#[Phersipnai]

[amoralityplay]

This is a perfect photo to show what Audrey, Phersipnai, and Lavinia's canines look like. Rather short but sharp af.

[thursdayplaid]

Theogony says Persephone was abducted and there is zero evidence that Persephone was a Queen without Hades, or Hades being a King just after marrying Persephone. You can’t modify history to make a story feel better for modern values. Also please, Hades was so much more than “a god with a dog”. The myth was about separation because that was needed to explain death-life, agriculture cycles and other stuff.

So once upon a time, I wrote a post about how media and general assumption paints historical European women’s life as something it wasn’t and talked specifically how most women of the period got married in their twenties.  You would expect that people would get upset about rocking that particular boat, you (maybe) wouldn’t expect how many women were furious that I dared imply that a woman’s wasn’t a slow smear of blood from the womb to the grave.

The moral of the story is that I’ve spent hours of good faith gathering sources and getting them all lined up for an educational essay and then I remembered my experience with the post about historical European women and that you posted this on anon and that was about as far as my good faith reached. 

Suffice to say, after reviewing the most friendly to use Greek version (ie, not a picture of a manuscript) I could find online of the Theogony as well as a number of historical and modern translations I just didn’t care anymore.  I suspect you wouldn’t even care if I attached screenshots so why am I even trying to bother, you have the internet, you could have verified what I said before sending this message.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Due to questions of authorship, the section of the Theogony that mentions the marriage of Persephone and Hades usually isn’t included and in the earliest texts where the ‘whole’ Theology was provided it wasn’t clear that there was an abduction unless you’re talking Gregory Nagy who admits to adapting the translation.  It is very clear however that Persephone had white arms, so in case you were worried I just want you to know that Persephone definitely had white arms.  I assume the rest of her body was of a similar color, but the texts aren’t clear.

Also Persephone appears independently in several places (and Nonnus refers to Hades as Persephone’s consort more than once, he may be a relation of yours, Anon.  Shout out to your ancient great-grandfather).  Our girl P was borrowed from the Etruscans as Persipnei or Phersipnai (a word I don’t know if I could pronounce and look at at the same time, some words are just like that) and was connected to the god Aita who was definitely a god of the underworld and not of a subreddit.  She was also connected to the Pershu who wore masks and chased dead people. Even farther back the Mycenaeans called her Preswa (depending on how you Angelicize) and sacrificed all kinds of livestock to her.  Preswa’s feasts are discussed on several tablets.

(I know I said no pictures, but look at this tablet!)

I cannot find my copy of Greek Religion but suffice to say, go back far enough and stuff gets wild.  Preswa has a whole cremation thing, there are chickens involved which is kind of metal if you’ve ever met a chicken - very thematic.  Preswa may have been the embodiment of the divine child and (as well as Demeter) to children who died in infancy.  Possible the Separation is about a mother who lost her child and after the child was cremated used the ashes to grow a flower which turned into a new child.  These stories are very similar to certain ancient rites of Isis which complicates things and I don’t know if it really bears mentioning because I feel like it’s mostly conjecture. 

This is a bowl from the Minoan ceremonies that eventually became the Eleusinian Mysteries in which pre-Hellenistic Demeter and Persephone hang out.  This bowl is amazing.  I support this bowl and what it stands for:

And you know what, Persephone and Demeter go back even further than this awesome bowl.  Really though, I want to appreciate this bowl a little more.  I would drive this bowl to the airport and four in the morning and give it pancakes in a tupperware container.  The really cool thing those is that the Minoans who’s culture began in 2700 BCE (according to wikipedia) didn’t even invent the Mysteries!  They imported proto-Demeter and proto-Persephone!  It’s that just the coolest!  Demeter and Persephone are crazy old!  They’re so old people can’t figure out who invented them!  That’s really cool!

So unless you’re suggesting that I traveled back in time over five thousand years to invent a cult and paint a bowl so that my modern feelings wouldn’t get hurt I think it’s at least moderately clear I’m not rewriting history.  For one thing, in my wildest dreams I could not invent the chicken shenanigans these priestesses came up with.  So like.  I have no doubt you’re not reading this at all.  I’m sure you’re high fiving your friends about telling me off and you know what, I hope they are great high fives.  I hope you have a great day.  I hope that you are well-rested and that you discover you’re favorite treat in your pantry that you forgot you had and that it brightens your day.  Like, it’s not my job to educate you, but I still hope that whatever made you respond like you did instead of pursuing a narrative about a goddess that isn’t male-centric clears up.  Also if your skin isn’t clear I hope that clears up too.  I had so much run writing this.  You really kind of aggravated me in the way you kind of demanded emotional labor from me, but then I got to look up that bowl again and like, I get it.  We all have stories we’re attached to and I just started having more and more fun writing this.  If you did get this far, like I don’t know, thanks for sticking in there?  Hope you learned some fun stuff about history?

[tintinnabulums]

Statue of kore or Phersipnai, the Etruscan equivalent of Persephone. c. 480 BC; bronze. The J. Paul Getty Museum. 

“Between the thumb and forefinger of her raised right hand, she holds one of the goddess’s typical attributes, either a flower bud or an egg...Wearing a crescent diadem fastened by a ribbon around the crown of her head, she is one of the first representations of an Etruscan woman to wear her hair cropped short.” (x)

[feles85]

#sketch #schizzo #calendario #paganesimo Il Banchetto degli Antenati, Novembre/ The Ancestors banquet Aita e Phersipnai #schizzomatita #pencildrawing #arte #art #illustration #illustrazione #paganesimoitalia #paganesimo #paganism #romanpagan #romanpaganism #etruscanpaganism #etruscan #godsgoddesses #heathenism #deadgods #persefone #deadbanquet #halloween #Ade #Persefone

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[amoralityplay]

Kiev, 1992

The baroque house in Kiev was very quiet during the day, only interrupted occasionally by footsteps or hushed conversation between the maid and the handyman—Max was one of very few vampires who still kept thralls, of a sort—or sometimes by the jingle of a cat’s collar bell; Max had always rather liked cats, much to the chagrin of his wife…but, they hadn’t lived together, or really even seen each other in more than just passing, in centuries, so he’d have his cats if he wanted to. 

Audrey wasn’t particularly fond of cats, either, but hadn’t said anything about it. After all, her grandfather had been generous enough to let her move into his sprawling home after her finances had taken a disastrous turn; she’d already been living in Kiev, just a few blocks away from his home there, but the forced sale of her apartment had left her with only two options: stay with Max, or limp back to Boston. And Audrey was not going home, not yet. 

[Cut for length]

“You know, Audrey…it’s been nice having someone around the house again,” the older man mused, setting a teacup and saucer down in front of his granddaughter, the china rattling in his unsteady hands. Max had been turned when he was quite a bit older than many vampires—a member of the Roman senate at the time—and looked to be about sixty, though of course he was much, much older than that. He wasn’t a frail man and looked much like a living version of the Roman marble busts one might see in a museum, but the harsh military life he’d led before joining the senate sometimes showed in the tremor of his hands. “I know the circumstances weren’t ideal…but we never got to spend much time together, once you grew up and started moving around so much. I’m glad you’re here.” Audrey forced a small smile as she looked up. “I know, grandfather. I’m glad, too.” The truth was…Audrey wasn’t glad to be there. The life she’d planned on had unraveled over the last couple decades, starting with her arranged marriage, then her mother’s death, and now financial ruin. Audrey loved her grandfather, but this was not the future she’d hoped for. 

Max nodded, sitting across from her at the small table, set into a corner of a parlor room. “You don’t have to lie for my sake,” he said, reaching over to pat one of her hands where she’d flattened it against the table to keep it still. It wasn’t uncommon for vampires to develop the ability  to read another’s thoughts, and most vampires as old as Max were very good at it…meanwhile, vampires as young as Audrey tended to be equally as bad at keeping their thoughts quiet and were easy to eavesdrop on. 

“I know you don’t want to be here, and it doesn’t have anything to do with me. It’s just been nice, regardless. And you don’t seem so melancholy lately. Is it the birds? Do they help?” He lifted his own cup to sip at the contents—blood, warmed until it steamed slightly. Audrey disliked blood much above body temperature and left her own cup to cool down somewhat. 

It might have been true that Audrey was getting out a bit more than she had for years, really, testing the water here and there at various vampire gatherings…though she wasn’t sure her melancholy had been cured. 

“Well…Cyrus ate one of them,” she said with a small sigh, glancing in the direction of the huge white cat, wearing a blue velvet collar with a golden bell, that was lounging on the rug nearby. The birds her grandfather referred to, a trio of canaries exactly like the ones she’d tried to keep as a little girl, had not, in fact, helped her feel much better. If anything, they’d only soured her disposition further, given the first’s untimely demise and the remaining two that refused to sing at night, just like the ones of her childhood; that had not been an experience Audrey had wanted to relive. “They’ll sing plenty for the maid when she opens the curtains during the day…so I told her she should take them home. They’ll be happier with someone who can let them see the sun a little.” 

“Ah, well, don’t be cross with Fedir for sending them, he hadn’t seen you since you were a teenager. It was what he remembered about you.” Fedir, a vampire Max had sired in the early 1700’s, had always taken a bit more interest in Audrey than anyone—especially Audrey—liked and had been, apparently, rather crushed when she was matched to someone else--he’d long lobbied Max to use his sway with Phersipnai to ensure Audrey was matched with him—and was equally elated to hear the wedding was called off and she’d returned to Kiev. He knew how vampire matches worked and that Audrey was still betrothed regardless of what her current feelings towards her fiancee were, but had made a handful of attempts to garner her attentions regardless. Max thought it was harmless and Audrey found it mildly annoying and certainly hadn’t encouraged the efforts…but she hadn’t exactly put an end to it yet, either. 

“I don’t get cross.” Audrey frowned down at her teacup. 

Max chuckled and nodded. “You have a tendency to be cross, my dear…isn’t that what this is all about? Why you’re in Kiev to begin with? You’ve been cross with Rowan for twenty years, don’t pretend you don’t get cross.” 

“Please don’t start with that,” Audrey groaned. 

“Well. It’s the truth. And your grandmother is supposed to call today—any minute, I think—to talk to you about it, so best you hear it from me first.” He shook his head, running a hand over his short cropped, grey hair. “You should head upstairs, take the call in your room.” Phersipnai hadn’t alerted Max that she’d be calling that day, but after nearly two millennia together, they often had a sense for what the other was doing or feeling, even across continents. Audrey didn’t move immediately, looking down at the blood in her cup as it started to congeal. As she had any time she had been away from her grandmother, she’d remained close with her, writing often or, in more recent years, speaking by phone…but since she’d been in Kiev, the calls had gotten tense…and thus Audrey often avoided them. “Go on. You know she won’t let it slide if you won’t answer.” Max stood and nudged Audrey’s shoulder, and the younger vampire stood with a small sigh. As predicted, the phone rang within a couple minutes of Audrey stepping into her room; she sank into the armchair beside the small pedestal table and lifted the receiver. “Hello?” “Audrey, finally. Do you know how many times I’ve called and that silly little mortal maid your grandfather keeps told me you were out? Have you really been out, or are you avoiding me?” Phersipnai’s voice was unmistakable, lilting with a faint Italian accent. 

“I was out, grandmother. I wouldn’t avoid you.” “Oh, don’t lie, you’re terrible at it. When are you going back to the States, Audrey?” “I don’t know. Maybe never.” 

“Stop that. It’s been twenty years and you’re being dramatic, I think that’s plenty long enough to have this little tantrum. You need to go home and sort things out with Rowan. I know he’s written you all those letters and you haven’t even had the decency to write back.” 

Audrey drew in a small, angry breath. “That’s unfair.” “No, Audrey, what’s unfair is I went to the trouble to make sure your life was comfortable and you never wanted for anything, and then made sure to find you a match that could do the same for you and was a decent person, and you turned around and repaid me by running off to your grandfather the moment things got a little unpleasant—“ “A little unpleasant? He humiliated me, grandmother! There were a hundred other vampires sitting in that church, he could have asked to delay things at any time, but he chose then to do it! People still talk about it when I walk into a room at coalition meetings! Not to even mention he was already practically married and you couldn’t even mention that to me!” “You will not shout at me, Audrey Lavinia Alden.” Phersipnai’s tone dropped low with warning. “People still talk about it because you’ve been punishing him for it for two decades. Rowan has been apologetic and there’s no reason you shouldn’t have at least spoken to him. If you had come back after a few months and sorted things out with him they wouldn’t have anything to gossip about. And I didn’t tell you about his partner because it was irrelevant to your arrangement. Do you really think, with as long as we live, vampires only engage in monogamous marriages where they’re romantically in love with their chosen match? You’re naive. Their partnership existed outside of our rules about marriage—call it a loophole, if you want—and thus had no impact on yours or the obligations you have to each other. And you’re lucky enough that Rowan actually does care about you, even given the circumstances and that it isn’t required of him, and you still treat him like you have.” “No impact? You don’t think that would have an impact? Are you insane?” Audrey had never taken such a tone with her grandmother before, but she couldn’t believe she’d have the gall to tell her that her fiancee already being married to another man wouldn’t have any impact on her own marriage to him. “You don’t care about what I want at all! All you care about is getting a great-granddaughter for your precious line to carry on. I’m not anything more to you than a prized cow you want bred.” Phersipnai didn’t say anything for a moment, the line quiet and Audrey nearly wondered if she’d hung up, but then the Elder finally spoke. “You’re right about part of that, but you’re no prize cow, Audrey. You’re an ill-tempered heifer and I can only hope that any child you have has their personality curbed by their father’s influence.” She paused a beat, drawing a slow breath. “Pack your things. I’m coming to get you. I’m not going to tolerate any more of this nonsense. If you want to act like a child, I will treat you like one. You’ve made it clear enough that you can’t take care of yourself and you can’t be trusted to make reasonable decisions. You have 12 hours.”  Audrey’s hand were shaking so hard she nearly lost her grip on the phone receiver. She wasn’t going back. And it didn’t matter to her if Phersipnai was an Elder. She was going to prove that she could live without her grandmother or Rowan or anyone else. “No.” “No?” Phersipnai parroted, incredulous. 

“No.” And with that, Audrey hung up. 12 hours was plenty of time to get a head start on the Elder…and Audrey had always wondered what Tokyo was like. 

[astralstudent]

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