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working on a lil something for my Hermogenes!Luke/Mercury WIP. Maybe it'll come out of my drafts one day, after I finish my Perseia fic...
Modelled off the Homeric Hymn to Ares:
Loukas, rallier of men, unyielding, Saviour of Cities, ally of Themis, Elpiphoros, turner of the ploughshare, son of Hermes with the golden sword; hear me, you who turn away calamity from the cities of men! Illuminate the doubts that cloud my heart, that I might overcome them with courage and good reason. O blessed one, grant me the courage to pass on the fire within me, that it may flourish anew!
Some notes:
Saviour of Cities is a title shared by Athena and Ares, probably in reference to them saving cities from being sacked by imbuing warriors with strength.
rallier of men = Laossos, an epithet shared with Ares
ally of Themis is also used in the Homeric Hymn to Ares in reference to his status as a god of justice
Elpiphoros = he who carries hope
turner of the ploughshare - specifically referring to his aspect of renewal after destruction
son of Hermes = Hermogenes, I just didn't write it exactly because it didn't match the vibes. Pretend Homer wrote this literally and the translator just chose not to include it idk
"overcome them with courage and good reason" → included this for two major reasons:
1) ties into that destruction and renewal theme he's got going on,
2) unfortunately he's got to show his heritage from Hermes somehow, and Homer probably would not do this by bringing up his cunning schemes and brutality in battle. People generally do not like inviting bloodshed, which is probably why Ares's Homeric Hymn also does not reference his more brutal aspects.
Testing a few ideas for the hermogenes au with this snippet:
* Olethros - ruin (destruction required for and preceding renewal)
* ho Astēr Diattōn - the darting/shooting star
She blinked as the light grew unbearable, brilliant gold and blue crystallizing across her vision, shimmering as though the stars themselves had loosened from the heavens to descend and grace a mortal woman with their presence.
And as she looked upon him, perhaps they had.
Awe flooded her, braided tightly with fear. She knew his reputation, yet still she could not tear her gaze away from his heavenly form. The god wore the semblance of a young man, his skin translucent and luminous as polished marble, catching the faint firelight and reflecting it like moonshine on water. Golden waves framed a face almost too beautiful to look at, and his eyes, so vividly, mercilessly blue, seemed as though a single glance might be enough to unmake a mortal soul.
Ruin is as beautiful as the stories say, she thought distantly.
Before her stood Loukas Olethros, ho Astēr Diattōn, who had chosen to grant a mortal woman his presence.
“Conflict,” he said, his voice soft as a song carried on still air. “Combat. Devastation. Regeneration. Transformation.”
His gaze locked with hers.
“This,” he said gently, “is what I can do for you.”
I’ve been thinking about @tealvneu Hermogenes AU again (Hermogenes” meaning born of Hermes. In our worldbuilding session, Luke was born entirely from Hermes’ ichor in Trikrena). Also, miss you, teal!
The oneshot I wrote was centered on that idea: how Luke came to be, and how it establishes his and Hermes’ dynamic from the very beginning. I was actually pretty satisfied with it, still am, which is rare for me since I’m always looking back thinking, “ugh, I could’ve done this or that better.”
But lately, I’ve had some new thoughts.
We all know that Ares in pjo canon isn’t the best reflection of his mythic self. He’s not a saint, of course, but he’s also not the buffoonish caricature the books make him out to be. And yet, there’s something about Ares that I find fascinating when connected to Luke.
Luke’s fatal flaw is wrath - that’s well established. In this au, his rage, combined with the fact that he killed himself, would make him a volatile godling. I’ve always liked the idea that his death was a gamble on his part, a hope for reincarnation, a chance at a new family. He’s always been chasing that shadow: Hermes, his mother, Annabeth, Thalia…
One of the core ideas I’ve been playing with ever since I wrote it is: Luke would have to discover his own domains. He’s reborn, and while Hermes assumes he’ll be his mirror, Luke will never be Hermes. How could he be? To him, Hermes is a failure: the god who abandoned him and his mother, who knew his fate and did nothing to change it.
Maybe Luke is something entirely new, the only godling born without instinctive knowledge of what his divinity is tied to. Hermes, blind to his son’s agency, tries to shape him in his own image: gifting him roads, trickery, thievery. But none of it fits. Luke rejects them all.
Someone (RaspberrySwish, u have a big brain) once commented on my fic with an idea that’s haunted me ever since: the thought that Luke might have the power to steal the gods’ sacred items. I love that. It mirrors Hermes’ ability to cross any boundary, except even Hermes can’t cross every line. But Luke can.
Which brings Ares back into the picture. Luke was the face of rebellion, the host of Kronos, and now, in this rebirth - in ancient Greece - he’s still haunted by that shadow. (Also, I have thoughts about Kronos being the reason Luke has been yeeted to the past - cannibalizing the Titan’s divinity, anyone?)
War hums in his blood. He is not peaceful; he never could be. Every day, he fights his demons.
Luke hates the gods. He hates that he’s one of them.
He steals.
He desecrates.
He fights and fights and fights.
And Ares meets him in the thick of it, not as an enemy, but as an equal. Laughing, thrilled by the fire that he sees in Luke’s eyes, he says:
"Rage, godling. Sing of it. Let your wrath break the world.”
I dunno, I currently like the idea of Luke being one of Ares’ horsemen of the apocalypse, lol.
people can’t be immortal. so in order to be immortal you can’t be a person anymore. you have to be distilled. stripped of everything. till you come out the other side as an abstract concept.
This is purely a rant on my part, so I'm going to start with the disclaimer that I genuinely am all for people using artistic license and writing whatever they feel like, Writing based on vibes is how we get awesome fics with completely wild premises that are a glorious adventure from one end to the other.
But I am also someone who subscribes to a certain philosophy. It's attributed to Picasso, but probably wasn't said by him, which doesn't change my love it.
Learn the rules like a professional, so you can break them like an artist.
Which is why I want to have a lil rant about the PJO fandoms perpetuating claim that demigods can understand modern Greek because it's the same as how an English speaker can understand Shakespearian English with a little effort. I also regularly see the claim that Roman demigods can understand Italian.
The language of Ancient Greece and modern Greek are not mutually intelligible. At all. How do I know this? Hi, I’m diaskedasilexis and for my sins, I spent several years studying university level Koine Greek and Ecclesiastical Latin.
In Percy Jackson & the Olympians, RR makes it blatantly obvious he has no understanding of the languages of the ancient world. He also relies on other people to do the Greek and Latin translations and whoever he's using is 100% screwing with him. There is no way so many consistently terrible translations could exist otherwise. It starts with Anaklusmos, Greek gods and demigods shouting 'di immortals!' and then it just keeps getting worse.
But, RR does establish some basic rules.
Mainly that Greek demigods possess an innate understanding of 'Ancient Greek'.
Very early on in The Lightning Thief, we have Percy reading a 'few lines' of Homer.
Homer's works, the Iliad and The Odyssey, are written in what is now labelled and defined as Homeric Greek. Also called Epic Greek. It is a unique combination of several Archaic Greek dialects to create something that is both poetic and utterly beautiful to read aloud. It sounds incredible and is a piece of art in and of itself.
They are also written in the 8th C BCE, in a time when the main language of the area is what we now call Archaic Greek.
Going back to my own skill-set, I am trained in Koine Greek, the language that came after Archaic Greek. Koine means Common and Koine Greek was the common tongue and by the 3rd C BCE it had become the international language. It continued to be the international language right up until the 6th C CE. Romans who travelled outside Rome proper often learned Koine Greek as their second language.
English as a distinct language showed up somewhere around 5th-6th C CE, right when Koine Greek's popularity was tailing off.
To give you a breakdown of the length of time between languages:
Shakespearian English to Modern English used today: 420 years
Koine Greek to Modern Greek used today: 1426-2326 years
Homeric/Epic Greek to Modern Greek used today: 2776 years
Homeric/Epic Greek to Koine Greek: 500 years
Look at those numbers again.
The claim that an Archaic or Koine Greek speaker can speak Modern Greek relies on the language having minimal changes across 2800 years. In a little over 400 years, language has shifted enough that Shakespeare is a slog for most people. English didn't even exist 1700 years ago!
Yes, Koine Greek and Modern Greek do use an identical alphabet. Just like English and Vulgar Latin (the common tongue of Ancient Rome) also use the same alphabet.
That means nothing.
And that's not even getting started on the fact we lump 'Latin' under multiple categories and I keep meeting English speakers who claim that Latin and Italian are mutually intelligible.
There is a vast difference even between Latinitas (the speech of the good families aka Latin for Rich Ponces), Vulgar Latin (common tongue, the one with the best rude words and where the English word vulgarity comes from) and Ecclesiastical Latin (the language of the Church. It applies an Italian-esque pronunciation to Latinitas grammar and yes, it's as weird as it sounds).
I'm not what I would call fluent in Koine Greek or Ecclesiastical Latin. For all I have studied them at university, the focus was etymology not instinctive fluency, I can read both, and I can mentally translate them faster than most. I cannot speak either and constructing a sentence will still take me an hour or more. But I also struggle with English grammar, so the fact I can read them but not speak/write them isn't entirely surprising.
I am not an expert, and I am still super new to fanfics. I am not here to tell anyone what to do. But I do adore research and have an unending need to info dump on everyone else.
Next time you sit down to write a new awesome fanfic, if you're going to play with languages (and you totally should, it's awesome), take a minute to remember just how long ago Ancient Greece was, and if you want your characters speaking modern Greek, please, for the love of the gods, don't claim they do it because they can speak Archaic/Koine Greek. You have a glorious world filled with magic and a god of languages and communications. You have so many options.
Though, honestly, whatever you do, it still won't ever reach RR's interesting translations. From virtually every attempt to include any form of Archaic/Koine Greek up to the Latin form of the Prophecy of Seven which has the enemies of the state carrying decorative trinkets to the door of death. And there's Anaklusmos. Which... Never mind. Let's just say the translations are questionable as a whole and stick with calling the sword Riptide.
And I think that's it for my judgey pet peeves series. I am aware I'm the only one likely to be so bothered by this, and I would be a lot more okay with it if canon actually had decent translations, but instead the issue just keeps compounding.
Crack AU where the Kronides are unable to have kids, so the Roman deities are kidnapped to take their place. BP!Fate considers this to be all well and good because the Romans have the Olympians and they're the same, right?
Nope! The Romans are separate deities who unfortunately have to share a body with the Greeks in the modern day. In the past, they considered their Greek counterparts like cousins who they were frequently mistaken for, but due to modern misconceptions about how syncretism works, they were forced into one body. Said body sharing also lead to an extreme Greco-Roman feud, because who wouldn't be upset? This means that Mercury would literally rather die than continue to be called 'Hermes'. Someone get him out of there!!!
Apollo would probably be the sole Greek pulled along for the ride, but if we take Diana as a separate deity, then she would hate having to call him brother, especially since this Zeus is extremely delusional and dotes on both of them like they're toddlers. Apollo also wants to die, because not only does he have to cohabitate with the Romans, but he has to deal with his father treating him like a child.
Minerva has no mother to deal with because Zeus still ate Metis, but if we pretend he didn't just for drama, we could have her feel guilty for basically stealing Athena's mom, even though she really hates her.
For bonus points, we could have the BP!Olympians' mothers (Leto, Maia, etc.) be deranged about their 'children' coming back from the dead. Mercury has to spend an awkward few days in Cyllene while Maia believes him to be her dead son. Just because the mortals got confused about his heritage does not mean *he* is confused about his heritage. He manifested out of the Dii Lucrii, he's not Maia's son! And Leto. I feel that poor Leto just gets the raw end of the stick in BP!AUs since everyone knows Hera as her children's mother, so why not make it up to her and give her Diana (not her daughter) and Apollo (actually her son, but having to play house with a very angry Roman).
Demeter and Hera are no better. Since Liber Pater and Prosperina (Libera) are the children of Ceres (Demeter's Roman counterpart) BP!Demeter promptly goes insane over their 'miraculous' survival. For his part Mars would like to go back to Juno and Flora, they were much more rational than this crazy version of Hera, Venus, help him--
Actually, if we go by the Homeric backstory, Aphrodite is also a daughter of Zeus, so Venus could be stuck too. The delusional oceanid Dione who tried and failed to birth Zeus's child hovers like an annoying gnat, one which Venus unfortunately cannot get rid of. At least it lets her stay close to Veritas and Jupiter's other children.
Then there's Poseidon and Hades, who may be very jealous indeed that they have no kids of their own (because I can't find any that aren't Greek in my wikipedia and theoi.com crawl...)
Ice-cold terror climbed straight up Luke's spine.
Fuck, his mind informed him, entirely toneless. Fuck, fuck, fuck,. You were stupid, Luke Castellan. Very, very stupid.
Working on cof’s next chapter! If everything goes well, I might update it tomorrow. And yeah, annabeth being the older sister for once—and hating it, lol.
I am still busily tapping away on this.
Word count is at 106k.
That should mean the kids are off on the quest, right?
No.
They are just about to be sent by Chiron to go and talk to the Pythia.
*Blinks*
I am incapable of being concise it seems.
And if you thought Weirdest Prophet had a lot of world building... oh boy, this takes it a whole 'nother level.
I am having brilliant fun. I've somehow managed to take the concept of 'no adult demigods' and make it so much more morbid.
While adding in a heavy dose of feral Jason and Annabeth just to make everyone cry and laugh at the same time.
On the plus, with so much world building done before writing, I am learning so much and having so much fun! I still have no clue if anyone wants to read a story without Percy and Jason and Annabeth as the MC's, but I wanna write it. So. LOL.
Have a snippet with zero context:
“Why do you have knives made of different metals?”
Jason squints down at his pile and then raises his eyebrows in question.
Annabeth scowls. “Why are there… Let’s see. You’ve got steel, silver, bronze, and… I have no idea what this is.”
“Atlanteios elektron.”
One of the campers aging out of Cabin Eleven was a child of a nereid. They traded Jason a small Atlanteios elektron knife in return for a full set of Aigis Armour.
“How the hell did you—never mind. Why do you have knives of four different metals?”
Jason points to the different ones. “Bronze works on divine monsters and immortals, but not gods. Sacred silver is for werewolves. Steel is for mortals. Atlanteios elektron kills everything and can injure gods.”
Clarisse is boggling at him now. “I’m not touching the mortals thing. What the hell. But why does it sound like you got a knife specifically so you can stab a god?”
“I didn’t know I already had a weapon with that capability when I acquired the Atlanteios elektron.”
Annabeth asks extremely cautiously, “Jace, which weapon can stab a god?”
“I had Bryn compare the edge of Aggie with the Atlanteios elektron knife. The blade is tipped with the same metal.”
Annabeth’s voice rises to a squeak. “Mum gave us spears that work on gods?”
“Yes.”
Clarisse says conversationally, “You know, when I said I’d go on this quest with you, that was ‘cause I was the last to yell ‘not it’ when Chiron said Mark, Sherman and me had to name a Cabin Head. This was meant to be less responsibility. Not more.”
