Hello internet user whose entire concept of feminism comes from tiktok. In front of you are three ancient myths about women. You have five minutes to figure out which one of them was made up in the 1970s. If you choose wrong, you will be ripped to pieces by Maenads.
Okay since everyone wants the test, instead of giving you three myths here’s several myths. One of them is a real Greek myth with sources of it from ancient times and the rest of them are fake. One of the misconceptions was specifically invented in the 70s.
1. In every version of the myth, Medusa is born a human and Athena turns her into a monster
2. Hestia, goddess of the hearth and family, willingly gave up her place as the 12th Olympian to make room for Dionysus
3. Persephone chose Hades and wandered into the underworld of her own free will
4. Pandora didn’t know what was in her jar and unleashed evils on humanity by accident
5. During the voyage of the Argonauts the huntress Atalanta beat the hero Peleus the father of Achilles in a wrestling match
6. King Midas of Phrygia decided to give up his golden touch after turning his daughter to gold
7. Aphrodite was widely worshipped as a war goddess in Greece
Hiding the answers under a cut in case you wanna guess on your own.
#5 is the real one. You can find a reference to Atalanta wrestling Peleus at funeral games while on the journey of the Argo in The Library by Pseudo-Apollodorus.
This is an artistic depiction of the event from a piece of pottery currently being held in Staatlishe Museum Berlin.
The one invented in the 1970s was the one about Persephone going down to the underworld herself. This was invented by Charlene Spretnak in her book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece and is often spread falsely as a real myth without crediting her.
Ovid invented the version where Medusa was originally a woman and Ovid hated most of the gods on principle. Also, he was Roman. The earliest versions of gorgon myths depict her and her sisters as being born as monsters.
There's no reference in ancient mythology to Hestia giving up her spot. In some regions she was one of the 12 Olympians, and in others Dionysus was on the list instead. The idea that she stepped down was invented by modern writers who like to have coherent logic in their stories.
Explained above. A bit of creative writing.
Pandora according to Hesiod was the first woman and perfectly aware of what was in her jar. She was created as part of the punishment for mankind. Human women didn't exist before Pandora according to Hesiod. But because Hesiod was misogynistic even by ancient Greek standards, writers and artists after the ancient Greek religion died out re-characterized her as stupid and curious rather than evil.
5. As explained above, real.
6. This version was invented by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the original myth, Midas just got hungry. No Daughter involved.
7. Aphrodite was worshiped as a war goddess mostly in Sparta and sort of Rome as Venus. Most Greeks weren't comfortable culturally with the idea of a goddess of love also being a goddess of war so in most of Greece she was just a goddess of love.
Guys this post isn't about neo-pagans and a lot of you are reading this as me hating new retellings or something. I have nothing against any of these stories. I just get frustrated when people "well actually" me about the "original" version of a myth when they have no sources for what they're saying. These stories not being exactly the way you thought they were doesn't have to mean anything. It's fine.
In general: never trust a claim about a myth's real or original form/interpretation. With stories 2000 years old, or older, which were largely transmitted orally, there will always be countless versions specific to both places and times. Stories evolve! The ones for which we have attested written sources represent barely a fraction of the ones which actually existed and the commentaries written on them!
There is no secret true version of a myth. All we can do is analyze the versions of the myths we have according to their context.
i never understood what made steampunk punk. romanticizing georgian era england and industrial revolutions are some of the least punk things ever. youre putting gears on a top hat
i genuinely believe that you can directly blame steampunk directly cribbing from cyberpunk for the fact that solarpunk is an aesthetic and not an ideology. the roots of considering a civilization for its trappings and appearance rather than what it does goes back to that. cyberpunk was punk* because of the stories it told** not because of its aesthetics***
*extremely debatable depending on which punk you ask.
**objectively debatable depending on the game and system
***cyberpunk as a modern franchise not a genre is absolutely a prioritization of aesthetics over punk ideology. you cannot be punk if youre a fuckin franchise of a corporation idk i feel like this should be obvious
Hi hello, Steampunk here: the 19th century was punk as fuck actually, and the active steampunk scene in 2005-2010 was very much aware of and into it. You're citing the Spirit Halloween version.
Way back in November 2013 I made a post about the aestheticization of the subculture that STILL stands:
Steampunk: VICTORIAN LONDON VICTORIAN LONDON TOP HATS CORSETS ARISTOCRACY GLORIOUS BRITISH EMPIRE AIRSHIP PIRATES RAY GUNS APOCALYPSE APOCALYPSE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!
Me: …Industrialization, colonialism, imperialism, exploitation of the working class and oppression of POC culminating in violent socialist revolution because fuck yeah the working class and don’t you dare forget it?
Steampunk: ::crickets::
[Steampunk]: THE GREAT GAME COGS GEARS VAMPIRES BUSTLES EXOSKELETON GOGGLES ANGLOPHILIA SUPER CREEPY OBSESSION WITH ORIENTALISM INCLUDING CLOCKWORK GEISHAS MANOR HOUSES TEA!
Me: ::sigh::
^ you are doing exactly this.
The punk ethos is primarily made up of beliefs such as non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, a do-it-yourself ethic, anti-consumerist, anti-corporate greed, direct action, and not "selling out". That is what 'punk' means, in terms of subculture.
When steampunk arose as a subculture, out of Goth mind you, it was entirely a DIY and small business scene.
What steampunk music, fiction, craft groups, or meetups have you been to? Steampunk is, like cyberpunk, about the stories it told/is telling. Often stories of revolution (often violent), the overthrowing of governments and toppling of monarchies, civil rights movements (emancipation from chattel slavery! Indian wars! Rising against colonial powers!), the dawn of first wave feminism and women's suffrage, the original source of communist and socialist thought, workers' rights movements, the fucking enlightenment...
What is more punk than The Communist Manifesto(1848)
What is more punk than The Battle of Greasy Grass(1876)
Who's a more OG Punk than John Brown?
Steampunk literally music and fiction set in and about the Age of Revolution.
Judging Steampunk as a subculture by the part that was heavily commercialized is like judging all of Goth and a subculture by Hot Topic (which is not punk rock).
Go read China Mieville's Bas Lag cycle.
Go read Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Go read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Go read Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (crossover with dieselpunk and biopunk!)
Go read Steeplejack by AJ Hartley
Go listen to some The Cog is Dead and some Abney Park and some Rasputina and some Steam Powered Giraffe and, hey, let me link Painless Parker one more time. You will note that that recording is from Occupy Wallstreet.
Also keep in mind that labor/union songs are wildly popular steampunk standards; you will hear Solidarity Forever and other songs from The Little Red Songbook at steampunk song circles. You will hear marching band and orchestral covers of The Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen and The Clash's London Calling. You'll hear songs from Chumbawumba's album English Rebel Songs 1381-1984.
I'm gonna linkspam a bunch of my older writings on this:
#50 Overcoming the Noble Savage & the Sexy Squaw: Native Steampunk–Guest Blog by Monique Poirier
#98 Musing about Native Steampunk-Guest blog by Monique Poirier
Some of you already know Monique Poirier, either from her Beyond Victoriana essay , or from Tumblr , or you know her from cons and stuff. S
Other steampunks of my followers, please reblog with more recommendations about Steampunk stuff that's actually PUNK.
@sapphoandvanzetti , would love to hear you chime in.
Well shit yknow what I retract my statements because I had no idea about any of this! And the fact that the Spirit Halloween version was the only one I'd heard about is actually insulting with how cool a lot of this stuff sounds! Thank you for spending the time to drop all this, it's really appreciated!
All of that is VERY true, especially re: steampunk literature, and I also think that, as originally practiced, steampunk was a reaction against its OWN time and place, and the ethos thereof
the early 00s were a time of rampant consumerism- with less critical thought behind it than we have now, though things aren't necessarily better in general on that score -as well as incredibly sexualized female fashion trends, anti-intellectualism, obsession with the sleekest and newest tech gadgets, and general celebration of Just Not Giving A Shit as much as possible
as a teen girl in that millieu, I was drawn to steampunk because it seemed to emphasize DIY, fashion as a tool of self-expression (with, notably, options for women that were feminine but didn't involve ultra-low-rise jeans, micro-miniskirts, writing on the ass, or plunging V-neck tops; keep in mind that I didn't sew yet and I had had this stuff shoved down my throat since I was ten), placing value on intellectual pursuits, making utilitarian objects beautiful, and so on
yes, a lot of steampunk literature of the day absolutely involved reacting against Victorian or Victorian-esque social structures! and I loved that! but I also loved what it represented as a pushback to the time I was living in myself, and THAT was what made it feel counterculture to me. not its conversation with the actual Victorian era
i genuinely think that physically it’s easier to have hard conversations when you’re both facing forward, not having to look at each other. the catholic church knew this also
Fakest part of Anne with an E making aunt Josephine explicitly gay is the idea that Anne could be introduced to the concept of lesbianism and not immediately ask diana to marry her on the spot
see this is why I hate it when people act like even using the WORD "friend" for same-gender couples in the 19th-early 20th centuries is erasure (in a context where the nature of the "friendship" is fully acknowledged)
this? this was NORMAL
this would not raise ANY eyebrows among L.M. Montgomery's Edwardian readers, or cause them to assume Anne was anything but a Normal pre-heterosexual kid
this was the expectation for friendships- especially between women, but men had their own Totes 100% Platonic Expressions Of Devoted Love in literature, too
in that environment, it's no wonder that you often find sexually explicit gay love letters addressed to "my friend." "I wish I were a man so I could marry you" is a pretty common sentiment to read in documents from that time, and it can be impossible to tell if that's "because women often lose their identities in marriage in this time period and we are such good friends" or "I am homosexually in love with you" (or potentially "I am a man actually" but there's usually more evidence in those cases than just wanting to marry another woman). the line could get so blurry at times
i think it’s so funny shirley jackson didn’t want to write about lesbians but it’s the only thing she could write about like the pull of writing about lesbians was so strong she couldn’t stop herself
"This time I'm going to make them sisters just so everything is clear and everybody understands they're totally not in lesbians with each other. Yeah, that'll work. Nobody would ever think sisters could be lesbians for each other."
Christina Rossetti in the corner sighs and stares into the camera like she's on The Office
what was that post about dying and waking up in a room where Shirley Jackson keeps all the people who've said she was secretly a lesbian
and all the notes were like "so are we fucking lesbianly? in the Shirley Jackson Lesbian Speculation Afterlife Dungeon?"
(in reality, I feel like it was a bit more complex than the one "scared of a word" quote everyone remembers- there was also a section in her college journal where she talked about being dumped because her boyfriend thought she was gay for a Very Close Female FriendTM, and her resulting fascination with lesbians as a misunderstood group she wanted to write about. also, there was originally a scene planned for the 1960s Hill House movie- which she had input on -that made it even more obvious that the live-in "friend" Theo fell out with was a girlfriend)
(she did change Castle from a more implicitly gay story to one about sisters, but she also changed a lot of other things about it, and her relationship with the idea of lesbian themes in her work doesn't seem to have always been as oppositional as people assume from that one quote)
(also like. yes she freaked out about that review of Hangsaman, but she also wrote a scene where the main character's "best friend" reads explicit F/F/M erotica aloud to her, and then they shower together. the final scene with that "best friend" is paralleled thematically with an implied heterosexual rape earlier in the book- which is not positive representation, so to speak, but it IS linking the two situations as The Same Type of Thing)
(honestly I've often wondered if she wasn't more afraid of Hangsaman being pigeonholed as JUST a Lesbian Book- at a time when sapphic content would drown out anything else she was trying to say in the public eye, by being scandalous -than of people simply recognizing that theme in the text)
Oh hey look at that. American Duchess is doing a collection made entirely of “velvet and faux suede.“ The fiber of the velvet is not specified, but I’m pretty sure I can guess what it might be
God. I knew they were going down the tubes, but this just feels like a new low somehow. Historically they’ve used plastic as sparingly as possible- like reproducing a more durable version of shoes that were originally made of silk; I can understand that because the originals looked hardly worn -and now they’re going for “well we want to be accessible for people who don’t wear leather uwu” on their social media page
Like actually no, I don’t have any patience for people who don’t wear leather anymore. Every fucking thing in this world is for them. All of our clothing is made of plastic and it’s destroying the planet. They can wear something from one of the five gazillion other brands that make cheap crap shoes from the earth-killing fluid
I’ve always appreciated having the option for high-quality historical shoes made primarily of natural materials. I’ve always been willing to pay a premium for that. But if they’re just going to become another grifting company, charging top dollar and offering nothing but more plastic…
It feels like we can’t have anything anymore. It feels like it gets harder and harder every year to wear clothing made out of real materials. To try to break the grip that plastic has on our world, even a little bit
no but genuinely I lose a little more patience for people who won't wear wool, leather, silk, or fur every day that I live in a world where plastic is increasingly the only damn kind of clothing you can find (or the only kind of fabric for sewing, even)
obviously, animal cruelty is horrible. I believe that even industries that rely on the deaths of animals should make their lives as good and their ends as humane as possible. and many of these industries need tighter environmental regulations on their production practices- some of the chemicals involved are highly toxic and ill-controlled at times
but at some point, you have to wake up to the fact that the only alternative we've found to date is destroying our planet
it's all plastic. and plastic is horrible for the world- the environment, humans, and especially animals. how cruelty-free is it to cause mass habitat loss? or climate change that disrupts food sources for those animals on a vast scale? how is that better than the deaths of a relatively small proportion of animals comparatively?
(and don't even start with "but pineapple leather! but cactus leather!" when those are still basically plastic due to heavy plastics use in their production processes. there is currently no non-plastic alternative to most animal-based textile products)
I've always tried to keep in mind that we all have to decide where our line is, that we all consume and there's no way of living in this world that doesn't take something from it. that for me, plastic clothing is to be avoided as much as possible, and for others, animal clothing products are to be avoided as much as possible. that the choice is equally valid
but I'm having a hard time seeing it as valid anymore when it just feels like trying to push the unpleasant part away from yourself so you can pretend your choice has no negative impacts. you're not wearing animal skin (or wool that an animal didn't even die to produce), so surely your way of doing things is better! no animals were harmed in the making of your outfit!
People will be like I love Greek mythology but I hate everything that involves incest, infidelity, violence, slavery, misogyny, undeserved suffering, questionable relationships, ethically dubious heroes and gods,and morality that is foreign to me.
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