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how mythology revived my reading habit (and my trust issues)

after switching from prose to chronicles to manga to memoirs, i finally found that the hidden gem of classical poetry and myths was what was missing to get me back to reading.

i’ve always enjoyed reading. the problem is, i drifted away from modern prose because it stopped giving me room to think & engage on anything merely close to critical thinking.

not that i'm an intellectual - far from it - but i still kept trying new things. sure, figuring out a character’s motivations can be fun, but why bother if the book is going to reveal them all on the very next page? and why should i invest more time when i can already tell where things are going after the first few chapters? why can’t i get rid of the feeling that i’m being lectured, just because i recognize character types too quickly and they start feeling predictable? i acknowledge the pettiness, and that is why these are truths i don't like to admit.

but greek mythology opened a door i didn’t know i needed. now it’s not just about understanding the characters - it’s about doubting everything i read while trying to build a solid image of what the gods actually are. with ancient sources constantly contradicting each other, i’ll often choose the version of a myth i find most convincing and carry it forward into the next stories.

until another myth completely destroys my plan.

because sometimes the version i adopted earlier clashes with a later myth that only has one version. and if i'm trying to build a consistent timeline, i have to do at least one of the following:

replace the earlier version,

accept the at least one myth is "false", essentially invalidating some part of history (or story), or

accept that both are true, and the gods are just too big for a mortal brain to organize to something coherent.

and sometimes it turns to a paradox i can't get to any conclusion whatsoever. like athena and hephaestus.

the birth of athena: she springs from zeus' head, and hephaestus was the one who forges a tool for hermes to open the cut.

the birth of hephaestus: hera, spouse of zeus, was mad that zeus gave birth to athena by himself and in such an unique way. thus, she decided to give birth to hephaestus by herself as a retaliation to her husband. basically sending a message to zeus that she didn't need him for anything.

however, if athena isn't born, then hera never has a reason to give birth to hephaestus. but if hephaestus isn't born, nobody forges the tool to open zeus' head, meaning athena is enver born. so the loop closes and suddenly no one is born never (?)

these paradoxes keep me engaged while trying to make sense of anything that has to to with greek mythology. i read myths separately and try to find connections between them, points in common and of controversy.

and then there are the authors.

i just started my journey as a mythology classicist by reading homer's the odyssey, only to find out in the preface that:

homer himself may have never existed

the author of the odyssey and the iliad are most likely not the same person, and

homer is probably multiple people, and there is enough evidence backing up all the above claims.

breaking down the poetry, i often find myself amused of the amount of laughter i have while reading the analyst's (or author's) notes along with the verses. there’s something unbeatable about reading a character declare, with full epic seriousness:

"Listen carefully, because I will tell you the truth and only the truth right now."

then the author’s notes go: "everything said from this point on is absolutely the most made up thing ever out of the history of the most made up things ever." in conclusion, athena is a good liar (and also a great babysitter). or something like:

"Now pay attention, because I will precisely answer your question."

then the analyst's notes saying: "in the next 200-verse monologue, he never answers the question."

so what was going on in homer’s mind? or were the greeks just not very direct? should i take this as a pattern and stop expecting characters to actually deliver whatever they promise?

not being able to answer these questions makes me want to keep reading and learning more. and thanks to gelos, while laughing.

#blitzar #greek mythology #ancient greek mythology #homer #theoi

i wish the obvious didn’t need saying

graduated in foreign trade, i therefore studied a great deal about international relations.

in the early hours of january 3, 2026, nicolás maduro and his wife were kidnapped by donald trump.

i won’t comment on how my current neighbor, trump, has been playing with other countries’ sovereignty. repeatedly.

just to make things clear: nicolás = bad. dictatorship = bad. far right = bad. trump = bad.

i can repudiate the venezuelan dictatorship and the american invasion at the same time. lastly, i’m not writing this with the intention to determine if this action will do more good than bad or the opposite – the world is nuanced, and i acknowledge my ignorance on the topic.

what steals my attention at the moment is the internal repercussion this action by trump has on brazilian domestic politics.

trump did bolsonaristas a favor: he handed them a full plate to arm themselves and fuel that typical brazilian far-right mentality in which they see themselves as equal to trump. since they share the same worldview, they assume they are the same, just as important as trump and, obviously, that trump gives them the same level of importance.

to them? no. to us.

it is extremely difficult to explain to the brazilian far right that americans see latin americans as walking trash, regardless of political views.

amid the discussion about what happened overnight, i wish i were worrying about something else.

when i open my twitter and come across a post by nikolas ferreira, a bolsonarist congressman, and see an edit portraying lula being taken away by u.s. military forces as a sort of plea to the american government, i can’t escape the problem of not try bring up the obvious.

“what kind of patriot wishes for other countries to interfere in their own domestic politics according to what they believe? based on their laws, on what benefits them?”

beyond being ammunition for bolsonaristas to loudly agree among themselves, this kind of tweet is deeply disturbing to people like me, who are concerned with understanding how the country as a whole reacts to an act of extreme repugnance.

as a result, i get pulled into a smokescreen created by a pathetic tweet from a shitty little congressman, when what i actually want is to reflect on what this event could mean for brazil’s internal politics.

it’s a smokescreen so shocking, so aggressive and destructive that you can’t see anything beyond the damage it causes. you’re blinded by the shock and unable to reflect past it.

how do you argue against the indefensible, specially when the messenger is someone in power? how do you build arguments when you first have to worry about stating the obvious? how do you think deeply when you’re busy trying not to be dragged along by these narratives? how do i discuss if we don’t even agree that we deserve to be independent?

what can i say beyond the obvious?

a large part of north america sees latin americans as walking trash. we are filth and we are not comparable to the so-called paradise that is the united states, and we never will be. we are filth and our lives do not matter. we are filth and we are primitive. we are filth and we are shit.

maybe the day the brazilian right gets a hard, well-deserved kick from the united states, they’ll finally see the obvious. sadly, that day, the rest of the brazilian population will suffer and grieve as well.

#blitzar

orpheus, heraclitus, and laozi

stories of entertained minds tend to be quieter and calmer, and i speak from personal experience. recently, i haven't been feeling much entertained.

with each passing day, i gradually feel how my philosophical ignorance interferes with my daily life; at the end of the day, that whole idea of “i only know that i know nothing” sounds a bit despairing to me (even though it was never said like that).

i've been walking around with this almost insatiable hunger to make things make sense, but with little time to study. it has been lonely, but i decided to take this moment as the most recent opportunity to learn about myself.

recently, i came across the taoist philosophy of laozi, which, despite coming from ancient china, connects deeply with what heraclitus (the greek philosopher) had to say.

beyond that, i find it amusing how diogenes, the cynic, agrees more than he disagrees with laozi - i love you, diogenes. what intrigues me most, however, is how the taoist thought presents an almost practical solution to the myth of orpheus going to the underworld. in effect, this myth is much more current than it seems.

orpheus, faced with uncertainty, panics and loses what matters most to him - the presence of his beloved. instead of focusing on his goal and "moving according to the flow of water", he lets the anxiety of uncertainty take control. by trying to resist the current, he loses his dear wife and suffers not only for the rest of his life, but also beyond death.

laozi and heraclitus and diogenes make me want to become an orpheus in an alternative myth, where, in the face of the despair of uncertainty, i can observe and perceive the flow of water, surfing upon it.