#Greek mythology inaccurate quotes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lightsoutletsgo · 2 months

Text

i told the stars about you — op.81 (royalty au)

pairing: prince!oscar piastri x lady-in-waiting!reader

word count: 1.5k

warnings: angst? heartbreak, slightly inaccurate and semi-confusing greek mythology references, a spot-the-princess-diaries quote just bc i can

I actually wrote this listening to the bridgerton soundtrack... it's not what I usually write so I hope it's okay! please lmk what you think and if you'd like to see more like this. for extra heartbreak, listen to "love is a choice" from the bridgerton soundtrack on repeat while reading happy reading! love mimi 🤍

It was an accident really. Well, less of an accident and more of a cruel twist of fate if you had to summarise it. After all, such a cliche thing to happen. The lady-in-waiting to the Princess falls in love with the visiting Prince her future ruler is tied to in an arranged marriage.

Had any sensible person heard the predicament you were in they may have sympathised but still scoffed at how foolishly the two of you were behaving. Desperately entangling yourselves with one another despite the inevitable heartbreak that was bound to come any day now.

“Did I ever tell you how much I love the stars?” You led on your back on the grass underneath the night’s sky, delicately raising a hand to trace invisible lines between each star above you. Oscar chuckled next to you as his hand slid over yours, joining you in your night sky tracing, “I believe you may have mentioned it once or twice before…” You gave a faint smile as your arm grew tired, choosing to link your hand with his and rest them by your sides. “Have I ever told you why?” Oscar rolled onto his side, facing you as his eyes searched yours, smiling at the way they reflected the moonlight,

“Actually, I don’t think you have told me that.” You sat up quickly, always excited to share the story with someone.

Oscar sat up before he moved to sit behind you, pulling you to lean back into his chest as his arms encircled your body, head gently resting on your shoulder. “See that star up there?” You pointed to almost directly above you, “That’s the North Star isn’t it?” You nodded and turned your head to reward his correct answer with a soft kiss to the cheek. “Mmhmm! When I was a child, my mother used to tell me stories of the stars every night…” You sighed happily at the memories, “There was one story that I loved far more than any others. The story of Perseus and Andromeda.” “I think I learned about that a long time ago… During my classical classes…” “Show off…” You reached one hand up to gently flick his nose. “Well, the story goes that Princess Andromeda was a very beautiful woman. Her mother, Queen Cassiopeia, claimed her daughter was more beautiful than Poseidon’s daughters. As punishment for her vanity, Poseidon sent the sea monster Cetus. Andromeda’s father, King Cepheus, trusted the sea monster to disappear if they were to sacrifice her. Just before she was devoured by the sea monster, Perseus came by on his flying horse Pegasus. He was on his way home after one of his great adventures. Perseus fell in love with the beautiful Andromeda and struck a deal with her parents. Perseus would save their daughter by killing the sea monster and in return he would be allowed to marry her. Andromeda however, was already promised to marry another man, Phineus. A fight arose between the two which Perseus eventually won. And so Perseus and Andromeda lived happily ever after.”

Oscar smiled at the sight of your eyes lighting up as you told the story. He nuzzled his nose into your neck making you giggle as you carried on, “All of the people in the story were placed in the sky by the gods, so their story would never be lost. Perseus and Andromeda are still positioned close together in the sky, where they rotate around the North Star, see?” Oscar’s eyes followed to where you were pointing once more. He kissed your cheek as you gave a happy contented little hum.“Mother always used to say that lovers who needed advice or guidance would talk to the stars… And that those confessions of lovers to the stars meant that their love would last forever, just like Perseus and Andromeda…” You reached for the bouquet of daisies you’d picked earlier that evening.

“You know..." Slowly, you plucked each petal off of the daisies you carefully held. "I told the stars about you." Oscar chuckled, not expecting to hear such words from the lady sitting with him. "What did you tell them?" You turned to look at him and smiled, staring at his brown eyes. "I told them you have your own constellations on your cheeks." Your stare landed on the faint few freckles dotted on his face. He laughed, "What? What does that even mean?"

You showed him a half smile before looking down at the daisies and plucking the petals again. "I told the stars you have more stars in your eyes than there are stars in the sky"

His smile slowly faded, instead he looked almost like he was holding his breath, like he didn’t dare breath incase it ruined the moment, "I told them that you are the moon that shines brightest in my eyes when I'm surrounded by darkness. I told them I always wish for you on a shooting star." You gave him the daisies you had been holding since you’d sat next to him. All petals now plucked. Oscar looked confused as he took the flowers, about to open his mouth.

"Do you want to know why?” You cut him off with a sweet smile before he could even open his mouth to answer, “Because I got tired of asking the flowers if you love me or not." “Y/N…” Oscar’s voice was barely above a whisper. You spoke softly, "Do you know what the stars replied?"

"W-what?" He thought he’d lost his voice for a moment.

You smiled.

"Go after him."

Silence. “So will you…” “I'm in love with the King-to-be, and I'm inquiring if he loves me too…” Oscar’s eyes lit up and in that moment, you felt as if all the air had been taken from you. One of your hands gently cupped his face as your thumb rubbed over his cheekbone, “You really do have stars in your eyes.” “And your eyes hold the whole galaxy, my love.” Oscar pulled you close to him and sighed in contentment as you shyly buried your face into his shoulder, the stars twinkling at you both from above, as if centuries of lovers were sprinkling their blessing on the two of you. In hindsight you supposed it might have been a warning, that heartbreak would ensue no matter how much you loved him 　 ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆　　　

“I told the stars about you!” Oscar cried out.

You stopped. “I told the stars about you,” he repeated, trying and failing to hold back tears that were already falling, “I told them that I would never let you become one and end up so far away from me, I told them how you said you would always stay by my side, and...” Oscar looked back at you, where you were now facing him.

“I told them I loved you.” Your eyes widened slightly before your face fell again.

“...We always knew this was going to happen. We cannot change what our fate is, Oscar, I mean…” You looked back down at the ground, clenching your fists tightly before you spoke again. “Your Highness-”

“Don’t call me that, Y/N.” Oscar said immediately, rushing up to you. “Y-you’re not a lady-in-waiting. I'm not a Prince. We’re just Oscar and Y/N, two people who fell in love the instant they saw one another.” He stared at you, not fighting the tears anymore. “Two people who fell in love under the stars… I want that Y/N back.” Your heart broke as his voice cracked, overcome with emotion. “Please my love…”

But still you said nothing

“Where’s the Y/N who would tell me she loved me, the Y/N who vowed to be by my side forever, and… the Y/N who would tell the stars about me?” You finally looked up at him, and Oscar searched your eyes desperately for a shred of his Y/N in you. A lone tear spilt over and fell down your cheek. Sparkling in the moonlight, it almost looked like a shooting star. ‘How ironic.’ He thought to himself bitterly. You wiped the tear away and as quickly as it had appeared it was gone.

Oscar’s eyes darkened, and he wiped his face, his expression hardening, “My apologies, Lady Y/N.” He said, his voice cold. “This has been rather inappropriate. I believe you must have somewhere to be?” “My apologies, your Highness. Permission to leave?” It was time to accept that the old Y/N was gone, leaving a stranger in front of him. And if his Y/N was gone, there was no reason to keep taking up a stranger’s time.

“...Granted.” You began to move before you hesitated, leaned into his side, whispered something, and left. Oscar’s eyes widened once again, and a tear fell down his cheek.

“I never stopped telling the stars about you.”

Oscar quickly turned around to watch you leave. A pained smile slowly spread across his face. He didn’t try to stop you. You wore a similar smile as you forced your feet to walk away. You wanted nothing more than to kiss him once again, but that was a dream you couldn’t have anymore. It was a dream you’d have to tell the stars about.

#mimi.writes #f1 x reader #oscar piastri x reader #oscar piastri angst #f1 x you #oscar piastri x you #f1 angst #f1 fic #oscar piastri fic #oscar piastri oneshot #f1 oneshot

153 notes · View notes

caterpillarinacave · 10 months

Note

Riordan's work is only an "inaccurate portrayal" of the Greek gods in the sense they never raped anyone over the course of the books.

Oh dear. You see, this is the type of thing I’m talking about.

Anon, I’m sure you’re a fan of Rick Riordan’s, which prompted you to respond to a zero note post, tagged with critical tags, with the vigor of a wronged man.

@heliomanteia has several good posts explaining this. I highly recommend you go and read some of those.

To quote this post by them, which used words much better than I could, (and I recommend you read in full):

Riordan’s portrayal of gods is incredibly one dimensional, and is far from respectful.

Roman life was based around community, strengths, and security among other values. But RR, however brief he refers to it, portrays Rome as a militaristic, war obsessed land.

He moves the Greek god to America, and portrays the actual land of Greece with very little respect. It’s more of a “dead fantasy land”

Even RR admits his books aren’t accurate, as he bases them off different myths from different places (For example, he takes his Gorgone from Ovid’s (a LATIN man) version of the myth, despite Ovid not being greek and not worshipping Greek gods. (Interesting, but a little off topic fact, the Roman emperor Augustus, who ruled in Ovid’s time, introduces the Imperial Cult, which worshipped Roman emperors as gods.)

Before I go, however, I think we should talk about your comment. “ Riordan's work is only an "inaccurate portrayal" of the Greek gods in the sense they never raped anyone over the course of the books.”

Anon, you’ve proved my point here. Rick Riordan has boiled gods down to one dimensional characters who don’t care about their followers.

Anon, people worship these gods to this day. You’re viewpoint, which I would guess comes from knowledge you obtained through RR’s writing, continues the idea that the gods in these myths are cruel, uncaring, unkind, one dimensional beings, with no care for humanity.

Here’s a fun fact for the way: Ares, the god of war, doesn’t rape anyone in Greek mythology. Period. Despite RR’ portrayal of a thick headed, bros-bro, jock bully asshole who takes advantage of the world around him and has his head so far up his own ass he can see last nights dinner; Ares never rapes anyone.

I hope this inspires you to look more critically into RR’s writing, and come to enjoy it whilst still acknowledging the culture it’s built from, and the inaccuracy within in it.

#Have a good day though Anon and everyone else reading!#pjo critical #misrepresentation #rr critical #@heliomanteia I hope it was alright to use screenshots of your post!#Not so sweet anons

76 notes · View notes

genericpuff · 1 year

Note

Rachel could have put a warning saying her story isn't accurate to the myths it's based off and it would have been fine...ljke?? What reason did she have not to?

TBF she does have a disclaimer/warning, but it's shoved in the author's notes of the first episode:

And it's still not even that great of a disclaimer, because besides the fact that it's shoved near the bottom of Ep 1 where no one reads, but she says "not designed to be cited as a scholarly source on mythology except in the analysis of literature, media, the arts, humanities, etc." which... can basically be broadly applied to anything people see fit.

That being said, she also argues that she's a "self-proclaimed folklorist". She barely has the sense to put trigger warnings in her comic, you want her to have humility, too? 😂

"I'm a self-proclaimed folklorist but I haven't studied it or anything in the sense that I haven't, like, gone to school and studied it, but I mean, obviously doing these comics is, like, my day job so research is a very important component so I study it in my free time..." - an actual quote from Rachel's audio interview with Temple of Geek

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some academic versed in Greek myth either, but y'all know that and I'm not gonna pretend like I am. In that sense, you're right, Rachel does nothing to remind people this is fanfiction. She does nothing to remind her fanbase that it's not okay to use her comic as fact in Greek myth discussions. She does nothing to hold herself or her fanbase accountable when her readers go and edit public wiki articles with inaccurate information ripped from LO. Either she just flat out doesn't give a fuck (irresponsible) or she genuinely thinks what she's doing is okay and doesn't see the massive issue with a white woman from New Zealand using another culture's religion and mythology as a way to make herself money in such a crude way (ignorant).

I often try my best to live by Hanlon's razor - "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." I'd like to think Rachel isn't doing this shit intentionally as a way to damage Greek myth stories or gentrify a culture, Greek myth would be the WORST avenue to try that because of how influential and massive it is.

But right hand to Kisúlk, I genuinely think she's just not that smart.

#it's pronounced gisoolg #it wouldn't be an issue if she was transparent about her work being fanfiction #but instead she totes about how she's some folklorist when she literally has zero real training in anything folklore-related #she's not deep or progressive #she's just the new zealand woman version of miles bron #ama #anon ama #ask me anything #anon ask me anything #lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #antiloreolympus

55 notes · View notes

ofsappho · 2 years

Note

Why is Ovid disliked SO MUCH? genuinely asking, I'm not that familiar with old writers like that.

Hi anon! Thanks for your question, happy to help. This is a long rant lol.

My personal beef with Ovid stems from a combination of two things:

1. The actual content of his writing

2. How his writing has been historically treated by the classics field and continues to be treated

Ovid was a great Roman writer/poet and continues to be very foundational in Ancient Rome studies for good reason. He is an excellent primary source on Rome, Roman myths, and Roman perspectives on myth/history/etc of the time, among other things. I fully recognize that and give him that credit. Do not come for me.

However, Ovid is a TERRIBLE source on Ancient Greek myths/folklore/legends. Many things he wrote down that he said were Greek in origin, or were about the Greeks, or that the Greeks did, are very much not consistent with primary Greek sources. And some of the stuff he did write down that had an actual Greek root ended up getting filtered through his Roman lens, so they ended up being bastardized from the Greek source and often with additional political overtones that weren’t there originally.

Great example is the myth of Medusa. Everyone and their mother these days (and in recent history) repeats the variant of the myth of Medusa that involves her being a beautiful maiden in service to Athena, who gets raped in Athena’s temple by Poseidon, and then promptly cursed to become a monster by Athena. This variant, like all good stories, does hold power on its own. However, it isn’t the original version of the myth of Medusa, and the slut-shaming and rape were added in by Ovid.

When you want to discuss these myths in their original context because you’re studying the culture/society that originated them, using the revised storytelling of a totally different (though related) culture is simply unhelpful and inaccurate.

So here’s part 2.

The field of classics itself in “Western civilization” (air quotes because I’m referring to the social construct of Western civilization, not an actual literal “western” civilization which does not exist) has always been tied to the study of Ancient Rome first, then Greece.

The word “classics” itself has a Latin root (classicus), not Greek. Latin is honestly not even that dead of a language compared to Ancient Greek because one of the world’s major religions still uses Latin as their liturgical language. “Western civilization” is heavily rooted in Christianity, which itself was rooted historically in Rome.

Christian monks were the academics who first came up with the concept of the study of classics, even though they maybe didn’t use that name to begin with. The study of the ancient world (or whatever) was part of Christian academic tradition, and of course they started with Rome. And then worked back.

Why does what some early Christian monks did matter right now? Well, that tradition of viewing Greece through the Roman lens, and then moving on to study Greece in its own right, has some direct effects today. A lot of the OG, famous, widely accessible (to the general populace) books on Greek mythology authored within the last century idk were written by people who read Ovid and wrote down his accounts of Ancient Greek myth as if they were primary sources. This is why the Ovid variant of the myth of Medusa is so widespread.

If you wanted to study how Rome viewed their cultural predecessors, this is super helpful. If you wanted to focus on Ancient Greece specifically, though, this is difficult to untangle and leads to a lot of misinformation and inaccurate study. Which is bad. While Greece and Rome were culturally and historically related, they were still distinct and separate civilizations. Conflating the two is not good academia.

In short: it’s not that Ovid is inherently bad. Quite the opposite. He is great and a great source on Ancient Rome. It’s that he is a bad source on Ancient Greece, and a lot of the foundational work in the classics field has used this Roman poet as a trustworthy, accurate, and good contemporaneous source on Ancient Greece.

I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion lol, feel free to hit my inbox up further if you’d like, Anon

#classics #classical studies #Ancient Greece #Ancient Greek mythology #anon #Ancient Greek myths #Greek mythology #Greek myths #ancient greek studies #please don’t start beef with me over this if you like Ovid #I don’t want beef #I just feel very strongly that the study of Ancient Greek mythology should rely on primary or contemporaneous sources #not Roman sources

24 notes · View notes

literalliterature · 1 year

Text

Mmmmm keep thinking about that post that's literally like "hello people who get all of their ideas of feminism from tiktok" (<- almost direct quote) and then smugly presents a quiz about which ideas of Greek "myth" are actually modern inventions. As if to say that like. A person who hasn't sifted through the fuckton of extremely ubiquitous misinformation in the, I will remind you, actually pretty fucking niche study of Greek mythology and literature, is likely to also be a person with unexamined/chronically online feminist ideas lmao.

Like I get it, I get the sentiment, it's annoying that these misunderstandings about mythology are so common and that we are in the era of hashtag girlboss Greek myth retellings but also, the problem with popular modern "feminist" retellings isn't that the myths are inaccurately represented, it's that their ideas of feminism are shallow and they're frankly not that interesting or doing anything new lol. Frankly, you don't have to have any background knowledge of the myths to identify the hollow messaging in a lot of these stories.

#and additionally #a piece of media can in fact perpetuate/play off common misconceptions about greek mythology and still be good #as long as it--again--actually does something interesting with the archetypes of the myths and thinks out its themes #the portrayal of hades and persephone in hadestown comes to mind #like it does the whole 'hades and persephone are in love and persephone went willingly (at first)'#but handles it in a way that's interesting and different and not like every other hades and persephone retelling ever #anyway it's 4:30 am #which is to say #night night lmao

9 notes · View notes

helenana666 · 7 months

Note

Hi, I'm a little confused since when the fandom started with the mom Jolyne thing? Maybe I'm not current in the fandom as much as I was but can you explain it? People literally Jolyne is like a mom friend or something seriously?

Hey anon, well not much as I think, at least in the Hispanic fandom doesn't Tumblr either, YouTube either, is always the Twitter or Tiktok mfs who barely can read lol okno.

This is somehow new(? Bc I mean if fandom always had Jolyne as this motherly figure it would be very strong and popular in the Japanese fandom but nah, they actually think of Jolyne as a rebel type.

Everything started in Twitter some famous account started to give their hc about Jolyne I think, but this one specifically took too much force than other accounts dedicated to Jolyne and to analyze her started to say Jolyne was in fact like a mother figure to Emporio due to the one single quote Araki did about the mother Mary mother of Jesus and her influence in his work, but he was talking only referring to Erina, Holy and Lucy because the implications there are more than clear. Basically Jojo fans being Jojo fans, They take a single line of Araki out of context to make the most inaccurate takes ever (like when ppl started to say that Araki hated Jonathan, Josuke traveled in time to save himself, etc.)

Araki sensei takes lots of inspiration in the Bible and Greek mythology, but as I explained, Jolyne is not the case, for me (Pretty sure other fans had noticed this but I can't tell if it's 100% acurrate) Jolyne is the perfect thesis of the last Jojos before her, she is so human and real,taking the best aspects of her father and the other Jojos.

This is also personal, but I think Jolyne has some parallels with Eve, being the only and the first female protagonist, we always see Eve as the guilty of everything bad in humanity, but from another philosophical point, Eve is the one who grants humanity free will, the reason why we are free to decide our own destiny away from divine influence. So, Jolyne in this point of view does it too! She is sexually open, curious and most important she saved the humanity and giving them freedom, escaping from Pucci's influence and power, through Emporio, just like Eve did with an apple(? Paradoxically, people also tend to blame Jolyne a lot for what happened to Pucci and Jotaro's death and cannot see her struggle as a noble act where she wins! But Again, Jojo fans misunderstanding everything.

#helenatalks #jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jolyne cujoh #jotaro kujo #jolyne kujo

4 notes · View notes

incorrectgreekgods · 3 years

Conversation

Zeus: Speaking of school, what are you, a sophomore?

Perseus: No I dropped out last year so I'm a no-more.

Athena: You dropped out of school?

Perseus: What do I need school for?

Perseus, holding up his cellphone: The lady inside of this, she knows everything.

240 notes · View notes

closetwitchthings · 4 years

Text

This isn’t like my usual posts, but I think everyone could use a little humor right now. So here’s:

The Greek Gods as Things My Family Has Said

Apollo: *bites his ice cream cone*

Artemis: *nocking an arrow* So Apollo is gonna get shot

Hera: Alright, just clean up your mess

Hermes: let’s play the game, it’ll make her mad

Dionysus: okay okay okay

Hermes: hey Athenaaaaa

Eros: moooom, I want a mullet

Aphrodite: ...

Aphrodite: *leaves the room*

Hestia: how many is this one?

Demeter: ....21 loaves

Hestia: Demeter and I baked 21 loaves of bread in 2 weeks

Hermes: do you ever hear songs that you’re not sure how to feel about?

Artemis: *extreme pain visible in her eyes* yes

Apollo: You and Dionysus should have a podcast together

Hermes:

Apollo: it would just be Dionysus laughing so hard he can’t breathe

Hermes:

Apollo: Athena wouldn’t be able to make it 20 seconds in

Hermes: ...Apollo, I like your style

Ares: The next time I walk in here, I will have committed 2 acts of federal-grade arson

Zeus: are you telling me you put Dora the Explorer in a meat grinder and then in an ice cream maker full of milk???

Dionysus: ... yes why do you ask

Apollo: *singing Take me To Church*

Artemis, who has heard this song from Apollo 30 times a day for a week: *snaps pencil*

Demeter: honey, I’m just... I’m so scared of this whole slutty goth phase you’re trying to go through

Persephone: ......

Hades: ......

Zeus: what’s wrong, guys?

Apollo: *golden ichor running down his cheek* Artemis won’t stop hitting me with my guitar

Artemis: *brandishing the guitar like a bat* Apollo won’t stop being the most obnoxious being in existence

Random mortal woman: YEEEES ZEUS I LOVE YOUUUUU

Hera: dude stop, he’s like thousands of years old

Hades: this self-isolation stuff is bs. I do this all the time anyway

Apollo: hey do you guys wanna go to a fake Green Day concert with me

Dionysus: hell yeah

Hermes: I’m in

Apollo: *Youtube search: Green Day Live*

I hope you enjoyed this! Depending on how well this does I may do a part two!

#witchcraft #witchling #witch #pagan #paganism #hellenistic #hellenistic pagan #greek mythology #greek gods #inaccurate quotes #apollo hermes and dionysus are the crackhead trio #you cant convince me otherwise

24 notes · View notes

bambismoonlight · 1 year

Text

Athena: Alcohol is not going to solve your problems

Dionysus:

Dionysus: I’m sorry, but did I not ascend into a true god after I brought wine up this stupid mountain?

801 notes · View notes

ungodlysai · 11 months

Text

Thetis: Why do people think I have distaste for you, Patroclus?

Patroclus: Because it was easiest to paint you that way. You’re a Nymph who was bound to mate with a mortal man. It was easy for them to spin that into hatred for me, hatred for humans.

Thetis: They have me mistaken. I love most humans. Some of you do some… questionable things, but then again, so do the gods.

Achilles: Everyone’s kind of messed up in their own way, aren’t we?

Patroclus: it’s what makes us unique. Even so, I thank you Thetis, for being supportive of your son and I.

Thetis: You mellow him out. You help him. How could I not support you?

*we love supportive mom Thetis here.*

#patrochilles #achilles #patroclus #patroklus #greek mythology #achillesandpatroclus #tsoa achilles #ancient greek #historical inaccuracies #quotes #madeline miller #the song of achilles #tsoa spoilers #inaccurate greek mythology #achilles and his grief #chiron #mount pelion #tsoa

245 notes · View notes

withlovefromolympus · 2 years

Text

Aphrodite: yeah Hephaestus is cute

Aphrodite: but only in the puppy dog sense

Aphrodite: ...

Aphrodite: and if that dog was a mangy, scared stray with a missing leg who hadn’t ever been bathed

Hephaestus: anddd there it is

#Aphrodite #Hephaestus #boom roasted #he’ll be fine #greek mythology #greek gods #percy jackson and the olympians #incorrect quotes #incorrect greek gods #incorrect greek quotes #incorrect greek mythology #incorrect greek mythology quotes #greek myth memes #percy jackson #Hephaestus and Aphrodite #classical mythology #greek gods inaccurate quotes

83 notes · View notes

percabeth4life · 2 years

Text

An In Depth Analysis and Review of Heroines of Olympus: The Women of Greek Mythology By Dr. Ellie Mackin Roberts

Dr. Ellie Mackin Roberts Qualifications: Lecturer in Classics (Part-time) at King’s College London Research Associate (Contract) at Institute of Classical Studies, University of London Doctor of Philosophy-PhD, Classics: Thesis: Echoes of the Underworld: Manifestations of Death-related Gods in Early Greek Cult and Literature Master of Arts-MA, Classics, High Distinction: Thesis: The Initiation of Orestes in Aischylos’s Eumenides Bachelor of Arts with Honours- BA(Hons), Classics, First class Honours: Thesis: Colonisation as a Pretext for Ritual Purification [in Ancient Greece]

Obviously, Dr. Ellie Roberts is very qualified in her field, and well learned. But, I feel her piece Heroines of Olympus: The Women of Greek Mythology does not reflect this knowledge of hers.

From an overview standpoint, the book just doesn’t have the space to do what she’s aiming to do.

The book states it is

[providing] an indispensable contemporary perspective on these extraordinary women” (summary)

and yet each woman only has 4 pages dedicated to them. Of these 4 pages, 1 is an illustration (not always accurate to mythical descriptions re: Andromeda who is portrayed white when she is black and stated such in mythos).

The 1st page given in these individual sections are a blurb, commonly pulled from part of their mythos, but not an accurate one. Take the blurb on Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt). The myth itself gives a very serious feel to this piece, showcasing Artemis as a Goddess seeking to have her requests granted by Zeus, but the blurb the book gives has a very childish feel.

Artemis in the mythos focuses on the benefits of her requests, and assures her father she does not want too much

“Father, I ask thee not for a quiver or for a mighty bow: for the Kyklopes will straightway fashion arrows and fashion me a well-bent bow” Callimachus, Hymn 3

but the Artemis of the book does no such reassurance

“I want a bow and straight-shooting arrows” pg 32

In addition, in the mythos Artemis treats her duty to women as the patron of childbirth seriously

“I will visit only when women vexed by t he sharp pang of childbirth call me to their aid—even in the hour when I was born the Moiari ordained that I should be their helper” Callimachus, Hymn 3

but in the book she acts displeased and sulks

“Suddenly, a gloomy look came over the child’s face as she said ‘And also because the Moirai […] decided that I should be the one who has to look after childbirth” pg 32

Most of the blurbs in the 1st page are not so clearly pulled directly from paraphrasing the myths, some are more akin to summaries, but brief and missing many details (Athena, Cassandra, Echo, etc). Others are more akin to imagining what the person(s) may have thought or felt in particular moments (Echidna and Scylla, Erinyes, Hermione, etc). None of these pieces hold exact quotes or explanations for the meanings of them.

These blurbs are clearly meant to give more feeling to them, but the feeling given is one very different from the myth they are coming from, and I feel it gives an inaccurate portrayal of the beings spoken of.

The 2nd page of the 4 given pages is an illustration, done predominately in orange and black each illustration is simple and done in a simple line art style. While it is more than understandable for these to not be perfectly accurate representations, seeing how a full page of the 4 given to each woman is dedicated to it, I would wish for these to properly support the figure shown. And yet, at the very least Andromeda is inaccurately portrayed.

She is from Ethiopia and stated in her myths to have “dusky” skin (Ovid, Heroides 15.3), particularly noted to be in contrast to that of Perseus and compared to pigeons being with those of different colored feathers. But the artwork shown of her makes her feel fair skinned, in direct contrast to Atlanta who is given a black predominate appearance and appears as a POC (showing it is a purposeful choice to portray her as such).

It should be noted that while all the women have four pages dedicated to them, this holds the exception of Echo, who only holds the blurb and the illustration. There are no additional pages for her.

The 3rd and 4th pages are dedicated to a brief overview of their lives. For every single woman they have solely 2 pages to showcase their whole lives, this is understandably impossible.

Some of the women don’t have much information in mythology and ergo can be summarized quickly. Others, such as the major Goddesses mentioned… well they have a lot more to them than are portrayed.

As Dr. Roberts has written a thorough article on the Peplos and it’s purpose in the worship of Athena (Weaving for Athena: The Arrhephoroi, Panathenaia, and Mundane Acts of Religious Devotion) I will be using Athena’s article for this analysis (as she is clearly fairly informed on Athena and ergo should be able to put proper information here).

Athena’s piece covers her birth in the blurb at the top of the 3rd page, and then quickly covered the realms she ruled over (though only the most predominate of them). It spoke then of her nature (calm and inclined to peace when possible) and her skills (a great fighter), along with what she had done for humanity (teaching men military tactics and mathematics, and teaching women to spin yarn, weave cloth, and to cook). It then covers her being a perpetual maiden, by choice, and here is where it drifts.

The stories are supposed to cover the women, to showcase their achievements and glory, and yet her piece turns to focusing on the child Erichthonius, the result of Hephaestus attempting to seduce her (and failing). The next half page (of 2 pages) covers the child resulting of this, and those that she entrusted the child too and the result of this. This is a gross waste of space that could be covering her mythos, victories, worship, or history.

After that is the myth of Arachne, though lacking in the context and calling Athena jealous of Arachne, when in actuality the Arachne myth covers how Arachne disrespected Athena several times, despite Athena attempting to give her a pass and a path to forgiveness.

Finally, it ends covering her olive tree in Athens, which is a neat closing. (pg. 42-43)

Overall, this piece just does not cover Athena as a whole. It is very very brief, covering one myth in more detail than the rest (and not one focusing on Athena herself) and then portrays Athena badly for actions that were done to one showing great hubris despite being given mercy. The portrayal does not properly showcase the Goddess Athena, and is akin to a quick wiki article, with all the innacuracies that come with it.

This style is repeated with other articles in the book, Artemis notable in how the myth of Callisto is treated as a great cruelty of Athena, rather than a complex tragedy (and the myth has many versions, none of which have Artemis knowing that Callisto unwillingly or through trickery gave up her virginity to Zeus).

And even on top of that, some of the claims in the summary pages are from obscure mythos, with little actually supporting it. Such as the claim that Amphitrite cursed Scylla to be what she is. This only has the support of a single Scholia of the Aeneid, with about 6 other sources claiming Scylla was born a monster, and another 2 claiming she was transformed by Circe.

Another issue of these pieces is that despite the purpose being to highlight the women’s accomplishments, many of them cover the men around the women just as much if not more so. In normal mythological pieces this is rather expected, as the myths are written in a fairly sexist time period and ergo the men have more victory (though this varies depending on the myth). But in a book supposed to highlight the women of the myths? It is a shame and undermines the purpose of the book.

Overall, I was disappointed by the book and wish that it was longer with more information, and in particular proper sourcing. It does not give women the spotlight expected, and has a habit of demonizing the Goddesses mentioned without consideration of the intent of the actions or the time period they were written in. On top of that, there is a lack of recognition of difference in terminology meaning, such as the term rape, which meant to have a sexual relation without permission of the Father in that time period. The woman’s consent mattered little to the definition, but she treats it as the modern term through her writing.

#life reviews #book review #Heroines of Olympus #Heroines of Olympus: The Women of Greek Mythology #Dr. Ellie Mackin Roberts #Dr. Ellie Roberts #greek mythology #hellenic chat #greek mythos

25 notes · View notes

seattlesea · 3 years

Text

✨My (maybe) Unpopular Heroes of Olympus Opinions✨

(maybe part one??? idk)

-I don’t really ship any of the main canon ships in HoO. None of them had any chemistry and most of them are either pedophilic, forced and rushed, or toxic in some way

-Most of the characters that were shoved into relationships (Leo, Nico, and Hazel especially) really did not need a love interest to complete their character arcs and their relationships ended up boring and flat cause Riordan just wanted everyone to have a love interest and it never went deeper than the skin

-Piper took advantage over Jason’s amnesiac state and manipulated him. She really went ‘But what if he has a girlfriend he can’t remember 👉👈 it would be wrong to start a relationship with him while he still has amnesia 👉👈 and cause it was based off lies and fake memories 👉👈 lmao imma just jump all over him and make him fall for me while he’s still amnesiac 🤪’ as if that’s not taking advantage over someone’s mental state

-And then she blamed her relationship being forced on Aphrodite and Hera saying they ‘forced her into a relationship’ and ‘arranged their relationship’ even though Aphrodite never said anything about or did anything to them and Hera gave Piper fake memories of them being a couple but it was Piper’s conscious choice to act out on those memories she knew were fake and her relationship was in no way influenced by anyone (especially Hera and Aphrodite) other than herself

-Shelper and Solangelo were way too rushed and forced (inside and outside of the books) and were only added for publicity, plus it seems like most of the fandom only like them cause they’re LGBTQ+ ships

-I hate Pipeyna and Pipabeth. My girls (especially Reyna) deserve better than some manipulative little girl who went ‘we were friends? no weren’t ❤️’

-The fandom portrays the characters really inaccurately (tweaking them a bit for humor is fine, but changing their entire personality is a different thing)

-The movies actually aren’t that bad when not compared to the books (I mean, you gotta admit- it’s pretty good effects for 2010)

-And speaking of the movies, they did a better job at portraying Thalia and Annabeth’s relationship in one movie than Riordan did in 5+ books

-Speaking of which, Riordan wrote pretty much every platonic friendship that weren’t Thalia/Nico and Reyna horribly and most of them shouldn’t have been friends and wasted all the potential for the good friendships

-Calypso should’ve joined the Hunters, not Reyna

-Annabeth and Piper are horrible friends lmao (separately and together)

-Silena is a hero and deserves redemption, but Luke doesn’t despite most of the fandom agreeing he does (he was a pedophile y’all)

-The fandom over-exaggerated the Tartarus fall, it wasn’t really that bad tbh

-Reyna is stronger and a better leader than Annabeth

-Annabeth’s intelligence is more tell than show (and quite a few characters including Leo, Reyna, and Octavian have shown more intelligence than her)

-Riordan over-glorifies and overpowers Percy way too much. Just cause he’s the main character doesn’t mean he has to be the best of the best after barely 8 months of training (four years at CHB only in the summers is 8 months total)

-Speaking of which, Jason can beat Percy (8 months versus Jason’s twelve years) and so can Annabeth, Reyna, Thalia, Hylla, Luke, Hazel and maybe Frank and Nico. Percy’s skill is overrated and unrealistic

-And I feel like most of the fandom knows that Jason can beat Percy but just doesn’t want to admit it cause they like Percy more

-Same thing with the Greeks and Romans- the majority know the Romans are stronger and can easily beat the Greeks but they don’t want to believe it cause they favor the Greeks more

-Percy and Annabeth shouldn’t have been part of the Seven, they already had their chance to shine. Riordan should’ve brought minor characters into light instead

-And Piper shouldn’t have been part of the Seven either. Riordan really expects me to believe that she’s stronger, more powerful, and a greater/better hero and deserved to be part of the Seven more than Reyna, Nico, Clarisse, Thalia, etc.?

-Riordan’s women line-up of Reyna, Annabeth, Hazel, and Piper was really cheap and boring (Avengers: Endgame women line-up who?)

-Percy (in HoO) and Piper are easily some of the worst, most underdeveloped characters Riordan has ever written

-Annabeth got really bland and weak in HoO and couldn’t do shit for herself without others (especially newbies) having to help and/or save her. She pretty much became exclusively Percy fangirl

-As much as I like them, Frank and Hazel don’t have what it takes to be Praetors and Reyna and Jason should’ve stayed as them

-Jason’s whole ‘am I more Greek or Roman’ arc was dumb af

-Riordan’s bias towards the Romans is also dumb af (the Romans could beat the Greeks in an instant)

-Jeyna is and always will be 1000x better than Jiper

-Hazel is the most powerful demigod (way more than Percy and even Jason)

-My hot take on who should’ve been the Seven: Reyna, Nico, Thalia, Frank, Hazel, Leo, and Clovis (son of the god of sleep puts Gaea back to sleep who?)

-Riordan confirming Piper bi was a cheap move to make her more likable. It didn’t even make any sense. A character is confirmed LGBT only after they become a minor character despite being a main character before and kisses some random unnamed girl only three months after her ex-boyfriend whom she still loved dies??? girl what??? Kinda obvious it was just for publicity. Like- Riordan, honey, the LGBTQ+ community is not a circus you can plop your characters into to make them more entertaining❤️

-The PJ series as a whole isn’t that creative. It’s legit just a copy of exactly what past mythological figures have already done and a bunch of character tropes and clichés shoved into one book

-And in general it’s not even that well-written (like HP, it’s over-exaggerated a lot)

-All of the romantic relationships and platonic friendships are extremely unrealistic. Like they never argue/fight, disagree, etc. (then grow stronger from those fights) at all??? Even if they’re complete opposites???

-Reyna is the best-written character in the whole series and a queen she deserved better and y’all sit on her too much

-Theyna is ✨amazing✨ their dynamic and chemistry was just *mwah Pansexual Muslim blessings to you* and people are allowed to ship them even though they’re Hunters and swore off love

-Rachel doesn’t deserve all the hate she gets. Y’all hate on her cause she crushed on Percy when half of you are doing the same thing and then y’all go and ship Percy with Nico, Jason, Artemis, Athena, etc.

-If y’all want to hate on Jason for ‘not having a personality’ you’d also have to hate on most of the main HoO characters except Reyna, Nico, and Leo (and maybe Hazel) for the same reason cause they have the exact same problem tbh

-Zoë and Bianca’s deaths weren’t actually that sad. We didn’t get to see them enough nor did they have enough development for their deaths to have a real impact. The only sad thing about them was Zoë’s last words and Nico’s reaction

-Thalia needed more time in the books

-Reyna was the only main female character in HoO that wasn’t a boring, bland Mary Sue that all the other characters automatically loved. She was the only one with real flaws and distinct personality traits she’s my queen

-Piper, Annabeth, and Calypso did have flaws but the fact that they weren’t called out by other characters or even noticed are what makes them Mary Sues. It doesn’t matter how many flaws a character has, if they’re not called out by other characters (more specifically, other protagonists who actually like them) they don’t count as real character flaws

-Riordan can’t write female characters for shit

-Clarisse, Drew, and Octavian deserved better than being completely antagonized for no explained reason other than to make the protagonists seem better and to make the readers root for them. Those three had more potential than most of the Seven combined

-The whole ‘Aphrodite kids don’t train’ thing is bs. It’s specifically stated that all the demigods follow a strict schedule and have to follow it or they’ll be on stable duty or smth and the Aphrodite kids shouldn’t (and can’t) be excused from that

-Therefore, Drew should be way more powerful and skilled than Piper, at least enough to not back down automatically from a duel by a newbie who hasn’t even learned how to fight (Drew can control an entire cabin of people at once and Piper can barely control one person at a time, who’s more powerful again??)

-Also I have no idea why Riordan portrays all the Aphrodite kids as weak and girly in the first place. ‘Femininity’ and ‘weakness’ are not synonymous and ‘love’ and ‘beauty’ don’t equal ‘feminine’

-Speaking of which, love is actually really powerful but Piper doesn’t stand for love or ‘inner beauty’ and all her ‘thoughtful/insightful’ quotes in ToA/TBM about love were complete bs

-Riordan using the LGBTQ+ community for the sole purpose of making Piper seem more likable and ‘special’ was disgusting and proves he thinks that straight is the default- “...Or Hera’s ideas of what a perfect couple looked like. Piper finding her own way, not the one people expected of her” my ass. In other words, he’s saying ‘The expectations for love and the idea of a perfect couple are a heterosexual relationship, and anyone who 'finds their own way instead of the ones people expect’ are different’. ‘Different’ and ‘default’ are antonyms, so if you think LGBT people are different, then you think that straight is the default. Aphrodite is the goddess of love not heteronormative bullshit. Like Riordan, honey, you’re the one who thinks that the expectations for love and the idea of a perfect couple are heterosexual couples, not fictional gods from a fictional mythology. Remember kiddos- an author writes their own beliefs

If you don’t agree with some of these that’s fine sis it doesn’t matter if you have different opinions than me❤️

#heroes of olympus #opinion #unpopular opinions #percy jackson #annabeth chase #jason grace #frank zhang #hazel levesque #leo valdez #reyna ramirez arellano #reyna avila ramirez arellano #thalia grace #nico di angelo #zoe nightshade #bianca di angelo #will solace #clarisse la rue #octavian #ships

113 notes · View notes