#screw Herakles

[holy-mother-of-whumpers]

Favorite character from Greek mythology + favorite myth from Greek mythology?

That is a really hard question😂 like what's your favorite music THERE ARE SO MANY!!!

I like to obsess over forgotten minor characters like a true nerd (like Epipole, the Greek Mulan, Thersander, Diomedes fellow Epigone) but except for that, I'm basic.

It's Odysseus ok 😂 he has a lot of whump and a happy ending! All I could ask for.

Also Perseus, the non Ovid version in which Medusa was always a monster.

My favorite myth is Pandora, the interpretation in which Hope is one of the evils, or the worst of them, because it forces you to endure all others for no rational reason. Sometimes you gotta cut your losses, not hope it'll get better.

Plus it's so rad that she got created like this super woman, with all the gods gifting her something, and her job was to open a box?? She didn't even need higher cognitive abilities for that, legend.

I can tell you my least favorite may be Herakles, or Theseus, who looked up to him. I cannot avoid interpreting the 'divine madness' as an excuse for a mean temper and being too cuddled by the gods to suffer proper consequences for his actions. He killed his family and in exchange he became The Hero™️. Rip Megara and kids I suppose, fridged for character development.

I'd love to let a Herakles stan change my mind though.

My least favorite myth(s) are the modern retellings twisting the original's meaning and agency to make a cheap fake feminism point or an over-edgy tragedy in which everybody sucks.

I know people think Miller but I mean more Jennifer Saint, super dry narration, no positive character, the pointlessly saddest endings in the canon wtf

That was a lovely question! Thank you! 🥰🥰

I'd like to hear your opinions too if you feel like coming out!

[lucidloving]

Sing Shong, Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint // Black Box // R.M. Rilke, "The Guardian Angel" // George Seferis, "The Return of the Exile" (trans. Edmund Keeley) // Studio Dragon, Because This Is My First Life // John Banville, The Sea // Aeschylus, Agamemnon (trans. Herbert W. Smyth) // Anne Carson, "The Anthropology of Water" // Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life // @toupou39 on tw // Jennifer S. Cheng, "So We Must Meet Apart" // Madeline Miller, Circe // @chuunicalesimp // Richard Siken // Neil Gaiman // Richard Siken, "The Torn-Up Road" // Jamie Varon, "Does The Universe Fight For Souls To Be Together?" // Jennifer S. Cheng, "So We Must Meet Apart" // Sing Shong, UMI & Sleepy-C, Omniscient Reader (Webtoon) // Frank Bidart, "Guilty of Dust" // Lasah – Taixu // Ocean Vuong, Night Sky With Exit Wounds // see 1 // André De Shields & Hadestown Original Broadway Company – Road To Hell (Reprise) // @toiriot on tw // Unlike Pluto – We're Screwed // @moonbends // m.h // Euripides, Herakles (trans. Anne Carson) // Unlike Pluto – We're Screwed // Google search results // @toiriot on tw // see 1 // Chxrlotte – Come With Me // @roach-works // Lasah – Taixu // Sing Shong, UMI & Sleepy-C, Omniscient Reader (Webtoon) // Chxrlotte – Come With Me // Frank Bidart, "Guilty of Dust" // @dsssctd_ion on tw // Hans Christian Andersen, "The Snail and the Rosebush" // Will Stetson – Writing on the Wall // Michael Kinnucan, "The Gods Show Up" // Richard Siken, "Planet of Love" // Sufjan Stevens – Futile Devices // Warren Zevon – Keep Me in Your Heart // Katie Maria // @SION_428 on tw // see 1 // Pablo Neruda, 20 Love Sonnets and a Song of Despair // Mitski – My Love Mine All Mine // Vladimir Nabokov, Letters to Vera // Mahmoud Darwish, Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982 // Sing Shong, UMI & Sleepy-C, Omniscient Reader (Webtoon) // Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried (via @jomeimei421) // see 1 // @soracities // Black Box // see 1

[teecupangel]

I’m the Hercules Nonny- and originally I meant the Hercules from Disney and/or Percy Jackson (it was late and i forgot to actually think anything past Hercules and Ziio, sorry about not clarifying)

but now i’m also curious about the one from Odyssey (as I haven’t finished the game.) and a little bit curious about the other two mentioned as well.

i’m just really stuck on and enjoying the idea of Ziio facing off against a guy who goes down in legend as a hero- and probably creaming him.

So here’s the list of Herakles/Herculus I thought about when I read the first ask :)

Disney Version: He would definitely fall in love with Kaniehtí:io’s strength and she would consider him to be more of a greenhorn at first. If they’re gonna fall in love, it’s gonna start off as a puppy love from Hercules.

Percy Jackson Version: She’d kick his ass and he’d take personal offense on that fact and would demand a rematch… repeatedly. This is more on the side of one sided rivalry/that annoying guy to begrudging respect to something more setup.

AC Odyssey Herakles: (Well, he’s only in the Atlantis DLC XD) In this one, Kaniehtí:io ends up in the Underworld and tries to find a way out because she isn’t going to leave her child alone if she can do something about it. This ends with her beating the crap out of Herakles who was just looking for a good fight and remembering his own lost family when she explained why she wishes to return to the mortal world. From there, Herakles accompany her with the excuse of “you’ll face many strong opponents in your quests” but, really, he just wants to help.

Herculus as portrayed by the Rock: They’re gonna butt heads so many times people are going to assume they were married once and separated. Autolycus likes to call Kaniehtí:io ‘madam’ because of this just to screw with Hercules.

Hercules from the 90s TV show Hercules The Legendary Journeys: He’s such a nice guy that he offers to help Kaniehtí:io find a way back to her own world even though he’s not entirely sure how. His first thought is to ask help from the gods but then he remembers those gods and are like “we’ll find some other way”. This is gonna be a slowburn and they won’t even realize it. It’s Iolaus who realizes they’re slowly falling in love and tries to help XD

[zahri-melitor]

Wonder Woman by Messner-Loebs (#63-#100, #0)

Well. That was A Lot.

This is a difficult run to read, and not just because it backs up straight off George Perez’s iconic run. It’s a slog with writing that is painfully outdated and that will throw you out of the story if you’re not paying attention.

It’s very much a run in which I feel one of the biggest problems is that it’s written by a man who wants to believe that women have interiority and motivations, but is hopelessly out of touch with what actual real life women think and believe and act. Interesting concepts, poor execution. I have to believe he didn’t understand the sheer level of all the misogyny he portrayed characters as experiencing, and that he thought it was a good power fantasy to see those women overcoming that systemic and specific misogyny.

Let’s get into the good aspects.

Christopher Priest gets a two-part story (#88-89), which is used to bring Circe (in her traditional appearance) out to explain why Themyscira has been missing for the whole run so far and what happened. I quite enjoy Priest’s writing and this story had enough twists to it to be interesting, but also leaned into an aspect I love seeing pop up in Wonder Woman stories…the inevitability of fate and prophecy. Circe promises Diana that she will restore Themyscira…but Diana must sacrifice an innocent’s life. The story tangles with this well. Truly a lovely little tension release in the run, and shifted the story arc from the first 25 issues over to the last dozen.

Circe as the overarching big bad of the whole run is actually a good shout. Circe’s a manipulator, and having a run where she’s pulling the strings all over the place while also cosying up to Diana in disguise is quite fun.

On that vein…honestly I enjoyed all the ‘Donna Milton’ stuff, despite how much I was ragging it as I read it. Someone taking advantage of Diana’s trust in that way was a betrayal, but you can also see her affected by the role she took on. Also it was just really funny to offset Ares being so hamhanded about his incarnation in comparison. Plus, the existence of Lyta Milton is going to pay off into the future.

While I’m STILL going on about Circe: it’s fascinating to me that multiple of Diana’s female villains not only want to bang her but are compelled to be friends with her, even as they also run around being evil. Like it’s a lovely redemption arc for the 30 seconds it will be permanent.

I don’t hate the idea of The Contest, and it’s one of the better conceptualised stories across the whole run. The concept (has Diana lost her skill and her direction compared to the wishes of the Amazons? How does she compare to champions of Bana-Mighdall? What is the direction that the Amazons should be pursuing in Man’s World?) has a lot to chew on and Artemis as a character does a fair chunk of rehab to the concept behind Bana-Mighdall and moving it into a part of the mythology that writers can actually use, rather than being the racist stereotype Perez created. There are additional valid reasons for the Banas to feel betrayed, and Herakles screwed over both Amazon tribes (Unfortunately at the expense of Hippolyta’s characterisation, but she’s all over the place in this run). The execution however, didn’t measure up to the concepts.

Things I think didn’t work:

The run had three overarching arcs that I think can be approximately broken down into: the space pirate arc; Ares and ‘Donna Milton’ screw with Diana’s life; Artemis as Wonder Woman. They’re not really coherent with each other? Stuff that was happening in one arc just gets dropped and ignored to move onto the next arc.

I think Messner-Loebs had a vision of taking Diana down to see the gritty hardship and violence of women’s lives. Unfortunately, I don’t think that particularly worked as a run for Wonder Woman. It’s a book that at its best is imbued with hope and connections to mythology and epic plots, rather than street-level storylines. Diana running around worrying about paying her bills and working in a fast food restaurant and for a private investigator taking on cases like shaking down men for unpaid child support? I had Common People by Pulp running though my head the whole time. I do like Diana to be concerned with even small scale problems and outraged by institutional sexism. I don’t think this was the right approach to show it.

Then there was the way Messner-Loebs contrasted this with Artemis, by using Artemis as a foil to say “you can’t just go out and beat up institutional sexism and misogyny, the work is harder than punching people in the face and declaring that women should be strong!” Thank you, Messner-Loebs, we really needed that strawman created for Artemis as a character. Artemis and her plot once she leaves Themyscira is just a series of take that strawmen using some very 90s plot ideas (not helped by Deodato literally drawing the sort of Image Comics villains that it is railing against, and giving them stupid names). It’s a very, very blantantly obvious, Captain Planet sort of approach to ‘why are women treated differently to men’ and it needed a lot more subtlety and interrogation of the concepts involved.

Messner-Loebs is also struggling with the fact that he simply doesn’t have the language or conception to describe a lot of the feminist and queer themes he is playing around with. There are several storylines or offhand comments that, were they written today, would be explicit trans storylines or discussions of intersexuality and assigned gender, but in what we get, written in the early nineties? It’s stereotypes about what makes someone flamboyantly gay, or ‘secretly’ female.

Downsides of the run:-

Mike Deodato Jr’s art. It’s everything people rag on about 90s art. He’s not Rob Liefeld, but that’s almost worse, because as I’ve said previously, Liefeld basically only does Hawk & Dove work for DC (with an occasional foray into Deathstroke and ‘projects Jeph Loeb asked all his friends to contribute to’), while Deodato here is getting to draw DOZENS of women and particularly Amazons in that extremely Image House Style way. Not a lot of internal organs, a lot of wedgies. I suppose he was picked for the end arc in that his art style played with the messages Messner-Loebs was trying to convey (“stereotypes bad! Image Comics villains silly! Feminism involves hard work!”) but is let down by the fact that, yanno, all the characters are drawn in that style.

Messner-Loebs just forgetting what his plot involving Cheetah was. At the start of the run, he banished Barbara Minerva into a demon dimension. She then reappears right near the end of the run, with the extremely boring villain I have avoided mentioning this entire write up (sorry, Asquith Randolph is SO dull) having pulled her back and…sent her out to attack Diana? Caged her? Great work there Messner-Loebs, no notes.

Just so much blatant misogyny and violence against women, and the way Diana and Artemis were portrayed as fighting it was nowhere near sufficient catharsis for putting me through reading it.

Do I think you should read this run?

Hmm, it depends. It’s an interesting introduction to Artemis and is probably important context to know about her for any story going forwards. I can see how the Donna Milton stuff is going to pay off in the future when other people draw out the storyline built in here. The choice of classic villains in this run is actually solid. Dr Psycho’s appropriately horribly creepy, Circe’s turn is triumphant, Ares is causing problems, Cheetah is sympathetic but wrong in all the right ways. On the other hand, we start with the process of fridging the Kapatelis family, it’s just chock full of storylines that you stare at going ‘why is this HERE?’, it tends to pick up an idea, play with it and then drop it without pulling it back to develop a theme, it gets bogged down in feminist concepts that were outdated even for the early 90s, and it just felt unpleasant to read. This is some storytelling that desperately needed a woman in the room to consult and talk ideas over with, and as close as they got was the colourist.

[maaruin]

Story idea: Disney’s Heracles

Disney’s Hercules doesn’t have much to do with his story in mythology. That’s alright, but I have been thinking that with recent Disney movies often being about intra-family conflict that ends with reconciliation, why not try to adapt the mythos in that way. Here is how I imagine it:

Hera is the villain. Heracles* is the product of Zeus cheating on her. She can’t punish Zeus, so she takes it out on his lovers and their children. (Perhaps in this retelling Io could be the mother of Heracles instead of a more distant ancestor. She is the other famous case of Hera doing this.)

Heracles at one point gets together with Megara. Hera inflicts him with anger issues, which lead to outbursts against his wife. However, the part where he kills their children and in some version her is removed. She just breaks up with him. (I would probably just remove the children from the story.)

Herakles goes to the Oracle of Delphi and asks how he can win Megara back. The oracle tells him that to remove Hera’s curse, he has to do the 12 Labors. Turn the 12 Labors into an allegory for a person learning anger management. (I think with at least some of them you can built a progression: 1. is just “kill the Lion”, so his strength does the job. 2. is “kill the Hydra”, which requires more thinking. Then there are some tasks where he has to capture instead of kill. Later there are things like: Do this menial job. Convince that person to give you something. etc. I don’t know that much about how people learn anger management, but with enough creativity I think we could depict Heracles learning it through the course of those labors.)

At some point during the 12 Labors it Megara makes clear that she will not get back together with Heracles, even if he gets his anger under control. Herakles almost abandons his quest, but in the end decides to continue it.

Throughout all this, Heracles learns more and more that Zeus isn’t that great of a guy. Still, that doesn’t justify what Hera did, so he has his big moment where he calls her out. He tells her that what Zeus has done is no excuse for tormenting him (and his mother, if we make Io his mother).

There has to be reconciliation between Hera and Heracles in the end, and my idea for how that happens is: Like in the Gigantomachy, the giants attack Olympus to overthrow the gods. Herakles is prophecized to help the gods defeat the giants, but he says “Screw you Zeus, you are a horrible person. And screw you Hera, you tried to ruin my life.” And then we have Hera deciding to apologize to Heracles (and, if we do it with Io, stop tormenting his mother). Hera is the one who saves Olympus from Zeus perspective, because while the gods are loosing, she goes away and then comes back with Heracles in tow, who can defeat the giants. This could inspire Zeus to apologize to Hera as well.

The movie could end with a meet cute of Heracles and either Omphale or one of Heracles’ male lovers. I think Omphale works better: In the mythos she takes his club and lion fur and makes him do womanly work. In this movie she would do something like that in jest. This kind of thing would be set up earlier as something Heracles gets angry at, but now he has control of his anger and can laugh about it with her.

So, Disney, if you are reading this, hire me please. This would be a good movie.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*the Greek name Heracles fits much better for this story, because it means “glory to Hera”

[percabeth4life]

In Mark of Athena, when they were crossing those gate and met Heracles, why did Percy what to meet him? I thought Percy hated Heracles because he lied to Zoe. Context: Hercules, the most famous demigod of all time, and Percy didn’t get to meet him either. Okay, sure, from what Piper said afterward, Hercules was a jerk, but still...

As far as I'm concerned this is an example of Rick forgetting his own world building and writing.

I remember reading this scene too and being like "uh... He doesn't care at all about Herakles? He just wants to punch him?"

Percy more than anyone knows how much Herakles sucks, he's seen what happened to Zoë. But here Rick is all about making them competitors, him and Jason, and so of course he had to make Percy jealous that Jason got to do something, despite it making zero sense.

Now, we can always say Percy's memories are still faulty, or that he was thinking this in a "I didn't get to meet him and punch his stupid face in" kind of way.

But honestly Rick screwed up characterization so much in HOO that this is just one more thing on that list.

[anautisticaquarius]

vAfter a fun discussion with @ashallter on Steam, I now have a Fallout 4 mod concept: Fists Galore! (yes, the exclamation mark is part of the name.) The subititle? A Mod For Maximum Punchination.

The slogan? “For when you just don’t have enough ways to punch Raiders in the face.” Tired of using those metal Knuckles and your illegally-modified Boxing Gloves on only one hand? Use some common sense, slip on another one, and go ham! Need to reduce a Super Mutant’s skull to dust? Pull on Dual Power Fists and tear that big green galoot a structurally superfluous new behind! What’s more, you can also punch in different ways, including those that are certainly frowned upon by gentlemanly combatants! This is the post-apocalypse, after all! Rules are for bleeders! Stun your unsuspecting foe with a haymaker to the stomach, then take a page out of the really short clown from Killer Klownz from Outer Space and quite literally knock their block off with a mean uppercut! Looking to pay tribute to another video game? Call upon the power, flexibility, and ego of Johnny Cage, and do the splits with pizzazz as you deck your enemy right in the bollocks! Just be careful, as like when Mr. Cage himself does it, it’s worthless on foes who don’t have those twin dangly bits. But that’s not all! There’s also what would most likely be the main draw of this wonderful modification to your post-nuclear fallout experience: the addition of Power Fists from other games in the Fallout series, including the iconic, original BeatCo Big Frigger from the first two games! And where the Big Frigger goes, the almighty Mega Power Fist is not far behind! What’s more, you can get your hands on the 3rd game’s original pneumatic Power Fist, and if you can track down the poor sap who died carrying the blueprints, you can upgrade that sucker into your very own FSGv-118b Shocker glove, better simply known as The Shocker! Looking for something that punches a little faster? Not to worry, friend, because once you find the poor trader who tried to bring their wares from the Capital Wasteland to the Commonwealth, you can get yourself a Saturnite Power Fist! Find some thermite, and you can Superheat it! Still not enough for ya? Well, you’re in luck- the mod would ALSO add new Power Fist modifications! The only thing that says “buzz off” more than a hydraulic Power Fist to the face is one that strikes multiple times with a single swing! Upgrade that sucker enough and pump up your Strength and Agility far enough, and you could potentially do to a Super Mutant Behemoth what Iron Man did to the Hulk in Avengers: Age of Ultron- but far, far deadlier. Telling your foe to go to sleep over and over just got a whole new meaning. And who cares if it isn’t lore-friendly- we never planned for that in the first place! The Mega Power Fist from Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel is here, too!

We’d include the HERAKLES Power Fist from Van Buren as well, but sadly, that can’t possibly happen, seeing as we never got to find out what it would look like. oh, how I wish I could actually make this. Ah well, I’m sure the modding community would be happy to help! Edit: Oh, and it would also add a tire and a traffic cone as hats you could wear. Because screw it, it’s my mod concept, and I’ll add silly unrelated things to it if I want to.

[ask-hetaaca-denmark]

[ The camera is on. ]

[ It’s Mat, again. Who else would it be? He sits on his bed once more, giving an apologetic look to the camera. ]

“Sorry about running off like that! I had to get back to class, I was technically on break while the others were training. Then I got sidetracked by hanging out with the third year squad, we went to a show and out to dinner, then some other stuff happened.. I meant to be back sooner, but time got away from me!”

[ He laughs, before retrieving his phone from his back pocket. ]

“Now, where were we... Oh, this is a good one!”

[ In reference to Mat’s recovery from the initial explosion and hospitalisation. ]

“I’d have to thank Agda, and all the amazing nurses and doctors at our local hospitals for that! Many of them have really strong healing Quirks, and I don’t know if I would’ve pulled through at all without them!” [ He gently knocks his head with his fist. ] “According to Agda, my head was cracked open like a coconut before they got me stabilised. They didn’t think I would pull through, but I did! Even if my brain’s a bit scrambled as a result! It wasn’t just me, though, I have to give credit to these lille guys too!”

[ Mathias stands up, turning his back to the camera and lifting up his shirt, to reveal several crystals embedded in his lower back. ]

“For once I didn’t mind being stabbed by Aggie’s crystals!” [ He cackles. ] “But for those who don’t know, her Quirk is Healing Crystals! You’d have to ask her how it works exactly, but her crystals are able to heal really serious injuries depending on how many she uses, and how big they are!

I got a few stuck in my back during all of that.. and they hurt like a bitch, however they definitely saved my life, and the rest of my arm! I would’ve lost a lot more than I did, if I survived at all.”

[ He puts his shirt back down, returning to his mattress and grabbing his phone to check for more questions ]

“I think that’s enough of that.. how about something more light-hearted?”

[ Referencing a previous post of Mathias and Herakles, where Herakles had a ring on his finger. ]

[ Mathias grins at the ask, his facial features softening. ]

“I see someone’s been keeping up! I, uh.. yeah! I gave that to Hera about a month ago, give or take? It’s just a promise ring for now, but given his reaction.. I’m sure there’ll be no problems when I save up for an actual engagement ring.

Oh! Right, not everyone may have seen it. Hold on, I’ve got a photo on my phone, somewhere...”

[ He clicks his tongue as he searches, before exclaiming “AHA!” and attaching the photo. ] 

“Here! I took this on the way back from hospital, he was so overwhelmed by the ring that I ended up having to drive, since he couldn’t stop crying! It was great...

Not the part about him crying! That wasn’t great, I don’t like seeing him cry, but it was such a relief. He’s hard to read, even knowing him for so long, I didn’t know how he’d react! I’m glad it was mostly positive, HAH!”

[ Mat sways side to side, the biggest grin plastered on his face. ]

“I’ve got TONNES of photos and videos to share, but that can wait. As much as I’d love to gush over min elskede, I’ve got some more questions to answer!”

“Oooh!! This is an older question, but this actually lets me show off the redesign of my costume! The original was wrecked in the explosion, so I had to get a replacement, but with some modifications!”

“The visor was swapped out with a proper helmet and protective mask, but the design is pretty similar overall! AND! Inge designed a grappling hook that significantly improves my mobility and the efficiency of my Quirk! I can use it to pull in targets, since my Quirk is short-range, and when I use my Quirk on myself, it lets me navigate faster in the air!

The biggest flaw of my previous design is that the boosters only let me go forward, not up or down, or even turn. It made me an easy target, and now that my Quirk is screwed up, I’d be even more at risk without a way to move around! How Inge described it to me was that, if I had been able to move out of the way, I wouldn’t have gotten as hurt... so this should keep me from getting into as much trouble from now on!”

[ He rubs the back of his head with his hand. ]

“At least that’s the plan! Until I find a way to deal with my missing hand, I’m still at risk when I fight. But this is a step in the right direction!

I think that’s all though in terms of updates! Really, I’ve spent most of my time resting and catching up on schoolwork. But I’ll be sure to keep you guys caught up on what’s going on! I’m back in BUSINESS, bitch! Nothing’s gonna keep me down! Maybe literally, but the point still stands!”

[yearofthedreams]

No more spills and spits: how to repair the vape

Leaking, popping, coughing, spitting. Everything's part of vaping, right? It doesn't have to be like that. There are plenty of things you can do to mitigate these problems. If you are using a reconstructible atomizer, a standard steam tank or even a pod steam, this tip guarantees that the experience is seamless and extends to many products.

There is nothing worse than pouring all over your hands your finest e-juice. Recently, businesses have updated some of their new tanks to tackle leaks and other irritating problems such as hot pops and spitback. Regardless to the system you prefer, here's what you can do to repair it right now.

What leaks?

Leak occurs as the tank escapes the e-juice, usually by the airflow system. Depending on the cause behind it the leak will stretch from a few drops of e-liquid to emptying all of your tank's material in your vapour mod. Also, the most famous sub ohm tanks are a common issue. The best sellers in previous years have been worrying vapers with leaks due to implementation oversight or typical consumer mistakes, like the SMOK TFV8 Baby Beast, Uwell Courwn III, Sense Herakle and Aspire Cleito.

Although certain typical culprits are present, the good news is that there are ways to avoid leaks. First, we will start with some general tips and then go deeper, depending on your computer.

How to stop leakage

Check the seal – it sounds obvious, but make sure that your tank is correctly attached. Often, when you're in a rush, you can cross or fail to firmly screw the top cap on. This will result in a leak of juice from the openings. Make sure that the threads are synchronized and closely locked, but not too near. Find that cute place. Find that cute place. If the threads are intertwined, screw them gently together.

Remove the chimney e-juice – Both tanks have a central airflow tube extending from the body of the chimney to the drop point known as the chimney. In this funnel you will occasionally inadvertently get e-juice, which normally leads to gurgling and leakage. If this happens to you, rinse it out before vaping with a paper towel.

Hold the tank upright – Certain tanks have not been designed to handle for long periods of time. If you leave it overnight, e-liquid will begin to get through the airflow gaps. Try to keep the steam upright so you don't need it for longer periods of time. Don't get used to lying down your system all the time, or you're unavoidable leakage.

Check for O-rings that have been worn or destroyed – frequent source of leaks. Take off the tank, cut the O-rings and look closely at them. Check for wear and tear signs, O-ring split or absent. This might jeopardize the air seal of the tank. Fortunately, O-rings are inexpensive, just make sure you have the right style. Read details here at ΗΛΕΚΤΡΟΝΙΚΟ ΤΣΙΓΑΡΟ ΑΝΤΑΛΛΑΚΤΙΚΑ ΤΙΜΕΣ.

[misanthropicmegara]

The king’s face screwed up to push away Herakles’s admission, but he knew there was no denying it. “You can’t just demand any of that!”

“I... believe your son is well. I am always caring for him but the stress has made it difficult.”

The next morning, Megara was called into the throne room. The king had a smug look about him as he only knew about the damage done in checking for her child. He had been bragging to his councilors about how thoroughly the midwives had sought evidence of her pregnancy and was disappointed when she entered without visible pain in her movements. She greeted him, hiding her frantic search for Herakles.

Herakles had tucked himself against a pillar in one of the corners, “congratulations on your heir, your majesties” he said as evenly as he could to the king despite wanting to punch him squarely in the jaw.

“Perhaps it’s best to let the Queen rest for the day? She had quite an ordeal to confirm her pregnancy”

[takaraphoenix]

(Jalec fics anon) Oh, do you have no-tags when you're searching for Jalec fics? I think I really need to acquire the AO3 tag savior, there are way too many Malec fics with one-sided Jalec in the Jalec tag (which, okay, but this isn't what I want to read! I want to read hundreds of variations of Alec and Jace falling in love! Or screwing like rabbits. It's cool too.) Oh, by the way, do you favorite kinks for Jalec? Wings are great, but otherwise?

I have a couple on my AO3 savior, but what I hate about the savior is that it still displays that “something is not shown due to tag xyz”. And. With some tags, I have them blacklisted for a reason. Because just reading them makes me uncomfortable for the whole day. It’s the tags I have blacklisted on all my AO3 searches. That’s why I said “pre-faced” search. Because AO3 already has the option to filter out just by typing into the “Search within results” bar NOT “tag” and that is miiighty convenient, so I just make my list of no-nos there, filter and save that page to only click on that, instead of having to filter every search through the pairing tag. *shrugs*

And yes. The Magnus and Alec relationship-tag, just like the Clary and Jace one, are definite blacklists for me when searching for Jace and Alec. Because neither do I want to just read another rendition of canon’s one-sided love to see Alec ride into the darn sunset with Magnus, nor do I want to read fics where they cheat on their respective canon partners because cheats are the scum of the Earth and neither Alec and Jace would.

Favorite Jalec kinks, huh?

I don’t really see Alec as a dom character (thank the gods for Malace for those cravings), so my usual BDSM kinks are kinda out by default.

But Jace 100% has a praise kink and there is absolutely no way around that. This boy is thriving for validation so hard in canon already. *huffs*

Alec, tying Jace up. Only that this one’s a bit tricky because due to the Morning Star stunt, I see bondage as a trigger for Jace.

Office sex is definitely one thing I’d like to see more often for this ship. I mean. Damn does Alec now have a nice, large office with a nice, large desk. And Jace would look really nice, sprawled out on it. *wiggles eyebrows*

And ABO-verse. Though I approach that differently in this ship. When writing Malace, it’s a thing that all, Shadowhunters and Downworlders, are and then I prefer making Alec a beta. But when thinking for Jalec, I prefer to see it that it’s Shadowhunters exclusive and they are either alpha or omega, while they would refer to mundanes and Downworlders as betas for the lack of alpha/omega genes. So. alpha!Alec/omega!Jace. I really do love that, particularly because it eases off some of the Alec Angst; after all nothing is more natural than an alpha loving an omega - so the Clave can’t be bitches about that.

Also the “parabatai ought to be lovers” thing, that historically speaking really makes a fuck-load of sense. When two heroes fought side by side in ancient Greece, they  were more than just friends. Everyone likes to mention Achilles and Patroclus, but Theseus and Pirithous, Herakles and literally every dude he ever traveled and fought with. Like. All the heroes that scream “parabatai”, they were always also lovers. So, I dunno what the author was thinking when inventing her little parabatai thing but with a clause not to fuck, because that is what heroes who acted like parabatai did. So, I really appreciate fics that fix that “We need a reason not to have Jalec be canon so lemme come up with bullshit”-rule and just remove it.

[garp20-evie]

The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology : Based on H. J. Rose's Handbook of Greek Mythology

‘Although this is essentially a new book in its present form, I originally embarked on it with the intention of producing a revised version of H.J. Rose’s classic Handbook of Greek Mythology, and the final product remains indebted to that work in many respects, incorporating some material from it and following its general plan in parts, especially in the chapters on divine mythology.’ - Robin Hard.

For my search into a better understanding of Greek mythology, I learnt very quickly that the internet alone does not suffice. Providing opinions, interpretations, articles saying that information is wrong where others say it’s right...my head was left royally screwed.

But books? Way more reliable.

After searching through the LJMU library, I found this book, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology. After reading the Preface, I knew I could safely place my trust into its weathered pages. It focuses on Greek mythology rather than getting tangled with Roman sources, it keeps the names of deities, heroes and heroins in their original Greek form (makes reading the book SO much easier), and it references H. J. Rose's Handbook of Greek Mythology, 1928 (a rather reliable source if ya ask me).

This is a hefty book, and I do nOT have the time to be reading it from cover to cover. So I stuck to chapters that I thought were best suited to my main subject, astrology, reading chapters relating to the zodiac and its relevant God/story.

Zeus - Taurus. Zeus, is often represented in art and literature alike, as associated with the oak, a tree marked out as appropriate not only by its beauty and majesty and its long life, but also by two conspicuous facts, namely that it grew very widely in Ancient Greece and is struck very frequently by lightning (as the ancients noticed and modern forestry has proved statistically). Two important attributes of Zeus are the thunderbolt and aegis. Of the former it need only be said that before the true character of electrical phenomena came to be understood, the destructive power of lightning encouraged the thought that some heavy and pointed missile came down from the sky with the lightning-flash; and what could be more natural than to assume that it was the special weapon of the sky-god? In Greek art, Zeus’ thunderbolt was shown as a biconical object, often having conventionalised lightning-flashes attached, and sometimes wings also. Page 73

Castor and Polydeuces - Gemini pages 386,438,526-9

Hera - Cancer. ‘Although Hera was highly revered as a cultic deity, it was perhaps inevitable in view of Zeus’ countless infidelities that she should;d have been condemned to an undignified role in many of her myths, which frequently present her as a wronged and vindictive wife  who is constantly wrangling with her husband and persecuting his mistresses and their children.’ ‘Zeus boasted of his intentions to the other gods, telling them that Eileithuia, the goddess of childbirth, would bring a man to birth on that day who would be king over all who lived around him (i.e. in Argo), and would be born from the race of those who came from Zeus’ blood (i.e. from the Perseids, who were descended from Perseus, son of Zeus). By making this ill-advised declaration, he alerted Hera, who resented all her husband’s illegitimate children and immediately plotted to rob this one of his intended inheritance. Pages 138, 258-9

Zeus - Leo. ‘Herakles re-organised the Namean Games (which had been founded by Adrastos and the Seven) as a festival in honour of Zeus; it was claimed that he victors were awarded a crown of wild parsley because the hero had worn one at the above mentioned sacrifice to Zeus. A version of this tale was recounted by Callimachus, who is the earliest author who is know to have mentioned it. In astral mythology, Hera was said to have rewarded the lion by transferring it to the heavens to become the constellation of the Lion (Leo).’ Page 257

Demeter and her daughter Persephone - Virgo. Demeter and her daughter Persephone. Hades chose to marry Persephone, the only daughter of his sister Demeter, who was the goddess of corn and agriculture generally, and the patroness of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Since he stole Persephone from the upper world in secret from her mother, who was greatly distressed by her disappearance and was so determined to recover her, the ancient legend that tells of the abduction and its consequences is the main myth of Demeter as well as of Hades and the maiden herself. In the end, a compromise was imposed in which Persephone spent part of the year below with Hades and part in the upper world with her mother. Persephone was a goddess of twofold character accordingly, being at once the awesome queen of the dead and a goddess of the fertility of the earth and in conjunction with Demeter. Page 125

Dike - Libra. ‘The Horai or Seasons, another set of sister-goddesses.’ ‘Although they are sometimes known as the Hours, their name does not really mean hour in the English or Latin sense, but simply time or season, and they represent the seasons of the year.’ ‘They were more commonly imagined as being three in number (representing spring, summer and winter); and as well as being concerned with growth and fertility in connection with the turning year, they also acquired moral and social concerns goddesses who protected the good order that is essential for the flourishing of agriculture and prosperity in general. This is reflected in their names in the Theogony, which calls them Eunomia, Dike and Eirene, in other words, Good Oder, Justice and Peace.’ When looking at the zodiac symbol for Libra, you see scales, because of how Dike was famous for serving justice through retribution. Page 209

Gaia - Scorpio pages 23-4,28,31

Cheiron the centaur - Sagittarius pages, 54,55,73,149-150,152,259,271,299381,397,458,534

Pan - Capricorn pages 46,85,157,164,214-8,501

Ganymedes - Aquarius pages 118,275,472,522

Eros and Aphrodite - Pisces. ‘The one great goddess who remains to be considered is Aphrodite, who presided over sexual attraction and the pleasures of love (ta Aphrodisia) and all that is associated with them.’ ‘As the goddess of love, Aphrodite is regularly attended to by Eros, the personification of the amorous desire, who fulfils his purposes by inspiring love in gods and mortals alike.’ ‘Eros came to be imagined above all as a capricious and playful child-god; rather than being shown as a handsome young athlete, or as a young boy as in classical art, he was now generally shown as a pretty child, a little winged archer who was ever ready to work mischief on gods or mortals with his arrows. This is the form in which he has usually been imagined since the Renaissance, as innocuousCupid rather than the old Greek Eros. Page 194

Aries - 

Milky Way origin page 249-50

orian 47,109,115,166,192,518,520,561-4

astral mythology

THIS IS NOT FINISHED - I WILL EDIT THIS

[iliamo]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Hetalia: Axis Powers Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Greece/Japan (Hetalia), America/England (Hetalia), Denmark/Norway (Hetalia), Germany/North Italy (Hetalia) Characters: Japan (Hetalia), Greece (Hetalia), Turkey (Hetalia), America (Hetalia), England (Hetalia), Russia (Hetalia), Prussia (Hetalia), Germany (Hetalia), North Italy (Hetalia), Denmark (Hetalia), Norway (Hetalia) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, weird shit happens, Mind Screw-ish, Cats Summary:

Kiku Honda was in the middle of class when he heard the announcement.

Herakles Karpouzis, a sophomore, was found dead in his room earlier that morning.

Then, to Kiku's surprise, he finds Herakles talking to him in his bedroom's mirror as if he was still alive.

-----------------------------------------------

i wrote a thiiiing

[celtic-romulan]

Is it just me, or are adaptations of Ancient Egyptian myths and legends that are actually faithful to the source material or historically accurate really few and far between?

Maybe I just need to lower my standards...😩

[vindictiveolympianqueen-arch]

herateleia replied to your post “{ At some point, I need to explore the idea of the cunning, uses...”

Oh man, I can't wait to see what you write down!!! Like tbh the meta reasons for the roundabout way of Hera (and other gods) enacting her vengeance probably has to do with the fact that people were using gods to explain natural phenomena or w/e, so that's why we have so much of the hands-off approach. For something more hands-on though, there's always the myth of Lamia which is one of my favorites and is absolutely on par with your Hera's MO in my opinion.

{ Hmmm, that’s probably true. But, tbh, if the gods can dine with, screw, and fall in love with humans, why the hell can’t they punish them in the same fashion? But, I mean, even Lamia was creative, as was having Herakles be driven mad.

Where as, here I am writing Hera as ‘let’s straight up physically maim and torture them!’. IDK, part of it is definitely the fact that I lack that kind of creativity. >_> Like, honestly, who the fuck thinks ‘let’s make this chick’s baby ugly as punishment’ or ‘let’s send a fly to annoy the shit out of this one that my hubby’s trying to hide from me’? Like, lbr, that shit’s bonkers. }

[theathenianinspector]

Alexander the Great is one of those historical figures that got idealized…by everyone. Its fair to say that the real Alexander was not always a heroic, god-like, benevolent ruler; there were multiple instances where he was a shitty and egotistical person, yet that didn’t stop writers from excusing those incidents. After all, there were incentives for Alexander’s successors and their historians to affirm the king’s divine and good nature. Its almost like how people argue that God must be good and all powerful, almost like Alexander created a cult as his legacy which lasted longer than his empire.

  The beginnings of Alexander’s alleged divinity began when he visited the temple of Zeus Ammon at Siwa and was declared a son of Zeus. But even before, he claimed divine heritage: Herakles from his father Philip II and Achilles from his mother Olympias. There were even omens which heralded his birth:

  ‘As for the lineage of Alexander, on his father’s side he was a descendant of Heracles through Caranus, and on his mother’s side a descendant of Achilles through Neoptolemus; this is accepted without any question…Well, then, the night before that on which the marriage was consummated, the bride dreamed that there was a peal of thunder and that a thunder-bolt fell upon her womb, and that thereby much fire was kindled, which broke into flames that traveled all about, and then was extinguished.’  Plutarch, Alexander 2.1-2.

  He was apparently the descendant of the two greatest heroes of Greek mythology whose birth was ordained by a dream of a thunderbolt; a sign from Zeus, King of the Gods. Now there was nothing unusual about claiming heroic descent, the Spartan kings said that Herakles was their ancestor and the Athenian statesman Pericles charted his lineage from Nestor, a hero from the Trojan War. While this behavior is arrogant to an extent, it doesn’t necessarily show an explicit effort for worship. Although the divine omens were a bit much and probably an embellishment from Hellenistic historians to affirm Alexander’s relationship to the divine.

  What is more indicative of an effort to create a cult leader persona was his visit to Siwa. Generally, it was seen for kings as more civil to not deify themselves before their demises; Alexander clearly thought differently:

  ‘When Alexander had passed through the desert and was come to the place of the oracle, the prophet of Ammon gave him salutation from the god as from a father; whereupon Alexander asked him whether any of the murderers of his father had escaped him. To this the prophet answered by bidding him be guarded in his speech, since his was not a mortal father…regarding his own empire, he asked whether it was given to him to become lord and master of all mankind. The god gave answer that this was given to him, and that Philip was fully avenged.’  Plutarch, Alexander 27.3-4.

  ‘This is what most writers state regarding the oracular responses; but Alexander himself, in a letter to his mother, says that he received certain secret responses… And some say that the prophet, wishing to show his friendliness by addressing him with ‘O paidion,’ or O my son, in his foreign pronunciation ended the words with ‘s’ instead of ‘n,’ and said, ‘O paidios,’ and that Alexander was pleased at the slip in pronunciation, and a story became current that the god had addressed him with ‘O pai Dios,’ or O son of Zeus. We are told, also, that he listened to the teachings of Psammon the philosopher in Egypt, and accepted most readily this utterance of his, namely, that all mankind is under the kingship of God, since in every case that which gets the mastery and rules is divine. Still more philosophical, however, was his own opinion and utterance on this head, namely that although God was indeed a common father of all mankind.’  Plutarch, Alexander 27.1-6.

  ‘an elderly man, came to him and said, “Rejoice, son take this form of address as from the god also.” He replied, “I accept, father; for the future I shall be called thy son. But tell me if thou givest me the rule of the whole earth.”…the prophet cried that of a certainty the god had granted him his request,’  Diodorus Siculus 17.51.

      Successor coins depicting Alexander the Great as Zeus Ammon with ram horns (left) and Herakles with his lion skin (right).

Now we can say that this move at the oracle was a political one, since Egypt had been traditionally ruled by Pharaohs and they had been divine, thus Alexander wished to stabilize his rule and project his authority in a manner the natives could understand. Yet the oracle didn’t say that Alexander was entitled to just Egypt; they said he was to rule the world. That he was not just a Persian style King of Kings, not a Lord over Men like Agamemnon at Troy, but that he deserved to administer the earth like a benevolent god. This seems to me to not be just regional propaganda, but the mark of an egomaniac attempting to create a cult following. He did name several cities spread over Asia after himself, in that sense he was literally putting his name on the map multiple times. Plutarch and Diodorus got their information from Ptolemy I, Aristobulus and Nearchus, all members of his inner circle, one of which legitimized his regime in Egypt by claiming succession after Alexander.

Map of Alexander’s Empire – Note the many Alexandrias in the East.

And when Alexander conquered the Persian Empire, this behavior didn’t stop, and it apparently wasn’t limited to his treatment of his recently conquered subjects:

  ‘Nay,’ said Cleitus, ‘not even now do we enjoy impunity, since such are the rewards we get for our toils; and we pronounce those happy who are already dead and did not live to see us Macedonians thrashed with Median rods or begging Persians in order to get audience with our king.’ So spoke Cleitus in all boldness, and those about Alexander sprang up to confront him and reviled him,’ Plutarch, Alexander 51.1-2.

  ‘Anaxarchus commenced the discussion by saying that he considered Alexander much worthier of being deemed a god than either Dionysus or Heracles… He added that the Macedonians might with greater justice gratify their king with divine honors, for there was no doubt about this, that when he departed from men they would honor him as a god. How much more just then would it be to worship him while alive, than after his death, when it would be no advantage to him to be honored… But Callisthenes interposed and said: — “Ο Anaxarchus, I openly declare that there is no honor which Alexander is unworthy to receive, provided that it is consistent with his being human; but men have made distinctions between those honors which are due to men, and those due to gods,’  Arrian, Anabasis 10-11.

  The dispute in the court arose at the fact that Alexander was adopting Persian dress and customs. Normally this was an acceptable tactic to gain the trust of the local aristocracy, but Alexander took this further by making even his own Macedonian companions prostrate themselves before him. We could argue that this was an egalitarian move on his part: treating Asians and Europeans in the same manner; but this becomes less positive when he essentially relegates all men to bow before him like mortals to a god. Both Cleitus and Callisthenes opposed these developments in the court…and both were killed by Alexander. Its fair to say that it benefited members of the court to become ‘yes men’ and sycophants.

Alexander as a Pharaoh at Luxor.

He had quite the ruthless streak and he wasn’t afraid to use force to eliminate his political opponents who doubted or questioned his right to be worshiped. Philotas, a companion and general in his army was accused of conspiracy because of his disapproval against him adopting Asian customs and was executed. His father Parmenion (who was innocent) was killed as well to prevent his dissent. Cleitus was murdered when Alexander in a drunken rage plunged a spear into his gut and Callisthenes was paraded in chains and died of natural causes…or was he stretched on the rack and hung? The death of the philosopher Callisthenes is the one instance where all the sources agree that Alexander screwed up; probably since the victim was an academic who spoke out in protest, they didn’t want to encourage their royal patrons to off them as soon as they disagreed on something.

  What’s worse is that our sources somehow find ways of justifying Cleitus’ murder. They literally attempt to paint Alexander as the victim of this crime even though he was the one who stabbed the man with a spear. Funny how the Persians were tyrannical oppressors who limited freedom of speech, but Alexander can get away with impaling someone who disagreed with him in a drunken argument.

  ‘Knowest thou not, that Zeus has Justice and Law seated beside him, in order that everything that is done by the master of the world may be lawful and just?’  Plutarch, Alexander 52.4.

  ‘There are some who say that Anaxarchus the Sophist was summoned into Alexander’s presence to give him consolation…and said that he did not know that the wise men of old for this reason made Justice an assessor of Zeus, because whatever was done by him was justly done; and therefore also that which was done by the Great King ought to be deemed just, in the first place by the king himself, and then by the rest of men. They say that Alexander was then greatly consoled by these remarks.’  Arrian, Anabasis 9.

  I’m sure Alexander was comforted by these consolations, apparently being Zeus’ son has his perks: that everything you do is good and just by definition. Due to this, there were some tremendous bouts of mental gymnastics performed by historians of the period to justify the terrible things he did. Not only did they attempt to justify silencing political opposition, but they literally give credit to Alexander for being remorseful for what he did. As if that somehow removes the lance implanted in Cleitus’ gut. This abhorrent kind of rationalization is only possible if they genuinely believed or wished to accept that he was a benevolent god incapable of any wrongdoing. To them he was perfect, but Cleitus’ suffering was brought on by himself. Plutarch even goes as far as denying that Alexander was an alcoholic…despite him drunkenly murdering a man and burning down Persepolis during a party.

    Parmenion (left) a victim of Alexander’s despotism and Ptolemy I (right) a rival beneficiary of it and major historical source.

Because of the Macedonian propagandist filter, the Roman era sources detailing his life suffer the same hypocrisies and idolization. Going so far as condemning Alexander’s troops for refusing to march further into India and continue on for the edge of the world. Pretty easy for comfy writers to say that given that they weren’t the ones who had to march from Greece to India, suffering shortages, battles, ambushes and adverse weather conditions. What were men supposed to do, walk to China? Were they cowards for simply wanting to go home, to refuse Alexander’s vision of putting the entire world under his rule? They weren’t they ones benefiting from his empire if they followed their comrades in death, and many had already fallen to the Indian war elephants at the Hydaspes. Certain scholars have even suggested that one of the reasons why the army marched through the inhospitable Gedrosian desert on the way home, was as a punishment for mutiny from a resentful Alexander.

  The reason why Alexander can be seen as having become a cult leader-like figure was that people even after his death tried to justify and scape-goat others for his failures. We could say that his troops should have continued on the great journey for their glory, but how many of the names of the footmen do we still remember? What about those among aristocratic companion cavalry? We only remember Alexander because it was his glory, and that achievement was the undoing of all those anonymous casualties who died for his hubristic and maniacal lust for fame. He didn’t just assume the mantle of a god for political reasons, it is clear that he had an immense personal stake in his divinity and his expectation for his Macedonians to bow down as his mortal worshipers is evident enough.

Temple of Alexander in Egypt.

Once we understand that Alexander the Great is not someone we should admire as a human being, we can start to see that our sources and by extension ourselves have been looking upon him through a god’s more lenient ethical standard, being within the confines of his cult; somewhat like how the followers of the Old Testament justified the atrocities committed by God since by definition as the ultimate Good, everything done by God must be therefore good and just. Yet this justifies all sorts of authoritarian and tyrannical behavior on that account by mortals thinking themselves as gods. To be fair to Alexander…it worked really well for a long time.

  Dan Tang

The Athenian Inspector

    If you want to learn about Romans who came after the Macedonians, check out: https://romanimperium.wordpress.com/

The Cult of Alexander the Great Alexander the Great is one of those historical figures that got idealized...by everyone. Its fair to say that the real Alexander was not always a heroic, god-like, benevolent ruler; there were multiple instances where he was a shitty and egotistical person, yet that didn’t stop writers from excusing those incidents.