King Of Birds And Beasts

Griffins are cool

[o-craven-canto]

Alternate timeline in which all Greek and Latin roots are swapped:

catastrophe -> contraverse cephalopod -> capitoped chlorophyll -> viridofolia democracy -> populimpery homicide -> anthropoctony homosexual -> equigamic kilometer -> millimensure interregnum -> mesarchy magnanimous -> megapsychic manuscript -> chirography motorcycle -> ergatorote microscope -> parvovisor oxygen -> acidofex polyamory -> multierasty television -> remotoscope universe -> monostrophe

[o-craven-canto]

amphibious -> ambivivent automobile -> ipsokinete autopsy -> ipsovision circumcision -> cyclotomy conspiracy -> synpnoea epilogue -> supraverb homosexual -> idemphilic [thanks to @dative-ciceroni-pizza2h] menstruation -> selenosis [looser] Mesopotamia -> Medioflumina pornography -> lupascript scissor -> schizotron [?] troglodyte -> cavernicole tyrannosaur -> dictatoreptile

(honorable mention: carnivore <-> sarcophage)

[cdgriff7]

Alright y’all I’m starting a series about my version of the Amazons with everything from their society and culture to military and important people! This information will be based off of mythology, comics, archaeology and my own world building! I hope yall enjoy!

[starweaverblog]

When Telemachus visits Sparta to ask for news about his father, Helen and Menelaus throw him a feast and start sharing old war stories. Helen goes first, talking about how she secretly helped Odysseus when he sneaked into Troy, claiming her heart was already back with Menelaus by then, attributing her original departure to Aphrodite's "madness". Menelaus smiling, agrees with her, but then immediately shares the Trojan Horse incident that almost got them killed, reminding everyone how she walked around the horse calling out to the hidden soldiers in the exact voices of their wives, almost ruining the whole plan until Athena pulled her away. It creates an awkward moment at the table, until Helen to quietly spike the wine with a forgetfulness drug (nepenthe) just to smooth things over and get everyone through the night.

So we see these characters in a marriage that isn't the hostile situation like some modern adaptations do, but has two people who experienced and told their side of the stories, how the events went, how they want to be perceived, sometimes putting their ego upfront as a mechanism of guilt, which makes it far more interesting than simply this black and white narrative of "bad Menelaus and victim Helen".

[sixofclovers]

hecate

[cdgriff7]

Is Hecate, Helios baby mama?

Ok I’ve been reading up about Circe and her siblings (Pasiphae and Aeetes? I don’t think I spelled that right) anyways I thought it was cool how they’re the children of Helios BUT at the same time all of them and their children (Medea) are these super cool powerful witches and then I read that their mama is an oceanid named Perse which made me immediately make me think of Hecate who’s dad is literally named Perses and Hecate has the epithet Perseis / persea because she is the daughter of Perses !!!

At the end of the day this was just a fun thought especially with the sun and moon imagery that would imply idk.

[kingoftheu]

One tragic aspect of the Odyssey that I've never really seen handled by any adaptation is the link between Odysseus' marriage and the Trojan War itself.

When Helen was of age to be married, all the Lords of Greece came to seek her hand. This was an issue for her stepfather the King of Sparta who could only pick one husband and then would have to deal with the far greater number of angry rejected suitors.

One suitor was Odysseus, then a younger man. He quickly ascertained that he had no chance of marrying Helen. Ithaca was too poor for him to even bring any proper gifts, let alone a dowry. But he did catch the eye of the King's niece, one Penelope.

Now Penelope was still a bit out of Odysseus' league, but not so much as Helen was. So he makes a deal with the King of Sparta. Support my bid to marry Penelope, and I'll give you a solution to this suitors problem. The King agrees, so Odysseus suggests all the suitors swear an oath to defend Helen's marriage from anyone who might strike against it. They all, including Odysseus, so swear, and Helen is married to Menelaus. The King proves as good as his word, and Penelope is wed to Odysseus.

Of course this means that Odysseus has now bound himself to fight for Helen and Menelaus. After an attempt to feign madness he is forced to fulfill his duty.

So his own plan, to marry Penelope and stop a hoard of ravenous suitors, ends with him forced to defend his own marriage from a hoard of ravenous suitors.

[cdgriff7]

I think Helen and Psyche are related either through psyches sisters or through Leda or some other way but due to their narrative similarities and description of being the most beautiful women in the world I conclude they have a possible family relationship.

[justvea18]

The popular kids

[cdgriff7]

Songs that make me think of Greek mythology couples

(there are only three cause those are the ones I thought of don’t judge)

1. Menelaus x Helen - “Video Games” - Lana del Rey

I really enjoyed the line “it’s you it’s you it’s all for you !” Which made me think of the Trojan war but also just Menelaus love in general that she is his center and his LOVE.

2. Paris x Helen - “Young and Beautiful” - Lana del Rey

The line “would you still love me if I’m no longer beautifuuuuuuul.” Made me think of their in my OPINION mostly physical relationship

3. Eros x Psyche - “All of Me” - John Legend

“ all your perfect imperfections,” in my head I kinda see Helen/Aphrodite and psyche somewhat as opposites where Helen and psyche are absolute perfection ideal beauty and undeniably divine but I picture Psyche as the culmination of mortal beauty imperfect and natural and deeply human where she is not perfect but undeniably beautiful!

[nardialrose]

As much as I appreciated Theseus getting some vindication as people ignored his heroism in the Theban war and helping Heracles and Antigone, I would rather have nuance Theseus than the Theseus "who does nothing wrong and I'm ignoring anti-Athenian propaganda".

Theseus was the embodiment of Classical Athens, he should inherited both the positive AND negative aspects as the city's hero.

Pick up a history book, come back, and tell me which figures Theseus was based on including the Athenian burial and Thebes event.

[nagi-kirima-style-cateran]

Let’s be real: Helen went to Troy with Paris because she had a similar mythological function to a Celtic sovereignty goddess and whichever husband was married to her was the rightful king. It’s the same thing as Guinevere.

[kexytimes]

New Athena design

[cdgriff7]

GINGER ATHENA 4 LIFE!!!!!!

[narcissa-black-supermacy]

i thought the “this is the face that launched a thousand ships, although now it would maybe be five-hundred.” line was just an internet joke but apparently that's a line Menelaus actually says in Nolan's Odyssey??

Not only that the language itself sounds straight out of a marvel forcibly funny haha moment, but Menelaus? The Menelaus who all thoughout human history, from Homer, to Sappho, to Euripides, to Virgil, to Shakespeare, to Brooke, to Barth; from Classical vases to Medieval poetry to Reinessance art, has been known as the man whose sword fell from his hands at the sight of his wife after 10 years apart?

"What joy for me to hold my wife" Menelaus?

"He flung the sword away, and kissed her feet" Menelaus?

"I believe all. I understand nothing. I love you" Menelaus?

"I have no fault to find; my wife, he daughter of Zeus and Leda, is mine again, she whom her brothers on their snow-white steeds, whilst torches blazed, made my happy bride, but gods removed her from my home." Menelaus?

The Menelaus who was picked out of the suitors by Helen herself? The Menelaus who couldn't kill a begging Trojan so his brother had to do it for him? The Menelaus who rescued Odysseus and got out Patroclus' body? The Menelaus who volounteered to fight Paris one on one so everybody could go home? Who kept expressing his guilt about himself being the cause of war through every assembly he spoke at in the Iliad? Who after 10 years away at Troy, took his wife through a 7-year long journey at sea back home, where he reinstated her as the queen of Sparta? Who wept like a child in front of Telemachus recalling the war and his brother and all the friends he lost and the only consolation being his wife' gentle hand on his?

You want me to believe that man scarred Helen's face and called her only worth half the ships because of it?

I'm actually physically sick just thinking about it.

[kexytimes]

what if

[cdgriff7]

FUN FACT! Gryps (Griffins) were sometimes considered the hounds of Zeus alongside harpies. But more often than not griffins are associated with the gods Apollo and nemesis where they would often pull their chariots!

[sushxisss]

"Menelaus was so mean in the Trojan War!” boy, if I welcome you into my house with complete hospitality, I feed you at my table and treat you like a brother. And when I have to leave for a FAMILY FUNERAL. You take advantage of my absence to LOOT MY ENTIRE HOUSE, You abduct MY WIFE while my NINE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER is standing right there. sure as hell I’d be pissed off too.

Menelaus is actually a better person than me, because he still tried to settle it with a peaceful diplomatic mission when he first got to Troy. If someone pulled that on me, the peaceful negotiation wouldn't even have been on the table tbh.

[blended-ice]

-> Paris, Hector, Cassandra

My favorite doomed by the narrative siblings