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finddme13 · 1 year

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alla mingalёva

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finddme13 · 2 years

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Y'all are amazing. Reblog to hug the person you're reblogging from.

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finddme13 · 2 years

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PERSEPHONE 101

Hello tumblr friends! So recently I keep seeing all these empowering Persephone posts and let me tell you- I love them! I absolutely love the evolution of myth in popular culture because it’s not new! It happened all the time in the ancient world! The amount of stories that got mushed into the gigantomachy? You would not even believe all of the different versions the Romans were ranting about! I love nothing more than seeing people’s takes on myths and their creative uses of them! But- And there IS a ‘but’. It’d be nice to see more of these creative uses of Persephone coming from a place of understanding of her in Greek mythology and in Greek and Roman authors. I see a lot of Persephone being put into this dichotomy whether she is either the Percy Jackson version who cares about flowers and wants nothing to do with Hades (especially that film version oh ho ho) or she is this badass goth queen of the underworld who jumped onto Hades’ chariot and was like ‘move aside bitch, I’m running hell now’ and Hades was all like ‘oh shit what do’. And as I said before, I’m so behind whatever you are feeling but I also want to give you some info on Persephone from the original myths. I am putting this under a read more so feel free to keep reading?

Keep reading

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finddme13 · 2 years

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Alexander the Great's Last 3 Wishes.

A true story with a meaningful message.

Alexander, after conquering many kingdoms, was returning home. On the way, he fell ill and it took him to his death bed.

With death staring him in his face, Alexander realized how his conquests, his great army, his sharp sword and all his wealth were of no consequence.

He now longed to reach home to see his mother's face and bid her his last adieu. But, he had to accept the fact that his sinking health would not permit him to reach his distant homeland. So, the mighty conqueror lay prostrate and pale, helplessly waiting to breathe his last.

He called his trusted generals and said, "I will depart from this world soon and I have three wishes, please carry out them out without fail."

With tears flowing down their cheeks, the generals agreed to abide by their king's last wishes.

"My first desire is that", said Alexander, "My physicians alone must carry my coffin."

After a pause, he continued, "Secondly, I desire that when my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard be strewn with gold, silver and precious stones which I have collected in my treasury."

The king felt exhausted after saying this. He took a minute's rest and continued. "My third and last wish is that both my hands be kept dangling out of my coffin."

The people who had gathered there wondered at the king's strange wishes. But no one dared bring the question to their lips. Alexander's favorite general kissed his hand and pressed them to his heart. "Oh! our king, we assure you that your wishes will all be fulfilled. But tell us why do you make such strange wishes?"

At this, Alexander took a deep breath and said: "I would like the world to know of the three lessons I have just learned."

"I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize that no doctor can really cure any body. They are powerless and cannot save a person from the clutches of death. So let not people take life for granted.

The second wish of strewing gold, silver and other riches on the way to the graveyard is to tell people that not even a fraction of gold will come with me. I spent all my life earning riches but cannot take anything with me. Let people realize that it is a sheer waste of time to chase wealth.

And about my third wish of having my hands dangling out of the coffin, I wish people to know that I came empty into this world and empty handed I go out of this world."

With these words, the king closed his eyes. Soon he let death conquer him and breathed his last.

#Alexander the Great

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finddme13 · 2 years

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ily: i love you

ilysm: a love you so much

itdtsrtthhdthmalsiaflahgupoots: In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.

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finddme13 · 3 years

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do you have any other quirks/tidbits/fun facts you can share about the characters for alexandros and hephaistion you’ve developed for dwtl? :)

From the question, I assume the asker has already read those linked below, but just in case not....

"10 Things Alexandros & Hephaistion have in common and 7 Things they don’t."

"Ten Things about Alexandros as a Child"

"What the Boys Find Annoying about Each Other"

I realized I never did the equivalent of number 2 for Hephaistion, so....

TEN THINGS ABOUT HEPHAISTION AS A CHILD

* Hephaistion is actually Amyntor and Berinike’s fifth child. Berenike had a son between Agathon and Hephaistion who lived only a day—a “blue baby.” She fell into deep depression after, which worried Amyntor, afraid she might commit suicide. It’s not something the family talked about later, but Hephaistion heard about it from his older siblings and it colored his concern for his mother.

* When Hephaistion was born, both his parents and older siblings were quite solicitous of him. He was rarely left alone, his smallest peep attended to. Because all his siblings in addition to his parents took turns caring for him, he was closer to his older brothers than most children with such a gap in age.

* Also because of this attention, he said little before he was four years old. He knew how to talk, and sometimes talked to himself, but all his siblings were adept at understanding his gestures and expressions, and even anticipating his wants. This is the genesis of “shut-mouthed Hephaistion.” He still gets just a bit perturbed (even though he knows it irrational) when Alexandros or others can’t read his mind.

* Hephaistion spent hours outside simply exploring nature. His brothers enjoyed sport with the other Europos town boys, but Hephaistion preferred time to himself, watching the horses, or birds, or catching tadpoles in buckets, which he’d then observe change into toads. He kept pails full of minnows, too, and once, a small catfish. He feels an affinity for water creatures. (This is one reason he didn’t know Seleukos well before coming to Pella, even though they were from the same town. He played mostly by himself.)

* Wanting to observe birds close-up, he made a bird-catcher with a crate, one edge propped on a forked stick, string tied to it, bread crumbs leading underneath. He’d then patiently wait for a hungry bird to fall for the trap, jerking the string to drop the crate and capture it. Hurrying over, he’d observe what he couldn’t see from a distance, before releasing it again. His father expressed surprise the birds fell for it, his siblings that he could sit still for so long. Yet sitting still and observing was never Hephaistion’s problem.

* Hephaistion learned about masturbation after catching his brother, Demetrios, at it in the barn. He was well familiar with sex by then, like any farm boy, and he’d observed the stallions slap their penises against their bellies for pleasure, as his father explained. But at only nine, he didn’t quite understand the incentive. Finding Demetrios doing it, he’d stood quietly watching until his brother finished and caught him—then yelled at him for being a sneak. Hephaistion hadn’t understood until later why Demetrios might have resented being watched.

* Unlike many Greeks, Hephaistion is fond of cats. He loves dogs for how attentive they are, and how he can train them. And he adores horses. But he likes cats for their quiet nature. Growing up, he befriended several barn cats who’d follow him around when he was down there, and one little calico female often trailed him back to the house, even sleeping in his room between his feet. She had a few litters under his bed, which his parents made him remove to the barn once their eyes were open. She disappeared one autumn and Hephaistion never learned what happened to her, probably dinner for a fox or hungry hawk.

* The fondness for quiet also lies behind his love of fishing. It was something his father taught all his children, even Alis, although Hephaistion and Agathon had taken it up with the most enthusiasm. One of Hephaistion’s favorite things was to be allowed to trail Agathon and his friend Ptolemaios to one of the pasture ponds or the Axios River to fish. He’d sit beside them and listen to them talk about war, girls, and court life in the Pages, then later, the Hypaspists.

* Hephaistion’s hatred for his maternal cousins began young when he’d come upon the elder two taunting an injured squirrel—injured by them. Enraged, he’d run at them although only seven, screaming and fists flying. They’d subdued him easily, then made him watch while they finished killing the squirrel. It was a quiet trauma Hephaistion never told anyone except Agathon, ashamed to have been so ineffectual. After that, Agathon began teaching him how to defend himself, but Hephaistion didn’t really care that much about martial skills—one reason he arrived so inept at Pella. He’d rather be off working the horses, or climbing a tree to bird watch, or fishing. Such activities interested him more.

* Hephaistion is very fond of music and has dabbled with various instruments. His father hired a lyre instructor for all his sons, as playing a few songs on the lyre was expected of well-born boys, but Hephaistion always showed more affinity for the double aulos—a reed instrument associated more with lower classes. Hephaistion didn’t care; he just liked the sound. It was with reluctance that Amyntor finally broke down and hired a teacher for Hephaistion’s unusual instrument preference.

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(Btw, yes, if born in the modern world, my Hephaistion would almost certainly have wound up a biologist of some sort, a vet, or otherwise involved in animal rescue. That really is where his heart lies.)

#alexander #Alexander the Great #hephaistion #hephaestion #he too is alexander #alexander and hephaestion #Macedonia #jeanne reames

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finddme13 · 3 years

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Pella - homeland of Alexander the Great - MacedoniaGreece

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finddme13 · 3 years

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information <3

nicknames: patroclus

#achilles #Patroclus #Alexander the Great #hephaestion

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finddme13 · 3 years

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better late than never🙂😭

Disinfecting Pericles who died from the plague in 429 B.C.

#pericles #ancient #ancient greece #greek golden age #athens #whyyyy #anyway lmao

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finddme13 · 3 years

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The full 18 page prologue for my brand new webcomic, Alexander, The Servant & The Water of Life about the life and legends of Alexander the Great.

The next update is on July 20 12 PM EST (or July 21 midnight my time) - I’ll announce it here.

In the meantime, here’s the official website: alexanderromance.com Bookmark it, subscribe to the newsletter, look around and have fun since there’s a ton more stuff in there like behind-the-scenes and fun facts. :)

#alexander the great #hephaistion

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finddme13 · 3 years

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In what day was Alexander born? I'm currently reading a book (Alexander the Great by Roger Caratini) which says he was born the 21 of July, but I recall you said this was incorrect. Is this right?

Alexander the Great’s most likely birthday is JULY 19.

So if you want to throw him a party, that’s the date to do it. 😊

Nonetheless, there are questions. Why? Three problems:

1) Use of lunar months. He was born on the 6th of Loos (Macedonian calendar). But to know when the 6th fell in 356 BCE, we must know when the new moon occurred for that month. Lunar calendars don’t match up with solar calendars.

2) Do we trust the source’s reporting? Would they have reason to lie?

3) Greeks didn’t celebrate annual birthdays (unlike Romans). So when one was born could be forgotten—including the month, never mind the day.

For number 1 … the reason you’re MOST likely to see Alexander’s birthday given as July 20th is because *most* years, the new moon falls on the 14th, so six days later is the 20th. BUT, in 336 BCE, the new moon fell on the 13th, ergo, the 6th of Loos was the 19th.

How do we know? Ernst Badian trekked over to the astronomy department at Harvard and asked them to calculate it. 😉 And no, I can’t (now) find the article where it’s embedded in a footnote, but the detail was so interesting, I remember it. (Keep in mind Badian never wrote a monograph, but produced well over 200 articles….) So I’m afraid you’ll have to take my word for it. That said, if anybody does find that footnote, please email or message me with the citation!

Number 2 is more of a problem. Do we trust Plutarch, who gives us the 6th of Loos as his birthday? There’s a big potential reason not to. Supposedly, Alexander was born on the same day the Great Temple of Artemis in Ephesos burned. Why? Artemis was off overseeing the birth of Alexander, not paying attention to her temple. (Incidentally, the guy who set it on fire, Herostratos, did so in order to be remembered by history, according to his trial.)

Hmm. Makes a nice omen, no? This is why the date itself is suspect and if you want to ignore it and just conclude he was born around midsummer of 356, that’s perfectly valid.

On the side of why it might be his real birthday…. Given that Greeks did not normally celebrate birthdays, if Alexander’s happened to coincide with a notable event, it would make it easier to remember later, once he turned out to be important.

For instance, my mother died Aug. 30th, 1997. In the US, we don’t celebrate death anniversaries the same as birthdays or weddings. But I remember month and year fairly easily for two reasons. I was 6 months pregnant with my son (born Dec. 19th 1997), and she died the same day as Princess Diana. I watched all the news coming in that night, as I sat awake at her bedside. Diana died in the early hours of the 30th. My mother died at 2:30 that same afternoon. Later, my father would say, “Two princesses died that day.”

So someone may have realized, when word came (weeks or months later) that the temple had burned, that it coincided with the day Alexander had been born. Perhaps some functionary quipped that Alexander would have to be important because Artemis attended his birth! Like my father’s comment about two princesses dying on one day.

If Alexander had caught malaria as an infant and died, nobody would recall the “omen.” But he didn’t. He went on to become Alexandros Aniketos (the Unconquerable). So people did remember. That’s why we have a birthday for him--unlike other very famous figures such as Perikles or Sokrates, or Philip himself. We can’t name their birth months, and in the case of Perikles and Sokrates, even their birth year. That’s how little the Greeks cared about such things.

So I am, ironically, more inclined to believe the 6th of Loos birthday rather than less, because of the Artemis temple connection.

And if it is correct, then he was born July 19th.

Finally: You will see some other significantly different dates offered for various reasons, most often by those who doubt the 6th of Loos date (for reasons suggested). I haven’t found their arguments convincing, personally. I think it’s the 6th or we just don’t know.

That said, I do want to shoot down one argument that periodically arises. Some want to put his birthday later in July or even August, in order to make it line up with the Zodiac sign of Leo, arguing he had to have been a Leo (sun sign).

If one doesn’t follow astrology, that’s ridiculous. Even if one does follow astrology, it’s still ridiculous, displaying a shallow understanding of horoscopes and the role of the sun sign. If one knows both astrology and Alexander’s life, that he was a Cancer makes oh, so much more sense. In any case, one can’t base a projected birthdate on what one thinks his sun sign “ought” to have been. Really, people. Stop.

Some folks have asked if we have a birthday for him in the Babylonian chronicles. We don’t. We have his death day from that, but not his birthday.

#alexander the great

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finddme13 · 3 years

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Alexander the Great and his sister the mermaid

Alexander the Great with his sister. According to a myth, Alexander the Great had a stepsister from his father’s side, King Phillip (359-336 B.C.). Her name was Thessaloniki. There are many versions of this folk legend, but it begins with Alexander searching for the water of immortality. In one version, Thessaloniki drinks the water of immortality before her brother on purpose, and so he…

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#alexander the great

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finddme13 · 3 years

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Crying because im too happy😭

nicknames: patroclus

#hephaestion #patrochilles #patroclus #alexander the great

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finddme13 · 3 years

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Do you have any favorite illustration or graphic representation (paintings, drawings, sculptures), either modern or ancient, of Alexander?

I'll give you four: three of Alexander, one of (maybe) Hephaistion. The first, and the image I wanted for the cover of Dancing with the Lion (esp. when it was just one book, as it really should be) is from the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul.

The second is also from that museum, from the Alexander Sarcophagus (the prize of the collection), but I like the image from the hunt, not the battle:

Last, for ATG, we have the Azara Herm, likely the closest to a likeness of Alexander that we have.

Finally, I give you my mental image for Hephaistion, the Prado Bronze. These days, it's more often named Demetrios Poliorketes, but attributions (when a statue isn't named or easy to identify) remains a bit of conjecture. I don't, personally, think this one looks much like the other statues we have of Demetrios, so I'll take the earlier ID of it as Hephaistion--albeit willing to be wrong (as one must be, dealing with unlabeled statues).