Alrighty I'm going through a Calliope phase rn (i mean when am I not shes everything) so what's your three favourite things about her?
HELLO thank you for the ask!!! I, too, am pretty much constantly Having a Moment about Calliope, so you 🤝 me <333
(Before I start, I just want to say that my answers will talk a lot about traits exhibited in relation to Calliope’s imprisonment, since in the show that’s the only episode we see her in and therefore one of the only canon references we have to draw from. However, she and all other survivors are so much more than their trauma and their relationships to their abusers. I want to make extremely clear before I write the rest of the post. It’s very important to me to be intentional about writing about Calliope outside of that context.)
1) Her strong sense of self
Even after sixty years of abuse, Calliope does not forget that she is a goddess. More than that, she is so certain of her personhood. She tells Madoc directly: she wasn’t “made” for anything; she was just born. The only person she interacted with for decades treated her despicably as nothing more than an object, a means to an end, and she was still able to hold onto to the truth of herself.
2) Her take-no-shit attitude
You know that phrase, “do no harm, take no shit”? I think Calliope exemplifies that well. Madoc said, “You gave Erasmus what he wanted.” Calliope replied, “I did not give them to him; he took them from me.” Dream said, “He must be punished.” Calliope replied, “Why? Because I was once yours?” She’s not standing for any of it.
3) Her compassion and heart
When Dream asks her what she will do now that she’s free, Calliope says one of the things she’ll do is “inspire mortals to want better for themselves, and for each other.” After what humans have put her through in recent decades, it would be understandable for Calliope to turn her back on them, to refuse to grace them with her gifts. But Calliope wants others, even humans, to have better than what she herself endured.
