#Aristeas The Poet

[thenightling]

The backstories of Morpheus’ Ravens

Matthew-  Formerly Matthew Cable. (Source Swamp Thing volume 2, mostly issue 84).    Matthew worked for the DDI (Department of defense intelligence) and was married to Abby Arcane (who would later be Swamp Thing’s Love interest). Matthew was not a very good man. He was an alcoholic and he was physically abusive to Abby.

Thanks to comic book shenanigans he briefly ended up with God-like powers.  But he ultimately ended up in a coma caused by a drunk driving accident.  While in his coma Matthew ended up in The Dreaming, in the cave owned by Eve (one of Morpheus’s minion, a former horror comics hostess who can look like a young woman, a middle aged woman, or an elderly woman at will). Her cave is not very far from The House of Mystery and The House of Secrets, near the Shores of the Seas of Night (The ocean of The Dreaming).  Eve likes to punish misogynistic men in their nightmares, it’s her specialty.  

 In the cave Matthew learns to not be so misogynistic and every time he becomes abusive toward Eve (who he dreams is his wife), she takes her crone form (which is improbably strong) and turns the tables on him.  

In The Waking World Abby discovers that Matthew was taken to a corrupt hospital that was harvesting his organs while he’s still alive.   She finds him kept only alive by machines.  HIs body ravaged.  Most of his vital organs taken, even his eyes are gone.  Abby goes to turn his life support off out of mercy... In The Dreaming Matthew leaves Eve’s cave, crawling out after having learned his lessons. Morpheus meets him at the mouth of the cave and offers him the chance to serve him as his raven but he has to let go of his dying mortal life.

Matthew briefly wakes up just in time to shut off his life support systems himself so Abby doesn’t have to do it.  As Matthew dies he tells Abby to forgive him and forget him.

As a raven Matthew comes to prefer being a bird to being a man, deciding he makes a better raven than a person.

__________________________  

Jessamy - Not a lot is known about Jessamy’s past.  We know that she was Morpheus’s raven in the 1700s, and possibly earlier.   Her first appearance in the comics is in Thermador. She was very clever and helped to orchestrate the plan Johanna Constantine (eighteenth century character) needed in order to rescue Orpheus from the French revolutionaries. In the comics she’s a solid black raven.

_______________________________   Aristeas - Also known as Aristeas The Raven and Aristeas The Poet.  Aristeas was a poet in Ancient Greece. This one was a real historic figure and figure of mythology.   It is believed that after he died he became a raven and served Apollo.  It’s a running gag in The Sandman comics that Morpheus is repeatedly mistaken as Apollo since Apollo was often believed to be the father of Orpheus and in The Sandman Orpheus is Morpheus’s son.  After serving Morpheus for two hundred and forty years Aristeas chose to return to the human world in the form of a man but found he couldn’t re-adjust to being human so he asked to return to being a raven.

______________________________________ 

Lucien - Lucien (Lucienne in the TV show) is the first raven.  Lucien’s current form is likely not Lucien’s original form.  Lucien can still take raven form at will, as revealed in The Sandman issue known as The Hunt.

  The Dreaming (1996-2002 comics) claimed that Lucien was a white raven who was punished for some offense and made black. And that he was probably also Adam from Adam and Eve but Neil Gaiman has since debunked the notion that Lucien was Adam. And that version of The Dreaming has been de-canonized and ignored.   No other comic has ever claimed Lucien was once a white raven.  He is, canonically, the first raven though. 

That version of The Dreaming also gave Daniel a white raven named Tethys made from the soul of a dead alien who resided in The House of Secrets sub-basement. She was created to replace Matthew after he was accidentally shot by Lucien and chose to stay dead. She does not exist in any other comic. And Matthew is very much alive in current Sandman canon.      

  Delirium believes there have been “eleven and a half” ravens.

All of Morpheus's ravens were once mortal.   And he usually pays them with some sort of boon.  If they ever decide to not be his raven anymore they get the choice to either move on into the afterlife, or become a new dream entity, or become human again or to remain a raven and roam in that form but no longer serving Morpheus.

[talonabraxas]

Shirdal 'Lion-Eagle' Talon Abraxas

Ancient origins of the griffin

A legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and, sometimes, an eagle's talons as its front feet first appears in ancient Iranian and Egyptian art dating back to before 3000 BCE. In Egypt, a griffin-like animal can be seen on a cosmetic palette from Hierakonpolis, known as the "Two Dog Palette", dated to 3300–3100 BCE. The divine storm-bird, Anzu, half man and half bird, associated with the chief sky god Enlil was revered by the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians. The Lamassu, a similar hybrid deity depicted with the body of a bull or lion, eagle's wings, and a human head, was a common guardian figure in Assyrian palaces.

In Iranian mythology, the griffin is called Shirdal, which means "Lion-Eagle." Shirdals appeared on cylinder seals from Susa as early as 3000 BCE. Shirdals also are common motifs in the art of Luristan, the North and North West region of Iran in the Iron Age, and Achaemenid art. The 15th century BCE frescoes in the Throne Room of the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos are among the earliest depictions of the mythical creatures in ancient Greek art. In Central Asia, the griffin image was later included in Scythian "animal style" artifacts of the 6th–4th centuries BCE.

In his Histories, Herodotus relates travelers' reports of a land in the northeast where griffins guard gold and where the North Wind issues from a mountain cave. Scholars have speculated that this location may be referring to the Dzungarian Gate, a mountain pass between China and Central Asia. Some modern scholars including Adrienne Mayor have theorized that the legend of the griffin was derived from numerous fossilized remains of Protoceratops found in conjunction with gold mining in the mountains of Scythia, present day eastern Kazakhstan. Recent linguistic and archaeological studies confirm that Greek and Roman trade with Saka-Scythian nomads flourished in that region from the 7th century BCE, when the semi-legendary Greek poet Aristeas wrote of his travels in the far north, to about 300 CE when Aelian reported details about the griffin - exactly the period during which griffins were most prominently featured in Greco-Roman art and literature. Mayor argues that over-repeated retelling and drawing or recopying its bony neck frill (which is rather fragile and may have been frequently broken or entirely weathered away) may have been thought to be large mammal-type external ears, and its beak treated as evidence of a part-bird nature that lead to bird-type wings being added. Others argue fragments of the neck frill may have been mistook for remnants of wings.

Lucius Flavius Philostratus (170 – 247/250 CE), a Greek sophist who lived during the reign of the Roman emperor Philip the Arab, in his "Life of Apollonius of Tyana" also writes about griffins that quarried gold because of the strength of their beak. He describes them as having the strength to overcome lions, elephants, and even dragons, although he notes they had no great power of flying long distances because their wings were not attached the same way as birds. He also described their feet webbed with red membranes. Philostratus says the creatures were found in India and venerated there as sacred to the sun. He observed that griffins were often drawn by Indian artists as yoked four abreast to represent the sun.

[tickldpnk8]

Distant Mirrors Reread: August

So here’s the thing, I kind of hated this story the first time I read it. It didn’t seem to give much to the overall plot. I don’t know enough about ancient Roman history to understand the allusions, but I knew that I didn’t care for the rape undertones.

But I’m rereading the comics carefully for any hints to the ending or for any world-building clues, and I was shocked at just how chock-full this issue is. So this recap is way longer than I thought it would be. (and this is also why it took me longer to pull together)

On Dream's Ravens

We get an introduction to another of Dream's ravens in this issue: Aristeas of Marmora. So as far as I can tell, the order for the ravens we know by name is:

Lucien/Lucienne Aristeas Jessamy Matthew

What's cool about Aristeas is his connection to both Apollo and Griffins. If he existed, he was a poet who lived in Ancient Greece and he shows up in Herodotus' The Histories. It's said that he appeared 240 yrs after his death to ask for an altar to be set up to him and the god Apollo...who he had been living with as a raven since his death. The poem he is attributed as having written describes the "far North" where griffins guard gold among other things. Which is likely where Morpheus got his Griffen to guard his castle...as said Griffen tells Matthew he was hatched in the fictional Arimaspia mentioned in the poem.

We get this entire backstory (minus the griffins) summed up for us in just 3 lines of dialog where Augustus asks the raven who he is and follows it up with "the poet, who became Apollo's raven?" when Aristeas introduces himself. I totally missed this when I first read this issue.

On the nature of gods

Gods are born of the Dreaming and return to it when they "die". This gives a bit of a different color to the conversations we saw in Season of Mists. When gods (such as Bast) die—presumably from lack of believers/worship—they return to the Dreaming. In a sense, all of Morpheus' petitioners were seeking favor with their creator. Or at least one who has the power to unmake them. Including Loki.

And then there's the fact that Morpheus tends to get mixed up with Apollo since they have similar attributes. See the reference to Aristeas above, but also this panel:

This is a great little snippet that I think serves no other purpose than to explain why popular Greek myths list Apollo as Orpheus' father when in the comics it's Morpheus. And to maybe make space for the Endless within the larger pantheon of pantheons.

And this panel was interesting because it implies that Morpheus takes counsel from the Roman pantheon. In it, he's explaining why he is coming to Augustus to help him plan for Rome's future. And says that the god Terminus requested that Morpheus help Augustus.

Terminus is the god of boundaries and is usually depicted as a bust on a boundary stone. As far as I know, he doesn't have any relation to existing Sandman characters and doesn't appear again in the overall story. So the question I have is how much overlap is there in this universe between the Greek and Roman pantheons? How does this pantheon relate to his relationship with Calliope and the Greek gods?

On the nature of Dreams and the Dreaming

It's in this issue that we finally get an explanation of the Gates of Horn and Ivory. Augustus explains that dreams come through 2 gates. The dreams that lie come through the gates of Ivory, while the true dreams pass through the gates of Horn. This notion is something that Gaiman borrowed from the Ancient Greeks: it first appeared written down in The Odyssey.

It's interesting to me that he mentions having false dreams every spring. I can only assume he's referring to the dreams we see of his childhood rape(s) and how scared he was. And that makes me wonder upon this second reading what he believes to be lies about them: maybe the incident(s) didn't happen? Perhaps, but I think it's more likely that he no longer sees himself as being a victim.

There's also a lot of discussion around what makes Rome great and how power is conferred on it's leaders. There's this lovely line where Augustus states that leaders are motivated by dreams.

I think Dream would definitely agree with this statement, and I think we'll see more of he's willing to prove his point in the next issue. The idea is that dreams are powerful motivators. And it's interesting that Caius Augustus Caesar, of all people, is saying that powerful leaders are motivated by dreams...when some folks might suggest that those who gain power might be motivated by desire/lust for power. (cough, Desire, cough)

And he talks a lot about dreams in this issue. There are lots of allusions to them in his figures of speech. For example, he talks about the 2 possible futures of the Roman Empire and how it could expand into lands the Romans have barely Dreamed of. In general, I can see how someone who puts so much faith/power/meaning in dreams might be assisted by Dream himself.

A Day to Live

And Morpheus does help Augustus plan away from the watchful eyes of the gods. He suggests that August take a day every year to not be Emperor.

It's got a nice symmetry with what Death was already doing at the time: taking a day off every century to not be Death. Sure she describes it as experiencing Life, meeting her own self, becoming closer to the beings she is in service of, etc etc. But at it's core, she's take a day to not be herself (at least in part).

And in turn, it also has a nice symmetry with what Morpheus eventually does with Hob: take a day off to essentially not be Dream. In sitting and listening to Hob's stories, the Prince of Stories becomes the listener instead of the storyteller.

So yeah, a jam-packed issue, and I found I enjoyed it a lot more while clue hunting than I did on my first read-through.

[pink-lemonade-rose]

The poet Alcaeus, writing about the same time as Alcman and Aristeas of Proconnesus, mentioned a story in his Hymn to Apollo in which the newborn Apollo received a chariot drawn by swans from his father Zeus. Swans are an important feature of the Hyperborean myth. They often act as a link between the Hyperboreans and Apollo. Their migrations unite north and south, and also symbolize the connection between the real world of the Greeks in the south, on the one hand, and the mythical world of the Hyperboreans on the other.

Timothy Bridgman, Hyperboreans: Myth and History in Celtic-Hellenic Contacts

[rumireed]

Iatromantis: Dream Traveling Philosopher Healers

Aristeas was among those of ancient Greece who was known to be an Iatromantis, a seer healer. It is recorded in ancient stories his soul could leave his body, and return at will. This is something that an Iatromantis would be able to do, both in dreaming, and waking realities. Aristeas was a poet philosopher, who is also said to be able to take the form of a Raven. Peter Kingsley writes the…

[bolgars]

ARIMASPI were an ancient people in the extreme north-east of Scythia, probably the eastern Altai. All accounts of them go back to a poem by Aristeas of Proconnesus, from whom Herodotus drew his information. According to Herodotos their name was derived from the Skythian words arima "one" and spou "eye". They were supposed to be one-eyed (hence their Scythian name) and to steal gold from the griffins that guarded it. In art they are usually represented as richly dressed Asiatics, picturesquely grouped with their griffin foes; the subject is often described by poets from Aeschylus to Milton. They are so nearly mythical that it is impossible to insist on the usual identification with the ancestors of the Huns. Their gold was probably real, as gold still comes from the Altai. http://dlvr.it/Ph6XYk

[thenightling]

How Morpheus pays his servants

Every so often I come across Sandman fans who joke (or are serious) that Morpheus does not pay his servants, that they are secretly his slaves.  They’ll even all him a hypocrite when he tells Hob Gadling that it’s a poor thing to hold another in bondage. Let me state, Morpheus IS against slavery.  In The Sandman: Season of Mists Titania ”gave” Morpheus Nuala as a gift as a bit of a trap.  She knew Morpheus fairly well. She must have known he he feels about slavery.  If Morpheus refused the gift the fae could “take offense” and go to war, an excuse to try to take the key to Hell from Morpheus.  And if he did keep her, it rids Titania of a potential annoyance.  In some fae lore Nuala was the name of a fae Oberon had interest in. When Morpheus is given Nuala he is reluctant to accept. Finally he allows her to stay.  He never gives her any commands but he removes her glamour.  Though it was initially against her will, Morpheus’s removal of the glamour actually did Nuala a favor. Nuala’s people are very conformist and they all wear glamours, hiding their true forms to look ‘as beautiful as possible.”  What Morpheus did was teach Nuala to appreciate who she is without conforming to what her society had demanded of her for her whole life. It can be seen as a trans metaphor, especially when, later in the story Nuala shows in the fae court without her glamour on and it nearly causes a scandal but she decides she prefers her true self rather than what her society wants of her. Morpheus never gave Nuala any orders. She went about cleaning within the castle to give herself something to do.  But despite this Morpheus repaid her service with a boon.  A boon being any favor (within reason) that she might want, should she call upon him.  Not only that, but as a bonus, Morpheus rescued her brother from imprisonment while Nuala was still working for him.  Morpheus makes it very clear he saved Cluracaun for Nuala’s sake. Though he does not use money, Morpheus DOES pay his servants in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

Here are some examples as to how Morpheus pays his servants.   Cain and Abel = Morpheus gave them each a magical haunted house that is bigger on the inside and full of stories, ghosts, and monsters, to fit their spooky inclinations and desires.  The houses are somewhat sentient too and they gain caretakers to look after them, make repairs, and keep things up and running. It’s a win for everyone involved.

In the Netflix Sandman series both gargoyles, Gregory and Goldie, were actually given as gifts to Cain and Abel instead of Goldie being a gift to Abel from Cain like he was in the comics.     

Lucien / Lucienne is revealed in the comics to have been the first raven. In the story called The Hunt we see that Lucien can still take raven form at will. Lucien loves books. So how was Lucien paid?  Lucien was given a new elfish form (taller even than Morpheus) and the largest library in the multiverse.  And status as second in command in The Dreaming.  That’s a pretty nice payment for services rendered. Aristeas the Raven is based on an actual myth where he was the raven of apollo. Aristeas was a real Greek poet who supposedly became a raven after his death to serve the God Apollo.  This ties into the running gag in The Sandman of people mistaking Morpheus as Apollo.  After two hundred years of service Aristeas decided he didn’t want to serve Morpheus anymore and he was offered a boon.  He chose becoming a mortal man again but he soon found that he could not adjust to the mortal world after having been away from it for two centuries so he asked to return to being a raven.   It’s unclear where he is now. John Constantine / Johanna Constantine was paid by having their nightmares dealt with.  There’s also the possibility that Morpheus may have rescued Constantine’s soul from self-made damnation since Jon Constantine tends to believe he’s going to Hell and has made some bad decisions / bargains as a result.  In a Hellblazer comic it’s pretty much confirmed that Jack Constantine, Johanna (eighteenth century version) and John Constantine were all the same soul just reincarnated into the same bloodline. For John Constantine Morpheus also helped Rachel to die peacefully in a pleasant dream since there was no saving her (in the comic it was implied she was actually already dead and rotting. The sand was the only thing keeping her semi-alive / her soul tethered to her body.)      His usual method of payment though is a boon.  So I think I’ve made my point here. Yes, Morpheus does pay those who serve him and he never forces anyone to do anything against their will (unless you count him telling The Corinthian not to kill people...)

[thenightling]

Morpheus’s ravens (that we know of)

Here is a list of all of Morpheus’s ravens in order of first to most recent. I will not be including Daniel’s second raven of Tethys (The white raven from the 1996-2002 Dreaming) as I am pretty sure that one is no longer canon as Matthew is back in The Dreaming (2018).

All of Morpheus’s ravens used to be mortal.   Lucien The Librarian (Lucienne in the show) - First raven.  Still able to take raven form at will.  It is very likely that Lucien’s current form does NOT match Lucien’s original pre-Raven form.   Whoever Lucien once was, he does not seem to like to remember it and chooses to only recall his life in The Dreaming. It seems a recurring thing among Morpheus’s ravens that they disliked who they were when they were mortal and tend to prefer to be his raven or in this case, raven and then promoted to librarian / Morpheus’s second in command.  

Note: Neil said that Lucienne of The Sandman Netflix series is still the first raven.    

Aristeas The Poet - Morpheus’s raven in Ancient Rome.  Probably the same raven in The Sandman: Dream Hunters.  He did ask to become human again when he was tired of being Morpheus’s raven but he had been away from the mortal world so long he had trouble re-adjusting and chose to return to being a raven. Where he is now is anyone’s guess.

Jessamy - Morpheus’s raven since at least the eighteenth century.  The comics do not reveal what became of her but in The Sandman Netflix series she died (and likely crossed over into the afterlife) trying to rescue Morpheus.  She is loyal and clever. It is her scheme that helps rescue Orpheus in the story Thermador.  

 And finally Matthew Cable - Died in Louisiana and chose to spend his afterlife as a raven.  He prefers being a raven to being a man. Matthew is the newbie to The Dreaming and asks the questions the readers want to ask.  He was also (likely) the first raven to get Morpheus to admit they are friends and not merely king and servant.

[thenightling]

Who is Morpheus’s son? (For people who want the spoiler)

Warning:  MAJOR Sandman and mythology spoilers below!

(Note: The image is from The Sandman Audio drama, not Netflix.)

I’m seeing a lot of people asking about Morpheus’s son, mostly from those who have not read the comics.  A few mistakenly think Lyta Hall’s child is Morpheus’s son.  No.  That is (or will be) Daniel Hall. And though Daniel was conceived in dreams and gestated in dreams he is not Morpheus’s son.  The reason Morpheus says he is his is because Daniel will later be revealed as being an aspect (Piece of) Dream of The Endless.  Even Morpheus is just an aspect of the whole. Each incarnation of Dream we see is just a tiny facet of a being best compared to a giant crystal.

Now for Morpheus’s actual son.

Note: This story is told in The Sandman: Special Song of Orpheus which is in the collection The Sandman: Fables and Reflections.    Roughly three thousand years ago Morpheus fell in love with the Greek muse Calliope.  They had a son together, named Orpheus.  The traditional myth says that Orpheus’s father is Apollo so there is a little bit of a running gag that Morpheus is somehow repeatedly mistaken as Apollo.

Orpheus was a brilliant musician and Morpheus was very doting when he was a child.  As Orpheus grew older though he and his father grew apart.  

On the day of Orpheus’s wedding his wife, Eurydice was chased by a horny faun (Aristaeus, not to be confused with Aristeas The Poet, Morpheus’s raven from that era).  Aristaeus was drunk and Fauns (satyrs) are infamously perpetually horny so Eurydice feared he would rape her. As she ran, a viper bit her foot and she died.

Orpheus was so heart broken that he tried to get help from his father and aunts and uncles to get Eurydice back.  Morpheus (being more of an asshole back then) told him to just let her go, grieve, and move on.  Orpheus was furious that his father would not help him and denounced him.

With the aid of Destruction, Orpheus went to Death for help and she told him that he could go to The Underworld.  The catch was if he went there now while still alive, he would have to be immortal. He would then never die.  Orpheus did not care so long as he could get Eurydice back. 

Orpheus entered The Underworld and met Hades and Persephone. He pleaded and played his sad song for them. It was so moving that it made the Furies (Kindly Ones) cry.  And this pissed them off. They do not like to cry.

 Hades told him he could have Eurydice back but only if he showed he had faith in Hades word.  He must not look back on her until they were out of The Underworld.  Orpheus agreed.   As he walked from The Underworld, however, he grew worried that he was being tricked.  So when he neared the exit of The Underworld he looked back. He saw her for a moment but she was quickly pulled back from him.

(The TV show Dark shadows in the 1960s recreated the Orpheus story but with Quentin Collins in place of Orpheus and instead of Hades there was Mr. Best (Death).)

Orpheus was heartbroken.  He fell into a deep depression.  One night a bunch of Dionysus worshippers went into a frenzy and were angry he didn’t join them with song and dance so they tore Orpheus to shreds.  This is where Orpheus WOULD have died if he was mortal but since he was made immortal his head survived. 

When Orpheus’s head washes up on a shore Morpheus comes to him.  Morpheus is still angry about being denounced by his son so he tells him he will never see him again but he will send some priests to look after him.  And so he does.   For centuries priests of Orpheus look after Orpheus on a tiny Greek island.  

Calliope and Morpheus fight about how Morpheus treated their son.  Morpheus has his palace guards pretend not to know who Calliope is and this is pretty much where their marriage ended.  

Later when Calliope was held captive by a mortal writer, however, Morpheus would rescue her.  Having experienced his own captivity Morpheus had grown considerably from his previous asshole days.

 In the late 1700s Orpheus was kidnapped from the Island and taken to be destroyed be French revolutionaries. Morpheus sends Lady Johanna Constantine to rescue him.  Around this time is when we first see Jessamy The Raven. 

 In present day Morpheus and Delirium go looking for their brother Destruction.  After many misadventures Morpheus reluctantly goes to Orpheus to find out where Destruction is since Orpheus is an oracle / prophet (besides still having a fantastic voice).

Orpheus agrees to tell him but only if Morpheus agrees to euthanize him.  He wants to die.  Morpheus does as his son requests and this breaks him emotionally.  This is what will later give the Kindly Ones the excuse to come after Morpheus even though it’s what Orpheus wanted.

In The Sandman: The Wake Calliope states that she is not morning her former husband but rather the “stranger” who came to her rescue and put her son out of his misery.

Also in The Sandman: the Wake we briefly see Orpheus standing on a dock in what is very likely The Elysian Fields.  He is whole, no longer just a severed head. He has his lyre and he seems to be at peace.

[thenightling]

All the LGBTQ+ characters in the original Sandman comics (That I can remember)

All the LGBTQ+ characters in the original Sandman comics (That I can remember) To the people whining that The Netflix Sandman series “made everyone gay” exactly which LGBTQ+ characters from The Sandman did you mistake as straight in the source material?

Here are all the LGBTQ+ characters in the original Sandman comics (That I can remember).  Before I proceed please know that I am forty years old and tend to use the terms bi and pan interchangeably so I mean no offense if I use one more than the other to mean the same thing.    Alexander Burgess - Gay or possibly pan / bi (in a monogynous relationship with Paul). Paul McGuire - Gay 

Judy - Lesbian Donna (AKA Foxglove) - Lesbian  Hazel - Lesbian Wanda - Trans woman Desire - Nonbinary Bi / Pan Peggy AKA Jim - Gender nonconforming  Hal Carter - Gay drag queen The Corinthian - Gay (Pan in the show) Constantine - Bi  / Pan Lucifer - Bi / Pan Mazikeen - Bi / Pan   Clurcan - Bi / Pan Robin Goodfellow (Puck) - Bi / Pan Loki - Loki

_____________________  

Uncertain / unconfirmed but hinted at status: Morpheus - Possibly demi pan romantic as he is more attracted to personality than physical bodies. Calliope - Probably bi / pan Chantal - Queer  Zelda - Queer  Johanna Constantine - Likely pan (Bi / Pan in the show version)  Lucien - Probably some kind of queer Cain - Possibly Ace Abel - Possibly Ace

Aristaeus (Faun / Satyr) - Likely Bi / Pan (Mythologically all fauns were) Aristeas (Raven, formerly mortal poet) - Likely Bi / Pan Destiny - Probably Ace Jessamy - Possibly Lesbian  ___________________ 

Sandman spin-off characters: Echo - Trans woman  Ruin - Gay  Heather After - Trans woman 

[thenightling]

All the LGBTQ+ characters in The Sandman that I can remember

As there are people who actually think the LGBTQ+ characters were added for the show, here is a canonical list of them from the source material.

Note: I’m one of those people who tend to use bi and pan interchangeably.  

Alexander Burgess = Gay or pan Paul McGuire = Gay  Constantine (all incarnations) = Pan The Corinthian = Gay in the comics / Pan in the show Rachel = Lesbian in the show, possibly pan in the comics Judy = Lesbian  Donna AKA Foxglove = Lesbian  Hazel = Lesbian  Hal Carter / Dolly = Gay drag queen  Cluracan the faery = Gay or pan.  Seems to have gay leanings.  Aristaeus the Satyr = Pan Lucifer = Genderless and pan  Mazikeen = Pan  Loki = Loki Wanda = Trans woman Jim / Peggy = Gender nonconforming  Desire = Nonbinary and pan Robin Goodfellow AKA Puck = Pan Chantal = Queer  Zelda = Queer __________________  Speculative: 

Morpheus = Possibly demi / pan romantic Calliope = She inspired Sappho.  Probably pan.   Aristeas The Raven / Poet =  probably pan

Lucien / Lucienne = Ace

Cain = Ace Abel = Ace

Destiny - Probably Ace Jessamy - Possibly Lesbian ________________________ 

Sandman spin-off characters: Echo - Trans woman  Ruin - Gay Heather After - Trans woman

[thenightling]

“The Endless don’t interfere with mortals”   Oh, really?

In the last week I’ve come across at least three Sandman fans who felt the need to tell me that The Endless do not interfere with mortals because it’s the rules or Death is the only one who interferes with mortals because she doesn’t care about the rules.   

People need to stop trusting what we’re told by characters and start paying attention to the actual events of the stories.  Here are some examples of interfering with mortals.      

1. Hob Gadling.  In The Sandman: Doll's House, Men of Good Fortune, Morpheus had Death make Hob Gadling an immortal for their own amusement / giving Morpheus a friend without him realizing it. 

2.  Shakespeare.  A few centuries later it was because of Morpheus’s centennial meetings with Hob that he saw Shakespeare lamenting that he wanted to be as well known as his friend Kit (Christopher) Marlowe.  

Morpheus then used Shakespeare to write A Midsummer Night’s Dream, thus keeping fae in the human collective consciousness so that they would not be forgotten and start to fade from existence.

This using of Shakespeare lead to Titania enticing Shakespeare’s young son and turning him into her faery slave.    

3.  Matthew The Raven is a deceased human known as Matthew Cable. Morpheus not only interfered with Matthew's final life lessons and means of letting go of his unfinished business (See Swamp Thing volume 2, issue 84). And then he made this deceased mortal into his raven and he has done this several times before.

Aristeas the Poet, Jessamy (the eighteenth century raven), and Lucien (The first raven) for example. In the story the Hunt we also learn Lucien can still take raven form at will.

4.   Morpheus rescued Rose Walker from Funland when she called out to him even though if he had left her in Funland's clutches it (in theory) would have "solved the problem" of the vortex.

5.   In Soft Places Morpheus interfered with what happened to Marco Polo because Marco Polo had offered him water and he did this at risk to himself.

6.  In Fear of Falling Morpheus went out of his way to inspire a young man with stage fright. The young man was no one important by your definition.

7.   In the story of Emperor Norton, Morpheus completely messed with a man's mind because of a bet with Desire.

8.  During the Kindly Ones we off-handedly see Morpheus help some children on their children's story quest, after he gave them very exotic ice cream.

9.   In Overture Morpheus not only finds a child (Hope) but he also starts to take care of her, tells her bed time stories, makes her dream of everyone being kind. And very obviously considers adopting her.  Yes, Hope was ultimately important but she became important because of her interaction with Morpheus. 

10.   Morpheus interfered with mortals in the very act of leaving Nada in Hell for rejecting him.

11.  Morpheus once dated Killala of the Glow, one of the founders of The Green Lantern Corp.  This is in the story The Heart of a Star in The Sandman: Endless Nights.

12.  After The Endless set the rules to not interfere with or love mortals, Morpheus defied this rule (probably several times over) but most infamously with Nada.

13.  Desire interfering with mortals is how Rose Walker became a Dream Vortex.

14. Bonus:  During the events of The Heart of a Star, we see Despair of The Endless talking to Rao, the God / Sun of Krypton and trying to persuade him to allow Krypton to sustain life and how beautiful it would be if there is only one survivor to mourn.  She accidentally helped create DC’s symbol of hope, Superman.        

It's actually hard to find an instance where The Endless do NOT interfere with mortals.

[thenightling]

I would love to hear some possible theories / ideas about Jessamy the Raven. Her name is quite unique, are there any clues to her backstory? Was she a human before being in The Dreaming? Why could she be a pied crow instead of a common raven (in the Netflix adaptation)?

As far as I know all the ravens used to be human. Matthew used to be Matthew cable. The Ancient Roman raven, Aristeas was Aristeas The Poet.

The first time we see Jessamy in the comics is during the French revolution. Apparently her name is an old word for Jasmine but it later became slang for lesbian or feminine man (Virgina Woolf's doing, I think).

[thenightling]

I have been too shy to talk to you as I haven't been a fan of The Sandman for very long. I hope that's okay and I love your fan fiction. I am almost done reading volume 6 Fables and Reflections and I would like to know how would you rank the stories in it from most favorite to least favorite? Also how would you rank the stories in the third volume Dream Country from most favorite to least favorite?

Hello,

Oh, sure! Don't be shy. I won't bite (unless asked. ;-) I love talking about The Sandman. And welcome to the fandom! I still consider myself new too. I only finally read it for the first time in 2017 and others of my age group were reading them since the 90s. So I'm making up for lost time.

Let's see.

Fables and Reflections in order of favorite to least favorite...

There are so many good ones in this one it's hard to decide.

Fear of Falling - I love this one. Morpheus is helpful and inspiring and it's very pro-creativity and pro-taking chances on yourself and what you do, artistically. Note: Not every version of Fables and Reflections comes with this but the 30th anniversary one does and I'm using that to make this list.

Soft Places - I like this one a lot. It tells the nature of The Soft Places / the Shifting Zones. It's a good story and you get to see characters at different points in their adventures. You have Marco Polo of the thirteenth century, Gilbert obviously shortly after A Game of You but before Brief lives. And Morpheus, fresh from his captivity, right before Imperfect Hosts. This is before Gregory found him and brought him to The House of Mystery to recover. And you can see his character growth. Marco Polo gives him water and in return he uses his last bit of strength to help Marco Polo get home. It's sweet.

Parliament of Rooks - I love this one. It introduces us to the concept of The Lil' Endless, we get to see baby Daniel apparently lucid dreaming while still only a toddler. We get the story of Eve. And it's always great to see Cain and Abel as storytellers. I also love seeing Matthew mock Cain and compare him to Vincent Price. "That Bargain basement Vaudevillian!" Hehe.  (I love Vincent Price.)  Also Goldie is very distinctly gendered as he here, repeatedly. So why is it, I wonder, that in all the spin-off versions of The Dreaming Goldie is suddenly a she?

Thermidor - I like Johanna Constantine. And this is the first appearance (I believe) of Orpheus other than his brief mention in Calliope and the stand-alone Sandman: Special Song of Orpheus. I also really like Jessamy. (*Glares at David S. Goyer* YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID! ....I'm okay... JESSSSAMY!!!! (You'll get that in about a year I think...)

The Hunt - Who doesn't love a slightly subversive werewolf story / fairy tale? Also Lucien looks great here and we get to see him pro-actively protecting his library.

Song of Orpheus - Some versions of Fables and Reflections don't have this story as it was originally a stand alone one shot but it's absolutely necessary if you aren't well versed in Greek mythology. It essentially retells the myth of Orpheus but with The Endless and Morpheus as his father (Many think Apollo was his father). It's very well told and you really feel for Orpheus. This is not a comfortable story to read but gives you an idea of what Morpheus was like at his most... assholary. It's also really well drawn.

Ramadan - I like this one.  The artwork is a little busy but I do love Morpheus’ entrance into the story.  Again this is back during his asshole days and there is some good commentary here.  It’s also very respectful to the Islamic faith.   I love Morpheus’ outfit in this one.   

Three Septembers and a January. - This is a good one. Dream vs. Despair. And the real world, historic, Emperor Norton gets to appear in The Sandman. It's historically accurate (save for The Endless) and actually very respectful to history.

August - This one is good but a little sad, a little depressing. It's very well drawn and it introduces us to the raven Aristeas, the poet. Poor Morpheus, welcome to the running gag of being mistaken as Apollo. There's some abuse in here, if I remember right. And Morpheus is a little callous, as he often was before his "Time out" bubble.

___________________________________________ 

Dream Country in order of favorite to least favorite

 A Midsummer Night’s Dream - I love this one.  We get to see William Shakespeare for the first time since Men of Good Fortune (the story that introduces us to Hob Gadling).  A Midsummer Night’s Dream happens to be my favorite Shakespearean play. I always loved Puck even if Neil did feel the need to turn him into a little psychopath.  

If you pay careful attention you see that Shakepseare’s son is tempted with faery fruit and so will be turned into a faery by the eating of it, as is how it goes in some folklore.  Sometimes it places you under the faery’s spell. Sometimes it makes you one of them.  In this case he becomes an immortal faery and that’s a much better fate than dying (I hope.)  He does end up Titania’s slave (Unfortunately fae are a race with a very slave-based class system) but fae are strange and fickle and maybe he enjoys his role serving her and prefers it to the short life he would have had as a human.  

This is also the story where we get the famous “Shadow truths” speech from Morpheus, which I hope will be in the new Netflix series.   And we learn that it’s thanks to Morpheus that mortals will continue to dream of, think of, and even believe in the fae for years to come thanks to him having Shakespeare write that play. He has helped to sustain faery magick in our world and I like that.         

Calliope - This one is a very difficult read since it addresses concepts like slavery, dehumanizing, forced imprisonment and rape.   It’s the second time we see non-human creatures being dehumanized by being stripped of clothing and not being perceived as a person. The first time was with Morpheus, himself, in the very first issue, Sleep of the Just.   This one is difficult to read because you feel so bad for Calliope.  But the revenge Morpheus takes for her is so satisfying.  I hope the Netflix show doesn’t change it too much.  I know how modern audiences and writers feel about “White knights” and might want Calliope to save herself but I think it’s important to show Morpheus coming to her aid because it reveals how much character growth he’s had.  That he knows he treated her poorly back when they were married.   And again, the revenge he takes for her is very satisfying.  

Dream of a Thousand cats - I love animals.  I love cats.  I have three cats of my own.  Two of them I adopted the very day I read Dream of a Thousand cats for the first time (by pure coincidence).  The death of the kittens is something very difficult for me.   That is gut wrenching.  But I do love the concept that if a thousand souls dream the same thing at the same time it has the potential to re-write all of reality is that things were always a certain way.  This also nicely foreshadows the story we get in The Sandman: Overture and I love Overture.     

Façade - I’m sorry to say I kind of dislike this one.  I don’t think it’s what Neil intended but if feels like it romanticizes death a bit (as a concept, not a person).  You have a protagonist who is clearly clinically depressed and isolated and the best answer is apparently suicide!?  What she needed was a real friend, one that wouldn’t judge her by her appearance, and perhaps counseling.  A friend of mine attempted suicide a few summers ago and I had to hastily contact her mother on Facebook while it was happening so that may have impacted how I see this story.  This is one of those stories where I don’t think Death is as kind and sweet as so many fans think she is.  She came off as rather callous to me and not really friendly, and Kat Dennings’ delivery in the audio drama verison didn’t help matters.  

I’m glad The Sandman audio drama reversed the order for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and façade.  I think A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a much better place to end on than Façade.