#but it's greek hmmmmmm

[wisheswagered]

thinking about fucking around and messing with ancient greek mythology (which, disclaimer, i know literally nothing about) for frederick...

i know he references euterpe in aom, which apparently was a common thing for musicians to do anyway, BUT. what if something something the kreiburg family actually was blessed by euterpe, who did actually exist (though likely not in the form that humanity/the ancient greeks thought of) - except frederick, instead of being favoured by euterpe, was favoured by melpomene instead??

now i could be way off base because i’ve only done a quick google search but apparently melpomene is a sister of euterpe, and while the latter is the muse of music among other things, melpomene is most often known as the muse of tragedy. which would be SO COOL TO LINK WITH FREDERICK

idk if i’d want it to be him being somehow blessed/favoured by her, or actually related to her, or linked in some other way... i just love the concept. maybe he shares some connections to sirens as well, which i believe in some stories were seen as melpomene’s children?

anyway if anyone more knowledgeable about greek mythology is reading this post and cringing at my inaccuracies, i am. so sorry. but i’d love to hear your thoughts on how i could get a link like this to work!!

#ooc #torn between wanting to make frederick partially non-human #vs keeping him fully human but with some other connection to the greek muses... #hmmmmmm #idk if i'd make this a main headcanon of mine or just make a specific verse for it but!!

[cacaobean760]

Leander Characteristics

So for the past posts about Leander I have been talking about the lines that stood out to me but now I am going to be talking about his character design. I am also not sure how into theories I am going to be going into with Leander because there are a lot out there but I think I am just gonna be talking about the main things or facts that I think are heavily implied.

So lets first talk about Leanders name because I think that is the biggest hint we have for his background.

So I am just gonna throw a bunch of screenshots talking about Leander the Greek Mythology and also the flower and then I will talk about it after

OK, so we know from this Greek Mythology that Hero and Leander were in love and that Leander would swim over to meet with Hero. We also know that Hero is a priestess of Aphrodite. And what is Aphrodite the Goddess of?? That is right, Sexual Love and Beauty, Which Leander shows throughout the games demo soooo, take that as you will. Also I might bring up the virgin point later but for now im just gonna leave it here. Also in the third pic, Leander is describes as using charm(which again, Leander uses a lot though out the demo) and that, Hero being a virgin, is not something that Aphrodite would want being the goddess of love and sex. So once they become a....Situationship????? Leander keeps visiting Hero every night, but one night he gets drowned. Now as of right now, I don't think the torch or light thing is super important because I don't think there is anything in the game that mentions it so im not gonna talk about it right now either. But we then find out that Hero finds Leander's body dead on the shore but he is holding flowers in his hand....Remind me again what the first thing Leander gives to us is hmmmmmm*sideways glance* So then Hero starts wailing "O Lender" over and over, and so that is how the flower, Oleander, Got it's name. And guess what, Oleander just happens to be super toxic. Uhhhhh does this imply something for Leander's character, I'll let you decide. And even though this is known to be a super toxic flower it is still used for landscape because it is considered pretty or attractive, beautiful even. And we all know by now what Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of. I also don't know if it will become a big thing later in the game with the fact that Hero then also joins Leander in death but again, as of right now, ill just leave this here. So then you may be asking, If Leander died then how would he be alive in the game?? Well I am glad you asked.

Through out Leander's character, there are multipule instances of the idea of youth, or rebirth. Again if we go back to the flowers Leander gives us, they are noted to be white Lilles, now what do white lilies symbolize???

Ok so if Leander did die, he somehow came back to life so yes, rebirth.

While looking for Leander at first we are looking out for his dagger shaped earing, but what is this dagger going through exactly? Well, I think it is the Ouroboros symbol. And what does that mean exactly?

We can see this design on Leander's earring like I said

Actually without closely looking at this, it just looked like a normal circle but up close, it is a snake eating itself. Again with the theme of rebirth.

Now when we go to look at the symbol on Leander's belt, the whole entire structure of the belt looks like the symbol that represents the mother, maiden and the crone.

So the main point for this symbol is youthfulness or in a way, rebirth

Now when looking at the middle of the belt the symbol looks like the symbol for Aphrodite which Leander's lover, Hero, was a priestess too, they look....pretty similar right? Also just another note that doves and sparrows are also a symbol for Aphrodite andddddd what does Ais call Mhin and the MC for their nickname hmmmmmm???

okokok, so there are a lot of symbols for rebirth on Leander but what else. By now one can assume that Leander died and had been revived or rebirthed. But is there something that also leads to this conclusion without it being a symbol, why yes there is. In fact, we can see that a core color of Leander's character is green and we all know that green is related to growth or growing or rebirth??? Thus the green color leading us to talk about Leander's eyes. So lets actually talk about Leanders eye color

I actually saw a post about this so this is not my discovery but his eye color is Paris Green and guess what a fun little fact about this paint is. Yep! you guessed it, it is indeed, toxic.

So that is so slay for Leander. In fact, it's not even used now because of how toxic it is

So, so far we have a toxic flower AND a toxic Paint that goes with Leanders character.

But I want to stay on Leander's eyes for just another sec because there is also something more interesting going on in them then just the color. When we first see Leander in the CG Leander is using magic and so along with all the other sparks around him that are happening while doing his magic, there is also a "spark" or a glint sort to speak in his eye

Now, this is not super unusual because in other games or novels, the characters eyes or hair have been describe to "light up" when using magic but.....This glint never goes away

Now I can understand while using magic there would be a glint but when he is not doing anything? Unless...he is using magic constantly. I mean if he was dead, and he did get rebirthed or revived, who says it was a one time thing. What if he constantly has to use magic to keep him alive or something along the lines of that.

So if Leander did get revived or has been rebirthed but has kept all his knowledge it would explain some of the lines that stuck out to me when interacting with Leander. I mean if he is not actually in his 30's like people think he is but he is actually much older, old enough to have Greek Mythology about him, it would explain why he is so powerful or such a good mage. Like I said, I have talked about this in my previous posts about Leander and the lines that were weird to me but there are quite a few lines or situations that tell us that Leander is very strong. So lets look at a few of these situations...

First when Leander initially summons the flowers, if you choose the Alchemist background, you note that he did not need a spell circle, he just straight up summoned the flowers. And from further dialogue we can come to the conclusion that this is not normal and Leander must be a "very gifted mage"

Second when we tell Leander we are cursed and then he seems very curious and asks us if it is "ancestral or more recent". We know that Leander did not go to study at the Senobium soooooo how would he know about curses. I can kinda understand the "more recent" curses. But ancestral.....How would he even know about it and why is he so interested in it?? I mean if he really is the Leander from the Greek Myth then, Leander would be pretty old, old enough to learn about curses and even more so for ancestral curses.

Then when we talk to Leander about picking fights with Ais and trying to kill him, he just brushes it off completely and he is not the least bit worried. I mean I feel like any normal mage would be worried even if they were very good at what they do. Soooo I feel like you would have to be around a pretty long time to not be the least bit scared or nervous about messing with a monster.

And this will finally be my last point about Leander's character. It is his motto on the Bloodhound poster which is, "as above, so below". At first glance it does not seem that significant. I mean the Bloodhounds are all about helping the lower class so it is more equal to the upper class so that is probably what the motto means. This is also reinforced when you learn the fact that Leander is the son of an old Hightown Family and then runs away and joins in with the Lowtown so ya, they are trying to bridge the wage gap. But maybe, just maybe, If Leander is the Leander that died in the Greek Myth, it actually stands from something like...Heaven and Earth? Two different planes where one is above and the other is below??

Anyways that it all but let me know if you guys liked this and if you have something to add on!

#leander #pretty boys #gaming #touchstarved game #touchstarved #leander ts #touchstarved leander

[thethinkingaurora]

Hey you, the one with the 'cool thing you think about but don't get to talk about as much as you'd like to.' What is one thing you want to talk about, in as much detail as you'd like (I will read all of it).

Ok one thing that I really think is cool, hmmmmm

This happens every time I’m asked “what do you like” my brain just instantly vacates everything I do, it’s just like “Error 404: Life Experiences not found”

Hmmmmmm, I’d probably say ciphers/encryption

Ok so encryption and ciphers, simple in concept but holy hell does this shit get complex and fun fast

I first found out about them from the Secret Breakers book series (I love it, would definitely recommend), and then I went to a CTYI (Centre for Talented Youth Ireland) course and learned more about them and how they work, in between these two events I also did a load of research and got really hyper fixated on them, I then proceeded to learn more and begin creating my own and making my own little puzzles and stuff

Ok so encipherment and encryption both do a similar job, obfuscate a message to hide it, they were used in the World Wars to send messages to people in enemy lines on both sides (most notably the Enigma Machine), encryption often uses mathematics and numbers linked in certain ways to hide things, ciphers are a little different in the way they operate, ciphers are obfuscations but it’s easier to hide that they are obfuscations as they can often look like normal text

For example, the Baconian cipher uses something similar to binary and highlighted text to hide a message, so 00000 is A, 00001 is B, 00010 is C, so on, so where there is a one you highlight the letter

So to hide the word “hi” you need at least 10 letters, but less that 15, so “hello there” is our ten letters and hi translates to 00111 01000, so we highlight the letters specified, which gives us “hello there” (the baconian cipher was made by Sir Francis Bacon and he has many written letters with hidden messages in them, that’s all I can remember off the top of my head)

But using encryption (for example Base64) “hi” would become “aGk=“ which is much more obvious that it is a hidden message

I’ll explain how encryption is used in real life somewhat in a reblog later, I just want to get back to where I was as uI just accidentally deleted a huge chunk of what I had typed (as in I opened Google to check my spelling and tumblr decided it would be the perfect time to restart, I’m typing this on my phone)

Ok so onto the ciphers, the one that I really really like

So ciphers have been in use for millennia, I’ll start with a common enough one, The Polybius Square

The Polybius Square was created by an Ancient Greek scholar called Polybius(yeah he tried really hard when naming his cipher), the cipher is a simple enough substitution cipher (a substitution cipher is where certain letters or symbols are replaced by others things), where letters are replaced using 2 digits which mark there position on the square

Which looks like this, it goes like this 11=A, 12=B, 13=C, 14=D, 15=E, 21=F, and so on, you’ll notice that in 24, instead of a single letter is both “i” and “j” simply for the reason that you can’t make a square out of 26 boxes

Early ciphers were often only used by themselves but later they were used together to make more complex ciphers whether this be where it was encoded once and then encoded again or that the two were used at the same time to do some funny shenanigans

A great example of this is the ADGFX cipher which uses a modified Polybius Square along with Columnar Transpostion

Ok I’ll explain the ADGFX cipher in just a second ima explain columnar transposition first, so with columnar transposition you need a key, we’ll use “cargo” (the general standard) so first take your message and split it into groups with the amount of characters in the group corresponding to the length of the key (So “we need to attack soon”, would be grouped into groups of 5 when using a key like cargo, the groups would look like this “wenee dtoat tacks oon”)

Next you align the groups under the key

Here is one using the example message of “we need to attack soon”

Ok next you need to take the letters in your key and arrange them alphabetically, so cargo become acgor, now take the columns you made and shift them along with the key letters

Like this

So now that we have our letters it’s easy, we take them from left to right, top to bottom and write them out, leaving us with, “eweentdatoatkscoon” with the key of cargo, now if most people were given that they wouldn’t have the slightest clue what to do

So now imagine if we added more layers, like in the ADGFX cipher

Long story short, you take a custom alphabet and replace the letters in a Polybius square with them, then replace the numbers in the square with ADGFX

There is one that I stole from Google

So you encode your message using the square and then with the result you use the columnar transposition that we discussed earlier and then you have your final encoded message, unless you want to add more bullshit to it, like idk a A1Z26 cipher, changing the letters to numbers, or maybe a binary converter, or maybe a morse encoder, actually why not all of them

And that’s where shit starts getting fun (for me anyway, where you stack the jenga tower of encoding hoping that one of the ciphers in it doesn’t need numbers or spaces which other ciphers can’t use

Oh another fun thing, a number and text where you have to convert the number to binary and use that to highlight letters which are the encoded message, or are they

And that’s why I absolutely love encoding and ciphers so much because you can create such interesting little things that can become games, or just brand new ciphers where you have to spot little patterns or grab little ideas and run with them hoping that that was the way it works

Actually one last thing before I go, my own encipherment method which I couldn’t find anywhere online, and thus gave it a name

The Eclipsed Polybius Square (EPS)

Ok so the name comes from a name I used to go by (Which was Eclispe) and then the Polybius Square

Ok so I’ve written documentation of it countless times, but I can never explain it off the top of my head, I know how it works, it’s just stored in the depths of the blob of synapses that is in my skull

Ok so first step, take your message and use a Polybius square to turn it into the numbers,

I am struggling to figure out how to write this

Here is an example which I used in an sort of puzzle hunt that I made for some friends (If you notice the name Lily there, it’s a character within the story of the puzzle hunt, game, thing)

Ok so see how some of the words are highlighted, they indicate numbers for the Polybius square

So “the” is in bold and it’s 3 letters long so we get the number 3, then “to” is in bold so we get 2, these two give us 32 which is our first letter “M”, then we have “get” which is 3, then “time” which is 4, now we have our next letter 34 which is “O”, and this continues to give us a whole word

You’re welcome to solve the rest if you want(send it to me if you do, whether that be in DMs or reblog)

Also just a note, when making the text which will hold the code, I’d recommend making the code first and then writing the text working around the code to get it in using as little words as possible, or you might end up like I did with all of the text there only giving 1 word

Actually actually, I have one last thing, thank you @rookieroc for asking, I have been dying to talk about this and so much more but I just haven’t found anyone to say it about

P.S. I will most likely add to this over time with reblogs with more information on different ciphers

#ciphers #puzzles #encryption #cryptography #god I love ciphers #again thank you @rookieroc for giving me the opportunity to share this knowledge #whadda ya mean it’s half past 2 in the morning #where tf did my time go

[hoellergic]

♡ S/ANJI SNEEZECANONS  !

because they had NO right to cast that man as hot as they did or make him as suave as they did (he's such an IDIOT in the manga/anime but they were like hmmmmmm lets cast an actual greek god of fuck to play himhdkhksjad)

gets set off by his cooking and is not embarrassed by it. strong spices are the mark of a good chef, sneezing in the kitchen is normal and expected

i picture a lot of open-mouthed muffled sneezes into the towel that he usually has draped over his shoulder?

but sometimes if they surprise him he has to turn away really fast and catch a sneeze across the back of his slutty little wrist

nostril flarer to the max, i mean LOOK at them they have to be so expressive when he has to sneeze

the kind of person who can smile through a sneeze and keep on being charming without missing a beat

i want to say he sneezes in twos almost religiously because it's my favorite, but if something really sets him off he can go for a while just with ten seconds in between each one (much to z/oro's annoyance)

speaking of z/oro kink!z/oro is everything to me because s/anji would be a MENACE

hands are always in his pockets so sneezes sometimes take him by surprise, which is the only time he gets embarrassed by them

he's so tall and LEGGY sometimes his sneezes bend him right in half

rolled up sleeves of his dress shirt means he has to use something else to wipe his nose

strong, harsh sneezes but also fairly contained? he's been working on the line since he was a kid i think he knows how to keep them tight and minimal even when he doesn't have to

his skin is so perfect i know his nose gets red as hell when something is bothering him

photic sneezer thanks for coming to my ted talk

smoke doesn't bother him because he chain smokes like a madman but i think if he was having a fit already it might make it worse (and he might not care)

his stupid hair gets all in his face when he sneezes and it makes him look disheveled and beautiful and i HATE HIM SO MUCH

#idk if anyone has even watched the live action #but its great #they casted everyone so beautifully #its a crime #m/ihawk my beloved #and s/hanks #if anyone else has snzcanons about them please tell me i will probably ascend #who will tell me about b/uggys snz #who will do it #who will be brave enough

[jarondont]

Hi! Important question: who would be your patron deity if you were a greek heroine/hero??

Mine would be a deity far above Zeus, so I don't die in the first place and stay away from Aphrodite, her shipping reflexes are insane. Most probably Nix, Eos or Pontus :o

Oh um hmmmmmm

Probably Athena. I'd say Artemis too but I'm too romantic for that XD

Yeah Athena, no specific reason. Great answer though, love that!

#titi answers #ancient greek #greek mythology #athena #artemis

[kaijuconfessions]

Chemistry class anon reminded me of my wonderful high school chem class.

Somehow we ended up with only 11 people in our class

9 idiot boys, 1 unfortunate autistic boy who spent the semester bewildered by everyone else's shenanigans, and one unfortunate girl

We were all honors students and we were all morons

Sometimes the teacher would just... Leave??? In the middle of class??? And a couple of the guys would go into the supply closet and eat as many sugar cubes as they could before she came back. They never got caught

Also one time while she was gone one dude started playing with the Bunsen burners and burned his eyebrow off

The lab safety videos we watched were cheesy as fuck and we constantly mocked them, usually (but not always) without consequence

I was not dumb enough to intentionally inhale mysterious fumes, but one time I stood like five feet back and made a big show of leaning slightly forward and taking a big whiff, and five feet was apparently NOT far enough. Turns out an effective way to clear your sinuses is to drop magnesium into hydrochloric acid and inhale the resulting gas

Our teacher was hot as fuck, biggest booty in the school, and fresh out of college and we were always trying to learn more about her. She said she was in a science fraternity in college and we were like "that's not a real frat" (because of course we all knew, as high schoolers, exactly what goes on in a frat), and she got mad and was like "yes it was a real frat! We had social events and costume parties and all kinds of stuff just like any other frat! We were just all nerds"

We asked what she dressed up as for a science frat Halloween party and she said she was Captain Action and her friend (who looked a lot like her but with slightly different coloring) was Captain Reaction. We asked if she could show us the costume and she was like "uhhhhhh idk if I have any pictures of that costume that I can show in school" and we were all like WHAT

We kept making fun of her for not being in a real frat like "pics or it didn't happen" and she eventually did start class one day like "so I found the pictures from the Halloween party and I do have pictures of my costume I can show you"

All the boys snap to attention like "I am looking respectfully"

That fucking costume man

Little red booty shorts

Homemade red cape

And a tight white tank top with a red A (for Action) painted on it

This was the same semester most of us were reading The Scarlet Letter in English class

I wonder why all the pictures she showed us were clearly from before the party or the beginning the party

I wonder what happened

Hmmmmmm

We concluded later that she must have done a wet T-shirt contest at the Halloween party

All of us decided we absolutely must join frats when we go to college

I was in a physics frat and let me tell you our parties were always wilder than my roommates' even though they were in greek sororities.

nerds are fucking insane when given alcohol and illicit drugs

[expfcultragreen]

Oh speaking of james somerton, i kind of expect him to drop a vid where he mostly apologizes to the gays but also claps back at todd in the shadows

I feel like james might be able to substantiate more than todd thinks?

Hmmmmmm.....

I feel like thats almost all he needs to knock that point off right there, it'd help to read all 4 in full

ETA let's get even more on point:

#james somerton

[bastardizedbitching]

ep 5 notes

the haircuts are NAMED that’s perfect

oh no the cloud kingdom

arin can hold 4 people up at once on a grapple cool as shit ngl

that dragon looks suspiciously ice themed hmmmmmm

the kids have been KIDNAPPED by the BEAST

why is there wind. WHY IS THERE WIND WHO HAS WIND POWERS oh shit morro from the hit show ninjago might have a successor

…idiots YOU DIDNT CLOSE THE RIFT

sir you are not the greek fates

arin and sora are quality bros

oh shit i think the new kid is in a cult that’s pretty shit for her

her name is euphrasia imma need a nickname. uhh euphie let’s go

who needs pep talks when you have a best bro huh

oh nya isn’t staying with the team fuck

#ninjago #dragons rising spoilers #dragons rising

[xgoddessoffandomsx]

@greek-freak101 @corrodxdcoffin @thebejeweledwatercat @axelwolf8109

Melissa Barrera fans are pushing for Abigail to be a success but: Universal supports Israel.

Yet they claim to be pro Palestine but they clearly only support Melissa. They don't care about the people being killed, they just want a movie to be successful, even though the studio supports Israel. Hmmmmmm

[transgendersquiddo]

tumblr user xxswagcorexx why do you insist on hiding away half your analyses/ramblings in the tags of your posts speak ur truth!!! anyway talk mythology andor symbolism to me whats the significance behind red's cult eating honey? do either of them get any items of power mixed up sometimes but just go whoops and move on like its no big deal? what would an outsider pov on this mess look like "ah that pair of lunatic gods again" bc this is sooo funny to me to imagine

i am . scared of everyone (and plus i don't wanna make the post too long and tags let me ramble without worrying abt length/mention small things without feeling like i need to format it properly ^_^

and uh abt the honey thing. this is where u can see this is Really inspired by greek mythology but basically in greek mythology, honey was seen as food of the gods and would provide gods immortality and whatnot ^_^ anyways i was like "hmmmmmm reddoons core" but also it just really works well. aesthetically for him

(AND GET READY FOR A LONG RAMBLE UNDER THE CUT)

anyways on the topic of the honey thing, i tend to associate red with gold because 1) money and 2) red and gold are a really classic color combo that i love, so honey (sorta) resembling molten gold is just. really aesthetically pleasing to me

and also iirc red wanted to make the byzantine empire in earthbound season 2? and when i came across a video on how to make byzantine honey fritters by tasting history with max miller i was like "omg reddoons core"--and from the video it seems like honey was a bit of a special dessert? in 6:33 of the video, there's a poem about a monk complaining about how the abbots have it a lot better than the monks and they mention that the abbots had 2nd helping of honey fritters so yeah i think its safe to assume honey was a semi-special thing, even if it was common. so uh. yeah. money and reddoons. thumbs up

and for the longest time i have associated bees and honey by rina sawayama with. swagdoons in general and the entire song is about how much the singer loves money and partying even if they're broke as shit LMAO its such a good bop if you like pop i recommend it . anyways ya that just added to the aesthetic in general

(as u can tell most of it was based off of vibes and plus in biased because i like how. warm milk and honey taste and plus i really like the idea of milk being something nurturing and honey being something sweet that is representative of love bc ur being sweet and easing someone into something so. Yeah. just vibes but how i figure out vibes are so specific that its worth explaining i think <- loves romanticizing the mundane) (and there's a sick ass line from the end poem like that) (like "And the player was a new human, never alive before, made from nothing but milk and love. You are the player. The story. The program. The human. Made from nothing but milk and love." come ON that line fucks so hard how couldn't i love it)

anyways i think with all of that in mind, red's cult would eat honey as a sign of wealth and comfort/nurturing 4 those reasons ^_^ (i am so sorry for all of that for explaining that i just have lots of Reasons to why i feel something sometimes)

WILDLY OFF TOPIC but u also asked abt items of power getting mixed up, i think it would happen most during worship </3 i think they'd just go to each other and be like "REDDOONS one of your cult members sacrificed blood as a loyalty pact to their partner instead of WAR again. u want it" and red would either let ash keep it or take it so uh. insert them sharing their power with each other here even though their values are usually on increasing ur ego and being on top of the world (CONSIDERING THIS FANDOM LOVES THEMES OF LOYALTY IN A GAY GAY HOMOSEXUAL WAY) (SEE WHY I DDNT WANT THEM COMING FROM ANOTHER GOD OR MERGING INTO 1 GOD) (THE IMPLICATIONS ARENT GOOD)

anyways i think ash and red (as gods) and their cults are pretty well known (like how swagdoons r the 2nd most popular ls ship) but LORD if their myths got lost to time they'd be a nightmare to study via texts and scripts in the future. like i can imagine for the LONGEST time historians argue if they were gods that changed during the dark ages because red's name predates ash until they Finally find a myth involving them as 2 different characters and its settled that they're 2 separate gods even though they represent similar-ish things LOL anyways yeah i can imagine more myths of them being found and historians going ??? wtd were these gods <3 hope that answers ur questions anon! :D

#swagdoons #ashswag #reddoons #tw swearing #media.warning.swearing #tw caps #media.warning.caps #mcytshipping #lsshipping #<- not really?? tbh i dont ship them myself but it Is mentioned a bit so #but also i am letting this out to the world for a reason . become a true mythology and make up whatever u wanna do with them ^_^ #death of that author or whatever . evolve them and make them ur own!!!!! #anyways ya i think red's cult would Really value material goods and focus on living ur best life in a lots of money and party kinda way #and i mentioned his would be more of an ideology so i think his practices would involve stuff involving shooting the shit and Capitalism #while with ash he gives u like. Things if you sacrifice and worship him (like winning a battle) #so ya #also iirc some religions Do talk abt money in their holy texts so perhaps some of reds myths r abt that #i should really make a tag for this huh. i cant think of any so uhhhhh #into the pantheon #<- yeah lets go with that 4 now #anyways ^_^ ty for the ask anon! #and i am So Sorry to the maintag for spamming i am just Ill about this concept #ask.core

[catilinas]

I'm currently reading lattimore's iliad, and I'm planning to read an oresteia translated by Anne Carson. What are some other works you'd recommend/love? And the translation you like. I want to read up on the classics as I didn't really go to school past 14, and I love how passionate you are about them, so I thought I'd ask, thanks either way!

hi! sorry for taking one million years to reply to this :/ every time i try to make a Brief list of my fave texts i explode. also please bear in mind that this is a list of Texts I Personally Really Like and not a list of Texts That Are The Hashtag Classical Canon.

if you enjoy(ed. it's been a while) the iliad and An Oresteia then probably try the odyssey? i like emily wilson's translation and also ive said this before but her introduction is soooooo good. she has a translation of the iliad coming out next year and i'm probably more excited to read her introduction to it than like. the actual translation

also in the genre of epic (the best genre) i actually prefer latin epic so. definitely the aeneid (post on different translations here!) which is also very uhhh foundational for so so much of subsequent latin literature. including my other favourite epic poem, lucan's pharsalia (post on translations again!) which is a historical epic about the civil war between caesar and pompey.

this is where the list gets very much into things i personally like. the pharsalia is so cool to me because it's not a history/historiography but it Does do weird things To history and gets away with them because of its genre. veryyy similarly, aeschylus' persians is a tragedy (the only surviving tragedy based on historical events!) about the persian response to defeat at the battle of salamis. i don't have a preferred translation for this one just read whatever! but definitely read some sort of introduction or the wikipedia page because it's weird for a Lot of reasons. also necromancy happens. and there's boats. what more can anyone want!

i've also been really into livy's ab urbe condita atm. it's a history of rome but the first 5 books especially are very. well i just don't think that actually happened. BUT the early roman like. political myth making is cool actually! (if only because if you read it then when lucan is like oh and the ghost of curius dentatus was there you can be like oh i know who that guy is! a Lot of latin lit involves invoking historical exempla and livy is a major source for a Lot of those.) i actually care very little about greek myth (and the take that the romans just 'stole' greek religion. like what) because i think the romans' mythologisation of e.g. lucius junius brutus is way more fun. but ALSO livy was writing a history starting from the Foundation of rome at a time when augustus was 'ReFounding' rome so you're always a bit like. hmmmmmm. or like you read about coriolanus in livy and you're like oh wow foreshadowing of the political situation that would later lead to the civil wars! but then you remember that livy was writing it After the civil wars and then you fall into the livian timeloop and then you explode.

ok now ignore livy because my favourite historian is actually sallust. would recommend william batstone's translation of (and introduction to) the bellum catilinae. Catilina Is There. sallust's catiline is soooooo sexy like his countenance was a civil war itself! enough eloquence but not enough wisdom! animus audax subdolus varius! he's haunted by sulla's ghost! he's didn't cause the fall of the republic so much as he was a symptom of it! he's an antihero! he's cicero's mimetic double! he probably doesn't drink blood! he would have died a beautiful death IF it had been on behalf of his country (except that quote is actually from florus maybe via livy lol)! He Did Nothing Wrong. you want to read the bellum catilinae soooooo bad. also it is v fun to read alongside with cicero's catilinarian orations (the invective speeches against catilina). i think i read the oxford world's classics translation of those but i Cannot remember who it is by.

also you know what i really like what i've read of florus' epitome of roman history which is maybe kind of a summary of livy but also florus is totally doing his own thing (he is sooo influenced by lucan! nice!) highly recommend the (relatively brief) section on the first punic war. it does cool things with boats.

i also love plutarch's life of cato the younger!!! one of my favourite ancient texts of all time ever. like a) it's plutarch and he is fun. would recommend the life of alexander the great as well tbh. and b) it's cato the younger and he is so so so fucked up.

finallyyyyyy bcs this is getting long. the poetry of catullus (and a post on translations is here!) like It's Catullus. the original poor little meow meow. what more can i say

#please be aware also that i made this list via What Came Into My Brain and in a few hours i'll probably be like #how the fuck did i forget like. idk. seneca's thyestes #actually real and true. senecan tragedy does also slap. emily wilsons translations are good also. #book list #beeps

[keii-starz]

13, 23, & 30 !!

13. so sorry, but I have literally no idea, lol!!! I do not remember what my last dream was about, whatsoever 😭😭😭

23. def lychee!!! I love sweet things sm!!! esp when it is anything lychee flavored!!! :DD

30. hmmmmmm probs medusa??? I love greek myths a ton, and medusa fascinates me al lot!! :00 I also feel rlly bad for her!! :(((

#keianswersasks!❥ ҉

[theunfairfolk]

re the minotaur--was referring to him as 'asterion' sort of like a kenning? as in, a different name for a thing (not like titles as in 'thor, red-bearded god of thunder, basher of giants, etc etc', or poetic like calling ships as 'sea-steeds', sorry if i don't make sense, idek if the ancient greeks had kenning-like words haha ^^')

HMMMMMM ok so i know what you mean (i think lmao) but i’m not sure if i could make that call. calling the minotaur asterion is sorta like calling coronavirus Miss Rona i.e. it’s a nickname used in a slightly mocking tone. i think a kenning would be more like calling him “maze-hider” or “flesh-eater” if i understand the concept correctly.

i also imagine it was sort of taking the power out of the name The Minotaur (like miss rona sounds less scary than Coronavirus). afaik the people using it weren’t too fond of minos or his dad (the og asterion) so i cant imagine it was used in at all a nice way (which is a bit of why i cringe at people saying It’s His Name, or that pasiphae named him asterion. why would she name her bull baby after her husband’s step father who was Famously Cucked By Bull-Zeus. it’s like naming ur pet stingray steve irwin.)

edit: anyone who wants to drop their 2 cents in on kenning please do

#the things i saw said it had to be a two word phrase so asterion wouldnt work #but idk if thats a hard and fast rule! #good question!!! #ask #anon #minotaur

[beatrice-reden-official]

Oh it's totally fine I used to loooove Greek myths and I really like Ride the Cyclone

The line may also be a callback to Jane talking about how when lionesses have cubs she stops making love to the lion so the lion will eat the guns to have the lioness' attention again

Oh i see hmmmmmm interesting

#ask

[kakashihasibs]

Ben!!! Hmmm… if you could visit anywhere in the world where would it be

Hmmmmmm either Georgia (the country not the US state lol) or Greece.

Georgia bc that's the most likely place my dad's side of the family is from (its very unsure bc racism and xenophobia making that side of my family incredibly hard to follow back. There's a little evidence for maybe north Iran but it's like dude idk 😔)

And Greece bc I'm a philosopher! :D and i am not immune to ancient Greek philosophy lol

I guess since the family stuff is so unsure I'm gonna go with Greece 🤔

#ask #ben gets personal

[possession1981]

If you could direct a movie (or movie series) what genre would be your first choice?

hmmmmmm 🤔🤔 it would probably be a tragedy honestly like i’d wanna write something that specifically uses the aristotelian rules for writing greek tragedy just to challenge myself to do it lol but i ALSO love a tragedy that’s like. spanning vast expanses of space and time. and tragedy is my favourite genre of. everything 😅 second choice would probably be horror

inbox me one (1) thing you want to know about me

#asks #jade🐸