#myth retelling

[greekmythcomix]

YAOLJB.wordpress.com

BE Odysseus in two preview sections of interactive fiction Odyssey retelling

🧿 You Are Odysseus 👁️

Why does Odysseus do what he does? Can you replicate his adventure? Or will you end up somewhere else entirely?

Read/play now!

This has been a labour of love over the last five years. The full text is coming out this year and I am SO excited for you lovely nerds to read it!

You can look forward to:

- A faithful rendition of the Odyssey, but as a second-person narrative

- A novel-length interactive reading experience, as a book, hyperlinked eBook (and possibly future text adventure

- The ability to read as Odysseus, making the same choices as he does in the original poem, or as your version of Odysseus, making the choices you think he should make, or as a completely other version of Odysseus, making... other choices

- Characterisations and literary features directly from and inspired by translations of the original poem

- All your favourite scenarios and episodes directly from the original poem, from Troy (as told by Menelaus and Nestor) to Ithaca

- Original, alternative story elements based on suggestions from the original poem, Epic Cycle, and ancient authors and playwrights

- Many, many different ways in which to die

- Almost as many different ways to succeed (depending on how you qualify success exactly)

- The tiniest bit of teacher humour added, where appropriate. Mostly.

- A website appendix explaining textual choices and background, including a bibliography, further suggested reading list, and a list of the ‘correct' choices to make to correctly re-enact Homer's Odyssey.

Thank you for trying out the preview!

[autumnmobile12]

The Epic Saga: Just A Man

Trigger warning for infanticide.

I want to talk about what an interesting choice it was in Epic's first installment for Odysseus to be the one to kill the infant.

In all versions of the story, the fate of Astyanax, son of Prince Hector, is always the same. He is thrown from the walls of Troy while the city is sacked. What varies from telling to telling is who does the deed, and it's usually between two people: Odysseus and Neoptolemus.

Most modern retellings make Neoptolemus the villain in this story, or they'll leave out this part entirely, because in the eyes of today's society, the senseless murder of a helpless infant is something only a villain would do.

Who's Odysseus? He's the man who won the Trojan War by engineering the idea behind the Trojan Horse, he's the guy who took ten years to sail home, he's the main character of The Odyssey. Odysseus is a hero. And heroes don't kill infants.

Who's Neoptolemus? He's forgettable. He didn't go on any heroic quests like Herakles or Perseus. He didn't slay any noteworthy monsters. Neoptolemus' biggest claim to fame are three things: He's the son of Achilles, he clubs King Priam to death in the sacking of Troy, and in some versions, he kills Astyanax. (He also enslaved Astyanax's mother.)

From the lens of the Ancient Greeks, a hero wasn't an upstanding guy who did the right thing. A hero was the guy who fought for what he wanted and did horrible things to his enemy in the process.

In the context of modern society, it's no wonder why the dubious credit of Astyanax's death goes to Neoptolemus. When that's the only real claim to fame he has, of course he's going to be a villain. We can't be having heroes killing babies because that's insane.

So let me tell you that when I first listened to The Horse and The Infant and I realized it was Odysseus who was committing the deed, that took me so off guard and I had to pause the song just to tell my poor sister how fucking crazy that is. I rarely saw this version. I mean, I understand the reasoning; it's setting up Odysseus' guilty conscious that'll plague him for the remainder of the musical. It's the flawed hero trope, which is a far cry from the brutality of the original myths.

And that in itself is testament of how mythologies have evolved over the centuries. It's why we have different variations of the myth in the first place. Societal views and values change and the stories told adapt accordingly.

Did Hades kidnap Persephone or did she go willingly to escape Demeter, her overbearing mother? Both versions are correct. All versions are correct. We cannot look for something as narrow-minded as a 'canon' version of mythology because mythology is a jumble of headcanons about the same basic concept thrown together by countless storytellers over literal centuries of storytelling.

In The Horse and The Infant, Zeus directly warns Odysseus that if Astyanax lives, he will take vengeance on him and his homeland. And after what the Greeks did to Troy, slaying the men, enslaving the women, and leaving the city in ruins, Odysseus is one of many Greek kings who have a lot to answer for.

Is Odysseus heroic for protecting his family by killing Astyanax because now the infant prince won't grow up to take vengeance?

Is Odysseus a flawed hero who carries the shame of his sins with him?

Is the deed committed by Neoptolemus and Odysseus goes home with his honor unsullied?

It all depends on interpretation. You can choose one that reflects a harsh history or you can pick the one that's been adapted to suit modern values. You don't even have to pick. You can appreciate them all for what they are.

And Epic: The Musical came out swinging.

[rs-hawk]

Icarus making sure to always save the best of anything he has to give as an offering to Apollo. He burns everything in a golden bowl. Icarus begging Daedalus to craft him a lyre so he can learn to play it because it makes him feel closer to Apollo. Icarus trying to raise bees so he always has fresh honey to offer Apollo.

Apollo receiving all these offerings and getting bullied by Artemis because he can’t stop blushing because what is this human boy doing?? Fuck it’s so cute though and he starts lingering above where they’re being held bc he wants to be closer to him for a second.

[ryebread-x]

Trygve x Loki fanart!!

I recently received some lovely fanart of my interpretation of Loki and Trygve (my interpretation of Loki's potential mortal farmer lover from the Lokasenna) by the amazing @clusterpuppy !!

Close ups:

Tysm for the fanart of these two!! They look so cute in your style!! <33

[gennsoup]

Love had indeed come armed to the teeth with an envoy brandishing a hate-infused sword its haft carved in cruelty

Gerður Kristný, Bloodhoof

[i-am-trans-gwender]

How come when it comes to Greek/Roman Mythology everyone is usually only called by their Greek names except for Herakles? He's almost always called by his Roman name Hercules even in stories where everyone else uses their Greek names.

[genericpuff]

Is there a real difference between something being a reimagining of Greek myths and something being inspired by it?

I mean, it's a difference that's kind of subjective IMO but the way I personally see it, it comes down to what the story itself is trying to be. Is it trying to be a retelling, or is it trying to be its own story that just happens to take elements from the myths for the fun of it?

A myth retelling will typically be doing just that, retelling a mythical story with its characters with maybe some aesthetic changes, artistic liberties, or tweaks to fit a new generation. Example: Stray Gods, Hades, Hadestown, Lore Olympus, etc. All these stories are retelling myths and tales while putting more modern or subversive twists on them. Hadestown may feature a version of the Underworld that's built on coal mines, but it's still the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Hades may feature a version of Hades and Persephone who genuinely fell in love (Persephone was born to Demeter and a mortal man instead of Zeus which also removes the incest, and Persephone genuinely wanted to leave Olympus and saw marrying Hades as her way out), but they still gave Demeter her affiliations with winter and grieving the loss of her daughter.

Something that's simply myth inspired isn't necessarily trying to be accurate to the myths or retell them, they're just yoinking elements out of myths either directly or indirectly for the sake of fun and creativity. A recent example is Attack on Titan which is clearly referencing a lot of Norse mythology by the end with Ymir. Though an even bigger example of this is JRPG's, a lot of them tend to reference Greek and Norse myth in obvious or subtle ways, but aren't necessarily retelling those stories. Persona 3 uses a lot of Greek myth as the foundation for its story. The Ascians in Final Fantasy XIV go by Greek myth aliases such as Hermes and Hades, while there are raids in the game with Greek naming conventions (there's literally a raid boss in the newest set of Asphodelos raids named "Athena"). Tales of Symphonia is WWII meets Norse mythology, featuring subplots that tackle deep topics like discrimination, segregation and genocide (the "human ranches" are literally concentration camps) while also taking artistic inspiration from the Norse myths featuring the Great Kharlan Tree (the tree of life, Yggdrasil) and even the final boss' name is Yggdrasil, in the game's final cutscene Lloyd is given the opportunity to name the new reborn tree and while the audio fades out before you can hear what he names it, when you learn of Norse myth and how it inspired the game you just know he named it Yggdrasil (unfortunately they played it safer with the name "World Tree" in the game's sequel Dawn of the New World, but we don't talk about DotNW lmao). There are also a lot of religious allegories in JRPG's, particularly with Christianity, but that's another topic.

Point is, something that's simply taking inspiration from Greek myth or other mythologies isn't necessarily trying to retell those stories directly or even at all. Sometimes a piece of work is simply referencing them or enjoys the naming conventions or messaging of those original stories that it makes for a good parallel.

Not every story inspired by mythologies are attempting to retell them, but every retelling is inspired by the mythologies upon which they're based.

[lastfinalgirls]

Every book I read in 2023

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

★★★★★ / 5

[evilios]

🌞 Aktis Aeliou, or the Machine of Margot's Destruction by Natalia Theodoridou

Spoilers ahead:

Okay! Alright! I did not know what to expect of this short story but it's now one of my favorite alluding to Apollo, it seems.

The web of meanings starts with the name: ἀκτὶς ἀελίου (light/ray of the Sun) is the beginning of the chorus in Sophocles' Antigone, line 100. This line is quoted by — supposedly — Apollo in Greek in this text. This is the chorus after Ismene and Antigone (in the play) talk about Antigone's decision which Ismene considers poor judgement. The light of the Sun is a short moment of respite before the tragedy.

Apollo is a tragic character in this story. It's about the destined tragedy of loving a God. To me, the main heroine is a total sum of Apollo's women while the total sum of Apollo's men are the distant memory. The major meaning, to me, is in the line, "if I love you, you shall die; do you want to die?"

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

I wonder what it would be like to have an Orpheus/Eurydice story where Eurydice starts out as this innocent and naive young bride who has zero real world experience and it's never occurred to her to get some until she dies.

As soon as she hits the underworld, she's exposed to all sorts of people from all walks of life, and her character is enriched by it and she becomes this robust, fully formed character in her own right, rather than as the wife of a famous musician.

Meanwhile Orpheus remains kind of flat and one-note in his sensitive heroic artist persona, even as he's helped through the underworld after Eurydice by kind souls who came to like her-- only to be treated as a sort of requisite stepping stone by him. Of *course* they're supposed to help him, he's a *hero* for coming down here after the love of his life.

When he strikes the deal with Hades, he starts leading the way out, with Eurydice trailing behind. Part of her wants to go home, yes, but she doesn't want to go back to how she was. She's shed her old skin, and she can't climb back into it.

She's asking Orpheus questions, pushing about how he truly feels about her, how he truly sees and treats the world around him, and this is where his entitlement and subtle misogyny rears its ugly head.

He gets more and more terse with her, and he finally snaps and whirls to shout at her, only for her to blink out of sight as she's banished back to the underworld.

For him, the outcome is the same as the original myth-- he's mourned as this tremendous artist with a sensitive soul who did his best to save his wife but in his desperation to see her again, loses her forever.

But the AUDIENCE knows the truth. That Eurydice's tale is a cautionary one about a man's anger, how quick he might turn if his perception of you is challenged in any way. How even the most sensitive and tender of souls can be and are shaped by the society around them, to the deteriment of themselves and those around them. How entitlement and ego can sour if they're not appropriately fed.

How a single moment of anger can undo an epic's worth of work, and end a story before it can even start.

[headcanonforthought]

Mythology headcanon thing?

When Daedalus and Icarus are imprisoned Daedalus is SURE he can make the wings and fly them out. But it's in the night that a shadow ridden god appears to Icarus, telling him his father will never escape the tower. Icarus begs for an answer on how he can ensure his father's escape...

He's told only by the sacrifice of his own life. He'll be held in high regard in the Underworld if he sacrifices himself for his father's escape. But if Icarus should choose to not die, his father and him both will be transported back to the tower, doomed to fail again and again.

Icarus flies to near the sun. Not because he is stupid. But because he has been told by a god this MUST be his sacrifice for freedom. And the god didn't lie. Daedalus lives on and is never returned to the tower. Understanding that days horrible events fully when he enters the underworld and his son explains the vision he received.

[dani-musings]

ANNOUNCEMENT: ✨I’m so happy to announce that my short story inspired by the Norse Myths has been accepted for publication in The Mythic Circle by The Mythopoeic Society! 🤩

This tale about Loki and Sigyn that I wrote is really special to my heart and I can’t wait to share it with the world! ☺️♥️

Here’s a moodboard that I made to capture the story’s aesthetic and aura and here’s a short blurb:

the story’s blurb: Sigyn, the wife of Loki & goddess of mercy & loyalty, considers whether she is being admirably loyal or foolish for staying by her husband’s side. If she stays, she loses the future of her eternal life. If she leaves Loki, she risks losing him forever.💔✨

I’ll keep everyone posted about this publication and when & where you can get your copy! 📚

Thank you all for your support! 🥰 My (published) author adventures are just beginning! 🌟

~Danielle🪽

[rs-hawk]

Me going feral over the idea of Mishipeshu x his human lover. He lurks in the lake, waiting for her to come back. He only attacks boats and anyone passing over now because he’s trying to find her. He knows that she was taken from him as a punishment for him daring to try to be more than what he is-a monster. Just because a human saw beyond his appearance doesn’t mean that at his core- that isn’t what he is. He’s a monster. That’s why he’s confined to the lake, only able to slip out through tunnels hidden from humans view for short periods of time. Eventually he has to come home, defeated and deflated. No matter how much human magic he learns, he can’t turn back time, and he can’t regain even a smidgen of the humanoid form he had when she was able to do it for him.

[ryebread-x]

I realized I never really went into too much depth about my au/retelling of Myth! Sigyn. But I feel like talking about her, so here I go infodumping. I ended up making her more terrifying. But not in a "badass valkyrie" type of way. More in a "bloodthirsty, slightly murdery goddess" sort of way. She likes to wager sides of battle with either Odin,Freyja, Tyr, or even some valkyries. Whenever she wins, she revels in her victory. She's not the kindest goddess, either at least to most of the other gods. Odin isn't too fond of her.

When it comes to her relationship with Loki, they met when Loki witnessed Sigyn win a wager against Odin. Loki was impressed by Sigyn's cunning and ability to flaunt her victory in front of someone like the All-Father. When the two got to talking, Sigyn liked the fact that she felt Loki was on the same playing field as her. In their own individual ways, they are both kinda assholes. Though Loki's sheingains, while often getting the Aesir in trouble, are mostly harmless and sometimes helpful. The same can't really be said for Sigyn she often gets in a lot of trouble herself(though she always finds a way out of her sheingains). But they like that about eachother, neither of them are perfect.

However, she is still loyal to a fault, at least to those she can trust. She isn't stupid either she will take revenge out on those who she feels have wronged her or her loved ones. She cares, but sometimes that can be dangerous.

Anyways, thank you for listening to my ramblings.

[gennsoup]

"There is a difference between understanding and forgiveness. It's possible to have one without the other."

Genevieve Gornichec, The Witch's Heart

[oleandereye]

o Icarus

a comic about the thrill of choosing the fall.