moonlady101

[moonlady101]

I must blame Suetonius for giving me the mental image of Augustus wearing so many layers in winter he looks like a walking blanket burrito and behaving like Edward Cullen on summer...

#ancient history #ancient literature #suetonius #octavian #augustus #classic studies #roman empire

[moonlady101]

So I was today years old when I found out that the minotauŕ myth was not part of the minoan culture but a construction of, wait for it, the athenians. Thank you OSP for teaching me more interesting stuff than my archaeology teachers (if you haven't watch their channel or listened to their podcast, please do it, they're extremely entertaining)

#ancient history #ancient greece #minotaur #greek mythology #overly sarcastic productions

[moonlady101]

I love her. She spent five whole minutes like this.

#mine #Molly #my dog

[moonlady101]

Hey! I'm still alive (or at least I think so). The ending of this semestre is taking way too long, but I hope to get back to being more active on tumblr this new year! To begin with I've just published a new OFMD fanfic! It's my own personal fix-it for that season finale, so if you like Izzy as much as I do I think you might enjoy reading it.

Here's the link and if you like it I would really appreciate kudos and comments!

I wish for you all to have a lovely year!

#ofmd s2 #ofmd #israel hands #blackbeard #gentlebeard #fix it fic #ao3 link #mine #stede bonnet #new year

[moonlady101]

#rome #ancient rome #travel #domusaurea #ancient history #tagammemnon #trajan #caesar #colosseum

[moonlady101]

OFDMD S2 SPOILERS AHEAD

Okay so since I've been gone for so long there are quite a lot of things I want to post, from ancient history to my experience of living alone. But the first thing I want to talk about is about something that happened on this website quite recently and made me really mad.

I fell in love with the tv show of our flag means death from episode one, because it's the first show that is completely and absolutely inclusive without that being the whole plot... it does not brag about it, it does not force it and it is utterly unapologetic. For me this is the right way to go because this isn't about labeling people, this isn't about explaining, this is (and I will steal my dad's words to define it) an ode to freedom and love; and that's what makes the show for me so great.

And then we get to this year, we get to the end of season two and more specifically to the response of the fandom to said ending. I swear that the first time I saw a post saying that the ending was bad I started to wonder if they had been watching a different show. But it's actually fine, I mean, I may have enjoyed every minute of the episode while someone else hated it, opinion is subjective and everyone is free to express their own.

The post below the one I have just mentioned was the one that made my blood boil, because the person who wrote it didn't just gave their opinion, they straightforward started to attack the director, the writers and the entire show just because they didn't like a character death. And I will say this one and a thousand times, no matter how invested you are in a show, how much you like it and feel a part of it; no matter how involved with the fandom the cast and crew of said show get: the plot and character ALWAYS belong to their creator. That doesn't mean that you cannot imagine alternative storylines or complain about something you didn't like, that is fine; but saying that the creator of a story had NO RIGHT to kill a character, that is not okay. It's just as ridiculous as saying that an artist painted something wrong; it's absurd and in this case it shows that this people do not respect anyone working on OFMD.

The worst of all this to me is that part of the fandom did not learn anything from the whole freedom message that this show sends; instead they choose to act like a child who didn't get the present they wanted and attack other people who have probably put a lot of effort in making something which is meant to be liked or not. I also want to add that Izzy was my favourite character this season, and I believe that his character development was fantastic; I read that his death was disrespectful; sure, that's exactly why they decide to bury him right next to their new home, that's why everyone had the most devastating expression when he died and I'm sure that's the reason why Ed says "You're my only family". I think that people need to learn to watch a show without expecting it to go the way they want. The best thing about all media is exactly that!

Just to finish this, I want to talk just for a brief second about something, because tomorrow is the fifth of November and I'm a former Supernatural fan. I did get mad with the ending of that show, but before I start to look like a hyppocrite, let me explain. I watched Supernatural at a very low point in my life and it really helped me go through some hard times by allowing me for 45 minutes to be a part of something else (that's the magic of stories after all); I did cosplays, I forced my best friend to watch it and talked to my parents about it even if they got barely anything. I did notice the show getting a bit worse on its last seasons (which is completely understandable giving its lenght), but I still watched every single episode because it wasn't actually all that bad. And then the ending came, and I had to watch in utter horror how things that made absolutely no sense to the plot happened one after the other. It wasn't because they killed Cas, it was all about how they did it. To me it felt like it didn't make sense, and, in the end, even the actor were a little mad about how their characters were treated. I felt angry because it was terrible to watch and, even though I rarely use this tag it was definitely a "bury your gays" case; I'm not entirely sure it was queerbaiting (Dean clearly loved Cas, but love comes in many ways), and to me it would have made so much more sense if Cas had stayed or had at least some more time to talk to Dean, despite they ending up together or not. That ending did make me exit the fandom, because it was disappointing and I DID NOT LIKE IT. It is entirely up to a creator to do whatever they want, but that doesn't mean that after watching a show you can't write your own ending (I want to personally thank all the fanfiction writers responsible for alternative endings and fix -it stories).

So there's that, this is my opinion about all the response to the ending of OFMD season two, if you would like to add something or have a different opinion you are absolutely free to do so in the comments, but please be respectful, as I think I have been on this post.

See you on the next one! (it will be shorter, I promise)

Ourania

#ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #opinion #media criticism #fanfiction #spoilers #destiel #supernatural

[moonlady101]

Hii!! Wow, this has been a long time without posting anything, but I've been really busy with moving out. I'm currently doing an exchange program with my uni and living in Málaga and it's a wonderful experience. It is also really exciting because I'm living alone for the first time. I needed to take some time off social media, but I'm ready to go back because I miss posting ancient history stuff. So there's that! I'm really happy to be back!

Anyway, here's a picture of my new home!

#I'm back #moving out #living alone #malaga

[moonlady101]

Happy international women's Day

#international women&039;s day history #feminism #poetry #my poem #womensday #8 march

[moonlady101]

Love the way Sallustius is trying to keep it short like: so a quick mention of every African city, and then there's Carthage... Unfortunately we don't have enough time to unpack all that.

Also worth mentioning in Caesar's speech when he talks about the Macedonian wars like: We Romans love to spare our defeated enemies, like we did with the people of Carthage... Girl, in what alternative universe have you been living in??

#tagammemnon #sallustius #roman literature #catilinarian #ancient rome

[moonlady101]

Speculum: The search

First of all, I’m really sorry for the lateness, but I’ve had some events in my life which had made it impossible for me to post this sooner. But just as promised, here it is the first story of this small project. The protagonist is Penelope, hope you enjoy!:

I can still remember the moment I heard the words leaving the herald's cracked lips. He stood there afterwards, staring expectantly at his audience, awaiting for an avalanche of questions or a cheer that never came, because we could barely process the message he had brought to Ithaca all the way from the east. We must have been the last to know, that was the first thought I had as I watched my father in law slowly rise to make a speech, his wife had broken down to tears and for I wondered if I should follow her example. Ten years, that's how long we had been holding our breath each time someone brought us news from the battlefield, listening fearfully to the names of those who had been struck by a Troyan spear, or killed by the plague. Telemachus was by my side, his eyes wide open, as they are now as we sail across unknown waters, watching the horizon carefully, as if he expected to avert his father awaiting for us on the coastline. I waited a year and two months, more than enough for him to make his way back home. In all that time constant news dropped about the other's νοστοι, Pyrrus, Nestor, the unlucky Agamemnon and even of his brother Menelaus alongside his wretched wife. After their stories were told the aedus would pause and Anticlea would open her mouth and with her trembling old lips would mutter the question we all wanted to make "what about my son?". I came to terms with losing my husband after the first year of the war, before that I would lay awake every night imagining his corpse laying abandoned over the sand covered in dirt, sweat and dry blood, carrying every wound I could imagine from spears, arrows and swords. "The master is smart" Anticlea would always say as I sat silent working on the loom, she would raise her head proud of her words, of the boy she had raised as if he was her own and in those moments I wondered if she actually had wanted him to leave, after all, what would bring the palace more glory than having its king fight on the biggest battle of his time, even if that meant being away from his wife and child for so long? "There is a ship stranded on that island, potnia" the kybernetes pointed at a landspot which had appeared in front of us while I had been distracted with my own thoughts. I looked ahead and for a moment I thought that he was making it up, but then I searched through the shore and there it was, discarded over the beach like an old toy, I recognized it, how could I not? It haunted my dreams since I watched it depart from Ithaca with my husband on it. Why did it take him to Troy and refused to return him home? Perhaps it had grown old too, after ten years of being motionless on the same spot, perhaps it forgot the way home. The island was small and covered with a thick forest that made it impossible to see through the surface.

Telemachus had already jumped from the ship and into the shore before I could warn him to be careful, not that I needed to anyway; he had been brought up in a palace filled with women and old people, he couldn’t be blamed for not being as reckless as other boys his age. I wondered if that would have been the case of the son’s of Agamemnon and the other Achaeans, and suddenly I remembered, Orestes had fled the city right after his mother had chopped his father’s head off, making Aegisthus the new ruler of Mycenae. Can’t say I felt sorry for that, I had had time to reflect on her actions and she was not short of reasons to do what she did; her daughter was sacrificed right in front of her while she was held back by… Oh, now I know why I stopped thinking about it.

For a while I tried to convince myself that he would still be himself afterwards, that all he would bring back home would be the scars and some Trojan treasures; and for a while it worked; to me he was still my husband, always wearing that mischievous smile, not malicious but childishly wicked, making me lose my mind in every possible way. I loved the way he enjoyed messing with me, it made me feel alive, as if someone, for the first time in my life saw me as a partner, as something more than a wife, as something more than a mother.

The moment he left I could feel myself shrinking, a part of me was ripped and thrown away to the sea and all I could do was to sit and wait, loom, drink, eat and sleep and occasionally listen to the stories brought to us by men who would at most spend two days in the palace an then leave. I watched my son grow and ask about his father, at first only a little bit, and then he wanted to know more, until not only had I nothing more to say, but also grew tired of speaking of the shadow of the king of Ithaca. Love turned to longing, which after the seventh summer began to shift, as much as it pains me to admit this, into a creeping mixture of anger and despair.

I walked across the trees and breathed in the welcoming smell of wild flowers and dry land, never before had I missed walking on the hard rock, free from the constant swinging of the wavy sea. It was so quiet that for a moment I allowed myself to close my eyes, a light breeze blew over my skin, still damp and smelling of salt.

I did not sense her at first, she moved like Dyonisus panthers, making no sound and leaving no trace; her bare feet slid across the rocks, the grass and the sand  the same way mine did across the hallways of the palace. Her eyes were wild (I am aware of how vague that word is, but I found no better way to describe them) and her hair flowed around her face in such a way that for a moment I feared her being Medusa, but as much as I was unable to move, I did not turn to stone. Her arms were flexed, so were her knees, her short tunic allowing her to move much more freely than mine did. And then I noticed the small sharp object her left hand had drawn forward, pointing directly at me.

“Who are you?” Her voice was deep and clear, and even if I had never met a god before, I knew that she wasn’t entirely human.

“I am looking for my husband” Was all I managed to say, in a shaky and weak voice. She filled in so much space with her presence that the island felt for a moment too small for the both of us.

“Many men have arrived to this island” She replied. My mouth was dry and a sweet smell had suddenly made the atmosphere thick enough to make breathing hard, my head began spinning as I tried to focus.

“My husband is Odysseus, his ship is stranded on the shore, I came here to bring him back home” As his name left my lips I realized just how long it had been since I last pronounced it.

Odysseus, my husband, the king of Ithaca, Athena’s favourite and son of Laertes. He had so many names that sometimes I would think of him as someone else. Over the course of the years he had become something closer to myth than to reality, and even in my head I  sometimes was unable to distinguish what was real and what just what I heard about him. Were his eyes blue as the sea we sailed through? Or were they brown as the woodened horse which made them win the war? Not even by staring at Telemachus was I able to find an answer. At first I tried to hold onto him; every single night as I awaited for Morpheus to take me I would see him in the dark, imagining him by my side, stretching his arms to wrap me in his warmth; but then the memories got blurry and I was unable to hold onto them any longer. He faded, leaving me alone in a bed which was colder than it had ever been.

She did not speak again, but instead turned around and began to walk into the forest. I did not move, until she looked back, her face carrying an expression I couldn’t read.

“Well?” She raised her eyebrows, making her eyes look even bigger. “Aren’t you coming to get him?”

I did follow her then, my wobbling legs were no match for her agile steps, but I managed to keep up with them in order not to get lost. Arriving to a house no bigger than the ones which surrounded the palace of Ithaca.

Odysseus was there. And while I had expected to meet with a weary, tired and older man; he looked exactly the same as he did eleven years ago; he hadn’t change, not even did he hold noticeable scars on his body besides the ones which I had been familiar with. Perhaps it was my mind playing tricks on me, but I could almost swear he looked younger.

I was unable to cry to my own surprise, he stared at me, I can imagine that he wondered if I was real, I dare to say that he, on the contrary was unable to recognize me at first. He did not cry either, he just stood there, opening and closing his lips as if he were a fish, gasping for water on the dry land.

“Your wife came for you Odysseus” And it was once more the calm low voice of the godlike woman the one which broke the silence.

Of all the things I had expected Odysseus being mad at me was none of them, but was exactly what happened; “Insane woman”, “reckless”, “unwise”… I stared at him as he continued to let out the cascade of anger of his lips. Never before had he been like this to me, I used to consider myself lucky to have such a good man by my side, until that exact moment in which I began to realize that the only reason why he had been like that was because I had never before done anything to anger him. I was the patient Penelope, the prudent wife, the caring mother; not the woman who leaves her home. And so, after eleven years I met with my husband and his disappointment caused by my un-Penelope like decisions.

“I missed you” After he had finished I spoke, softly, through the knot which had formed on my throat, he stared at me and took a deep breath to speak again, but I wasn’t done, something bubbled inside my chest and rose to my mouth before he had the chance to reply.

“I was alone Odysseus, I waited for you and heard your stories, but you didn’t come back; there wasn’t anything left for me to do but wait, in your palace, with your family, with your servants, your son, your nursemaid and even your dog; what was left for me Odysseus? What was I to do? Would you prefer that I had waited another ten years until my hair was white and face wrinkled? No, I would not have done that, perhaps you would have rather returned to a dead wife, who took her own life because she could not wait one second more. Which one would you have preferred?”

I felt his strike harder on my pride than on my cheek, I hadn’t seen him get closer until his hand hit my face with a violence I had never seen before on him. That was the first and only time he had done that, and I remember it so vividly that I can still recall the sound of it. His face was red and nostrils swollen, teeth clenched so tightly his features sharpened.

“She made a question Odysseus, and if you don’t want me turning you into a pig and offering you to my father you will answer it and restrain yourself from ever hitting her again”

She was by my side, staring at him with her eyes shining so brightly they seemed to have been painted by sunrays. I could feel the warmth which irradiated from her, and matched the heat on my face. I used to think about the women he would meet on his journeys, I used to convince myself that I was not envious of them, that they would be slaves and if he took them to his bed it would mean nothing, but she was no slave, she was free, she was wild, as if she needed nothing, as if she was complete by herself, while I was just a part of someone else’s life.

I wonder what would have happened if I had not reached Aea and instead I had found my husband somewhere else, things would have been much different, I would have returned to Ithaca and retaken my duties as I was supposed to, perhaps have another child and spend the rest of my nights in a warmth that wouldn’t be as comfortable as it used to. He refused to let me stay as soon as she asked me to do so, but he was only able to win the fight with her once in his life and in the end, I stood on the sand and waved at the ship as I watched him go for the second time. Telemachus went with him, reluctant to leave me, but content with finally getting to be with his father, I only hope that the war has not made him tougher than he was (although the tears he shed as he held onto his son left me little doubt of his love for him). As for his love of me, I do not doubt that there was some, he’s good at lying, but I am not so naïve to mistake his attitude when we first met; but over those long ten years his heart had grown used to living without me, and so had mine, even if I held him on my mind every single second. Watching him leave was both a relief and a stab to my already wounded heart.

Living with her was easy, she was my teacher in how to be myself and for that I will be forever grateful, for the first time in all my life I had nothing to do and I could do anything I wanted at the same time. I learned what she showed me and slowly began to feel as if that half which I thought belonged to him returned to me. In a small island, lost in the Aegean sea, surrounded by wild beasts, living in the house of the sorceress, daughter of Helios. I was finally whole.

So there it is! The next one will probably come up in the next two weeks so stay tuned! 

#speculum #penelope #circe #odysseus #telemachus #tagamemnon #the odyssey #classic literature #mine #The Trojan War

[moonlady101]

Speculum

It is just as natural as breathing, to wonder what could have happened if we had done something else, if we had taken a different path, had made another choice... History follows its course like a river, always flowing in the same direction and never looking back; there is no way of knowing what would have happened if someone hadn’t been killed, if someone had decided to speak or if another had chosen not to do so...or is there? Wouldn’t you like to take just a peak at that story that could have unfolded? Wouldn’t you enjoy walking through that mirror just to discover what hides behind its glass? Well, maybe if you follow my steps and watch carefully I can walk you into this reflections, into this other roads that could have been taken. Want to see what the past could have been like? Then you have come to the right place.

Hello! This is a project I’ve been wanting to do since the holidays and now I have the time to write. The idea is to write about a mythological or a real character of the ancient Greece or Rome but making them do something different which will alter the course of their own story. I think this is going to be really interesting and I’m posting the first one this week. I’m planning on writting one every two weeks, but if I have more time I could even post one per week. 

As a hint for the first one, I’m taking you to the lands of Ithaca. I’m really excited about it! See you very soon! 

#mine #ancient greece #ancient rome #writing #uchronie #speculum #prologue #tagammemnon

[moonlady101]

My dog has only two moods:

1. Chill

2. No chill

#petblr #mine #my dog #Molly #she just randomly jumps up and starts playing like that

[moonlady101]

I’ve just finished reading both Letters from the heroines and The art of loving, and I’m amazed at how this man can be so sexist and obnoxious and then suddenly write things like the letter from Ariadne to Thesseus or like the letter from Enone to Paris. How the hell is he so good at portraying different types of women? Like Medea is so angry and frustrated, while Penelope is so tired and sad, he managed to portray not only the lament of young girls in love and desperate, but a whole display of female characters who have been affected by the hero, who in the main story were nothing but a pretext. 

Ovid, a man who wrote an entire book on how to trick and seduce women, on how women were made to be seduced, who literally said that even when she says no, go for it, she will enjoy it; gave voice to the women of greek myths who (with the exceptions of some of them like Medea or Dido) had been completely silenced. And he did so pointing the cowardice of men like Pyrrus (Achille’s son) or Thesseus, he shows Paris’ arrogance, Aeneas’ selfishness... He does not justify their actions, he shows them for what they are.

Ovid cared about love above all things, and even if he was self absorbed and even if his thoughts were completely affected by the mentality of a time where women were merely another thing for a man to own, he put himself for a moment on the other side and gave us a picture of it, a tale about the real victims of all those wars, the ones who stayed home, or who were forced to leave their homes, left on their own afterwards to pick up the mess made by those who left.

#tagamemnon #ovid #letter of the heroines #art of love #ancient rome #ancient literature #feminism #women #Greek Mythology

[moonlady101]

Ovid was not a feminist, neither was Euripides, to try to define with modern labels people who lived over two thousand years ago does not work. Ovid wrote poems about hitting his female lover, Euripides' Medea was not made to make a statement over the role women had in his times. But these authors did something, they told a different story, they wrote about Elisa of Carthage and Hecuba of Troy, about Iphigenia and Penelope, they allowed them to name a poem or a play, they showed they allowed them to open their mouths and complain, and give their opinion, they turned them into characters, not just a mere line lost in a poem, but a story of their own. And that might not be a lot, but in a world where women had no place in history some men might have wondered why, and tired of war, of fighting and great warriors and heroes, decided to take a guess about what is happening on the other side. Who's the shadow that stays silent and watches from behind? What's she thinking? How is she feeling? She's not a thing. She's a story of her own.

#tagamemnon #ancient history #ancient greece #ancient literature #ancient rome #ovid #euripides #ramblings #feminism #women in history

[moonlady101]

I've just finished watching Interview with the vampire and this show is just as beautifully disturbing as Hannibal was. Lestat and Louis relationship is as toxic as it gets, the atmosphere around them is asphyxiating, you can feel the tension building between them like two opposite poles of a magnet. The scenes are so well done, it's a show that takes care of details, of the dialogue, the characters arch... I loved it.

#iwtv series #iwtv 2022 #TV show #vampires #lestat #loui du point du lac

[moonlady101]

When I tell people I'm translating Lisisas' speeches and they think it's boring ...

Bitch, it's like watching a movie about a lawyer, except they're all in Chitons and eating olives.

#lisisas #ancient history #against erathostenes #ancient greece #tagamemnon #ancient literature

[moonlady101]

I just realized that there are two kinds of people when it comes to rain and they are personified by this two songs:

Those who hate it:

Aaand the ones like me who love it a bit too much:

#rainyweather #random thoughts #music #mika #Youtube