So. Fan Fiction. That was an episode that happened. As crossroadscastiel correctly guessed yesterday (...or should I say guessterday? *sunglasses gif*) I am here to cry about purple flowers.
As I've talked about here, here, here and here, the color purple and flowers have been recurring symbols in the Carver era; so imagine how thrilled I was when our monster of the week started dropping petals all over the place.
I'll admit that I did get a little overexcited at first, because before Sam and Maeve found the encyclopedia entry about Calliope, my low-quality livestream blurred the flower enough that I thought they were petals from a hyacinth... which, if there were a one-to-ten scale of not-queer-coded flowers to insanely-queer-coded flowers, would be somewhere around an eight thousand. But I digress.
The flower in question, as we all know by now, is borage--otherwise known as starflower.
[photo from here]
On researching the flower, I found that borage is historically symbolic of courage. In fact, in ancient Rome, starflower-infused drink was often given to soldiers as they left for battle in order to bolster their spirits.
It is not, however, associated with Calliope or the muses. The only reference to mythology I was able to find was this:
"Some experts believe that the herb called nepenthe, as described by the poet Homer, was in fact borage. A potion of nepenthe was given to Helen of Troy by the Egyptian queen Polidamma, in order to relieve her sorrow and encourage forgetfulness." [x]
Interestingly, in real world mythology (from what I've been able to glean online, so please correct me if I'm wrong) the muse Calliope is not associated with any particular flower.
As the muse of epic poetry, she is traditionally associated with scrolls or books--not plants. The only color I managed to find mentioned in reference to her is in the gold crown she was sometimes depicted as wearing.
SO. What all this suggests to me is that Robbie Thompson specifically chose to associate Calliope with purple borage for this episode, and in an episode filled with discussion of subtext, he must have had a reason for doing so.
There are two different possibilities that come to mind (though I'm sure I'll be able to think of more when I manage to get some sleep)
1. Queer subtext, naturally
In her brief post yesterday, crossroadscastiel mentioned the significance of this flower being "associated with the muse that manifests things from fiction and makes them real."
This episode took something that has been discussed widely by fandom for years--namely queer subtext--and said that it is a thing, it is there in the show and we aren't imagining it.
Marie: A bunch of adults told me I just have an overactive imagination, but it’s real. It’s all real.
- Fan Fiction, S10E05
Now doesn't that sound familiar? Anyone who has tried to talk about queer subtext in Supernatural has more likely than not run into someone using some form of the "overactive imagination" argument.
This is Robbie telling us flat out that any such argument is bullshit.
Because if Marie was the avatar for fandom in this episode, the Winchesters were the show, and Calliope and her flowers (and purple goo) were the unavoidable physical manifestation of subtext.
As Misha so aptly put it on twitter;
2. That Pesky Star Symbolism
When trying to figure out why Robbie specifically chose borage flowers, which, when it comes to symbolism aren't exactly brimming with meaning, the most obvious thing I can think of is that they are shaped like five-pointed stars. This connects them to the Winchesters through the similarity to the devil's trap tattoos, and to Castiel and the angels through the heaven/star connection.
I believe larinah has spoken about this use of symbolism more than anyone else, though I seem to remember neven-ebrez mentioning it in relation to the guiding light theme, too.
That's all I've got at this point, but like I said there's likely more that I'm missing in my sleep-deprived state. Please don't hesitate to add to this if you think of anything else :)
