#in which epher is shamelessly garrulous

[fistfightinganxietyandlosing]

I desperately crave Apollo depictions that give him mouse or wolflike features. Why?

Well, Apollo was actually sometimes referred to as Apollo Smintheus which means mouse-god(although in the words of Edith Hamilton's Gods and Heroes - whether this was because he protected mice or killed them no one really knows).

As for the wolf bit, one of Apollo's other names is Lycegenes meaning wolf-born or born-from-Lycia and in the Illiad, Apollo is given the epithet "the Lycian" which means the wolf-god or related-to-Lycia. Additionally, Lycia itself is often called wolf-land; it's said(in some versions of his birth) that Apollo's mother, Leto, was led there by wolves - and it's far from her only association with them. In other variations of the twins' delivery, Leto turns into a she-wolf and goes into labor in this form. However, it's important to note that not all of Apollo's connections with wolves are pleasant ones. He is also known as Lycoctonus(slayer/killer of wolves) due to his nature as a protector of flocks!

All this to say, I think that Apollo's association with mice and wolves are just really cool aspects of his character that are hardly ever talked about :D

[fistfightinganxietyandlosing]

MY TIME HAS COME

Okay so while they are indeed very cute, Velvet Worms(also called Onychophora) are actually vicious little things. They're carnivores and hunt other small invertebrates such as cockroaches, crickets, woodlice, millipedes, termites, worms, and even spiders! They do this by ejecting a sticky slime from tubes near their mouth known as papillae and trapping their prey. After which, they puncture and bite parts of their victim's bodies off using their jaws and inject a digestive saliva into them. Then, the Velvet Worms proceed to suck out the poor creature's now softened insides.

Don't let their adorableness fool you!

[fistfightinganxietyandlosing]

I find the demonization of Demeter in supposedly feminist retellings of the Hades and Persephone story thoroughly fascinating because she was actually the myth's protagonist

A lot of retellings focus on the "lovebirds" but the myth was moreso focused on Demeter's quest to bring her daughter home than any romance they might've had. In fact, the original source material is entitled "Homeric Hymn to Demeter"

It followed the goddess of harvest searching desperately for the whereabouts of her kidnapped daughter, enlisting the help of deities and mortals alike along the way, and eventually forcing Zeus himself to come to a compromise through sheer stubborness and pure love for her child

An interpretation I really like is that the tale is an allegory for mothers in Ancient Greece whose daughters were taken away from them to be married off without them having any say in the matter

Putting all that aside, I'm really curious as to what prompted people to portray Demeter as a control freak who doesn't want to see her daughter happy with the one she loves when originally, she was simply a mother who fought tooth and nail to see her Persephone returned to her

[fistfightinganxietyandlosing]

My analysis of the Sedna scene in Episode 6 of Dead Boy Detectives

(as a mythology nerd)

The myth of Sedna was my introduction to Inuit mythology so it has a very special place in my heart and because of that I'm going to try my best to give people a better understanding of her story!

Since Sedna has multiple different "origin stories" so I'm just going to focus on the most popular one(?) and the one I know the best

Also, I understand that this is a repurposing of the myth and that obviously there's going to be some changes for time and story reasons and that this scene wasn't meant to be a lesson, but this is all in good fun and I'm going to analyze it from that lens anyway :>

It's important to note that considering the fact that Inuit mythology is far less popular than other mythologies, there's a lot less information surrounding and what is there is is a lot more vague

With all that being said, let's jump in!(...get it?)

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"One day, long, long ago, a terrible storm raged over land and sea. A girl and her father were in peril."

While this definitely isn't inaccurate, it leaves a lot of context out. So let's start at the very beginning:

Sedna was a beautiful young woman and a skilled huntress. As such, she received many marriage proposals but refused every last one. Her father eventually grew frustrated by this so when one day, a mysterious hunter arrived at the village, Sedna's father eagerly offered him his daughter's hand. Sedna consented as the hunter promised to provide her and her family with meat and furs. Not long after they married, her new husband whisked her off to an isolated island where he revealed that he was, in fact, not a man but a bird(crazy right?). Now, Sedna was very understandably very unhappy on the island. Not only had she been tricked but since her husband was a bird, he couldn't exactly provide the meat and furs he promised. Instead, she was forced to eat the fish he caught everyday. Things took a turn when Sedna's father decided to visit her on the island(the reason is rather unclear but I believe there's a variation where her screams and wails of agony were so loud that they reached her old home which was what what prompted her father to go check on her and one where he simply wanted to see her again). After finding out that he'd been fooled and learning of Sedna's current situation, her father killed his son-in-law and took Sedna back on his boat.

"The man thought if he sacrificed his daughter, he may be saved by the greater gods."

If you think his motivation for murdering his daughter seems a bit far-fetched, we're in the same boat(...get it?). His reasoning in the original myth makes a bit more sense. See, what happened in the original was that Sedna's father thought sacrificing her would save him because her husband's bird family/friends being angered by his death, followed the two to sea and began beating their wings really hard, causing the storm. He thought that by sacrificing the "cause" of their loved one's death, they'd be appeased and forgo flapping their wings.

[Her father throws her overboard, Sedna clutches onto the side of the boat, and he proceeds to chop her fingers off by slamming his paddle on them repeatedly.]

I'd have no nothing to say about this bit if not for the use of the paddle. In the versions I've read, he always uses a knife to cut them off. Perhaps a version where he used a paddle exists, but if there is, I haven't heard it.

"But seeing such cruelty, the great gods forsook the father, and took pity on the girl, turning her into Sedna, the goddess of the sea."

I'm definitely overthinking this but the use of the word great here confuses me because if we take the "great" as meaning considerably above average in terms of domaninance, I'm not exactly sure who Mick is referring to because there isn't really a divine ruler in Inuit mythology? Most of the gods were simply more powerful spirits. The Inuits believed the world was created by a raven(or a raven-man or a raven with a man inside or a raven who could turn into a man, it really depends). Sometimes he's depicted as trickster with a penchant for mischief while other times he's depicted as a compassionate creator and lover of the world. Either way, I don't think he's really regarded as the leader? I've heard some stories where Anguta(god of death and the underworld) is the creator and supreme being, but I doubt he's the great god being referred to as he's sometimes attributed to being Sedna's father and the one who kills her in other versions of her story which would make him turning her into a goddess in this one a bit odd. Chances are, I'm reading too much into this and they simply chose to incorporate "great" as a way to show they're worthy of respect, but it's still interesting to think about!

"And on that day, my brothers and sisters were born."

10/10. No notes. Sedna sinks into the bottom of the ocean and her fingers become all the sea's mammals just like in the original.

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That's all I have to say, I think. Overall, this exercise was really fun. Please let me know if I shared any incorrect information. I look forward to doing more analyses in the future!

[fistfightinganxietyandlosing]

I am thoroughly fascinated by Turandot. It's very flawed, yes, but the concept in it of itself is considerably compelling. I'm kind of tempted to write a retelling of it told from the perspectives of Turandot, Calaf, and Liu that delves into each of their unique outlooks and standpoints.

[fistfightinganxietyandlosing]

Imagine being Ilmarinen and getting duped into crafting the Sampo, an amazing magical object, only for you to recieve zero payment for making it and later you go on a long expedition to retrieve it but it just ends up sinking to the deep depths of the ocean-