Ἑκάτη Φωσφόρος @hekateoftorches - Tumblr Blog

ode-on-a-grecian-butt

Clytemnestra and Helen dancing through the mythos

art by @flaroh

#oh yessssssss yes

marysmirages

Iphigenia in Tauris (2022)

#her

adriles

you’re going to doom me to die violently? you’re going to derive purpose from my death?

#:)

hekateoftorches

My blog is finally purged of my fandom history except for my liveblog of Beyblade season 1 in 2013 which I cannot bring myself to delete

hekateoftorches

I want to purge my account of my likes so I can fix my algorithm but it’s more than 8000 posts and I have a real job now

My blog is finally purged of my fandom history except for my liveblog of Beyblade season 1 in 2013 which I cannot bring myself to delete

orpheuslament

patiently waiting until homer gets tired of listing names of people & ships so we can go back to the horrors of war or whatever

#yeaaaaaa #ancient greece #homer

nobrashfestivity

Koizumi Kishio

Year-end Fair at Asakusa (Asakusa, Tori no ichi) October 1932

#ukiyoe #year end fair at akasuka #koizumi kishio #art

lombardoink

Quote from Dan Sheehan

I’ve unfollowed everyone now how do I get everyone to unfollow me back

anthonyvolpe-deactivated2023081

that medieval peasant you’re trying to kill with hyper-pop is gonna make you clean and butcher a chicken and you’re gonna throw up.

#medieval #shitpost

I will be rebranding into an archaeology/history stan account, deleting all my posts and any trace of my identity from this website and unfollowing everyone. Thank you!

secretlesbians

Wu Zao (or Wu Tsao) is considered one of the great female poets of China, and one of the greatest lesbian poets of all time. Very little of her work has been translated into English, but the most beautiful translations are the handful by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung (the above being the best of the bunch, IMO).

Born in 1799, Wu Zao was the child of a merchant, and married to a merchant (in an arranged marriage, naturally). Both relationships are believed to have been unhappy. There were no literati in either family, and no one knows how she learned to read, write, play music and paint, since women of the merchant class were rarely taught these skills. A common dictum in the era was “A woman without talent is a virtuous one.” She basically said, “Fuck that noise,” and became a productive and talented poet, playwright and composer; one of the few female writers of the period. She used her writing to express her longing to break away from a traditional view of women’s roles, including an opera about a woman who cross-dresses and paints her own self-portrait, while lamenting her inability to use her talents because she is a woman and the gender roles of the era are stupid.

Her work was highly praised by poets and scholars, and her songs were sung all over China. She hobnobbed with other great artists of the age, both male and female. In her middle years she retreated from the world and became a Taoist priestess. (Or a Buddhist one, depending on who you ask). She died in 1863.

It’s clear from her poetry that she had sexual and romantic relationships with women, but apart from the short biography by Rexroth and Chung in their book Women Poets of China, it’s impossible to find a biography in English that does more than hint at her lesbianism. According to them, she had many female friends and lovers during her life, and wrote erotic poems to several courtesans, including this one. After reading it, I like to imagine her and Ch'ing Lin hanging out in her bedroom, painting each each other’s eyebrows and making out, like some kind of 19th century Chinese version of a sexy high school sleepover.

[Translation from Women Poets of China by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung; biographical information primarily from Women Poets of China, The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry and The Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women].

biandlesbianliterature

[image description: page with the poem “For the Courtesan Ch’ing Lin” from Women Poets of China by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung

FOR THE COURTESAN CH'ING LIN To the tune “The Love of the Immortals”

On your slender body Your jade and coral girdle ornaments chime Like those of a celestial companion Come from the Green Jade City of Heaven. One smile from you when we meet, And I become speechless and forget every word. For too long you have gathered flowers, And leaned against the bamboos, Your green sleeves growing cold In your deserted valley; I can visualize you all alone A girl harboring her cryptic thoughts. You glow like a perfumed lamp In the gathering shadows. We play wine games And recite each other poems. Then you sing “Remembering South of the River” With its heart-breaking verses. We both are talents who paint our eyebrows. Unconventional as I am, I want to possess the promised heart of a beautiful woman like you. It is spring. Vast mists cover the Five Lakes. My dear, let me buy you a red painted boat And carry you away. WU TSAO]

#history tag

thoodleoo

hot history take: all history books are just cringe compilations about people who died hundreds of years ago

mecasloth

The Picture under Caesar dying on the Senate floor:

#text

elcctra

BADASS WOMEN OF THE ANCIENT WORLD: HYPATIA OF ALEXANDRIA (CA 360 - 415 AD)

Daughter of the mathematician Theon, Hypatia was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher. She was educated in Athens but is more famously linked to the city of Alexandria, in Egypt, where she was born. It was in Alexandria that she taught, becoming the head of the Neoplatonist School of the city, and it was there that she met her tragic end.

From a young age Hypatia was encouraged by her father to work on both body and mind. She was sent to Athens, where she studied the works of the great philosophers of the city, later returning to Alexandria to teach and eventually become the head of the city’s Neoplatonist School.

Never marrying, Hypatia was able to dedicate all her time and energy to the study of philosophy, mathematics, literature, oratory and astronomy. She was also an inventor.

Hypatia lived in a time of change: during her lifetime the Roman empire was in obvious decline, at the same time that the Christian faith saw a unparalleled rise in its power and popularity. It was in this context that the philosopher became involved in a feud between Orestes, the prefect of Alexandria and Hypatia’s personal friend, and Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria.

The tensions in Alexandria increasingly rose. Cyril was against Hypatia, her free thinking and her support of Orestes, and started to spread rumors about her. Hypatia was called a witch, a worshipper of Satan and was blamed for the situation with Orestes. In 415 she ultimately became the target of Christian anger and was murdered by an angry mob.

Her death, an extremely violent one, became a symbol, and Hypatia’s place in history would be the one of a martyr. One of the greatest minds of her time, victim of religious fanaticism and political disputes.

#history tag