imo the really interesting story of the iliad is the fact that, because it’s a later telling of the story, all the characters are self-conscious abt their legendary status. like the first time we see helen, she’s weaving a tapestry of all the men who will die for her. the characters all have a tragic sense of foreboding & also a feeling of helpless submission to the power of the narrative. the greek nonbelief in human agency is always super weird but its esp weird in homer imo bc the cosmological force isn’t so much fate as it is the story: hektor and achilles know that they’re tragic heroes, helen knows she’s an evil seductress, cassandra knows she’s cursed, patroklos and andromache know that they can’t do anything 2 stop the men they love from dying. which makes the tone of the story very strange, almost as if the characters are going thru the motions of a story they’re told before
aubrey’s 500 followers celebration ♧ athena (requested by @majwinters)
her heart wears wisdom skin and wit warmed splendor, the echoes of a war cry holding its four chambers together. she rises like Athena on a night of victory dancing. she rises like the blood moon in a sky of a thousand stars bursting.
Hades: babe what’s wrong?
Persephone, drunk, scratching two of cerberus’ heads, weeping: I don’t have enough hands
one of the reasons i like greek mythology because the greeks went “yes these are our gods. they’re very powerful and can not die and are incapable of any sort of critical thinking.”
@classicnet 800 follower celebration (29/30)
→ persephoneTell them that you weren’t hungry, tell them you followed the pomegranates seeds because they tasted like blood, like love.
@classicnet 800 follower celebration (29/30)
→ persephoneTell them that you weren’t hungry, tell them you followed the pomegranates seeds because they tasted like blood, like love.
Poseidon was easier than most.
He calls himself a god,
but he fell beneath my fingers
with more shaking than any mortal.
He wept when my robe fell from my shoulders.
I made him bend his back for me,
listened to his screams break like waves.
We defiled that temple the way it should be defiled,
screaming and bucking our way from corner to corner.
The bitch goddess probably got a real kick out of that.
I’m sure I’ll be hearing from her.
She’ll give me nightmares for a week or so;
that I can handle.
Or she’ll turn the water in my well into blood;
I’ll scream when I see it,
and that will be that.
Maybe my first child
will be born with the head of a fish.
I’m not even sure it was worth it,
Poseidon pounding away at me, a madman,
losing his immortal mind
because of the way my copper skin swells in moonlight.
Now my arms smoke and itch.
Hard scales cover my wrists like armour.
C’mon Athena, he was only another lay,
and not a particularly good one at that,
even though he can spit steam from his fingers.
Won’t touch him again. Promise.
And we didn’t mean to drop to our knees
in your temple,
but our bodies were so hot and misaligned.
It’s not every day a gal gets to sample a god,
you know that. Why are you being so rough on me?
I feel my eyes twisting,
the lids crusting over and boiling,
the pupils glowing red with heat.
Athena, woman to woman,
could you have resisted him?
Would you have been able to wait
for the proper place, the right moment,
to jump those immortal bones?
Now my feet are tangled with hair,
my ears are gone. My back is curving
and my lips have grown numb.
My garden boy just shattered at my feet.
Dammit, Athena,
take away my father’s gold.
Send me away to live with lepers.
Give me a pimple or two.
But my face. To have men never again
be able to gaze at my face,
growing stupid in anticipation
of that first touch,
how can any woman live like that?
How will I be able
to watch their warm bodies turn to rock
when their only sin was desiring me?
All they want is to see me sweat.
They only want to touch my face
and run their fingers through my …
my hair
is it moving?
@modernmythsnet | event fourteen | AU | moral
HADES & PERSEPHONE AS HACKERS
♛ || 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗞 𝗠𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗢𝗚𝗬 : 𝑨𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒂 [ 𝑨𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒆 ] —— ❛ Of Pallas Athena , guardian of the city , I begin to sing . Dread is she , and with Ares she loves the deeds of war , the sack of cities and the shouting and the battle . It is she who saves the people as they go to war and come back . Hail , goddess , and give us good fortune and happiness ! ❜ —— 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗥 , 𝑯𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝑯𝒚𝒎𝒏 𝑿𝑰 𝒕𝒐 𝑨𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒂