the fandom occasioned by Timmy’s liaison with the Jenner person compels me to express the following. Believe me, my goal is to soothe rather than irritate.

First and foremost, I have said before and repeat here that one of the worst failings we have made in viewing the Charmie myth is that we tend to conflate Armie and Timmy IRL with their characters in CMBYN, Oliver and Elio. Neither man is much like their movie role at all. Briefly, Elio is sensitive, highly educated and intelligent, as well as emotionally vulnerable. Timmy is, based upon his interviews, observed public behaviors, etc., probably none of these. He is, as he says, an engaging goofball. Often he misuses and/or mispronounces words and creates word salad answers to interviewer questions. He’s a player more than a mensch, and his ambition knows no bounds. Armie is more like Oliver than Timmy like Elio, but without the redeeming affection the movie version of Oliver brought to the mutual seduction. The Oliver of the book was far less open and affectionate than movie Oliver, but both men were emotionally insincere, dishonest, and manipulative. Oliver was having a summer fling before finishing his degree, marrying, and getting on with life in both book and movie. Even more publicly than Timmy, Armie is a player who admits to manipulating and using people as personal convenience items. It’s questionable whether he remembers anything 😉, let alone everything.

Similarly, we are willfully blind to the realities of the profession that introduced us to Armie and Timmy in the first place. Show biz is a relentlessly demanding and often cruel bit of work. Timmy was born into a theatrical family and groomed through auditions and training from an early age. Small wonder that virtually all of the directors he has worked with mention his drive and ambition to succeed. That desire rules Timmy’s life and he is not likely to squander his opportunities as Armie tragically and so unnecessarily did. There is a new article out that captures this essential characteristic, titled the making of a global superstar. Timmy is surrounded by a team that calculates every move the young man makes, scrupulously. For instance, while Armie has loudly proclaimed his heterosexuality, Timmy’s team has assiduously cultivated an aura of androgyny, assuring that both the gay and straight communities can identify with and thereby claim Timmy as one of their own. The revision of Lee in Bones and All from jock to bisexual predatory adventurer is a classic example. So, in short, almost anything in the public eye should be viewed through the lens of this effort to promote Timmy to the highest artistic and popular levels of his profession. Most of you will hate this, but Timmy’s utter and complete failure to utter one supportive word about Armie, once his role model and mentor, throughout the shitstorm that Armie’s professional and personal life became. Many no doubt wish and fervently hope that there is still a viable bond between these men, but if there is, it requires a very steep price from one of them.

Before I go, one little observation that I hope will bring some solace regarding the PDAs seen at the Beyonc�� concert. Kissing is an expression of intimacy that is usually accompanied by intense mutual gaze. Both participants in these lip locks looked directly toward the camera the second the kiss ended, not at each other. Telling…,

*Cassandra was a figure in Greek mythology who was reviled and tortured for telling true, but unwanted truths.

[ankoku-teion]

I’m one of your mutuals, I voted on the poll, so it’s slightly unfair that I get a second vote. That being said, I like all 3 of them a lot, my personal favourite is Lily. While I love a reference to any bit of Greek mythology, especially Cassandra, her fate was quite tragic (Not that Lilith’s fate was sweet either, but still). I can really understand your attachment to your first D&D character though, even though I haven’t played (also, it’s quite telling that your first character was a woman [I assume]). But in my personal opinion, the other options should better. It’s still only your decision in the end.

Attention Anon

Sarah was my first character who was a woman. I played 3 other male characters before her.

Yarny. - a halfling bard, in late middle age who loved stories and collected folklore from everywhere he went. He was my first ever.

Red - a middle aged dwarven merchant who got side-tracked and wound up on a quest when he was supposed to be returning home.

And a young elf shadow sorcerer who's name I can't remember.

But Yarny and the elf were both DMPCs because I was running the campaign, so I didn't really get to play them.

Sarah was different. I was playing on a discord server with strangers because my friends weren't available for real DnD. So I was able to put time and energy into fleshing her out.

She was a warlock/fighter who grew up on the streets, had a complicated friendship with a guardsman, and was forcibly adopted by an abusive drunk who just wanted her for free labour.

Turns out the man who adopted her is a fence who traffics in stolen goods, antiques, and questionable magic items.

One day she accidentally knocks over this valuable ancient pot and smashes it, unleashing an ancient devil that was trapped inside. The devil was weakened by it's long confinement so it latched onto her. She unknowingly made a deal with it and it granted her warlock powers in exchange for living in her head.

So now she has a grouchy, hateful, resentful voice in the back of her mind constantly passing commentary on everything she does, criticising and gaslighting her, telling her everyone wants to use her and nobody else can ever love her. The thing is, it also gives her solid advice that keeps her alive and safe. And she's too young and naive to tell the difference.

The devil is called Malthus and he's very much a metaphor for my depression, among other things.

Sarah herself is saddled with a lot of repression, and while Malthus constantly shits on her, he's also the one pushing her to try new things. Mostly so he can live vicariously through her, and then guilt her for it. The two have a complex, toxic, co-dependent relationship.

Most of this was not deliberate at the time, but something I created by accident and only discovered by playing the character.

Playing her on that server was the first time I was ever gendered as a woman because the other people couldn't tell me apart from my character. I realised immediately that being called she/her didnt upset me the way I thought it probably should have, and I made the conscious decision not to correct them, and accepted the pronouns. That was way back, like 5 years ago. And I still play with some of the same people.

Sadly Sarah had to be retired, it's a happy ending tho. Her fiancé was kidnapped and she left on a quest to go save him. They eventually settled down and had 3 kids.

One of my current characters is her granddaughter, Saccharine. 😋

[classicschronicles]

Hi lovelies,

So I’ve been taking a break from revision and I decided to read Jennifer Saint’s ‘Elektra’, which you you should all read because the writing style is just so beautiful. Anyways, the story being told focuses on Elektra, Clytemnestra, and Cassandra and features heavily on the Curse of the Atreides. Said curse is mentioned in a lot of different mythological texts, like Aeschylus’ ‘Aegisthus’ and I think it’s a really fascinating story. So today, let’s talk about the curse of the Atreides.

Also side note, the name ‘Atreides’ is technically singular for one son of Atreus, but when translated people largely accepted it to be the plural form, instead of ‘Atreidai’, but autocorrect wont let me use the latter so for the purpose of this entry, I am going to use ‘Atreides’ as the plural.

The curse on the house of Atreus, interestingly enough, did not start with Atreus, it started with his grandfather Tantalus, king of Lydia. King Tantalus was most beloved by the gods, so much so that he was often welcome at their table. One day they came down to earth to dine with him in his home, but Tantalus harboured a secret hatred for the Gods. Wanting to test their omnipotence, Tantalus murdered his son (Pelops) and offered his cooked flesh as a meal to the gods. The gods were not fooled and did not take a bite of the food. However, Demeter (still possessed with grief for her daughter in Hades), did not see through Tantalus’ trick and took a bite of the boys shoulder. Enraged at the actions of Tantalus, the Gods restored the boy back to life and carved him a new shoulder out of ivory. They placed Tantalus in Tartarus, cursing him with eternal thirst and hunger. At his feet lay a pool of water that evaporated every time he tried to take a sip, and above his head a branch of fruits that would forever remain just out of reach. Fun little bit of etymology, the name ‘Tantalus’ is the root word for the English word ‘tantalise’.

Tainted by his fathers impiety, Pelops only made things worse. Pelops ascended to the throne of Arcadia, and he sought a bride and plotted murder to win her from a suitor. He bribed the suitor’s servant to replace his chariot pins with wax and so the chariot crashed and the suitor died. Rather than reward the servant like he had promised, Pelops threw him from a cliff and as he fell, the servant prayed to the gods that they would punish the sons of Pelops forevermore. Pelops and his bride had three sons, Chrysippus, Atreus and Thyestes. The younger brothers grew to hate Chrysippus, favourite of their father, and fuelled by the same faithlessness that plagued their father, and his father before that, they plotted to kill Chrysippus. When they did so, they fled and arrived in Mycenae, where is was agreed that Atreus would rule.

Thyestes later betrayed Atreus by seducing his wife and Atreus sought bitter retaliation. He murdered Thyestes’ children and invited his brother to a feast. Thyestes was arrogant enough to see this as a peace between the two, and nothing more. When Thyestes had finished his meal, Atreus ordered that the lids be taken off the remaining plates, and on them sat the heads of Thyestes’ children. Thyestes was enraged and killed Atreus, taking the Mycenaean throne for himself.

The two sons of Atreus were not so quick to forget the apparent injustice that had begotten their father. The Atreides, more famously known as Agamemnon and Menelaus, wished to reclaim the throne that was their birthright and so they returned from exile to kill Thyestes, and as an act of mercy allowed his son (their cousin) Aegisthus to flee. Agamemnon became king of Mycenae, whilst Menelaus married Helen of Sparta, and inherited her throne.

When Helen was stolen by Paris and the Atreides summoned all the Greek armies to win her back, they thought their cause a just one, but when there were no winds to set a sail their ships, the blood curse re-emerged. Agamemnon summoned his daughter, Iphigenia, to Aulis under the pretence of a marriage to Achilles, and whilst she stood at the altar, slit her throat, leaving her blood on the sands, and sailing for Troy.

Upon his return from the war a decade later, Agamemnon greeted his wife, Clytemnestra, but much like his uncle Thyestes, he was arrogant and assumed that Clytemnestra had forgiven the murder of her oldest child. He did not know that whilst he fought in Troy, the cousin that he had spared returned to Mycenae and together, his angered wife and vengeful cousin plotted his demise. When he entered the palace after his rerun from war, he was killed in his bathtub, and his wife and her lover, Aegisthus, took the throne for themselves.

However, there was one in Mycenae who remained loyal to Agamemnon, and that was his daughter Elektra. She goaded her younger brother (Orestes), who had never met his father, into sharing her hatred for Clytemnestra. When he grew to be older and upon his return from hiding, he fulfilled what he saw as his filial duty to his father and killed his mother and her lover, the usurpers to his father throne.

Yet, another murder in Tantalus’ bloodline awoke the Furies, bringers of justice. They followed Orestes all the way to Athens where he stood trial for his sins, with Apollo and Athena presiding over the trail. Eventually, Orestes was acquitted for his crime, and the Curse of the Atreides finally died.

So there you have it, the Curse of the Atreides. Sorry that was so grim, but I thought it a rather fascinating bit of mythology, and hopefully you all agree to! I hope you have a lovely lovely rest of your weekend <3

~Z

[elitheaceofalltrades]

Elektra - Book Review

Note: This review has spoilers

⭐:4

This book was really well written and I'll be checking out more of Jennifer Saint's work. Despite being titled Elektra, the story actually focuses on three women.

Firstly, Clytemnestra, whose storyline and chapters were my favourite. You could really feel her emotions and despite not being (nor wanting to be) a mother, you get gripped up in her motherly love, protection and grief. If this was only her story I would've given it 5 stars as she was such a good, well-written, multidimensional character and her plot-line was always interesting and engaging.

Secondly Cassandra, well known to anyone interested in Greek mythology as the Princess of Troy cursed by Apollo to see the future but never be believed. Cassandra was another character I could relate to and her emotions came through clearly in the story. You could feel her pain from her visions, how much she tries to belong and be a good daughter, sister, Princess. Despite Clytemnestra being my favourite character, I related to Cassandra a lot. As a queer person born and raised in a homophobic country, I intimately understand the struggle of loving a country that hates you and the struggle between leaving or staying to try and save it. While I'm not sure I would've wanted a book based on her alone, like I do with Clytemnestra, her plot-line was well-written and interesting enough to have kept the story at 5 stars.

And finally our titular character, Elektra, who is the reason this book is 4 stars instead of 5. I did not like her character that much. While I could understand and sympathise with her (especially as someone who also grew up with my dad as my favourite parent), I felt that as the story continued she remained flat and one-dimensional. I can understand the love and respect she has for her father but her inability to change her mind as she grows and that she clings to the wisps of a person she barely remembers and ultimately knew nothing about did not endear her to me at all. What was most upsetting about her part of the story was that she was the only one with a real choice. Clytemnestra and Cassandra's fates were sealed early. Clytemnestra, the moment Iphigenia was sacrified by her father, and Cassandra, the moment she was cursed. There weren't many options where they made a different choice and got a happy ending. Clytemnestra could never have been happy without avenging Iphigenia, could never go back to being Agamemnon's wife and pretend he did send for them claiming it was for Iphigenia's wedding and then killed her instead. Cassandra probably wouldn't have survived on her own, being raised a Princess, as we see in later chapters how Elektra suffers living as a peasant . Elektra wasn't like them though, she was the only one with multiple paths before her. As the reader we have more information than her but she made no effort to actually find out the truth and would only accept the tales that fit her own narrative. By the end of the story, the way she left Georgios for a man more suited to what her father would have wanted and how she condemns Orestes to the Erinyes, all for the sake of doing what she thought her father would want for her, made me dislike her. She had the choice to get a different ending and she refused to make it. This narrowmindedness and obssessive behaviour of hers is what makes not only her character flat and one dimensional, but also makes her plot-line boring eventually, as it got very repetitive and the moments that felt like they could've been a climax all fell flat immediately after. That's why she took an entire star off of her own book.

~Eli

Ace of All Trades, Pro at None😆

Buy me a coffee

[candlemystar]

Why do you hate Helen? You’ve made her the villain.

Perfect Helen of Troy. An ideal and a villain all at once.

Helen. Mythological damsel. She’s like a prop. You could replace her with a sexy lamp and the plot wouldn’t change.

Helen isn’t an object. Everyone just thinks she is.

She’s the most beautiful woman in the world. She’s the face that launched a thousand ships.

She isn’t just a face. Isn’t just the most beautiful woman in the world. She’s got thoughts and feelings and ambitions and drive. She’s got her own hopes, her own fears. The storytellers take away a lot of her agency, saying she ran off because a goddess cursed her with love. But she could have stayed. You always have a choice, no matter what you feel. She made the choice to leave it all behind. To do what was unsafe and unexpected. She decided to be selfish.

Aren’t all beautiful women selfish?

I can’t answer that for you. That’s a belief you’ve got. But it’s equally selfish to choose home and safety and the familiar as it is to choose love over duty.

She left her children. Helen had a little girl.

You can think that’s bad or wicked. Immoral, if you want. But there’s drama in that choice. You’re supposed to see your characters, even the ones you don’t like. You don’t just take away Helen’s agency because you don’t like her or don’t agree with her. I don’t think you want to take away Helen’s free will. Her ability to change the plot herself.

Helen of Troy is more than a plot device. She’s more than a beautiful stolen object that needs to be retrieved.

That doesn’t make her good.

I never said she was good. I said she was human. Flawed and real and flesh and blood. Barely older than us and scared out of her mind. Don’t make Helen perfect. Make her real.

If Helen gets to tell the story, she’s not an object. I mean, also, she’s still your idea of who she is. But Helen has always been that way. Does she run off with Paris? Is she abducted? Seduced? Does she ascend to Mount Olympus in the end? Regret her choices? Hate Paris? Love him? Happily resume the role of wife and queen and mother of Sparta? The only thing anyone can really agree on is this—Helen was found missing from her husband’s home and then her husband started a war. That’s it.

Spartan. That was the word. From Helen’s original homeland, Sparta. Utilitarian. Neat. Militaristic, even. The beautiful girl from the most warmongering of the ancient Greek states. If Helen of Troy had really existed, she would have been raised to fight, raised for war. Now she was known for being so pretty, she’d started a global conflict.

She thought of Helen of Troy like everyone who had written her before, and most of those everyone were men.

Her will would have had Helen be the victim. The villain, even. The instigator of all of this unnecessary war, unnecessary evil. Her idea for the whole narrative was to have Cassandra be the tragic, truth-telling protagonist. Worse, she knew she had been right to pull Helen forward. She hadn’t been interested in making the most beautiful woman in the world into the most fascinating woman in the world. But this was different. She had pulled on the thread of Helen’s humanity. She had found what makes any character relatable to so many people—her imperfections. Helen here was vain, but also trying to be brave. She was selfish, but also living in a world that had made her be selfless since childhood. She was a woman trying to walk her own path in this world, despite there being no such thing for her.

- Tell Me How You Really Feel, Aminah Mae Safi

[jackdawandicarus]

My character naming process

My friend @robinsinthesummer did a post like this so now I’m doing one too. Also I’m probably going to put more effort into this than is really necessary but idc.

The first method is just giving them a name that randomly spawns in my brain and fucking haunts my thoughts until a name a character it or create a new character solely to name something that name. The current name haunting my brain is Sidney fwi. I have an OC named it but I don’t really like said character, they are too un-queer. Sidney is a name for the gays. A name-ghost I actually went through with naming the character is Michael for my main project’s protag’s father and Sandy for this little cryptic hunter character I have. Honestly might give her a sister just to name said sister Sidney lol. Or a friend or something. Maybe-

If there’s another character with a name too similar to the current name-ghost (e.g. my *other* potential Sidney, who is very queer, is a main character for my book in which there is already a main character named Kit, I found the start of the names too similar to use Sidney for the character, Sydney might’ve worked but I hate that spelling), I begin an actual active naming process. I think of names with similar sounds and vibes (to continue with my example, Macey or Darcy which have the ending sound which I want for the character), using Behind the Name to assist if necessary. Usually I’ll have around 3 names on the list.

I’ll try to to think about themes, personality, arc, etc. with some more important characters. My protagonist in one of my current projects is named Ophelia. While Ophelia was a name-ghost, I gave it to the character I did because I thought that the meaning of ‘help’ fit for the character (also something something Hamlet something something idk I don’t know shit about Hamlet, I just know Ophelia goes mad and kills herself, which actually fits my Ophelia tbh) because she begins the story very passive, she very much views herself as a supporting character. It also fits as a silent cry for help hidden within her name, she is unable to reach out for help, and attempts to repress her negative emotions. Pretty sure Hamlet also had something to do with it at the time but I’ve genuinely forgotten.

Her sister Casandra’s name was chosen in a similar fashion. Only I know for sure that I named her after the Greek mythological figure of Cassandra. I dropped an S because I like the way it looks like that. Casandra has Schizotypal Personality Disorder, which is a pretty recent addition to her character but I think makes sense with my pre-existing characterisation of her as having ‘magical thinking’, to quote Wikipedia’s page on STPD lol. Cassandra in Greek mythology is obviously most known for being cursed to see the future and have no one believe her (though she’s a personal interest of mine and I could probably tell you everything about her if you asked me to), which is how Casandra perceives herself. I’m still working on figuring out how I’m going to adapt her character now I’ve decided to give her STPD.

There’s also a little (read- pathetic) guy I named Pigeon. They’re my most recent character because I’m tired of not writing about anthropomorphic cats, I’m a Warriors fan goddamn it it is in my blood. Pigeon is named after a bird species which absolutely no one will be able to guess from his name! He’s named after the bird because said bird has this whole tragic ‘used to be a valued pet and working animal and then we abandoned them and call them sky-rats’ thing going on which fits their character arc.

Sometimes I’ll just go to Behind the Name and look through it to find a suitable name though lol. After naming Ophelia and Casandra I needed to name their triplet brother. I literally just looked through the masculine Ancient Greek list on Behind the Name until I found Zopyrus at the very bottom and thought it worked well enough. He dies half way through anyway.

Sometimes I’ll name a character after a real life person I went to Primary school with or something. This is most common with my Sims, though, tbh. I named a character Jessica, but I think that’s literally it for OCs so far

And thus ends my overly long post!

[carleylyonwrites]

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

Jennifer Saint follows in Sophocles' footsteps by painting the titular character as merely vengeful, but crafts beautiful and emotional narratives around her secondary characters.

⭐⭐⭐/5

Elektra is a simply written yet well-written novel that offers readers intriguing insight into three iconic female figures in Greek mythology: Elektra, Clytemnestra, and Cassandra. It is an especially satisfying read for those looking to dive deeper into the stories of the female characters on the periphery in Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles. 

Where Elektra suffers, unfortunately, is in its depiction of the titular character. While the explorations of Cassandra and Clytemnestra are dramatic, nuanced, and frustrating in all the ways a reader craves to be frustrated while reading a good drama, the exploration of Elektra is frustrating in its one-dimensionality. This is not necessarily the fault of Jennifer Saint, however. Anyone who's read Sophocles' Elektra knows that Elektra kinda... sucks. She only wants one thing: revenge. A revenge-obsessed protagonist is not inherently lacking, but they need sufficient justification for their vengeful spirit and other complex personality traits to make readers care about their fate. Unfortunately, Elektra lacks both. 

Elektra’s desire for revenge stems from the fact that she loves her father, Agamemnon, more than anything in the world, and she hates the people who took him from her. However, Saint never shows her readers why Elektra loves him so much. The two lack a compelling relationship in this book. Furthermore, her desire to avenge her father is her only personality trait. If Saint had found a creative way to better develop Elektra and Agamemnon’s relationship and make Elektra more complex, she could have broken Sophocles’ curse and enabled readers to empathize with this character. 

The creative freedom to enhance famous myths is what makes these retellings fun to read, and Saint does not capitalize on the opportunity she has to flesh out this character. In contrast, the reason I ached for Achilles so much in Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles is because of how many other aspects of his personality were spotlighted, beyond his pride: his sense of humor, adventure, ability to love, compassion, etc. Seeing these things in broad daylight makes readers all the more furious at him for becoming so blinded by his pride. I do not ache for Elektra because she is only shown to be a hateful, vengeful person.

Conversely, Saint succeeds in giving dimension and color to Clytemnestra and Cassandra. Readers see Clytemnestra transformed into a cold-hearted tyrant in the wake of a truly devastating event, and seeing that transformation play out in-narrative is gripping. Likewise, Cassandra is burdened with a horrific curse of being able to prophesy, but always written off as insane by those with whom she shares her visions. With both of these characters, Saint evokes emotional investment from readers that is on par with Madeline Miller’s works. If you are a lover of mythology, Elektra is worth the read for the great storytelling around Cassandra and Clytemnestra. Just be prepared to think, "Ugh, girl, shut up," every time Elektra opens her mouth. 

[disney-forever-and-evermore]

@backgroundagent3 thanks for tagging me!

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart (I knew I'd love this song from the very beginning and I do indeed love the song)

I Hate It Here (Although the second verse makes me cringe every time I still love and relate to the song)

Cassandra (I know nothing about Greek mythology that's more of my friend's thing but I love the comparison between Cassandra and 1989/rep era Taylor)

I Look In People's Window (I think this has something to do with the fact that I used to look from my school window at my former friend's apartment window. It was at the very top so I couldn't see much but I just missed her a lot during G3)

Chole et al. (I'm sorry I saw one post that said Chole et al. and now my brain will not refer to the song other than Chole et al. Thank you, IB. Thank you MLA citation.)

Florida!!! (Every time she says Florida I think she means WDW. But hey now if I commit a crime in the US I know where to go!)

The Prophecy (Wanting to change but never being able to? Relatable content there)

How Did It End (Am I still thinking about how that one friendship ended at the beginning of last year? Of course. I never get over friendships, like ever)

Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me? (I love and relate to the line "I am what I am cause you trained me" so much)

The Albatross (yeah idk why I like this one that much

Just tagging @augustpoem @tglad1989 and any other swifties because I also don't know which mutuals are swifties.

You know what would be fun though? @sillymayoposts to rank all 31 tortured poets anthology songs just by vibes. Maybe hear like 5 seconds of the song and rank them.

Put your top 10 TTPD (+ the Anthology!) songs, then tag your fav swiftie mutuals!!

Thanks for the tag @beachesgetpeaches!

Fortnight.

My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys.

Florida!!!

Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.

Clara Bow.

The Black Dog.

The Prophecy.

Cassandra.

The Bolter.

No pressure tagging @brekker-by-brekkerr, @fangirl-couch-potato, @florida3exclamationpoints, @disney-forever-and-evermore, @fictionaltrvlr, @redwidow616, @fangirl226 and any other swiftie who sees this, because I just realised I'm not actually sure which of my mutuals are swifties and which aren't. :)

[cljordan-imperium]

You have entered the domain of the all powerful AUTHOR GODDESS...AKA...Your Eccentric Southern Gothic Creole Auntie who is full of sass and isn't afraid to tell it to you straight. *blows kiss*

CJ

She/Her

48 - Female - Mother of 1 Human Kidlet & 2 Feline Goddesses - Work Full Time - Published Short Stories

I am a female writer on the Gulf Coast of the United States, currently residing in the state of Mississippi near the amazing city of New Orleans. I have lived in both Louisiana and Mississippi and the culture of the bayou areas runs through my blood. I have one adult son, who is the light of my life, and a cat who thinks she is the goddess of it. The stories that are currently being published to Tumbler are the continuation of roleplays and solo writing that I have been writing for over 20 years; and that I decided to continue sharing with everyone. Some characters have intricate and elaborate backstories which I will unfold for you. Some are new and you will learn about as they reveal themselves to me. I hope you all enjoy.

Some call me a free spirit, I call me...me. It took me years to become comfortable in who I am, so I judge no one else. We all have our own journeys. I am here to support everyone else on theirs, so maybe they won't have to take as long to be able to love themselves. I prefer not to talk much about my disabilities because I don't want them to define me, but am also open about them when asked or to help others come to terms with their own.

I love purple and sparkles, and I'll probably die petting something I shouldn't. Being as I live on the Gulf Coast, I might also be eaten by it, and that is fine. Life is a circle and we're all part of it.

Feel free to visit my inbox and ask box. I promise I do not bite unless asked.

GENERAL TRIGGER WARNINGS - I am going to post this here and also on appropriate stories where they happen - Also, not all of my characters are meant to be liked or sympathetic. Feel free to literally hate them and let your opinions change if the characters do, some of them WILL evolve over time.

All of my stories are FICTION and NOT REAL.

There are themes of: fantasy, evil, demons, angels, religion, blood, viscera, evisceration, gore, swearing, slavery, manipulation, ptsd, emotional manipulation, dv, sa, abuse, death, hell, torture, violence, war, fighting, anger, injury, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, guns, police, witchcraft, .

~may be updated later if I think of more that fit~

Please know that I have 14 Active WIPS here (not including the individual stories in The Imperium Chronicles)

MASTER LIST - Updated 7/23

The Imperium Chronicles

NOT STORYLINE

Flash Fiction Friday 3.3.23

3/10/23 - Flash Fiction Friday - Celestial Bodies

April Fool's In Imperium

Meeting Jasper

Moodboards of Characters

Back To The 20's

HISTORICAL

GET TO KNOW MY OC

THE PALACE

CASPERIUS & MARTENIQUE

DARTAN & AMAYA

GRAE & ADALICIA

ASHER & KAYLIN

MARCELLUS & SORINA

DEZ, PHAEDRA, & THINIUS

UFFERN

LEANDRE & YAEL

CASSANDRA & LUCIFER

KARLEN

ADRIEL & ANNABELLA

DELILAH & TALON

PUSTOTA

JASPER & MEREDITH - CRESCENT CITY

FUN STUFF

Character Theme Song

OC Name Meaning/Reason Tag

Writing Questions Tag

Characters as Comfort Foods

Fav Character(s) to Write

Magical Objects in Imperium

WIP Drinking Game

Foretelling/Prophecy in My Writing

Government in My Stories

Types of Side Characters

THE ANDROMEDA EFFECT

@the-andromeda-effect - In Greek Mythology Andromeda was sacrificed by her parents to save their kingdom from Poseidon's wrath after her mother offended him, but Perseus saves her from death by a Krackon and takes her to his kingdom to be his Queen. Mircea (Meer-cha) Kalavati wasn't sacrificing his wife to appease a god, or bring peace to his clan, he was doing it to start a war with another. His mistake when he hired Caliban Andros was lying to him about why he wanted her rescued, then killed to look like those who had kidnapped her had done it. Never lie to your hitman. Now, like Perseus to Andromeda, Caliban has rescued Riona Kalavati and something is drawing him to the woman. He will kill to keep her safe, and her husband is going to regret that lie for what remaining life he has left. Now as Adira Andros, she is definitely Caliban's Queen, and his "army" has rallied around her.

BATTLEGROUND OF DREAMS

@battlegroundofdreams - Morpheus & Melinoe are Dream Assassins, sent into the minds of sleeping human dreamers to take out Nightmares who can kill the dreamers. They have been trained and are the best at what they do. Put together as unwilling partners, they must learn to work together to keep one another alive. As they try to navigate a tentative partnership, they also take on the responsibility of becoming mentors to Lorien and Rua, a pair of recently graduated Dream Assassins who were almost killed by one of the most powerful Nightmares that any of them have ever faced. If the pairs cannot learn to work together, it could lead to disaster for them all. They will all learn more about themselves, and each other. Once lone wolves, they will become a pack, and one that Nightmares will come to fear. However, a Dream Assassin turned Nightmare from Morpheus' past will come and threaten them all, and test his will and loyalty. His decisions will either save Melinoe's life, or damn all four of them.

BAYOU WITCHES

@bayouwitches (Heaven & Arthur Shelby belong to @call-sign-shark)

BEHIND THESE MASKS

@behindthesemasks - Melania LaVeau is a professor at LSU in Baton Rouge. She is also the grandaughter of Ambrose Meyers, one of the most powerful men in the country and the daughter of Marie LaVeau...yes THAT Marie LaVeau! Old money, going back to when the Gautier family came over from France to settle in New Orelans, there isn't much that goes on in Louisiana or Mississippi that they don't have their hands in. Meyers Worldwide, a tech conglomerate is a cover for underworld activities that will eventually come to light. What happens when someone decides to cross the most powerful, and immortal, Queen of Voodo and threaten one of her children? Will New Orleans be left standing? If you are a fan of Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, or The LIbrarians, the story is in the same veign. All of the characters are human, but there are supernatural occurrences around them

BENDING THE LAW

@bendingthelaws - Colin Masterson is the Cook Count State's Attorney. He has been on a mission to take down the head of a Chicago crime conglomerate that is headed by Constantin Rakeovich. Now someone has kidnapped his intern and is sending her back to him in tiny pieces. Is it Constantin? Is it another one of the people that Colin has crossed? Now he and those he trusts are going to have to figure it out before someone else disappears or is hurt. Complicating matters is that his brother, Colton Masterson is Constantin's defense attorney. The brothers have never been close, but in this situation, things take a much darker turn. Will Colton stand by his brother or his client? And what happens when something bigger happens and puts everyone Colin cares about in the crosshairs? If you are a fan of Law & Order, or any of those types of shows, this is much in the same vein and will involve more than just the lawyers. All characters are human. There is no supernatural beings or magic. Some places are going to be fictional, but the main setting is the city of Chicago.

DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

@devil-in-the-details-ay - When Lucifer's daughter Yara gets bored and wants to intern for the Lord of Death, Astaroth, her father agrees. After their first meeting, the Devil changes the plans once more. Deciding to make Yara someone else's problem, she is now to be Astaroth's wife. Navigating this challenge, and those who will come against them both will reveal a lot about each other, and themselves. Is the Princess really as spoiled and entitled as she seems? Is Astaroth really the iceberg incarnate that he seems? Is she even who she believes herself to be? And what happens when someone decides to try to interfere in their relationship?

MAGICAL MISTAKES

INOPINATUS

@inopinatus-ea

Princess Adelia has been contracted to marry Prince Emery, but a revelation at her arrival at King Branoc’s Palace has the possibility of throwing this arrangement in jeopardy. Things in the Palace of Annisgwyl are not as they seem. Betrayal and deception are around every corner. Knight Drach, Princess Adelia's sworn protector must ensure that no harm befalls her, but it seems he may have some secrets of his own. Some Kings will fall, one will rise, but who & will he be alone?

@magical-mistakes-vm - Vollrath, the Master Warlock of the local Coven, encounters Mahala (Mah-HAY-lah) preparing to do a ritual on his land. Her mistakes in not being careful in preparations allowed him to find her, but it also set up events in the future that they will need the help of his best friends Baldur and Elmar to deal with. A witch that has no clue what she is and a Master Warlock who is not used to letting people close have to navigate revelations that will change both their lives, and possibly even the Coven. When his brother, Balor, an equally powerful warlock within the Coven who he has been at odds with for years, also shows up and it is clear will be needed, it just adds one more complexity to the situation. Can they all get along to keep each other safe, or will one of them fall to those who are coming against them?

MYSTS OF TIME

@mystsoftime - As Rome burned, Pluto plucked the first soul that would become one of his Lemures to survive more than a century. In fact, that Lemure is still alive today. Enzo is considered the head of the Lemures worldwide, although he isn't really. He's just the oldest one still alive, so those younger look to him for guidance. His best friend is Dante, who was plucked under Justinian, and close to that is Trevarius who died under Hannibal. Dante and Trevarius have been a team for several centuries, mostly operating in the Midwest since the 1800's.

With Dante in Prague, Enzo received what he thought was a summons from Pluto to come to St. Louis and help the Lemure team there with a case. What he walks into is going to turn the world of not only the three men, but the female Lemure there upside down. Renata died in 1897 when a carriage accident plunged her into the Mississippi River in St. Louis. She's served with Dante and Trevarius ever since. The only problem? She's the doppelganger of Enzo's dead wife. Oh, and she and Dante are in love.

One more little hitch...the summons wasn't from Pluto...and she might NOT be a Lemure....

NIGHTMARE MAGIC

(MAGICAL MISTAKES X BATTLEGROUND OF DREAMS)

@nightmare-magic - Set in the future of both Magical Mistakes and Battleground of Dreams in an AU - so some spoilers and some not as nothing is set in stone for either timeline

Vollrath has never met a problem he can't magic his way out of, that is until now. With nightmares torturing his wife, Mahala, he's at a loss on what to do. Neither of his best friends, his brother, or any of their wives, are able to do anything to help either. Each night the dreams are getting worse, and even more dire, they are starting to have physical effects.

Morpheus and Melinoe are a Dream Assassin team to be reckoned with and have taken over the whole organization. After the sins of the past were revealed, Krios and Andromeda were ousted and now they run the show. A formidable team in the dream world and also in life, they have cemented their relationship in all ways.

Vollrath and Morpheus have a history. Magic and dreams shouldn't cross. There are rules, but neither Vollrath nor Morpheus obey them well. They've both stepped on each other's toes, but now to save Mahala they are going to have to work together and the only one that may be able to negotiate peace is Melinoe, if she can stand Vollrath long enough to do it...

PRINCESS OF THIEVES

@princess-of-thieves-id - Princess Inara is set to marry Prince Diyan the next day, a man she has never met or even set eyes on. Ever defiant, that is the last thing she is going to do. Deciding to thwart her father's plans, the Princess slips out of the castle and sets to escape. Little does she know that the Prince's family sent Arik, the Prince's best friend and a trained assassin, to watch over her, fearing more that she would be murdered by enemies rather than escape. One thing that Arik knows is that Diyan doesn't want to marry Inara either, so instead of stopping her, he helps her with a promise to keep her safe if she stays with him. They make it to the next town, which is a port and aboard a vessel that is just preparing to depart in an effort to stay one step ahead of the soldiers now searching for Inara. Unbeknownst them, they have just become stow-aways on a pirate ship. Complicating things further is that Arik and the Captain of the ship are not strangers, and when a romance develops between Inara and Arik and the Captain deciding he would like her for his own, things become even more complicated. Not to mention all three of them are being hunted by multiple kingdoms. Nothing like a quiet day on the sea, right?

SEHNSUCHT RISING

@sehnsuchtrising

Tapperhet

@tapperhet-em - When Princess Meeri's father is deposed by his brother, he believes she was part of the coup, and disowns her as his family flees the country. Lucky for her, she is found by one of the knights she befriended in childhood and is still loyal to her, Einar, before her uncle did. A members of nobility, he and three of his friends spirit her off into hiding where they can plan to figure out who set her up, help her rebuild a life apart from royalty, and decide how to bring about justice. Can the seeming unrequited love of Einar for Meeri turn into more? Or will one of his brothers in arms, cut him off from that possibility? And how close was/is the traitor to Meeri? Sometimes safe isn't as safe as you think...and destiny, it's more than just a lofty ideal. She is a bitch sometimes, and she will find you.

WHILE YOU WAIT

@whileyouwait-dm - Sorting algorithms are a part of daily life. But, what happens when one goes wrong? For the most part, it's no big deal. However, when the one sorting souls in the afterlife goes wrong, it is a VERY BIG DEAL!

Somehow Miriana has ended up in Hell. Djall's Hell to be exact, and no one is quite sure where she's actually supposed to be! Since all of the major gods have fucked off on some "team building" thing, she's going to be there a while. So, Djall being the benevolent ruler of Hell, puts her up in his home and gives her a job..

Support, Trigger Warning, and Separation Banners on this and all side/reblogs are work of @cafekitsune. I try to credit them as I go, but crediting here as well in case I forget.

Author Goddess Banner - @cillmequick <3

[winns-stuff]

Nah, you right. From the looks of it psyche got pushed to the side. We didn't get to see her marriage to Eros just a catch up flashback of her becoming a goddess specifically to spy on Apollo for Zeus (and as we know Apollo has ties to Persephone) so the lo world is in a way dragging psyche into the hades and Persephone conflict whether she belongs there or not. No actual development of psyche in her own, her being Aphrodites assistant or learning tech (we're going to ignore her being illiterate because shes a princess wtf she would have a good education). Just her doing the gods work and rerouting the story back to HxP no matter what. Like why is Psyche of all people spying on Apollo? Why is RS adding in Cassandra/Kassandra? (We all know it's going to go poorly for psyche+Hephaestus considering the myths)... Unless RS tries to make it "subversive" again. Psyche doesn't even get her butterfly wings cause RS gave them to Persephone (despite butterflies - I think - having an association with both Psyche + thanatos myth wise).

The more I see Psyche being drawn with butterfly’s the more feral I become, not because she’s drawn with them obviously but because like you said RS decided to associate them with Persephone. That has to be the biggest rob of the century, I’ve seen so many gorgeous redesigns and what do you know? They all gave her her rightful butterflies, I don’t even know why she has them. Yeah it could be symbolism to her link to death and such (maybe but with LO who really knows) but there’s other ways to do that, give her more wilting flowers or something or her sacred animals maybe??? Like it’s so annoying how We don’t know shit about Persephone or what else she represents besides flowers, we don’t get anything from LO and it’s annoying.

But as for the whole Kassandra/Cassandra plot I’m pretty sure that she put it in there to remind people that this is still a “Greek” mythology retelling and not just some fanfic that she created between a random god and goddess falling in love. I hate to say it but it really is a random one, like yeah we get some nods to the myths but they’re never exactly explained or explored at all and it’s just there to be there, like reward cookies or something.

[noctilionoidea]

greek mythology inspired media as rated by a gothy teen

one should note that this is only the things I’ve seen/read personally, therefore things like Percy Jackson and lore Olympus aren’t on here. It wouldn’t be fair for me to act like I know about the quality of those things when I haven’t read them.

Disney’s Hercules- Very clearly not myth accurate (Heracles) but really fun. It’s more akin to what little I know about the Etruscan Hercle with the way they handled his backstory. The timeline is strange because the took the Mycenaean setting of the original story (as that’s what the Greeks deemed as the age of heroes) and made it set in archaeic to classical Greece instead. But the other myths are still ancient??? though a complete bastardization of god, Hades is undoubtedly the best character. I’d give it a 2/10 on accuracy but a solid 6/10 as a movie.

Disney’s Hercules; the animated series- this is set in an alternate universe than the movie, as Hades is aware of Hercules’ existence. It changes a bunch of plotholes from the movie and even references individual myths. My favorite is the Circe episode solely for the song number. I highly recommend it, it’s even better than the movie. My only real issue is the character of Icarus. It’s fine when he isn’t around Cassandra (once again, weird timeline, but at least other heroes are contemporary here), but when she is there he’s constantly harassing her because he thinks that they’re dating. Yup, the “lovable” pervert. not my favorite, but he can be really funny. Also they give a direct timeframe because the Persian war has happened, Athens and Sparta aren’t actively fighting but very hostile to each other, and Pericles as very alive. For accuracy I’d actually give it a 4/10 (they referenced the Midas donkey ears, which I thought was a joke till I read the sources on Midas) and an 8/10 on entertainment. It’s one of my favorite shows.

Hades (video game)- do I need to say anything? I may not game (so you can take this with a heaping of salt I guess) but I’ve seen enough lets-plays to see how utterly well written and beautiful this game is. The soundtrack alone just slaps, and uggggghhhhhh so good. It also has a good representation of Hades as an antagonist without being severely inaccurate to the actual god. It does make a handful of revisions to the myths, but all for the point of the story. For accuracy I’d give 7-8/10 and 10/10 for entertainment, because if a lets-play doesn’t bore me at any points that’s a miracle.

class of the Titans- the story is about the descendants of heroes being recruited by the gods to fight in a prophecy against Chronos , who has escaped from Tartarus. It does do with the demigod powers (one of my pet peeves about Greek myth content) but generally it’s a really great interpretation of Greek mythology meets the 2000s. There’s not recurring characters I particularly hate and they don’t force the romance between characters down your throat. also Neil is the best character. I love that selfish brat. However, the route they went with Dionysos was abominable. We do not speak of it. other deities are safe. Persephone isn’t just some wholesome flower girl (and her extreme and dangerous side isn’t confirmed as relating to her marriage at all) and if you’ve ever wished for a Hades who was the epitome of dorky, here. In general, I’d give it a 6/10 for accuracy and a 7.5/10 for entertainment. I’m still mad about Dionysos

Percy Jackson and the lightning thief (film)- ew. Not even familiar with the original, this is just bad. only three lines were good. 2/10 for both accuracy and quality.

tween girl myth retellings- this is more of a genre and I can’t find it anywhere but it was literally my introduction to Greek myth. They were never very accurate but they were super fun to read. So as a general Category I give forth 5/10 and 6/10 to all the things I read. My poor younger self, if only you knew what this would lead to.

blood of Zeus- I’m not finished with it but whatever, I’m tired of this being in my drafts. its a little rough at the start imo but it really begins to pick up at the third episode or so. It differs a lot from the myths, mainly in the demons being more akin to the anime variety than the more traditional daemon gods of human nature. but I also am really mad they left out ichor! That is literally what Zeus’ blood is. But the characterization of the gods is super well done (so far). It‘s very akin to much of the sources so far in how they’re written. unfortunately it‘s too serious for my favorite characterization to be used, rip Aristophanes. BUT I CANT GET OVER THE FACT THEY NAMED A MAIN CHARACTER SERAPHIM. BRO. Bro. Seraphim is a Hebrew word, and a plural one at that. It’s very Abrahamic. That’s the wrong religious origins. 5/10 accuracy, 7/10 enjoyment so far.

okay having now finished it it’s at around a 5/10 on both. Like it’s okay and got good design but it’s just… doesn’t hit.

Gods’ School- gods school reminds me a lot of Ever After High, and that’s a good thing because I really do miss that series. All the character designs are great (I am Including Edward Cullen looking Hades y’all are weak smh) and get across the general purpose of that deity. Eris is scraggly, Aphrodite is pink, minthe is kinda punchable. It diverges a lot from myths, but with a highschool au that’s always kinda a given. it gets a 4/10 accuracy and a 7-8/10 on entertainment value. If you like Ever After High and don’t mind waiting a long time for new episodes I would recommend. It’s a fun little webseries.

tales around the world; Hades and Persephone- I don��t know if that is the right title but that’s how I remember it. this one is a stop motion animated retelling just a little censored for kids. It’s a wonderful version! I didn’t expect that much quality from this series. I found the Vhs rip uploaded to YouTube so! it does a nice job of fusing both interpretations of the abduction. My biggest issue is that Demeter is very much the helicopter parent, but I guess that’s sensible for a Hera syncretism. If you like hades and Persephone i really suggest this. 7/10 for both.

anyways, these are the ones I can think of. I don’t read much other than classics and history (because I have a long list and I don’t need more) so sadly I cannot add any newer books here, which SUCKS but whatever. I might do another for later or maybe for a different pantheon, but I don’t really think there’s a lot out there for them.