Anghraine

I ran across the name of my GW2 PC in the Metamorphoses—Althea, who in Ovid’s version is a woman who loves her brothers enough to straight-up murder her son after he kills them in a (very stupid) fight.

(Then she stabs herself and her grief-stricken daughters get turned into guinea hens, because this is the Metamorphoses.)

Tagged: #lalwen vibes tbh

More seriously, all of Ovid’s maidens devoted to Diana are making me think of The Canterbury Tales and Emily’s prayer to Diana:
(Chaste goddess, well you know that I
Desire to be a maiden all my life,
Never would I wish to be beloved or wife.
I am, thou knowest, yet of thy company,
A maid, and love hunting and venery,
And walking in the wild woods,
And not to be a wife and be with child.
I would not wish to know company of man.)

It usually ends badly, though :(

Tagged: #honestly i am not persuaded by the happy ending of the knight's tale either #in a weird way camilla in the aeneid comes out the best #in that at least she gets to live her best life and then get avenged by diana #hmmm #kind of wondering if there's any significance to wostow -> thow woost

“All right, boys, let’s find out how much a man’s weapons
Outweigh a girl’s. Leave this to me. I don’t care
If Diana herself protects this boar with her arrows.
I’m taking this animal down, Diana or not!” (8.444-7)

*five minutes later*

Cause of death: boar.

Tagged: #i do appreciate that ovid smacks down misogynistic hubris at pretty much every opportunity #i mean... all hubris. but there is a special flavor to this kind

jubaah responded to this:

it’s funny bc the stories in those books are so horrible, but… Idk, I genuinely like it hahaha I’m super curious about your notes, though :) Are you gonna write about it?

I replied:

Yeah, it’s a really entertaining read despite all the terrible things! A little rich for my blood now and then, but I like revenge tragedies as a rule, so plenty of it is my sort of thing. I think I’d enjoy it more if I wasn’t rushed and worried about forgetting things tbh.

It’s on my reading list as background for 16th century British lit (which also has some 16th-cent Continental things like Machiavelli and Erasmus), so I’m not sure if it’ll come up or not in writing. It might with Shakespeare et al since it was such an inspiration.

A relevant sample of notes, lol:



[Screenshot of Zotero notes reading:

Pelops

Everyone blames Niobe except her brother, Pelops, who weeps for her. Pelops reveals the ivory in his shoulder; he was cut to pieces by his father (for reasons?) and the gods put him back together but couldn't find that bit, so they used ivory instead.

Procne and Philomela

All the cities send rulers with condolences to Niobe's people, except Athens, which has problems of its own. It's besieged by barbarians, until the siege is lifted by Tereus of Thrace. The grateful king gives his daughter Procne to him in marriage, but the usual marriage deities don't attend—just the Furies. WHAT COULD GO WRONG.]

Back to Ovid: just read “Procne and Philomela” and what the fuuuuuck

Tagged: #yeah this wasn't one that showed up in my childhood books for completely understandable reasons #how is someone worse than jupiter

I was just sleepily stirring cinnamon into my tea and it was like … okay, better finish grading the projects, then grade the discussion posts, then submit, then … y’know, Darcy/Elizabeth is such a good ship … there are others I love, but nothing really comparable … then I need to get through the rest of the Metamorphoses somehow …

I reblogged this post and added:



My excellent decision-making process at work!

Tagged: #i initially thought of aasimar as the natural counterpart to demigods #i can see both aasimar and human variant as the nearest approximations of demigods so...

I reblogged this post [cw for rape] and added:

ae;lkdf there’s this “cruel little boy” who reports Proserpina eating the pomegranate, so she can’t go home. She moans, then turns him into a screech owl.