#mythological avengers

[gunsandspaceships]

Tony is a God

If you ask people which mythological figure they associate Tony with, the most popular answer is Hephaestus. And that makes sense. Hephaestus, like Tony, is a disabled blacksmith who created all the weapons on Olympus. But this is the only similarity between them. While Hephaestus is the god of blacksmithing, crafts, and metalworking, Tony is much more than that.

He is a scientist (expert in physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, AI and engineering), inventor, creator, futurist and prophet, philanthropist, benefactor, adviser, healer, warrior, leader, intercessor and protector of people from wicked gods.

There is another character in Greek mythology who has more in common with Tony than the god of blacksmithing.

He was born and raised as a titan, was betrayed by his close friend, was held captive and tortured in the mountains in the land of barbarians, took fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, created artificial life, saw the future and tried to prevent a catastrophe, participated in the war between the gods and the titans, and sacrificed himself for humanity by stopping an omnipotent god from obliterating the human race.

I just recapped Tony's arc in the MCU. But this is also the story of the titan Prometheus, god of forethought and fire, master craftsman, creator and benefactor of humankind, who stole fire from the gods to give it to humans, along with knowledge, science and technology, creating civilization.

Iron Man: Rapture

"Prometheus Bound", Christian Griepenkerl 

Main post

[musette22]

Orpheus & Eurydice || Steve & Bucky

Moodboard for the @wintershieldbingo

Square: Mythology AU ✔️

I've always felt that the story of Steve and Bucky, particularly as told in Captain America: The First Avenger, had a lot in common with the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. For that reason, I have chosen to fill the Mythology AU square on my Wintershield Bingo card by creating a moodboard to draw narrative and visuals parallels between these two tragic love stories.

Orpheus & Eurydice

Orpheus was an artist, the greatest lyre player in the world, who was happily married to the love of his life, the beautiful Eurydice. Their happy life together gets cut short, however, when Eurydice is bitten by a viper and dies, leaving a heartbroken Orpheus behind. Orpheus cannot accept his true love’s death, and so he travels to the Underworld on a quest to get Eurydice back.

Orpheus manages to overcome various hurdles, such as getting past Cerberus, the three-headed hound who guards the gates to the Underworld, and finally pleads with Hades, the king of the Underworld to let Eurydice live again. Hades allows this on one condition: Eurydice is to follow behind Orpheus while walking out of the darkness of the Underworld towards the light of the land of the living, but Orpheus should not turn to look at her before she is fully out in the light again. However, as they begin to ascend towards the land of the living, Orpheus, afraid that his lover is no longer behind him, looks back to make sure she is following, causing Eurydice to tragically fall back into the shadows and be trapped in the Underworld once more. 

Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes

Steve and Bucky are very close friends and most likely even lovers, who live a mostly happy life together in Brooklyn. When World War II breaks out, Bucky is drafted and joins the army, while Steve stays behind in New York. In Italy, Bucky's squad is taken by the enemy, and he is kept prisoner in a dark, abandoned factory housing the lab of Hydra (incidentally also a multi-headed beast from Greek mythology).

When Steve, who received a superserum which turned him into the world's greatest soldier (as well as an artist), eventually also joins the army and gets to Italy, he is told Bucky is most likely dead. Steve point blank refuses to accept that, and embarks on a one man rescue mission - a quest, if you will - to get Bucky back. Armed with a wooden shield, the shape of which bears a similarity to a lyre, overcomes numerous obstacles, fighting Hydra goons and even Red Skull, who looks like the devil incarnate. Steve manages to free Bucky and even jumps over what strongly resembles the fiery pits of hell to get to freedom, only to lose Bucky again a short while later, when Bucky tragically falls from a train and is subsumed once more into the Underworld, i.e. Hydra’s claws.

Aside from the many narrative parallels, many visual parallels also exist between depictions of Orpheus and Eurydice in classical art and various scenes and images in CA:TFA. The moodboard above attempts to illustrate these parallels and similarities.

[reallyunluckyrunaway]

Frigga is a single mother as far as I'm concerned—

[vitamina2211]

When the reader

-smokes cigarettes

-does drugs

-is pregnant (teen)

-cheats on someone

[honourablejester]

I was reading something about that trope where one character is trying to talk another character down from bloodily avenging someone they loved (and thereby losing their morality) by appealing to the memory of the lost loved one: “You’re [spouse/parent/child/friend] wouldn’t have wanted this!”

And then I remembered the Mariner’s Revenge Song by The Decemberists, in which the narrator could reply to this tactic with an entirely honest: “Oh, no. My mother gave me explicit and graphic instructions on how to avenge her. But thanks anyway. Excuse me, I gotta go find a man, bind him, tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters, then drag him to a hole until he wakes up naked clawing at the ceiling of his grave.”

Gotta love a backstory dead parent, dead mother, at that, where she was fully, no, no, I need you to go hunt this man down and graphically torture him to avenge me. None of this morality shit.

(To, like, a five year old, mind you).

Now, there turned out to be logistical issues to this mission (to the tune of a giant whale and the difficulty of burying someone naked and broken in a grave while you’re both inside said whale), but hey. He gave it his best shot!

[incorrect-marvel-because-why-not]

Tony: Isn’t it weird that we can’t ride any other animal except horses. Like if horses weren’t a thing, humans would be fucked cause we couldn’t ride any other animals. Like riding animals wouldn’t really be a thing. We should probably be more grateful to horses.

Rhodey: Elephants.

Tony: Blocked.

Natasha: Camels.

Bruce: And reindeer!

Tony: Extra blocked.

Steve: Donkeys.

Tony: Ultra blocked.

Thor: Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr

Tony: ...

The Avengers: ...

Clint: That dick.

Tony: …Followed.

[pemberley3k]

[musclesandhammering]

Still waiting on someone to explain why Wanda is “The Harbinger of Chaos”, the “Chaos Queen”, and her magic is called “Chaos Magic” when she literally has nothing to do with chaos. Like.. nothing. No symbolism, no philosophical connection, no plotline. Literally nothing lmao. Could’ve just called her the queen of sunsets or some shit, it would’ve made as much sense 😒.

[brainrotroulette]

Just a little cowboy with big shoes to fill

for @please-be-nice-im-sensitive’s cowboy iliad au

[lvnamuraart]

Loki is the God of Stories in the MCU, so of course I had to draw some of his different versions, different stories over the years <3

I wish I had left more room to draw Jotun Loki from What if, President Loki and the kitten-headed version. I'm considering making the individual drawings as small prints, if you're interested I could add the missing ones even if they're not in the full drawing hmm

[roostersmustache]

Reflections of Who We Used to Be

Pairing: Loki x Original Female Character

Author's Note: It's been a while! I don't know if anyone will be reading this, but I am gonna post it anyways! I've had this idea brewing for a little bit, so I thought, why not give it a write? Let me know what you think!

Synopsis: Sigrid and Loki had everything. Love, marriage, a beautiful daughter on the way...but then everything got ripped right under her feet when Loki was killed in the Infinity War. But one day, Loki comes waltzing back into her life, except this Loki isn't the one that left her.

or

Loki comes back to his spot in the timeline, but this Loki doesn't remember living the events after his attack on New York City. He just remembers the TVA.

Warnings: Swearing, adult themes, angst, possible MCU spoilers, possible Loki spoilers, probably not entirely accurate.

Word Count: 2.5K

Masterlist

Sigrid grew up lonely. She had no siblings, and she always had a harder time than others her age when it came to making friends. Her school was small, she went to a small private school in Asgard, one reserved for those in families of higher power. Her father was high ranking in Asgard's army, practically Odin's right hand man. It was no surprise to anyone when she was placed in her school.

She excelled in school, constantly awing her instructors with her mind, always one step ahead than the rest in her class. But when it came to magic, she was weak. Sigrid was diagnosed with a condition called POTS at the age of five. Because of this, her body has never been strong enough to fully support the magic she wished she had.

Loki and her met when she was in her second year of school, and he was in his fourth. She was seven and he was nine. They met in the library, her face was nose deep in a book that he wanted to read, and instead of telling him, the weird prince, to go away like everyone else, she offered that they read it together. They've been inseparable ever since.

When they got to middle school, they were both there to experience each others first crushes, so they decided to help each other out and be each others first kiss. Just for practice. Loki wanted to be able to tell Thor he had also kissed a girl.

From then on, they were there for each other when one another got their heart broken. They exchanged books, Loki helped Sigrid with her magic, and they made each other feel less lonely. Loki had always felt like an outcast, and Sigrid had always been lonely. They filled that gap for one another.

However, after high school, Loki discovered his true parentage, thus sparking a downward spiral for him, taking everyone else with him. His mind had never been so dark and cold, so vulnerable. Sigrid was there for him, and she was just what he needed, a shoulder to cry on. Loki felt everyone else around him had begun to push him away, afraid of the monster he truly was. But not Sigrid. Never Sigrid.

But this revelation left his mind vulnerable enough for dark forced to enter it, and enter it they did.

It took too much convincing, and too many analysis' of Loki for Odin to finally believe that he had been under the influence of a dark force when he attacked New York. Loki felt it was pointless to fight the old man on it, but Thor and Sigrid had insisted.

Loki was under the influence of Thanos, and while under that spell, he had killed many innocent people and destroyed lots of the city. No one on Earth would ever comfortably welcome him back, but the people of Asgard would have to learn to. Loki knew he was seen as even more of a monster now, and that fact pushed him deeper into his darkness than he had been before.

While not under the influence of Thanos, Loki was still broken. He was dealing with the guilt of what he had done, and the realization that he would forever be seen as a monster was at the forefront of his mind. In a fight against the Dark Elves, Loki had faked his death. His mother, Frigga had been killed, and Loki was the most heartbroken he had ever been. Sigrid was devastated when Thor came back and said Loki was gone. The grief she had felt during that time was insufferable.

She drowned in her sadness everyday, and her magic had never been weaker. She fainted more often than normal, her POTS getting worse, and it was during this time that she discovered she loved Loki. She always had loved Loki. But this was the most real thing she had ever felt, and she couldn't do anything with it, because he was gone.

But then he came back one day, a couple months later, and Sigrid swears she's never been so angry in her life. He apologized profusely to her, claiming he needed to get away to stop hurting the people around him, but she didn't care. He left her, and they had promised to never leave each other. He knew she'd mourn him. She called him selfish, and the two didn't speak for another two weeks.

The first time they spoke after that, he told her he loved her. She told him she loved him. He promised he'd never leave her again.

The rest is history.

A year later, the two got married, a wedding that some supported and some did not. Many people still thought Loki was a monster and that he would never change. But those who really knew him knew that wasn't the case.

Their marriage was filled with such joy and happiness for the both of them. They brought out the best in one another, and Sigrid helped people see that Loki wasn't the monster they all thought he was. Sigrid had never been happier, and it was quite obvious to everyone. The girls who used to tease her in school now bowed down to her as their princess, and the boys that bullied her now wished they had her.

And Loki. Sigrid thought Loki looked better the older he got. When his hair reached his shoulders, she was a goner. He was so handsome, and it seemed that the rest of the kingdom had started to notice too. Palace workers would tell him it was "alright if he needed a break from his wife," and shoot a wink his way. Sigrid would have to excuse herself to simmer off, but Loki would remind her just how devoted he was to her every night.

After a couple years of being married, Sigrid found out she was pregnant. She had kept waking up sick, and sure enough, it's because she was expecting. Loki had been overjoyed, terrified, but overjoyed. Sigrid didn't think she could love her husband more, but the promise of him being a father left a flutter in her stomach she didn't know she could have.

They had already begun prepping their nursery, keeping it as gender neutral as possible, as they wouldn't discover the babies gender until they were born. Sigrid found a new hobby in making her old baby clothes, and Loki would hold her belly and sing to her every night. She was living in a bubble of bliss.

But every bubble pops at some point.

Thor and Loki had heard about the threat of Ragnarok, and at first Sigrid didn't believe in it, but then Loki and Thor returned from a place called Sakaar and informed her that it was very real, and definitely going to happen. While they were in Sakaar, their sister Hela, whom none of them knew about, had totally taken over Asgard, and had even kept Sigrid hostage in the castle. Sigrid was surprised Hela didn't kill her, but she also knew she was being used as leverage to get the princes back to Asgard.

Those few days where she was under Hela's control in Asgard were Sigrid's own personal hell, literally. She was paraded around like a prize, dangling over the Asgardian's heads. Heimdall came to her rescue, sneaking in one night and taking her with him, where they sought safety with the other Asgardian's.

The next day, Thor came back with Banner and Valkyrie, and Sigrid started to worry when Loki wasn't with them. Especially since Hela's army of the dead and her massive dog, Fenrir, were surrounding them on the bridge. But Loki did show up, he showed up on a massive ship, and suddenly everything was better.

Sigrid rushed to give him a hug, but he urgently rushed her on the ship, not willing to risk hers and their babies life. Sigrid watched from inside with hundreds of Asgardians as her husband, Thor, and Valkyrie all defeated Hela and Asgard burned to the ground. It was a bittersweet feeling, watching home collapse but also knowing everyone was safe.

Sigrid thought the chaos was over there, finally feeling relieved that they were finally en route to somewhere to rebuild. She was already thinking about her new home wit Loki, what the new nursery would look like. They settled on Earth, but as they were on the way there, they came across an enemy ship.

Sigrid begged and begged Loki not to go check it out with everyone else, but he insisted. She then begged to come with him, but he refused. Any other time he would've loved her companionship, but carrying their child was not something he was willing to put on the line.

Sigrid cried to him to not go, she had a horrible feeling, but he insisted he had to for the good of their people. They told each other they loved each other and kissed goodbye, and he promised he'd be right back.

He promised he'd be right back.

But Loki didn't come back. Loki never came back. Thor came back a different man, and all he could utter was that Loki was gone. Sigrid felt a type of pain she hadn't ever felt in her life. Even when she thought Loki was dead the first time, it had never felt this way. She thinks it's because a part of her always knew he was never dead, but she knew this was real. Even as she screamed at Thor and told him he was faking it, she knew it was real.

While Thor and Loki were confronting Thanos in the first place, several of Thanos' "children," as he called them, killed hundreds of Asgardian's, and only about a hundred made it out alive.

Thor had found them in Norway, and he came with Loki's body. Sigrid had shook her husband and wailed at him to wake up, to stop playing tricks. It wasn't funny. This wasn't the time to joke.

But it was no joke.

A few short months later, Sigrid gave birth to their daughter without him. Sigrid took one look at their daughter and decided to name her Frigga, after Loki's mother whom he loved dearly.

Frigga became the light in Sigrid's life that she had been missing, though she wished more than anything that Loki was there with her. She found him everywhere; in the wind and the way it put a breeze in her hair, in the green hue of the mountains surrounding their new home, New Asgard as they called it, and in the rain, Loki's favorite weather.

Sigrid found her days spent distracting herself with baking. She decided, not long after she had Frigga, to open a bakery in town, just a couple blocks from her home. Thor decided to live with her and Frigga, offering support that Sigrid was endlessly grateful for.

She, and the rest of her people, picked her life back up piece by piece. Her bakery flourished, Frigga was happy, and she slowly started to properly mourn her husband, taking forever to fully accept that he was gone. She visited his grave everyday and talked to him, it brought her peace. Once Frigga was old enough to understand, she brought her with her.

Frigga knew her father to be a hero. Her uncle and her mother did a great job painting that picture for her, and she went to school and bragged about him. Frigga inherited everything about him. She had his long, black hair and piercing blue eyes, and, much to her mothers awe and dismay, his magic.

The first sign she had Loki's magic was when she could turn inanimate objects into snakes. Sigrid had screamed, and then laughed, thrilled that her daughter had her father's magic touch. Now, at age eight, she was able to shape-shift into small animals herself. She could also make herself invisible, manipulate other objects, and read peoples memories with the touch of her hand on their head. Just like her father.

Frigga followed her mother to the bakery everyday that she didn't have school. She had become quite the baker herself, and Sigrid loved having her help.

Today was no different, it was a Friday and Frigga had run to her mothers bakery as soon as she got out of school. Sigrid let her bake some brownies before starting on her homework, and then it was homework before she could help again.

Sigrid had spent the day making various cakes before her daughter had come. Now that she had sent Frigga off to her designated desk in the back to do homework, she was going to start on some lemon bars. The store had been running slow today, and with no customer in sight she had decided to make some treats to pass the time.

She was really feeling pop music recently, and had it blasting through the store as she worked, powder fresh on her face. She was singing along to the newest song on her shuffle when she realized she needed more sugar, running to fetch some from the back.

While she was back there she made sure Frigga was on track with her homework, receiving an annoyed scoff from her daughter. She just rolled her eyes and lightly tapped her on the head before moving back out to her baking table.

She heard the bell ring on her front door, signaling customers, and she hollered at them that she'd be right out. She was almost finished cutting up another lemon, when she heard them start to talk. She could make out three separate voices, a woman with an accent, a man with no accent who mentioned key lime pie, and finally...

Sigrid stopped her motions all together, almost cutting herself with her knife. That third voice was one she hadn't heard in almost nine years, but one that she could surely recognize in a crowd of millions. It was deep, sultry, and had a thick accent. It was the voice she had fallen utterly in love with. And as if no time had passed between the last time she heard that voice and now, it carried her towards it like a magnet.

She scrambled to reach the front of the shop, her skin feeling icy hot and her heart hammering in her chest. She reached the front counter and her throat went dry. When was the last time she had a POTS spell?

As she looked up she was gasping for air, and her vision was going blurry. But she'd recognize those eyes, that hair, anywhere. She felt a tear roll down her face.

"Loki?"

She fainted.

~~

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[gunsandspaceships]

Prometheus's Heart

Tony Stark - Prometheus

In most interpretations of the myth of Prometheus, we find a version that the titan chained to a rock had his liver pecked at every day by an eagle or vulture.

For a time it was actually believed that the liver was the seat of life and pleasure in the body. Thus the bird torturing Prometheus flew in every day to take away his very life and the desire for it. But the immortal titan could not die and continued to suffer for centuries or even millennia.

There is one issue with ancient sources - some of them talk not about the liver, but about the heart. One of the earliest works of art depicting Prometheus shows the eagle pecking at his chest, rather than his abdomen, where the liver is located.

Gaius Julius Hyginus (64 BC – AD 17) in his work "Fabulae" also mentions the heart, not the liver.

Fabulae 31 "The shining eagle which was eating out the heart of Prometheus he [Herakles] killed with his arrows."

Fabulae 144 "Because of this, Mercurius [Hermes], at Jove's [Zeus'] command ... set an eagle to eat out his heart; as much as it devoured in the day, so much grew again at night..."

There is an explanation for this confusion: in ancient times, the liver and heart competed for the title of the most vital organ in the body. Some people believed that the center of life was in the liver, while others believed that it was in the heart. Sometimes one of them would gain a temporary victory. Before Galen (129–216 BC), who insisted that the liver was the most vital organ, Aristotle (384–322 BC) considered the heart to be the center of life in the body. It was already established in their times that the heart "generated the innate heat of the body" (Findlen P. "A History of the Heart").

The myth of Prometheus was not born in the time of Galen though. This was much earlier, when people knew little about the liver, but could hear and feel the heart in their chest. The heartbeat and warmth were present while the person was alive and disappeared when the person died.

"The word “liver,” or “hepar” in Greek, was often substituted for “heart” in ancient Greek poetry. For example, the phrase “hit in the liver” is comparable to the modern phrase “struck in the heart,” meaning to mortally wound someone". ("Understanding The Liver - A History" Chen).

The beaks of shrapnel that pecked at Prometheus' heart every day:

The Arc Reactor - "The source of heat and life" from "Eternal Atomic Fire" running Prometheus' heart:

[lesbianbanana]

Hera's relationship with Apollo is something that should be studied, in this essay I-

[lazy-cat-corner]

You’re laughing. This American christian demands to know why the pagan god isn’t a Christian and you’re laughing.

[incorrect-ulster-cycle]

Cú Chulainn: Just so I know: are we going to stand here and bicker all day or are we going to go fight the bad guys? Láeg: Usually we manage to do both at the same time. We're good like that.

[blvvdk3ep]

Don't mind me I'm just gonna stand in this corner and lose my mind over Joseph of Exeter's poem "De Bello Troiano" where Patroclus' severed head whispers, "Ultor ubi Aecides?" (Where is Achilles, my avenger?") after Hector slays him