καὶ ποθήω καὶ μάομαι

Theo, twenties, he. freudian nightmare, pseudoetymologist, librarian in training, tragedyblogger

[jesuschristssupernova]

this coffee tastes like i can still have a beautiful life

[heartbreakrevolver]

"fuck marry kill" is a stupid game. First of all, marriage is evil. Secondly, everyone must die.

[fairycosmos]

ive been so lucky in so many ways and im also deeply doomed

[finelythreadedsky]

Iphigenia’s Death/Marriage

obviously Iphigenia’s story by its very nature reflects the idea of death and marriage as two side of the same coin, since she goes to her death believing it to be her marriage. her death plays out much like a marriage: she wears her bridal finery, casts off the saffron robe of girlhood usually worn and removed at a wedding (aeschylus agamemnon 239), and her father gives her away to someone else (death/Artemis) in exchange for a brideprice (wind), and the festivities surrounding a sacrifice are paralleled to the festivities surrounding a wedding.

but it’s this quote that really gets to me and speaks to her specific ability as a royal maiden to marry death:

“you raised me to be a light for Hellas; I do not refuse to die.” (Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis 1502-3)

she’s speaking to the fact that her impending death is not so different from the future life she had been raised to expect to lead. as the eldest daughter of one of the most powerful lords around, Iphigenia would have been raised to eventually marry some other lord. she is eligible to avert disaster with her death precisely because of her status as a marriageable young woman who would otherwise have been used to cement political connections by marrying a king allied to her father. as a young woman destined to use her marriage to ensure the wellbeing of her father and his kingdom, she sacrifices this future marriage to a slightly different political purpose: she surrenders her virginity to a god, not a foreign husband, in exchange for the safety of her father, his people, and his cause. 

Iphigenia comes to the realization that her fate is really not so different from the one she had thought she had: as a highborn young woman, she was inevitably meant sacrifice her virginity and her life to some political cause, and it merely happens to be the supplication of a deity rather than the formalization of an alliance, a marriage to death rather than a foreign king, a surrender of her body to Artemis, not a husband.

[terpsikeraunos]

ancient greek word of the night: νυκτόμαντις (nyktomantis), one who prophesies by night

[indigosfindings]

"i look forward to hearing back" implies a beautiful world that runs on sense-direction combinations. i smell sideways to tasting up. i palpate inwards to listening diagonal, so that i can hunger clockwise

[maggie-stiefvater-deactivated20]

If Gansey were to own a dog, what breed would it and what would it be like?

Ronan Lynch

[twinktorturer]

the duty of the historian is to suck and fuck the historical evidence. always.

[theofylakt]

having a really yaoiful time with the new demosthenes biography

[grindrbooks]

[aschrecordings]

Where's a public library? by the Toronto Public Library, 1975, showcasing library branches in the west end of Toronto

[weltenwellen]

Martha Gellhorn, Selected Letters

[laterkiss]

my body craves information

[design-is-fine]

Micrographic Design in the Shape of a Labyrinth, early 17th century. Pen and ink. Anonymous French or Flemish. Via Metmuseum

[watermotif]

Visit Original Link

[o-fantasma]

i must think about this poem at least once per week

[theofylakt]

most used nouns in homer #handtheory

[theofylakt]

why is it giving man door hand hook car door