#athenaios

[slaughtergutz]

What can I say, her logic checks out.

[slaughtergutz]

I've been really dissatisfied with my art lately so Im trying something new

Lineart below the cut

[slaughtergutz]

Woohoo more designs for my gothic lit au

Victoria Frankenstein

A young woman who deals with grief in the only way she knows how: by drowning herself in work. Prone to fainting spells and occasional bouts of madness.

Athenaios Frankenstein

A creation born from the mind rather than the womb; naïve and compassionate, he's trying to find his place in the world without getting shot. He paints about his feelings and can usually be found with his nose in a book. Also loves horses and their soft noses.

Elizabeth Lavenza aka The Artful Dodger

An orphan who grew up on the streets of London surviving by any means possible; one misstep almost led to a one-way trip to Australia but found salvation by the grace of Caroline Frankenstein, who took her in to be the playfellow of her easily bored and prone to mischief daughter.

Henrietta "Hattie" Clerval

Childhood friend of Victoria and Elizabeth. She loves love, romance, adventure, and tales of heroism; she was always the knight in their games of swords and socery. She studies languages and publishes poetry.

Zeldora Griffin, aka the Invisible Girl

Born with albinism on a plantation in the southern United States, she grew to loathe the sun. It brought burning and blindness, while the night offered precious moments of respite, and eventually, freedom. But this was a solitary freedom, and she swore to return for her family. She sought education in London. Eduation led to money, money was a safer avenue for freedom.

She became a prodigy in various branches of natural philosophy, and specialized in the science of light and perception. She made numerous discoveries, the most crucial of all-- invisibility. She had a new focus and plan to liberate her family, she just had to perfect it first. It was tested first on plants, then mice, then the neighbor's cat, and finally, herself. In her focus and excitement she hadn't yet perfected a way to reverse it and is stuck in her current state.

Mittens escaped through a window and is still at large.

Who would you like to see next?

[somepoorsod]

For our fine Athens has produced so great a number of courtesans (about which I will discourse at as great a length as I can) that no other populated city has had a collection big enough to compare.

Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 583d; my translation

αἱ γὰρ καλαὶ ἡμῶν Ἀθῆναι τοσοῦτον πλῆθος ἤνεγκαν ἑταιρῶν, περὶ ὧν ἐπεξελεύσομαι ὅσον γε δύναμαι, ὅσον ὄχλον εὐανδροῦσα πόλις οὐκ ἔσχεν.

[somepoorsod]

Daily Classics - The Beautiful Arse

(Athenaios’ work is bizarre to read, but oh-so-helpful. Also, I swear I translate Deipnosophistai a different way every single time. Also also, I’m rather tickled by making θεᾶσθαι ‘to check out’. It’s surprisingly congruent).

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The people at the time were so obsessed with decadence that they even dedicated a temple to Aphrodite of the Beautiful Arse, for the following reason. A man who lived out in the countryside had two beautiful daughters. These two girls, bickering with each other, once went along a public road while arguing over which of them had the more beautiful arse. At one point, a young man with an elderly father passed them, and they showed themselves off to him too. He, after checking them out, decided in favour of the older sister; more than that, he actually fell in love with her, and when he entered the city and fell sick, he explained what had happened to his brother (who was younger than him). His brother then went out into the countryside, checked out the girls, and ended up falling in love with the other one.

Then their father, when he talked to them and couldn’t persuade them to have better standards for their wives, brought the girls to them from the countryside after persuading their own father, and they married his sons. The wives were then called ‘the women with beautiful arses’ by the citizens, as Kerkidas of Megalopolis also relates in his Iambics, saying:

“There was a pair of women with beautiful arses among the girls of Syracuse"

So these women, when they came into some considerable wealth, dedicated a temple to Aphrodite, calling her the ‘God of the Beautiful Arse’, as Arkhelaos also relates in his own Iambics.

(Athenaios, Professors at Dinner 12.80 554c-554e; my translation)

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οὕτω δ᾽ ἐξήρτηντο τῶν ἡδυπαθειῶν οἱ τότε ὡς καὶ Καλλιπύγου Ἀφροδίτης ἱερὸν

ἱδρύσασθαι ἀπὸ τοιαύτης αἰτίας. ἀνδρὶ ἀγροίκῳ ἐγένοντο δύο καλαὶ θυγατέρες: αὗται φιλονικήσασαί ποτε πρὸς ἑαυτὰς προελθοῦσαι ἐπὶ τὴν λεωφόρον διεκρίνοντο ποτέρα εἴη καλλιπυγοτέρα. καί ποτε παρίοντος νεανίσκου πατέρα πρεσβύτην ἔχοντος ἐπέδειξαν ἑαυτὰς καὶ τούτῳ: καὶ ὃς θεασάμενος ἔκρινε τὴν πρεσβυτέραν: ἧς καὶ εἰς ἔρωτα ἐμπεσὼν ἐλθὼν εἰς ἄστυ κλινήρης γίνεται καὶ διηγεῖται τὰ γεγενημένα τῷ ἀδελφῷ ἑαυτοῦ ὄντι νεωτέρῳ. ὃ δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐλθὼν εἰς τοὺς ἀγροὺς καὶ θεασάμενος τὰς παῖδας ἐρᾷ καὶ αὐτὸς τῆς ἑτέρας. ὁ δ᾽ οὖν πατὴρ ἐπεὶ παρακαλῶν αὐτοὺς ἐνδοξοτέρους λαβεῖν γάμους οὐκ ἔπειθεν, ἄγεται ἐκ τοῦ ἀγροῦ τὰς παῖδας αὐτοῖς, πείσας ἐκείνων τὸν πατέρα, καὶ ζεύγνυσι τοῖς υἱοῖς. αὗται οὖν ὑπὸ τῶν πολιτῶν καλλίπυγοι ἐκαλοῦντο, ὡς καὶ ὁ Μεγαλοπολίτης Κερκιδᾶς ἐν τοῖς Ἰάμβοις ἱστορεῖ λέγων: ἦν καλλιπύγων ζεῦγος ἐν Συρακούσαις. αὗται οὖν ἐπιλαβόμεναι οὐσίας λαμπρᾶς ἱδρύσαντο Ἀφροδίτης ἱερὸν καλέσασαι Καλλίπυγον τὴν θεόν, ὡς ἱστορεῖ καὶ Ἀρχέλαος ἐν τοῖς Ἰάμβοις.

[somepoorsod]

Daily Classics: In which crowds think Alexander the Great's PDAs are cute; and he is kind to other couples

(Part 1 for the day, since internet prevented me from posting yesterday. Did this long ago on another site, but decided this was a fine time to resurrect it. And correct a couple of old mistakes into the bargain.

I love this passage basically just for the image of a crowd taking the time out of their play-watching to coo over Alexander and his boyfriend. It gives me fuzzies.)

King Alexander was quite mad with love for boys. Indeed, Dikaiarkhos says in his 'On the Sacrifice at Troy' that he was so in love with Bagoas the eunuch that, bending back towards him, he kissed him heartily in from of the whole theatre. When they acclaimed this with applause, he obeyed them, and bent back to kiss him again. Karystios, in his 'Historical Dissertations' says that Kharon the Khalkidean had a pretty boy, whom he held dear. When Alexander praised the boy during a drinking party, at Krateros', Kharon ordered the boy to kiss Alexander, but he said, "Not at all, no! For he would not please me as much as he would pain you by doing this."

(Athenaios, The Feasting Professors, 603a-b/13.80; my translation)