#queue dura vocat fortuna sequamur

[hazelsheartsworn]

@slightlyrebelliouswriter23 & @figonas

Where did we end up with strapping daggers to thighs, eh?

[lac-reads-and-writes]

This is a total call out .. unless

GOD I just want to be CREATIVE but all my energy is being used to survive

[hazelsheartsworn]

44, 45, 47

Thanks for the ask @laequiem !

I sat with these for a bit, which made it all the better! This is going to be a long post....

I’m going to be controversial...

44. Favorite Protagonist: Aeneas in The Aeneid

By now you know Classics has a special place in my heart and I’m not over exaggerating when I say that it saved me in more ways than one. Yes, it’s an epic poem and can be tough to read and certainly tougher to unpack. But oof, there are lines on here that will see you in your darkest of moments.

forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit -Aeneid 1.203

Roughly translates to, “Perhaps one day it will be helpful to remember even these things.”

In this moment, Aeneas is speaking to a group of Trojans stranded on a beach after getting the ships wrecked in a divinely powered storm. They’re refugees, from the storm, from Troy, from war. With the ship wreck, all the food stores are ruined and they’ve landed in unknown territory. These people are lost, scared, broken, and clinging to a desperate hope for a better life. It’s such a moment of true humanity when he has to lead this group, while also mourning and lost himself. He says this statement, which seems like a throw away cliche of, “Don’t worry, Be happy” (especially since a lot of modern English translations say ‘it will be pleasing’ instead of ‘it will be helpful.’). But when you dig into this speech and this line, Aeneas is talking about traumatic events to people who have just lived (and are currently still going through it). There’s not really time to analyze and process their trauma, they have to push on and keep going. But at the same time, Aeneas is acknowledging their trauma and even that by surviving this moment and moving forward, they will unpack and process and *use* their memories as a remedy. For all his faults [see below] Aeneas in these moments seems worthy of his story.

45. Favorite Villain

Okay, I considered the Grand Witch from Roald Dahl’s “The Witches” and I considered almost every character from the “Ace of Shades” trilogy, as well as many others. A heavy favorite is Odysseus in the “Iliad”, which is a discussion about society for another day. However, I’m in a MOOD, so I’m coming back to:

Villain: Aeneas from “The Aeneid”

Listen, this dude goes from refugee to imperialist real quick. And while I get he’s still in hella trauma mode when he’s in Italy scrabbling to manifest his DESTINY (see what I did there?), he wrecks up the societal network and alliances of these native Italic groups. And honestly, in the last books of the Aeneid, I root for Camilla and Juturna and Turnus (and almost everyone Latin) a lot. Finally, if you’ve ever read the Aeneid the whole way through, just consider the very final ending of Book 12 and the whole work; when Aeneas straight up slaughters Turnus without remorse even though Turnus is begging for mercy. I’ll leave this final thought from @neil-gaiman to sum up my thought about how Aeneas can be the villain in his own story...

47. If you could visit any fictional place possible, where would you go?

Part of me wants to stick with the Aeneid kick and talk about the cave near Cumae through which the Sibyl leads Aeneas to the Underworld.

Part of me wants to say Tír na nÓg for its beauty, danger, and lore...

And part of me wants to feel out about Hyrule, especially as portrayed in Breath of the Wild...

Don’t make me pick! 🙈

[hazelsheartsworn]

Juniper 🍃

you’re either evil because I am suffering from this or you enjoy my mini myth soap box rants. I think it’s a little of both. And now, 😈

Let’s talk about Medea

This QUEEN hailed from the Kingdom of Colchis (around modern day Georgia) and like, tell me you don’t envy this: princess to the kingdom, granddaughter of the sun god (which includes dragon drawn chariot rights), owns a dragon as a pet (read that again), practices magic (you know she had that practical magic vibe with aunt Circe), and manages to girl boss her way into a world cruise and several timelines of Greek heroes? (Jason, Theseus) and then, you know, return home, kill her usurper uncle and reinstate her dad as king and/or escape and settle with ancient Iranians who honored her by taking her name (Medes)?

Like, she’s absolutely been done dirty by men retelling mythology.

Even the ancients couldn’t agree on her story and there’s just so many variations and I don’t care. She is a QUEEN for making it in Greek hero mythology [cue: James Brown’s “It’s A Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World] despite being surrounded by total chumps [cf. Jason, what a tool] And yes, I HATE how vilified she is [Seneca’s “Medea” 🙄] but she speaks RAGE and WRATH and POWER in myth [and the men are all just like 😳😅? ] when so many women aren’t even a name or just a victim in mythology. And every time she could be a victim she fights back and finds a way and she speaks back to power.

FOLLOW-UP:

And think about that rage. Do a quick wiki search about Tool!Jason™️ and Medea. When she SAVES Tool!Jason™️ over and over, and they get to Corinth with kids and Tool!Jason™️ is like, cool ima divorce you, marry the Corinth princess and peace.

And just, simmer in that nonsense for a minute.

Then go listen to Mumford and Sons’ “WHITE BLANK PAGE” and tell me those lyrics don’t give you Medea post Tool!Jason™️ betrayal vibes.

Anyway, if you made it this far, thank you for coming to my TedTalk. This was the short version. 😂😂

@slightlyrebelliouswriter23 , Jude’s “I’m going to keep on defying you” soliloquy gives me major Medea vibes

@figonas , I expect a response about the Mumford and Sons song

@lordoftermites and @koibens , Kaye’s ability to live with mortal and Faerie duality and to always find a way [the lie riddle is my absolute fave] gives me major Medea in a man’s world vibes

So, @laequiem , what say you? 😂

Y’all ask me something green!

[hazelsheartsworn]

@lordoftermites

[hazelsheartsworn]

@figonas

DRAGON

[hazelsheartsworn]

white historians will learn about the ancient greeks practicing human sacrifice and agamemnon sacrificing his own daughter iphigenia to please the gods in the iliad and go 'oh how tragic!' but still think the culture and people have value, and then hear about the aztecs engaging in the exact same thing and go 'those are savage cruel subhumans whose culture us foreign and mysterious and scary' and erase mesoamerican societies from human history/ entirely ignore them as though they have no value, like at least keep your supposed ethical stances consistent

[hazelsheartsworn]

This is my answer to that, “what would you do if you didn’t have to play capitalism to survive?” question. Add in some crafting of all sorts and I’d be set!

no, i don’t have a “dream job.” i want to spend my days reading and writing and lazing in the afternoon sun. i want to bake bread and brownies and apple crumble. i want to grow my own vegetables and plant a rainbow of flowers. i want to be with nature. i want to be at peace.

[hazelsheartsworn]

@figonas

[hazelsheartsworn]

@figonas

Your silent watcher stops to wait atop the cemetery gate.

[hazelsheartsworn]

@laequiem

Jerboa and Harvest Mice sketches I did in the night ♡

[hazelsheartsworn]

@figonas

Joanna Karpowicz  -  Anubis With A Weird Bike   (acrylic on canvas, 2017)

[hazelsheartsworn]

@figonas

cats tribute~  /ᐠ｡ꞈ｡ᐟ\

-

my shop

[hazelsheartsworn]

@figonas

[hazelsheartsworn]

This is the “authors are products of the culture in which they live” part of analysis and it’s crucial to examining a work thoughtfully

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it a thousand more times: No piece of dystopian fiction has ever been a prediction of the future. They are observations and criticisms of the present. 

[hazelsheartsworn]

@figonas @lizziebxnnet

Everyone may *think* they hate country music, but when Jolene, Before He Cheats, Take Me Home Country Roads, or Life is a Highway comes on, everyone is suddenly a liar.