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mrsdesade · 5 months

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meet my fandoms OCs!

This is gonna be a list always in update to show you my OCs included into famous fandoms; I'd like to have them separated by my 100% original stories; enjoy their playlists, infodumps and moodboards 🤍

For now I can offer to you them:

Mira (Marvel MCU)

Lara (The Sandman)

Nova (Alien Prometheus/Covenant)

Ophera (The Boys)

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Mira (of Blood and Mischief)

Fandom: Marvel (MCU) & X-Men Name: Mira (Miroslayra) Frost - Vein (X-Men name) Age: 37 Pronouns/Sexuality: she/her - pansexual Hair colour: white with red regrowth Eyes colour: red Height: 1.83cm Languages: Russian - English - Asgardian Job/Occupation: so many, she worked for the X-Men and Shield for a short time, she deserted due to an accident into her teaching role at the X-Academy, after she had a collaboration with the Avengers and worked for a short time to the TVA. She always lived being a defensor. Powers: blood manipulation - dimensional travel (after corruption arc) Pairing: Loki (previously Erik Lehnsherr) Parents: Emma Frost & Emplate Like: hot tea - discovering new music types - late night bath - sea and lakes - fireworks - meditation - learning unusual facts - bad jokes - simple designed clothes - her vintage iPod - travelling - sharing with others her knowledge - poetry - the space - training and fighting Dislike: extremely crowded places - cold weather - syringes and needles - everything that is medical related - lighthouses - noisy and loud people - stay alone at home for long times - Sentinels - sometimes Avengers

Mira Playlist 🎶

Mira Pinterest Board 🎨

Mira and Loki fanart 🖌️

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Lara (for your Eyes)

Fandom: Sandman Name: Lara Campbell-Fobso Age: 25 Pronouns/Sexuality: she/her - bisexual Hair colour: dyed dark red (originally brown) Eyes colour: hazel Height: 1.79cm Languages: English - French (not so much) Job/Occupation: no one, she was dreaming to became a writer or a journalist Powers: no one, she's human Pairing: The Corinthian Parents: unknown Like: hanging out - shooting polaroids - organize photos on her personal devices - writing - long car riding - dancing into the club - drinking alcohol - smoking - shopping on vintage store - luxury places that she cannot afford - physical contact - lazy days at home - sleeping for long times and dreaming Dislike: sand - following the rules - paying her rent and bills - working for the human system - the law - hot weather - people who makes fun of suicidal topics or psychiatric disorders

Lara Playlist 🎶

Lara Pinterest Board 🎨

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Nova (Heart-shaped Box)

Fandom: Alien Saga (Prometheus/Covenant) Name: Nova (synthetic model N.O.V.A 0) Age: 35 Pronouns/Sexuality: she/they - demisexual Hair colour: pearl white Eyes colour: transparent crystal white Height: 1.77cm Languages: she's programmed to speak all human languages and being able to communicate with numbers and morse code Job/Occupation: Commander for space missions for the Vasser-Armiger Corporation Powers: she's a sophysticated model of synthetic android, she has many abilities more than the humans, like speed, strenght, rapidity of thought, high IQ, she feel less pain, she's artificially made on the inside Pairing: David 8 Parents: created by the Vasser-Armiger Corporation Like: floating in zero gravity condition - staring at the deep space - listening philosophy about Gods and creations explained - instrumental synth music - admiring new life forms (at some points she find fascinating even Xenormorphs) - flying with a spaceship - accomplish her missions - still lakes views Dislike: lazyness - rude manners - disrespect towards androids - AI without intellectual freedom - humans corporations

Nova Playlist 🎶

Nova Pinterest Board 🎨

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Ophera (American Horror Show)

Fandom: The Boys Name: Ophera (Miranda Reinslayer) Age: 33 Pronouns/Sexuality: she/her - bisexual Hair colour: obsidian black Eyes colour: deep red Height: 1,75cm Languages: American English Job/Occupation: working superhero for the Vought; third member of the Seven Powers: metals manipulation, super strenght and she can feel less pain than normal Pairing: no one (abusive relationship with Homelander, faking to be a couple for the media) Parents: unknown

Like: rock live music - smoking - ride her motorcycle - flying high (but hate asking to Homelander so she fly with a private jet) - doing missions outside the country - Queen Maeve and Starlight Dislike: theatre - musical - radical religion -electric shocks jokes - Homelander - Madelyn Stillwell

Ophera Playlist 🎶

Ophera Pinterest Board 🎨

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aboutanancientenquiry · 6 months

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Herodotus, the Iliad, and the Greek Enlightenment

"Herodotus’ engagement with the poetic tradition begins in his opening sentence:

Ἡροδότου Ἁλικαρνησσέος ἱστορίης ἀπόδεξις ἥδε, ὡς µήτε τὰ γενόµενα ἐξ ἀνθρώπων τῷ χρόνῳ ἐξίτηλα γένηται, µήτε ἔργα µεγάλα τε καὶ θωµαστά, τὰ µὲν Ἕλλησι, τὰ δὲ βαρβάροισι ἀποδεχθέντα, ἀκλεᾶ γένηται, τά τε ἄλλα καὶ δι’ ἣν αἰτίην ἐπολέµησαν ἀλλήλοισι.18

Here are produced the results of the research carried out by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, intended to prevent deeds of human origin from fading away with the passage of time, and to preserve the fame of the important and remarkable achievements produced by both Greeks and non-Greeks, with a special focus on the reason why they went to war against one another.

Tilman Krischer has argued that in this sentence Herodotus both closely imitates and pointedly remodels the Homeric (especially the Iliadic) prooimion.19 Syntactic details aside, the most obvious reference to Homer and the subsequent poetic tradition is found in the second half of the purpose clause, where Herodotus announces his intention to prevent the great and marvelous achievements of Greeks and non-Greeks alike from becoming ἀκλεᾶ, from losing their fame or κλέος. Simon Goldhill has noted that ‘[i]n ancient Greek culture of all periods, the notion of kleos is linked in a fundamental way to the poet’s voice’,20 beginning with Homeric epic. Thus in claiming to preserve the kleos of remarkable deeds Herodotus audaciously appropriates for his ambitious prose work what had long been recognised as an essential function of poetic song.21 The military context of warfare between Greeks and a formidable Eastern foe underscores the special relevance of Homer’s Iliad as a model, which will be confirmed by numerous features in the narrative to follow. The appearance of the adjective ἀκλεής in prominent passages of the Iliad may also be relevant in this regard.22

At the same time, from the first word of his text Herodotus also underscores crucial differences that set his account apart from Homeric epic and establish its affinities with the intellectual milieu of the fifth century BC. With that first word Herodotus identifies himself by name as the origin and guarantor of his inquiry (historiê)—an authority fully human and independent of the Muses, the divine source and guarantors of the poet’s tale, who are conspicuously absent from an introduction that otherwise evokes the epic prooimion.23 A similar emphasis characterises Herodotus’ broad description of his subject matter as human deeds, τὰ γενόµενα ἐξ ἀνθρώπων, rather than the primeval deeds of gods and their heroic offspring (though both gods and heroes will have important roles to play in the Histories). So too at the end of the prologue Herodotus promises to traverse small and great cities of men (ἄστεα ἀνθρώπων, 1.5.3), and professes a knowledge of human prosperity (ἀνθρωπηίην… εὐδαιµονίην, 1.5.4) that informs his narrative as a whole.24

Beyond this emphatic anthropocentrism, certain key words in Herodotus’ opening sentence with contemporary connotations make the Histories not merely a product but indeed a fundamental document of what Goldhill calls the ‘Greek Enlightenment’—an intellectual revolution embracing a variety of fields (history, philosophy, natural and political science, rhetoric, and medicine), conducted in prose, and engaged in a ‘contest of authority’ with divinely inspired poetry, the traditionally privileged medium of expression in archaic Greece.25 As Thomas has demonstrated, in describing his own work as ἱστορίη, Herodotus associates it with other works of contemporary Ionian science understood in a broad sense to include the work of natural philosophers, sophists, and medical writers.26 More controversially, Thomas also discerns in the term ἀπόδεξις distinct overtones of rhetorical persuasion— implications of demonstration, display, and proof that encourage her to assimilate ἀπόδεξις with ἐπίδειξις, the term for the Sophistic display speech.27 Finally, at the end of the opening sentence, with the word αἰτίη, causality emerges as a focal point of Herodotus’ treatment of the Greco-Persian wars. Now there can be no denying that Homeric, and specifically Iliadic, precedent is relevant here, with regard to subject matter as well as syntax:28 Iliad I.8 poses the question, ‘Which of the gods, then, brought the two of them [sc. Agamemnon and Achilles] together to fight in strife?’ The Homeric question addresses the divine level of causation only, and has a straightforward answer in Apollo (although the human dimension of the quarrel will be explored in depth in the remainder of Iliad I). While Goldhill overstates the simplicity of the Homeric treatment of causation, I share his view that the search for aitiê,, the cause of things, assumes a new significance in the fifth century as ‘a foundational gesture of the new self-reflexive scientific thinking’.29 Herodotus’ use of the term to mark the climax of his opening sentence and the special focus of his narrative needs to be seen in this context."

From the article of Charles C. Chiasson "Herodotus' Prologue and the Greek Poetic Tradition", Histos 6 (2012), 114-143

#herodotus #the histories #homer #the iliad #charles c chiasson

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musicallisto · 2 years

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May I request 👒 for Edmund Pevensie of Narnia? Thank you and congrats ✨

𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬: Ravenclaw, INFJ, my enneagram is 4w5 and my moral alignment is Neutral Good. I may have a slight introverted tendencies and awkward nature, I describe myself as fiery, swears like a sailor, confident, jokester, and, passionate. Religious, super talkative, sometimes hyper (because of excitement), giggly (I always laugh for stupid reasons), nerdy, actually sweet and nice though I can be aloof, intimidating, and scary when I get so angry. I tend to become really fiesty, stands boldly on what I believe (claiming myself as a realist though some of my views doesn't makes sense), and unbothered to be true to myself, clumsy, stubborn, hopeless romantic, young-at-heart, unfortunate and inattentive. I have "no bs" towards the people that I hate, sarcasam and savagery is my main language. But on the other side, I overthink a lot and cry over small things many times, small mistakes leads me to provoke me even more that sounds like a drama queen, yet recognizes a soft spot for dumb jokes, cheesy pickup lines and prefer people with a good sense of humour who see myself as equal. Chill in academics, but very competitive that manages to the top even for my dreams---I'm very dedicated on what I want for my life, and I display modesty and gracefulness towards some people that deserves respect. One notable feature about her is her multi-potentiality due to being naturally gifted in artistic fields (this includes singing).

𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗦: Arts, choir, poetry, karaoke, literature, history, makeup, beauty pageants, fun/deep/dumb conversations, expanding my knowledge in Christianity, documentaries (about saints), reading interesting stuffs, talking about social issues, and creative writing, chilling both indoors and outdoors.

𝗛𝗢𝗕𝗕𝗜𝗘𝗦: Drawing, singing, dancing when nobody's around (I'm very bad at it), sharing nerdy or opinionated thoughts, walking like a model (if I ever feel so confident), sleeping, listening to music (from rock to kpop), chatting or browsing on social media, watching videos on YouTube, making terrible jokes/puns, watching cartoons, writing, reading interesting things, and conceptualizing my artworks. I also used to study Italian language a bit

some headcanons about your relationship with edmund pevensie...

you attended an all girls private school in London, and sure enough, Edmund attended the all boys private school immediately next to yours. no one would have pegged you for the rule-breaker type, and in a way you weren't (it was completely harmless, after all!), but a well-known hole in the fence between the two schoolyards was all you needed to meet and play with Edmund

you'd talk all your days away, dreaming about magical worlds and blessed places, truly anywhere other than your city where war was brewing.

until he disappeared one day, sent to the countryside with his siblings to evade the Blitz...

when you're reunited, Edmund is still the sweet and mischievous boy you've always known, only a bit changed, more mature already, and you attribute that to the war. but he tells you all about narnia and the marvelous kingdom he ruled and you understand

you really wish you could visit narnia yourself, but understand you haven't been called (yet), and therefore are content in only listening to Edmund's stories

he looooves your voice. it's one of the only things that manage to soothe him and he tries to teach you narnian songs he remembers by ear for you to sing (with little success)

he's not very good at dancing either, but he's had to learn in the many years (or so it felt like) he's been in Narnia. you stumble through the steps together and he even tries his hardest not to wince when you step on his toes

eventually he's called back to narnia with his siblings and... so are you?

you don't really understand what's happening at first but piece it together fairly quickly basing what you witness on Edmund's numerous accounts

he's elated to see you in Narnia and finally be able to show you his world of legend

even if you passed on your chance to rule Narnia alongside him, the brief time you had together was the most meaningful you've ever shared with anybody

#aeriscallanga #2022roadtrip

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abookishdreamer · 2 years

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Character Intro: Methe (Kingdom of Ichor)

Nicknames- Spunky by Dionysus and Gelos

Age- 17 (immortal)

Location- Mania district, New Olympus

Personality- Methe can be unpredictable and chaotic. She loves being the life of the party and never turns down the opportunity to have a good time. There's a quiet darkness brewing inside her, due to self-doubt, sabotage, and a fear of being alone. She’s currently single.

Methe lives in a mediterranean style mansion in the Mania neighborhood of New Olympus. She throws parties on most nights.

She has the standard abilities of a goddess except shapeshifting. Being the goddess of drunkenness, her powers/abilities include minor alcokinesis, alcohol transmutation, alcohol immunity, and inducing symptoms of alcohol poisoning/withdrawal/hangovers in others temporarily.

Methe is very close to Dionysus (god of wine) & Gelos (god of laughter), viewing them as older brothers. She's also good friends with Komos (god of revelry), Adephagia (goddess of gluttony), Apollo (god of the sun, music, poetry, healing, medicine, archery, plague, light, & knowledge), Artemis (goddess of the hunt & moon), Aphrodite (goddess of love & beauty), Lykos (goddess of wolves), Eris (goddess of strife & discord), Bia (goddess of force & power), Lyssa (goddess of rage & frenzy), Pannychis (goddess of nightlife festivities); views her like an older sister & she was also her mentor, Mania (goddess of insanity), Cleta (goddess of whispers), and Tyche (goddess of luck). Methe is also good friends with Thalia (one of The Graces) as well as Terpischore (muse of dance), Urania (muse of astronomy), Calliope (muse of epic poetry), and Euterpe (muse of music & lyric poetry).

She doesn't mind her status as a minor goddess, but is curious about Pasithea's minor god movement (MGM).

Methe keeps her black hair short. She wears it in various styles like wavy, curly, & slicked back.

A guilty pleasure for her is a large supreme pizza. Afterwards Methe likes to dip the crusts in tzatziki sauce before eating them.

For an induction ceremony gift, Gelos gave her the bloody mary cocktail jeweled clutch from Diamond Ave.

After getting a loan from Dionysus, Methe has started up her own cosmetics brand called Hot Intoxication. It has slowly been garnering attention and popularity. All the products have alcohol themed names. The nail polish are in bottles resembling little whiskey bottles. Her go-to products to use are the black martini liquid eyeliner & the marvelous merlot shade of lipgloss. Perfumes are to follow. Her other business is her own line of alcohol infused ice cream, aptly named Cocktails on Ice. Her favorite treat is the blackberry brandy sorbet. Methe earns extra income through modeling and endorsement deals. She models for/endorses Heavenly Spark, La Petit Amour, FATshionista, Maison du Drame, Bow + Arrow, Nocturnal Vibez, atelier fantaisie as well as Diamond Ave. She's also a contributing writer for Kytheiria.

Methe is also a licensed bartender.

She also has quite the collection of alcohol themed Diamond Ave. clutches like the champagne one & the rum bottle one. Chi jokingly gave her the hot sauce bottle clutch for her birthday!

Methe loves watching scary movies! She's also a fan of comedies too!

She used to have the BIGGEST crush on Momus (god of mockery, satire, & ridicule).

Her favorite thing to eat is a whiskey burger (w. maple bourbon glazed cipollini, blue cheese, and bacon, a large chili cheese fries, and a large chocolate chocolate chip milkshake from Olympic Chef!

Her go-to drink is a blackberry bliss cocktail. She also likes cosmopolitans, negronis, rum & cokes, mojitos, New Olympus Iced Teas, whiskey sours, manhattans, & mango margaritas!

Her favorite dessert from Hollyhock’s Bakery are the cookies n’ cream rolls. She also likes mimosa cupcakes with champagne buttercream frosting.

Methe's confident in her plus size figure! Her go-to article of clothing is leather. She also likes bright colors, different textures/fabrics, and bejeweled pieces.

In her free time, Methe likes doing activities that bring on surges of adrenaline. She enjoys bungee jumping, doing make-up, playing video games, cloud surfing, skydiving, dancing, extreme kayaking, and drag racing. She also enjoys having sex, opting for no-strings attached situations.

"Don't tell me when the party's over."

#my oc #my oc character #my character #oc character #oc intro #character intro #oc introduction #character introduction #modern greek gods #modern greek mythology #greek myth retellings #greek goddesses #greek goddess #greek mythology #greek pantheon

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dorkofclanlavellan · 2 years

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Hello can I have a male matchup for Game of Thrones, LOTR, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, DC and Marvel?

𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬: Muggleborn Ravenclaw with a patronous spirit of Hummingbird, an INFJ (last time I checked at MBTI test), my enneagram is 4w5 and my moral alignment is Neutral Good. I may have a slight introverted tendencies and awkward nature, I describe myself as fiery, swears like a sailor, confident, jokester, and, passionate. Religious, super talkative, sometimes hyper (because of excitement), giggly (I always laugh for stupid reasons), nerdy, actually sweet and nice though I can be aloof, intimidating, and scary when I get so angry. I tend to become really fiesty, stands boldly on what I believe (claiming myself as a realist though some of my views doesn't makes sense), and unbothered to be true to myself, clumsy, stubborn, hopeless romantic, young-at-heart, unfortunate and inattentive. I have "no bs" towards the people that I hate, sarcasam and savagery is my main language. But on the other side, I overthink a lot and cry over small things many times, small mistakes leads me to provoke me even more that sounds like a drama queen, yet recognizes a soft spot for dumb jokes, cheesy pickup lines and prefer people with a good sense of humour who see myself as equal. Chill in academics, but very competitive that manages to the top even for my dreams---I'm very dedicated on what I want for my life, and I display modesty and gracefulness towards some people that deserves respect. One notable feature about her is her multi-potentiality due to being naturally gifted in artistic fields (this includes singing).

Yep! Sorry for the wait. And sorry it’s so short. It’s been hard for me to focus on anything today lol

Game of Thrones ~ Samwell Tarly. It’s hard for me to explain but I can see you and Samwell being the sweetest, cutest couple. Like your personalities would mesh well. And you’d have the greatest chats.

Lord of the Rings ~ Peregrin Took. Honestly, there’s never been a more obvious choice for me than to match you with Pippin. Your personalities, some of your interests and hobbies match so well. He’d absolutely adore you.

Supernatural ~ Kevin Tran. This one was a bit difficult because three names jumped out at me for SPN but I think Kevin is the absolute best one. You would make an adorable couple.

The Vampire Diaries ~ Elijah Mikaelson. Different route here, sorta. But I think you two would be just similar enough and just different enough that you’d bring out the best in each other. Plus during your clumsy moments, Elijah is always there to catch you and keep you from getting hurt.

DC ~ Wally West. Specifically the DCAU version. I think that while you two aren’t all that similar, there is enough in common to keep you from butting heads and you two would perfectly contrast each other.

Marvel ~ Loki. You two would be such an adorable couple, I can’t even think of how to word it properly. Loki would love your jokester, stubborn, aloof and hopeless romantic sides all equally. And he’d definitely enjoy your swearing.

#matchups #matchup request #supernatural #the vampire diaries #ships #requests open #marvel #dc #lord of the rings #game of thrones

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trouble-in-space · 2 years

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hi omg this ship idea is so cute and i would love a marvel and harry potter ship please!! tysm for taking the time to do things, they are genuinely so wholesome and you deserve the appreciation <3 so i'm a 21-year-old aries disaster, i'm pansexual af, and i use she/her pronouns. my mbti is INFJ, which i tend to hyperfixate on and love learning about others' because i'm a psychology major and personality theory is fascinating to me. i'm 5'5" and am a skinny flat lil rectangle, but i'm ginger and have green eyes and now i feel like i'm devolving into a my immortal description lmao anyways. i absolutely love the beatles, dodie, and dua lipa, and my aesthetic is cottagecore. seriously if i could be a hermit in the woods foraging mushrooms i would abandon everything to do it. in my free time, though, i really like writing fanfiction and poetry and playing video games, but i'm starting to get into digital art and photoshop as well! thank you again!!

Hi love! Thank you so much, I hope you like these!<3

Marvel: Wanda! I need her to live a happy peaceful life in a little cottage. Introduce her to Dodie's music! She's also one of those people who wants to seclude herself from society. You guys could get a little cottage in the woods and live out the perfect cottagecore life. She'd slowly adopt that aesthetic as well, I think it'd suit her. Loves your poetry! Wanda will always model for your photography if you'd like her to, she also gets into it herself. I could see you guys going on little walks in the woods just taking pictures of each other and other things you find. She would love to learn about psychology from you and I think it would help her a little.

Harry Potter: Tonks! I haven't gotten Tonks vibes from anyone yet but she just immediately came to me lol. She'd also hyper-fixate on things, so she'd understand that yk? (I do it too and sometimes when friends don't understand it's aggravating?) Personality Theory would interest her too! She loves gingers, I'm just getting that vibe. Tonks would definitely be a Beatles fan and would like Dodie! Cottagecore isn't really her aesthetic but she loves it for you. So she'd always be picking up little things that she thinks fits you or the vibe you go for. I could see her really getting into video games. Eventually playing together would become a weekly routine.

#ships #ship requests #harry potter ship request #harry potter ships #harry potter #nymphadora lupin #tonks x reader #marvel ships #marvel #marvel ship requests #wanda x reader #wanda maximoff #wanda my beloved

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impassionedactress · 2 years

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I first encountered Wedekind’s play when I was in my first year of postgraduate studies (a.k.a. grad school); I read the Edward Bond translation on the site Drama Online, and fell madly in love. The poetic tone of the text entranced me; the characters were no less vivid. Shakespeare may have basically planted the teen angst genre with Romeo and Juliet, but Wedekind took it to a next-level realm of gritty reality, without resorting to extreme explicitness — even in the play’s harshest moments, the poetry remains.

I want to highlight a few particular things that I especially love about the play, in no particular order (by the way, all excerpts are from the 2007 Jonathan Franzen translation, which in my opinion is THE BEST!!!):

The brilliant characterization, especially in this scene when the girls are talking about having kids when they're married (they all want boys), Wendla mentions how happy she is to be a girl, and that topic merges into a discussion of cute guys:

Hansy Rilow is a precious cinnamon roll and must be protected from the haters at all costs (this is besides the fact that he’s one of my fictional crushes).

He genuinely congratulates Moritz in the scene where he finds out he’s passed his exams:

HANSY RILOW: Congratulations, Moritz. - Just be glad you got away with it.

He doesn’t join in when the other boys make fun of him.

Later, he grieves at Moritz's funeral ("Rest in peace, old sport!"), and gives Otto a stinging retort when he makes a callous comment about the deceased:

OTTO: The thing is, he still owes me five marks. We had a bet. He swore he wouldn't flunk.

HANSY RILOW: It's your fault he's lying there. You called him a show-off.

Since Robert was the one to call him a show-off, Hansy’s response to Otto seems aimed at all the others who mocked Moritz — it’s meant as a collective condemnation.

He reminds me very much of another of my fictional crushes, Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (a must-read book if you’re into any of the academia aesthetics — it’s where all that started). The vineyard scene especially gives me major Brideshead vibes, especially the scene where Sebastian and Charles go on an afternoon drive.

Here’s a snippet of the vineyard scene (Act 3, Scene 6):

Wedekind and Waugh’s marvelous use of lush imagery to convey their respective characters’ inner lives is especially evident in these moments, and I LOVE it.

(Side-note: I enjoy imagining what the children will be like as adults; I speculate that Hansy will end up marrying Ilse (she’s a beautiful art model, he has an appreciation for all things aesthetically-pleasing and luxurious), and they’ll be the rich, glamorous couple who live in the only mansion in town, where they host fabulous parties. Meanwhile, Melchior (married to sweet, supportive Martha) will run the local newspaper, full of erudite commentary on current events, and Ernst will be the kind-hearted, beloved-by-all local preacher, with his “affectionate little housewife” Thea.)

And finally, the last exchange between Melchior and Moritz in the graveyard:

*Blinks back tears* Whew. That packs an emotional gut-punch.

I’ll conclude on a lighter note, with Hansy’s wonderful line in the vineyard scene.

HANSY RILOW: Let's not be sad! - Life's too short.

So true.

#spring awakening #theatre #frank wedekind #melchior gabor #wendla bergmann #moritz stiefel #hanschen rilow #ernst robel #martha bessel #stage plays #playwright #fictional crushes #brideshead revisited

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blogsscscsc · 8 months

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Is ChatGPT Better than Google?

In an era dominated by Artificial Intelligence (AI), two giants stand out: ChatGPT and Google. These two AI powerhouses have revolutionized the way we interact with technology and search for information. But when it comes to the question, "Is ChatGPT better than Google?" - it's not a simple yes or no. This comprehensive article will delve into the intricacies of both AI systems, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, and providing valuable insights into their applications. Is ChatGPT Better than Google? AI Comparison Table: AspectChatGPTGoogleIntroductionUnderstanding ChatGPTUnpacking Google's AIAccuracyThe Precision of ChatGPTGoogle's Search AccuracyContextual UnderstandingChatGPT's Contextual ProwessGoogle's Contextual InsightsNatural Language ProcessingChatGPT's NLP CapabilitiesGoogle's NLP FeaturesCreative WritingChatGPT's Creative FlairGoogle's Content GenerationConversation SkillsChatGPT's Chatting CompetenceGoogle's Chatbot AbilitiesLimitationsWhere ChatGPT Falls ShortGoogle's LimitationsReal-World ApplicationsUtilizing ChatGPT in PracticeGoogle's Practical ImplementationsEthical ConsiderationsThe Ethical Angle with ChatGPTGoogle's Ethical ConcernsFuture ProspectsThe Road Ahead for ChatGPTGoogle's AI Future Understanding ChatGPT ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI. It's designed to understand and generate human-like text based on the input it receives. This AI marvel has gained immense popularity for its ability to engage in coherent and contextually relevant conversations, making it a favorite among developers and businesses. Unpacking Google's AI Google, on the other hand, needs no introduction. It's a tech behemoth that has seamlessly integrated AI into many aspects of its services. Google's AI powers its search engine, translation tools, and even self-driving cars. The Precision of ChatGPT ChatGPT has gained a reputation for its impressive accuracy in generating human-like text. It excels in tasks that require precision, such as drafting legal documents, generating code, or providing detailed answers to complex questions. Google's Search Accuracy Google's search engine is renowned for its accuracy in fetching relevant information. With years of data and algorithmic refinements, Google has become the go-to source for quick and reliable answers to a wide range of queries. ChatGPT's Contextual Prowess One area where ChatGPT truly shines is its contextual understanding. It can maintain coherent conversations by remembering the context of previous interactions, making it an ideal choice for chatbots and virtual assistants. Google's Contextual Insights Google's AI also offers contextual insights. For instance, it can understand the context of a search query and provide more nuanced results. This is particularly useful when searching for information on broad or ambiguous topics. ChatGPT's NLP Capabilities Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the backbone of ChatGPT. Its ability to process and understand human language is impressive. It's often used to draft articles, answer customer queries, and even create conversational agents. Google's NLP Features Google's NLP features are integrated into its search engine and other products. It's responsible for understanding the meaning behind search queries and providing results that match user intent accurately. ChatGPT's Creative Flair While ChatGPT is a master of precision, it's also surprisingly creative. It can generate poetry, write stories, and even compose music. This creative flair has made it a valuable tool for content creators. Google's Content Generation Google's AI is also no slouch in the creativity department. It can generate art, music, and even written content. However, its creative outputs are often seen as less human-like compared to ChatGPT. ChatGPT's Chatting Competence ChatGPT's ability to engage in natural-sounding conversations is a game-changer. It can chat about a wide range of topics, provide recommendations, and even simulate the writing style of famous authors. Google's Chatbot Abilities Google's chatbot capabilities are showcased in products like Google Assistant. While it can handle common tasks efficiently, it may lack the engaging conversational skills of ChatGPT. Where ChatGPT Falls Short Despite its many strengths, ChatGPT has limitations. It can sometimes generate incorrect or biased information if not properly guided. It also struggles with long conversations, often losing track of context. Google's Limitations Google's AI is not without its flaws either. It relies heavily on existing data, which can perpetuate biases present in the data. Additionally, its responses can sometimes be factually accurate but not contextually relevant. Utilizing ChatGPT in Practice ChatGPT has found applications in various industries. It's used in customer support chatbots, content generation, and even as a creative writing assistant. Its versatility makes it a valuable tool for businesses. Google's Practical Implementations Google's AI is deeply integrated into our daily lives. From personalized search results to language translation, it's a part of many online services. Google's AI-driven products like Google Photos also demonstrate its practicality. The Ethical Angle with ChatGPT As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, ethical considerations arise. ChatGPT can generate text that may be used unethically, such as creating fake news or biased content. Striking the right ethical balance is crucial. Google's Ethical Concerns Google faces ethical concerns related to data privacy, algorithmic bias, and antitrust issues. Its dominance in the tech industry raises questions about fair competition and data protection. The Road Ahead for ChatGPT The future looks promising for ChatGPT. As AI technology advances, we can expect ChatGPT to become even more accurate, versatile, and ethical. Its applications in healthcare, education, and content creation are bound to expand. Google's AI Future Google continues to invest heavily in AI research. The future may see Google's AI powering more advanced autonomous systems, improving search accuracy, and addressing ethical concerns. FAQs Q: Can ChatGPT replace human writers?A: While ChatGPT is a powerful writing assistant, it can't entirely replace human creativity and nuance in writing. Q: Is Google's search engine powered by ChatGPT?A: No, Google uses its own proprietary algorithms for search, although it incorporates AI in its search results. Q: Which is better for creative tasks, ChatGPT, or Google's AI?A: ChatGPT is often preferred for creative tasks due to its human-like text generation capabilities. Q: Are there any ethical concerns with ChatGPT?A: Yes, ChatGPT can be misused to generate unethical content, so ethical considerations are important. Q: How can businesses benefit from ChatGPT?A: Businesses can use ChatGPT for content generation, customer support, and creating chatbots to enhance customer interactions. Q: What's the future of AI in our daily lives?A: AI will continue to integrate into our lives, improving convenience and efficiency, but ethical and privacy concerns must be addressed. Conclusion So, is ChatGPT better than Google? The answer depends on your needs. ChatGPT excels in precision and creative writing, making it a valuable tool for content creators. Google, with its powerful search engine and practical applications, remains an indispensable part of our online experience. As AI technology evolves, both ChatGPT and Google are set to play even more significant roles in shaping the future. In the ever-evolving landscape of AI, understanding the strengths and limitations of each tool is crucial. Both ChatGPT and Google have their unique capabilities, and harnessing their power effectively depends on the task at hand. Read the full article

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darkotheruler · 1 year

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The New York Times

An A.I.-Generated Picture Won an Art Prize. Artists Aren't Happy.

Sep 2, 2022

This year, the Colorado State Fair’s annual art competition gave out prizes in all the usual categories: painting, quilting, sculpture.

But one entrant, Jason M. Allen of Pueblo West, Colo., didn’t make his entry with a brush or a lump of clay. He created it with Midjourney, an artificial intelligence program that turns lines of text into hyper-realistic graphics.

Mr. Allen’s work, “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial,” took home the blue ribbon in the fair’s contest for emerging digital artists — making it one of the first A.I.-generated pieces to win such a prize, and setting off a fierce backlash from artists who accused him of, essentially, cheating.

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Mr. Allen defended his work. He said that he had made clear that his work — which was submitted under the name “Jason M. Allen via Midjourney” — was created using A.I., and that he hadn’t deceived anyone about its origins.

Continue reading the main story

“I’m not going to apologize for it,” he said. “I won, and I didn’t break any rules.”

A.I.-generated art has been around for years. But tools released this year — with names like DALL-E 2, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion — have made it possible for rank amateurs to create complex, abstract or photorealistic works simply by typing a few words into a text box.

These apps have made many human artists understandably nervous about their own futures — why would anyone pay for art, they wonder, when they could generate it themselves? They have also generated fierce debates about the ethics of A.I.-generated art, and opposition from people who claim that these apps are essentially a high-tech form of plagiarism.

Dig deeper into the moment.

Special offer: Subscribe for $1 a week for the first year.

Mr. Allen, 39, began experimenting with A.I.-generated art this year. He runs a studio, Incarnate Games, which makes tabletop games, and he was curious how the new breed of A.I. image generators would compare with the human artists whose works he commissioned.

Continue reading the main story

This summer, he got invited to a Discord chat server where people were testing Midjourney, which uses a complex process known as “diffusion” to turn text into custom images. Users type a series of words in a message to Midjourney; the bot spits back an image seconds later.

Image

Mr. Allen created his artwork with Midjourney, an artificial intelligence program that turns lines of text into hyper-realistic graphics.Credit...Saeed Rahbaran for The New York Times

Mr. Allen became obsessed, creating hundreds of images and marveling at how realistic they were. No matter what he typed, Midjourney seemed capable of making it.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he said. “I felt like it was demonically inspired — like some otherworldly force was involved.”

A New Generation of Chatbots

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A brave new world. A new crop of chatbots powered by artificial intelligence has ignited a scramble to determine whether the technology could upend the economics of the internet, turning today’s powerhouses into has-beens and creating the industry’s next giants. Here are the bots to know:

ChatGPT. ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence language model from a research lab, OpenAI, has been making headlines since November for its ability to respond to complex questions, write poetry, generate code, plan vacations and translate languages. GPT-4, the latest version introduced in mid-March, can even respond to images (and ace the Uniform Bar Exam).

Bing. Two months after ChatGPT’s debut, Microsoft, OpenAI’s primary investor and partner, added a similar chatbot, capable of having open-ended text conversations on virtually any topic, to its Bing internet search engine. But it was the bot’s occasionally inaccurate, misleading and weird responses that drew much of the attention after its release.

Bard. Google’s chatbot, called Bard, was released in March to a limited number of users in the United States and Britain. Originally conceived as a creative tool designed to draft emails and poems, it can generate ideas, write blog posts and answer questions with facts or opinions.

Ernie. The search giant Baidu unveiled China’s first major rival to ChatGPT in March. The debut of Ernie, short for Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration, turned out to be a flop after a promised “live” demonstration of the bot was revealed to have been recorded.

Eventually, Mr. Allen got the idea to submit one of his Midjourney creations to the Colorado State Fair, which had a division for “digital art/digitally manipulated photography.” He had a local shop print the image on canvas and submitted it to the judges.

Continue reading the main story

“The fair was coming up,” he said, “and I thought: How wonderful would it be to demonstrate to people how great this art is?”

Several weeks later, while walking the fairground in Pueblo, Mr. Allen saw a blue ribbon hanging next to his piece. He had won the division, along with a $300 prize.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I felt like: this is exactly what I set out to accomplish.”

(Mr. Allen declined to share the exact text prompt he had submitted to Midjourney to create “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial.” But he said the French translation — “Space Opera Theater” — provided a clue.)

After his win, Mr. Allen posted a photo of his prize work to the Midjourney Discord chat. It made its way to Twitter, where it sparked a furious backlash.

Continue reading the main story

“We’re watching the death of artistry unfold right before our eyes,” one Twitter user wrote.

“This is so gross,” another wrote. “I can see how A.I. art can be beneficial, but claiming you’re an artist by generating one? Absolutely not.”

Some artists defended Mr. Allen, saying that using A.I. to create a piece was no different from using Photoshop or other digital image-manipulation tools, and that human creativity is still required to come up with the right prompts to generate an award-winning piece.

Olga Robak, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, which oversees the state fair, said Mr. Allen had adequately disclosed Midjourney’s involvement when submitting his piece; the category’s rules allow any “artistic practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process.” The two category judges did not know that Midjourney was an A.I. program, she said, but both subsequently told her that they would have awarded Mr. Allen the top prize even if they had.

Controversy over new art-making technologies is nothing new. Many painters recoiled at the invention of the camera, which they saw as a debasement of human artistry. (Charles Baudelaire, the 19th-century French poet and art critic, called photography “art’s most mortal enemy.”) In the 20th century, digital editing tools and computer-assisted design programs were similarly dismissed by purists for requiring too little skill of their human collaborators.

Continue reading the main story

What makes the new breed of A.I. tools different, some critics believe, is not just that they’re capable of producing beautiful works of art with minimal effort. It’s how they work. Apps like DALL-E 2 and Midjourney are built by scraping millions of images from the open web, then teaching algorithms to recognize patterns and relationships in those images and generate new ones in the same style. That means that artists who upload their works to the internet may be unwittingly helping to train their algorithmic competitors.

“What makes this AI different is that it’s explicitly trained on current working artists,” RJ Palmer, a digital artist, tweeted last month. “This thing wants our jobs, its actively anti-artist.”

Even some who are impressed by A.I.-generated art have concerns about how it’s being made. Andy Baio, a technologist and writer, wrote in a recent essay that DALL-E 2, perhaps the buzziest A.I. image generator on the market, was “borderline magic in what it’s capable of conjuring, but raises so many ethical questions, it’s hard to keep track of them all.”

Mr. Allen, the blue-ribbon winner, said he empathized with artists who were scared that A.I. tools would put them out of work. But he said their anger should be directed not at individuals who use DALL-E 2 or Midjourney to make art but at companies that choose to replace human artists with A.I. tools.

Continue reading the main story

“It shouldn’t be an indictment of the technology itself,” he said. “The ethics isn’t in the technology. It’s in the people.”

And he urged artists to overcome their objections to A.I., even if only as a coping strategy.

“This isn’t going to stop,” Mr. Allen said. “Art is dead, dude. It’s over. A.I. won. Humans lost.”

Until now, Google, OpenAI and other companies have been able to use Reddit’s various chats in the development of their A.I. systems for free. That might no longer be the case soon.

A.I. competitors like the new Bing are quickly becoming the most serious threat to Google’s search business in 25 years. In response, Google is racing to build an all-new search engine powered by the technology.

Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford, has spent decades preparing for the prospect of A.I. sentience. Here is what he thinks that might look like.

Some researchers believe that A.I. won’t reach true intelligence, or true understanding of the world, until it is paired with a body that can perceive, react to and feel around its environment.

More than a decade ago, lawyers were singled out as the profession most likely to suffer job losses due to A.I. advances. That didn’t happen. Is this time different?

Technology companies were once leery of what some artificial intelligence could do. Now the priority is winning control of the industry’s next big thing.

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regard-luxury · 1 year

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Explained How Koenigsegg Squeezes 450kw From A Three-cylinder Engine In Its New Gemera Hypercar Life

Indeed, Christian advised TG.com final 12 months – when announcing a model new hypercar with hybrid tech – that he desires to wring out every final ounce of effectivity from the internal combustion engine. “I assume having a smaller battery pack and combining it with a CO2 impartial combustion engine is a very attractive, thrilling, lightweight and sporty resolution for a sports activities car,” he advised us. Equipped with three electric motors, the Gemera can drive fully silent as a lot as 340 km/h, and the powerful 800V battery offers in itself a range of up to 50 km. The silence in EV mode disguises the true battle cry of the Gemera.

Koenigsegg has at all times be identified for their two seater hyper cars with insanely refined expertise embedded into the DNA. His first automobile was an AMC Spirit, and he loved driving different "character cars" in his early twenties, like his rust-red '84 Volkswagon Rabbit and his '86 banana-yellow Volvo 240. He writes copy and content for a number of purchasers whereas also pursuing his artistic writing in poetry and fiction. Before diving into his dream career as a wordsmith, he worked as a disability support worker and musician. Koenigsegg added other practical bits not often present in supercars as well, including navigation, wireless connectivity, eight cupholders, and backseat screens. Rearview and bird’s eye view cameras substitute wing mirrors for increased visibility and decreased drag.

"The system will learn over time the best methods to operate the valves, what's most frugal, what's cleanest… It will ultimately begin doing things we’ve never considered," Koenigsegg says. "It'll float out and in of different methods of combusting by itself, ultimately in methods koenigsegg gemera not utterly comprehensible to us." But that's method out. Koengisegg says that the TFG will depend on human-coded valve operation for now. Trust Christian von Koenigsegg to do one thing insane, like internet hosting a press conference in the halls of the now-canceled Geneva International Motor Show.

It seems the Gemera was on his mind when he offered up that preview. The Gemera is basically cool each as an precise automobile you'll be able to drive, in addition to a testbed of innovative ideas. Most automotive manufacturers would contemplate debuting their quickest automotive of all time, the de facto fastest automobile on the planet, a reasonably complete motor present appearance.

The car has a spread of 590 miles when in hybrid mode, the corporate provides. The Koenigsegg 2021 Gemera features two scissor doors that open to an inside with seating for four people. Founded in 2012, Form Trends tirelessly covers the automotive design trade in all corners of the globe to bring you unique content material about automobiles, design, and the people behind the products. The Koenigsegg Gemera was one of the highlights of the latest Geneva No Show. The Gemera is the primary four-seat hypercar ever developed, and it's a technological marvel.

At excessive RPM, quicker closing valves might provide extra of a benefit, but “you’re nonetheless limited by the valve spring stiffness, valve mass, and seating rates to keep away from bodily damaging parts,” he told me via e-mail. ”—a variable cylinder deactivation strategy that precisely chooses which cylinders to fire by way of exact management of intake and exhaust valves. There are quite a few advantages to altering when valves open in the combustion cycle, how far they open, and the way lengthy they remain open. The main ones revolve round increasing volumetric efficiency for better gasoline financial system, power, and emissions, as well as drivability (i.e. broadening the torque band throughout the rev range). The front seats are made from hollow carbon-fiber monocoques and weigh only 37.5 kilos.

Switzerland banned gatherings of over 1000 folks because of the coronavirus outbreak. If those production numbers don’t scare you off, the value of proudly owning a Gemera would possibly. Jerry, your car insurance tremendous app, scoured the internet for details in regards to the Koenigsegg Gemera to give you an thought of what to expect from the car. Koenigsegg has unveiled its enlargement plan which includes an all new state-of-the-art Gemera manufacturing koenigsegg gemera unit with high-tech production and assembly line, buyer lounge, places of work, occasion, showroom and retail areas. What you actually need to know is that it means "optimal" energy delivery from the motor, and would not want a transmission or step gears because "the RPM of the motor is true from the get-go," in accordance with CEO Christian von Koenigsegg. The modern equivalents of Henry Ford, Karl Benz, and Ferdinand Porsche, this group of visionaries have changed the automotive landscape endlessly.

But while the automobile is made for four, it only has two doorways, although they're fairly massive, as they open upward. Meanwhile, the three electrical motors provide the moment torque needed for crazy-quick 1.9-second 0-62 mph (100 km/h) sprints, territory usually reserved for boundary-pushing all-electric two-seaters like the new Tesla Roadster or Aspark Owl. Koenigsegg additionally guarantees record-level km/h capabilities, which tells us the automobile's prime velocity is 249 mph or greater koenigsegg gemera, which means this four-seat GT would blow away most two-seaters not specifically designed for world report pace. This is a considerably higher velocity than the place the electrical power output is maximized, and it’s as a end result of the ICE and electric peak power factors don’t happen on the identical car velocity that total mixed output isn’t maximized.

I had been launched to Sasha a couple of days earlier by Etienne (Salomé), who has worked with Sasha at Bugatti and more recently with a hand within the Gemera interior design, and suggested an intro for this issue of b500. This allows Koenigsegg to exactly and rapidly range each particular person valve’s raise, length, and timing. “Both the consumption and exhaust valves could be opened and closed at any desired crankshaft angle and to any desired raise top,” the company writes on its web site. The Koenigsegg Gemera is considered one of the safest megacars out there and it's designed for world-wide homologation. The Gemera has a really strong carbon fiber monocoque, six sensible airbags, stability management, TC, ABS and an ADAS 2.5 assistant system. The 3000 mm wheelbase provides unprecedented comfort and straight-line stability.

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thewrightings · 2 years

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matchdinghy36 · 2 years

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aboutanancientenquiry · 2 years

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“Guide to the classics: The Histories, by Herodotus

Published: May 22, 2016 9.07pm BST

William Etty’s Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed. The painting illustrates Herodotus’s version of the tale of Gyges. Wikimedia Commons

It is easy to see why Herodotus’ Histories may seem overwhelming. Too much is going on, right from the start. We have only just embarked on the Histories’ central theme – the origins of the conflict between Greeks and barbarians in the fifth century BCE – when the narrative suddenly changes tack and we find ourselves in a boudoir tale of nudity, intrigue and murder, only to veer off again when a dolphin saves the singer Arion from drowning. A wild ride!

Herodotus, a Greek from the city of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor (today’s Bodrum in Turkey), published his Histories sometime between 426 and 415 BCE. His principal aim was to explain the unlikely Greek victory against the much stronger Persian army in the so-called Persian Wars that ravaged the Greek world between 500 and 449 BCE.

Statue of Herodotus. Wikimedia Commons

For his pioneering critical enquiry into the past he was named “father of history” by Cicero. His love of stories and storytelling, however, was notorious already in antiquity: Plutarch called him the “father of lies”.

Most of the tales have no clear link to the main story. They seem peripheral, if not entirely unrelated, to the account of the Persian Wars and their pre-history. Many characters appear only once, never to be seen again. To the reader accustomed to a stable cast of characters and a straightforward plot with a clear beginning, middle and end, Herodotus’ Histories read like a digression from a digression from a digression.

Yet as soon as one pauses and appreciates the stories for what they are one cannot but marvel at the events Herodotus relates. There is the conversation between King Croesus of Lydia and the Athenian statesman, reformer and poet Solon, on the true nature of human happiness. The moral is, in a nutshell: call no man happy until he is dead.

That same king consults the Delphic oracle and learns to his delight that he will bring down a great empire. Certain of victory, he wages war against the Persians; as the oracle foretells, Croesus duly ends up destroying an empire – his own.

Herodotus’ ingenuity emerges most clearly when considered in relation to Homer, who had set the benchmark and provided all writers to follow with a model for talking about the past.

Consider for example his opening statement in the beginning of the book:

Herodotus of Halicarnassus here displays his inquiry, so that human achievements may not become forgotten in time, and great and marvellous deeds – some displayed by Greeks, some by barbarians – may not be without their glory.

Unlike Homer, Herodotus no longer claims to be inspired by the Muses. Yet his opening lines still pay homage to the world of the Homeric hero and his perpetual striving for kleos (“glory”). After all, Homer, too, reported great deeds by Greeks and non-Greeks alike and preserved them for posterity.

Herodotus combined the two major themes of Homeric epic – travel and warfare – into a single whole. Travel and the insights they yield are as dominant a theme in the ethnographic sections of the Histories as expansion, warfare and conflict are in the historical sections. Herodotus uses the gradual expansion of the Persian Empire to delve deeply into the cultures of those who came under its influence in the century preceding the war. In his account the historical and the cultural influence each other.

While Herodotus does not dismiss the Iliad and the Odyssey, he openly takes a swipe at Homer at least once. Helen, he claims, never made it to Troy: she was diverted to Egypt due to bad weather. Homer – so runs Herodotus’ accusation – simply changed the course of the story to make it fit the genre of epic poetry. This shows an awareness of the particular demands of the kind of account Herodotus hoped to write as being different from Homeric epic.

The father of history

What specifically sets Herodotus and his enquiry apart, then, is the proto-scientific way he explores the inner workings of the world. The question “why” drives this inquiry in all its aspects. It brings together the different strands of Herodotean investigation: Why did the Greeks and the barbarians go to war with each other? Why does the Nile flood? Why do the women of Cyrene abstain from eating beef?

Herodotus frequently finds the answer to these questions by looking at origins and beginnings. He takes the military conflict between Greeks and barbarians back to its roots in mythical times. In a similar vein he enquires into the source of the river Nile and traces the names of the twelve Olympians – the major deities of the Greek pantheon – back to their origins in ancient Egypt.

The quest for origins and beginnings runs deep in the Histories. It introduces a form of explanation which links the disparate strands of Herodotean enquiry by presenting them as part of an ordered cosmos. The world Herodotus outlines in the Histories ultimately and profoundly makes sense.

His efforts to establish himself as a credible researcher and narrator are tangible throughout. He is careful to tell his reader from where he derived his information on foreign lands, whether he witnessed personally or learnt from a reliable source:

As far as Elephantine I speak as an eye-witness, but further south from hearsay.

My own observation bears out the statement made to me by the priests…

Of the Pelasgian language I cannot speak with certainty…

Frequently, he gives us all the different explanations sourced from others. In the case of the flooding of the Nile he adds why he favours one (incidentally, the wrong one) over all others. By presenting views other than his own, Herodotus gives his readers the chance to form their own opinion.

The same striving for precision, exactness and authority also explains his diligence when it comes to numbers, distances and measurements.

From Heliopolis to Thebes is a nine days’ voyage up the Nile, a distance of eighty-one schoeni or 4860 states. Putting together the various measurements I have given, one finds that the Egyptian coastline is, as I have said, about 420 miles in length, and the distance from the sea inland to Thebes about 714 miles. It is another 210 miles from Thebes to Elephantine.

Why does this level of detail matter, and do we really need to know it? We do! This kind of accuracy and precision bolsters Herodotus’ authority as a credible source of information (even though some of his data verge on the fanciful).

To Herodotus, at least, measuring the world, mapping new territory, noting the features of distant lands and territories are all part of the process of “sense-making”, in which the new and unknown is related to the well-known and familiar:

The difference in size between the young and the full-grown crocodile is greater than in any other known creature; for a crocodile’s egg is hardly bigger than a goose’s, and the young when hatched is small in proportion yet it grows to a size of some twenty-three feet long or even more.

At the same time, Herodotus shows a profound interest in names and naming and the translation of words and concepts from one language into another. He tells us that the name Egypt applied first to Thebes, and that the name of the Asmach people of Egypt means those who stand on the left hand of the king.

Being able to name things in the world is part of being able to explain them. Herodotus was not just pioneering critical enquiry; along with the world he discovered, he had to invent a method and a language.

Figuring out the fantastic

Occasionally the strive for authority and exactness falters and the reader is left wondering whether the narrator has been unreliable all along, such as when Herodotus’ observations truly defy credulity.

Take the gold-digging ants of India, “bigger than a fox, though not so big as a dog”; the winged snakes of Arabia that interfere with the frankincense harvest; the Arabian sheep with tails so long they need little wooden carts attached to their hindquarters, preventing the tails from dragging on the ground.

A fragment from The Histories on Papyrus dated to the early second century AD. Wikimedia Commons

All these are instances in which Herodotean inquiry – despite his own claims to the contrary – slip beyond the realm of the authentic, credible and real.

But it would be a mistake to make too much of these examples. They are memorable only because they stand in such marked contrast to the accurate pictures Herodotus sketches elsewhere of the world.

And who can say for sure that the gold-digging ants, the long-tailed sheep and the flying snakes did not, in fact, exist? Some have argued that the gold-digging ants of India were actually marmots and Herodotus applied a Greek word for ant to a creature unknown to him but reminiscent (albeit faintly) of an ant.

Other creatures, however, take the reader fully into the realm of the fantastic. In his description of Libya, Herodotus says emphatically:

There are enormous snakes there, and also lions, elephants, bears, asps, donkeys with horns, dog-headed creatures, headless creatures with eyes in their chests (at least, this is what the Libyans say) wild men and wild women and a large number of other creatures whose existence is not merely the stuff of fables.

Some of these beings belong to a different, more archaic world, where the boundary between man and beast was fluid and uncertain. We can see a whole spectrum of more or less fantastic creatures, whose ranks included the Cyclops and Sirens of the Odyssey.

Herodotus accommodates such creatures in the absence of better information, but at the very least he feels the need to explicitly confirm their place in the new world of critical inquiry.

A special category is reserved for the most startling aspects of the world. In the Histories, the concept of the wondrous (thaumastos/thaumasios) is applied to those aspects of the world which at first defy explanation and seem to fall outside the laws of nature.

A floating island is a wonder; lions who attack camels but no other creature in Xerxes’ entourage – another wonder; the complete absence of mules in Elis – again a wonder. Ultimately, many of the phenomena Herodotus considers wondrous ultimately have a rational explanation of cause and effect. Others turn out to be divinely inspired.

Eternal themes of power, greed and fate

Beyond the question of whether any (let alone all) of the Histories’ events occurred as Herodotus relates, his stories share a common humanity. The examples of all-too-human foibles and traits like overconfidence, greed and envy but also of fate, luck and fortune reverberate down the ages. Through these stories the Histories still speak to us, 2500 years later.

Traditionally, the Histories were dismissed as anecdotal. Herodotus was seen as lacking gravitas and not on par with Homer, Euripides, Thucydides, Cicero and their like. Consequently, the Histories were not considered central to the humanist canon. Over the last three decades, however, this has changed; Herodotus’ Histories are now widely regarded as a foundational text in the Western historiographic tradition.

Classical scholars have discovered that the work has a coherence after all. Unity between the digressions and the main narrative emerges on a level other than plot: by theme. Many stories in the Histories are case studies in the nature of power.

It is not Everyman who makes history in the Histories: the focus is squarely on those at the top of the game. Yet in most instances the rise to power is followed by a sudden and catastrophic fall.

The reasons are always similar: power leads to excess. Blindness to the limitations of human action incurs the downfall of mighty kings like Candaules, Croesus, Cambyses and Xerxes. The condition they suffer from – the Greek word is hybris – is depressingly modern and familiar.

Jacques Louis David’s painting of the Spartan king Leonidas at Thermopylae - an event described by Herodotus. Wikimedia Commons

The Histories are a compilation of stories packed into each other like nesting Russian dolls. Successive stories share with each other – and the larger historical narrative of which they are part – the same insights, themes and patterns.

Once you can read one, you can read them all. New insights emerge from the way individual stories play with the formula, highlighting different aspects of the theme.

As tales of the nature of human power, the “digressions” speak directly to Herodotus’ core theme: the rise and fall of all empires, in particular the Persian Empire and its spectacular defeat by the much smaller Greek contingents in the Persian Wars.

Yet the Histories are not merely a historical source for the Persian Wars. Herodotus dwells extensively on the pre-history of the conflict and touches on the cultural and ideological issues at stake.

All this is set on the broader stage of the ancient world and includes geographical references, climatic observations, flora and fauna as well as notes on differences in the customs and lifestyle of Greeks, Persians and other peoples.

Thanks to this broad focus, it is not hyperbole to say that, in a profound sense, the Histories are about the entire world as it came to be understood and mapped out towards the end of the fifth century BCE.

Wonder and discovery

The Histories stand at the transition from an older, mythical worldview – that of the heroic or archaic age as represented in Homeric epic – to a new, classical outlook that manifested in the exacting mode of enquiry into the workings of the world.

The name for this form of investigation – historia – did not yet mean “history” as we know it; it simply meant, in a general sense, “critical enquiry”. Herodotus occasionally mentions consulting written sources, but he does so mainly to distance himself, his method, and information from other authors, notably Homer and the poets.

The most subtle feature of the Histories, perhaps, is the profound sense of balance that pervades all aspects of the cosmos. In the world of Herodotus, any excess is ultimately corrected: what goes up must come down. This applies to individuals, to empires and to peoples.

The divine is central to Herodotus’ view of the world: the gods guarantee a perpetual historical cycle. This dynamic ensures that imbalances of power or greed – the too-much and the too-little – ultimately level each other out.

The traditional gods of the ancient Greek pantheon are still very much alive in the Histories. Yet in contrast to Homeric poetry, they no longer intervene directly in the world. They have receded to a transcendental distance from which they oversee and steer the workings of the world.

We may no longer share Herodotus’ view of the past, yet we delight in the richness of the world he sketched. Its stories, landscapes, characters, and insights into human nature linger long after the reading. What makes the work stand out above all is the Histories’ sense of wonder and discovery. Herodotus’ Histories remain a classic testament to the pleasures of researching and learning.

All translations are from: Marincola, J. (1996) Herodotus: The Histories. Revised edition. London. Penguin Books.

Author: Julia Kindt

Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney”

Source: https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-histories-by-herodotus-53748

I have some indications that Pr. Kindt is politically on the Right and, therefore, our overall views differ a lot. However, she is a good classicist and this article of hers is an excellent introductory text to Herodotus, despite some minor objections to or differences of emphasis with it that I may have.

#herodotus #ancient greek classics #the histories #julia kindt

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hogan19schmitt · 2 years

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