#I’m new to mythology

[mey-amor]

“In ancient mythology, to eat the fruit of one’s captor meant that one would have to return to that captor,”

👁️ 👄 👁️

Shuri consumed part of the bracelet.

[flowersforfrancis]

[jeyaam]

mohini x lakshmi doodle i love sapphic gods!! 💗

[logandria]

Hi Tumblr strangers! I illustrate silk scarves, and I wanted to show y’all! They’re themed on mythology, art history, fantasy, and whatever weird thing I get really obsessed with for a few months.

They’re all pure silk (either silk satin or silk twill), and depending on the size, you can wear them around your throat, in your hair, as a belt, a blouse, a shawl, etc etc etc.

You can find my shop here. I hope y’all like them! :3

[littlebitofserendipity]

This man gets his ass beat by a 12 year old with daddy issues

[1taliart]

Nestor after returning to his homeland after the Trojan war

Hello, yes. After a year without uploading and in, what I feel, one of the weirdest ‘fandom’ twists, I’ve gone from obsessing over 80s musicals about anthropomorphic cats and trains to being obsessed with ancient books and plays. What can I say, the duality of man. (not that the cats and trains are fully gone, they never will).

Anyways, this low effort meme I made way to late at night is my application form to my fellow mythology and epic cycle girlies.

[crybaby-bkg]

potential angst fic where the world just….collapses in on itself right before your very eyes. the sky is deep red in color, clouds gone, night doesn’t fall behind the horizon of your trees anymore. land is splitting into millions of pieces, people are falling into the ocean by the thousands. there’s chaos everywhere, and you’re sure that this is the official end of the world.

only thing is—you can’t die yet. not because you haven’t fulfilled your life’s destiny or whatever bullshit, no. you refuse to die a virgin. but luckily, so does your childhood best friend Bakugou.

the earth is still shifting and rocking when you both agree to it, sure that by tomorrow the house shattering storms will have moved to your region, that you’ll be dead by sunrise. so you spend the entire night encased in his arms, tangled in his bed sheets. you wish you had more time to try more positions, but you tick off most on your bucket list.

he’s surprisingly shy the whole time, a little huffy when he tries to stick it in and misses your hole because he’s so nervous, and also, there’s another earthquake happening at this very moment. he kisses you gentle, and breaths hotly against your neck whenever you squeeze down on him. it’s not enough time in the remainder of the world to make fun of him for being a one pump chump, and you can only hook your leg around his waist to make him keep going so you can experience your first orgasm with another person.

and the night is heavenly, blissful, full of sweet moans and tender touches. it all goes well, and you expect to wake up in some afterlife by the time ‘night’ is over.

….only thing is; you wake up the next day. in bed. beside Bakugou who looks at you just as confusedly.

“I thought we were supposed to be dead by now?” He asks you, turning on your tv that hasn’t worked since the birds fell out of the sky. but miraculously—the tv works. and it’s broadcasting extremely important news, a headline that makes you swallow.

apocalypse seemingly over: or are we being fooled by an angry god?

“What the fuck are we gonna do now?” You can hear Bakugou mutter, but you’re still stuck on the paler sky that’s starting to look more blue and the one bird on the branch outside your window and the people who’ve stopped wielding axes and started picking up shattered pieces of their homes. but you’re still even more so stuck on the fact that you just fucked your childhood best friend in his too big and expensive bed and lost your virginity for nothing. what the fuck are you gonna do now?

[yea-baiyi]

i’m sure people smarter than me have said this, but the odyssey is the sequel to the monomyth actually. in the hero’s journey the hero departs from home, from innocence, from safety, to fulfil his destiny. in homer’s the odyssey, the war is over, the destiny fulfilled. next comes the real fight, the unwinnable fight—to return to everything you left home to fight for.

in the first half of the poem, while odysseus fights tooth and nail to return home, his home fights with its last breath to give odysseus a home to return to. and time is running out. his wife penelope is down to her last desperate excuse. suitors have invaded his home, eating through his household and his wealth. his son, telemachus, almost grown, leaves home for the first time to find out if odysseus is still alive, if there is still a reason to keep fighting. having lost everything he had, over and over, odysseus is finally allowed to arrive in his homeland. at first he doesn’t recognise it. and he is cursed to look old and decrepit, so that none of his loved ones would recognise him.

for the second half of the poem, he has returned and miraculously, he has not been displaced or forgotten. but now he has to reclaim what was his. and removing the rot, restoring this place to the home odysseus remembers, is long and painful. instead of walking through the front door, he must sneak in through the back or risk being thrown out. not a single person knows him by sight; odysseus must prove his identity over and over, to every member of his household. he must retell story after story, share secret after secret, reveal every marking or scar upon his body, to finally be recognised by his own family. and then he destroys every last trace of the intruders—kills the men, kills the servants, wipes the slate clean.

by athena’s magic, he is restored to his former youth and glory as he reunites with his wife. the families of the slain suitors try to seek revenge, but zeus, lord of the skies, intervenes. odysseus, filled with his god-given strength, is home, and ready to fight to protect it.

it’s a complete sequel to the heroes journey, but what makes it part of the monomyth is the horrible truth about odysseus’ tale: that it’s impossible. that you will leave, and your home will change in your absence, and someone might fill your place; your family won’t recognise you, your wife met someone else, intruders have destroyed your home, and you will never be as young as you were. you will return and you will fight with every ounce of your strength and it won’t be enough to turn back the clock. it’s the terrible last chapter to every hero’s story that we don’t like to talk about.

and yet, of course, it’s the same story we tell over and over: we’ve won the war, now all we want is to return home, but home is no longer somewhere we can reach.

[ava-does-dumbassery]

I think my favourite Egyptian mythology thing is that you could argue (based on some things said in certain texts) that Horus is Set’s best friend by default.

Uhhh basically: In a lot of spells in the Greek Magical Papyri say that Set hates friendship and ruins every relationship he’s ever been in because of how the strong the evil and hatred vibes he exudes are. Therefore, he has no friends. However, there are a bunch of other texts that say that Horus and Set became friends after the conflict around which one of them would be king was settled. And when the texts elaborate on how this happened, they usually have a part where whoever decided which one of them should be king tells them that they have to get along with each other now. Therefore, Horus is Set’s friend (because he has a court order that says he has to be). And if Set has no other friends, that means Horus is his only friend. Which means Horus has to be his best friend, because there are no other potential candidates.

Oh also, there’s a spell in the Pyramid texts that lists a bunch of gods along with other gods that they like, and they mostly list gods alongside their mothers, like Horus and Isis, Sobek and Neith, etc. But when they get to Set, they list him alongside “the two reconciled gods” (which is an epithet that refers to both Horus and Set specifically in the time after the conflict over kingship was resolved).

[steelcladbutterfly]

Yandere Sun Wukong

This is one of my older works, but I still look back on it fondly. I made it before Monkie Kid became popular/came out so don’t expect it to be from that universe. It also doesn’t really take place in the Journey to the West timeline, so sorry for any mistakes with characteristics and the like.

The Mokey King, who can be found as far back as the Song Dynasty, specifically through the story of Journey to the West.

You were a close companion of Sun Wukong. You were with him through many of his adventures and even gained immortality right alongside him. You had been born into a cold family who never showed you any sort of warmth or love of any kind, so the one thing you longed for the most was someone who could give that warmth and love to you. When you met Sun Wukong, he exuded such warmth that you immediately gravitated to it. At first he tried to get you to stay behind, but when you broke down sobbing and told him what your life had been like up until then, he finally agreed to let you come.

From then on, you felt that your life was going to get better. And for a time, it had. You went on many adventures with him and even helped fight off monsters by using the ability of fire passed down through your family. You had always found a sad sort of irony in the fact that your family could use fire, yet always seemed colder than even ice. As the years passed, you began to fall for the one who shown you the warmth that you had always longed for.

You never told him as you never felt it was the right time or you ended up stumbling over the words you tried to say. But still you strove to tell him, thinking that even if he ended up rejecting you, as long as he didn’t do it coldly, you felt that you could cope. One day, you were finally able to get out the words you had always wanted to say to him.

~~~~~

“Look out!”

You were knocked to the ground as the monster swiped the air above your head. “Are you okay?” Sun Wukong asked as he looked down at you.

”Ah, y-yes,” you stuttered as he got to his feet and helped you up, “Thank you.”

But your gratitude was not heard as Sun Wukong immediately leaped back into battle. You sighed. “And I wish you would stay long enough for me to thank you. Let alone confess.”

You sighed again, but ran back to begin attacking the giant wolf monster while Sun Wukong distracted it. You quickly went through the hand motions to summon a giant fireball. When it was fully formed, you sent it at the wolf where it managed to kill the monster. You smiled, happy to have defeated the monster. Sun Wukong cheered and ran up to give you a hug, before quickly running off to tell the villagers, who had asked you to defeat the monster as it had been terrorizing them for some time, to gain the reward. Normally you would try to stop him from forcing them to give too much, but the village was relatively prosperous and had promised a feast.

Once you calmed down enough to not look like a fool from the hug you had recieved, you quickly followed. There you saw the village getting ready for the celebration and immediately found Sun Wukong talking to the village chief. With a fond smile on your face, you quickly jogged to catch up. “.....and how about big statue of me in the center of town as well?”

You came into the conversation as he tried to coerce the chief to give him more for his reward. Sighing, you said, “Come on Sun Wukong, surely you don’t need another statue.”

”Of course I do (Y/n),” Sun Wukong shouted passionately, “It’s a matter of principle. If I save their village, they should build a statue of me!”

Giggling at the look on the chief’s face, you said, “Alright Sun Wukong, I’m going to help set up the banquet then. Call if you need me.”

As you headed off in the direction of the kitchens, you managed to hear him say, “Yeah, yeah. It’s not like I ever really need you.”

You felt an ache in your chest at those words, but it was a familiar ache. Sun Wukong said such things more often than you ever cared to remember, but you still had faith in him and loved him all the same. On the best days, you were able to let the comments slide off you like water on a duck. But on the worst days, you had to stifle your crying so that Sun Wukong wasn’t alerted to how badly the comments hurt you.

Somehow, you always managed to make it through the days, even after constant cruel comments, monster attacks, and others underestimating you for being a woman. You knew that even through all that, you could always count on Sun Wukong to somehow lift your spirits even if he was the one to bring them down in the first place.

You made it to the kitchen, where you found them mostly done. When you asked what you could help on, the chef you asked distractedly pointed to a counter in the back where they were preparing annin tofu for dessert. As you began to help, the kitchen hands who were making it gave you grateful smiles. You smiled back, happy to help. Throughout the many adventures you had been on with Sun Wukong, you had first and foremost learned that he was most definitely not a cook, so you were usually the one who prepared all the meals. This lead to you being a very competent chef, especially after you were made immortal, as you then had much more time to practice.

When you finished making it, you then helped serve it as by that time the meal had been finished. One of the kitchen hands, who had introduced herself as Zhi Ruo, leaned toward you to whisper, “Don’t worry, you can eat with us. Honestly though, I’m more surprised they haven’t noticed you were missing or sent anyone looking for you.”

You thanked her as you then caught sight of Sun Wukong sitting at the head of the table, laughing at what one of the women who surrounded him had said. “Yeah,” you managed to choke out, “It is surprising.”

Another familiar ache started. Even when you would tell him where you would go, most of the times Sun Wukong would forget to call for you if something started or happened. But you were used to this ache as well, so you didn’t let it bother you as, whenever you brought it up, he would apologize in the end. Zhi Ruo saw your expression and, looking in the direction you were staring in, saw what you were looking at. “In love with him, huh,” she said.

When you blushed and started to protest, she laughed and said, “Don’t bother. It’s all over your face. I don’t know why you would like him, but at least tell him that you do.”

At that you quieted your protesting and said, “He brought me a warmth I was missing from my life and for that I’m eternally grateful.”

Zhi Ruo’s lips quirked into a smile. “Well, if it’s like that, it gives you all the more reason to confess. Do it tonight before you go to bed. You may not share rooms, but you are right next door to each other. I should know, I had to set them up for you. Catch him before he goes into his room and confess.”

Confidence given to you from her encouraging words, you nodded. “Okay! I will! Tonight, I, (Y/n), will finally confess my feelings to Sun Wukong.”

”That’s the spirit,” she said, “Now come on, let’s go eat.”

As you went off with Zhi Ruo to eat, you were unaware of how the conversation would play out, but you wanted to believe in the positives, so you went with a smile.

~~~~~

After you had eaten and said goodbye to Zhi Ruo, you rushed off to the rooms that were given to you, just in time to catch Sun Wukong about to close his door. “Wait,” you shouted out to him, “Wait! I have something to say to you!”

As you got to the door, Sun Wukong stepped out and closed the door. “Alright,” he said, “What is it?”

Drawing in a breath, closing your eyes, and remembering what Zhi Ruo had told you, you confessed. “I love you! I have for a while now. I just never worked up the courage to tell you before now! You brought a warmth to my life that I had been lacking from my family and I am eternally grateful for it! When you let me tag along with you, that’s was when I first started to like you. And I know this seems sudden, but honestly it is anything but that!”

You kept your eyes closed, waiting for what he would say, but all you heard was silence. As you began to grow worried, you opened your eyes and drew in a breath to apologize when laughter rang out. Quickly looking up, you saw that Sun Wukong was laughing at you. “Seriously? Man, if I knew you would do this, I probably would have left you there in your village,” he said.

”W-What,” you breathed out, not wanting to believe what he was saying.

”I’m saying,” Sun Wukong growled out, all traces of humor suddenly gone, “That I do not love you, let alone like you. I let you come with me because your sobbing was annoying and I felt pity for you. I let you stay because you knew how to cook and could actually hold your own in a fight. The only reason you’re even still here is because you are not totally dead weight to me.”

With that said, he turned and opened his door. Your eyes widened as you heard a woman’s voice from inside asking him what took so long. “Nothing really,” he answered, “Just an annoyance that needed taking care of.”

He then turned back to you and said, “Now let go of your stupid dream and leave it behind.”

He then slammed his door shut, leaving you to fall to your knees as, silently, tears began to roll down your cheeks. You somehow managed to get to your room and curl up, silently sobbing, in the bed that had been prepared for your visit. You cried for hours, but somewhere along the line you must have finally fallen asleep, because you woke up with the sun shining in your eyes and dried tear tracks on your face. 

You managed to get up and somehow continue your day relatively normally. The only difference was that you tried to avoid Sun Wukong instead of seeking him out. The two of you had plans to stay in the village for a week, so you hoped to be able to get over the rejection by then or at least enough to continue with your life. But when the time came, you still hadn’t gotten over it.

On the last day, Sun Wukong ended up seeking you out, which was the first time you had seen him face to face since he broke your heart.

~~~~~

Sun Wukong was mildly annoyed. He had finally rejected (Y/n) and crushed her stupid idea of love for him, but she had started to avoid him after that. This didn’t bother him until the last day of their stay and she wasn’t waiting eagerly for him to continue on their journey. As much as he felt he shouldn’t care, he wanted her to come, as she at least kept some of the boredom away while on the road. 

So he sought her out. He found her in a rock garden where she appeared to be meditating. “Hey,” he shouted, disrupting the peaceful atmosphere, “Why aren’t you ready to go yet!? We have to leave now before the sun completely rises you know!”

(Y/n) startled at his loud voice, but when she looked to see who had shouted and found him, she quickly averted her eyes. Sun Wukong felt a sudden pang in his chest, but he shook it off as he didn’t have any reason to feel bad. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by (Y/n)’s soft voice telling him, “I’m not coming with you.”

”What,” he shouted angrily.

”I still want to explore, but I need more time away from you before I can travel safely, so I’m going to set off on my own in about a week. I already talked to the village chief and he said he was fine with me staying an extra week as long as I earned my keep. So I’m going to help out around the village while I gather my thoughts enough to be able to travel safely.”

”No way,” Sun Wukong shouted, “There is no way you will be able to travel on your own. Besides, shouldn’t you be over it already? I mean, come on, I rejected you a week ago, this just proves that you’re too weak to travel on your own.”

”Shut up,” (Y/n) suddenly screamed at him. He jumped back, unused to her cursing or shouting at him.

“Shut up and leave me alone,” she continued as she finally looked at him. He was shocked to see tears in her eyes. He had never seen her crying since he had first let her join him.

She opened her mouth, appearing to want to continue, but closed it again before finally getting up and saying, “You just don’t understand.”

She then ran off and he shouted, “Wait!”

But it was too late, she had already disappeared. “What is with her,” he wondered to himself, “Too bad for her. If she wants to kill herself by traveling on her own, fine then.”

He then left in a huff and the village disappeared in the distance with nary a look back. For about a year, Sun Wukong didn’t even notice she was gone. He still saved villages, fought monsters, and attracted the attention of pretty women.

But soon, he found that he was disgusted by the way the women threw themselves onto him, fighting monsters became a boring chore, and the villagers’ gratitude began to leave a bitter taste in his mouth. He often found himself asking (Y/n) what she was making that night, only to realize he was talking to thin air. 

He began to notice that he missed more than just the fact that she would cook for him. He missed the way she would always look after him, the way she fought, the way she smiled at him, the happiness in her beautiful (e/c) eyes when he complimented her, the pretty blush that would become imbued in her (s/t) skin when he hugged her unthinkingly after a battle, the softness of her skin, the silky quality of her hair, the scent of fragrant woodsmoke and cherry blossoms that always seemed to surround her, and so much more. After another year, he found that he had become completely obsessed with the woman he had last seen crying and running from him. He had tried to stop the way he was feeling, but every time he tried to do so, he found he fell even deeper in love with her. He finally decided to get her back. And even if he had to do so with her fighting him the whole way, he would keep her to himself and never let her run away from him again.

With those thoughts in mind, he set off to find her.

~~~~~

Meanwhile, you had left when you said you would. The entire village came to see you off as they had all grown fond of you in the two weeks that they had known you for. “Be safe,” Zhi Ruo, who had come to be a very close friend, shouted at you, “I hope you find what you want to be on your journey!”

”Thank you,” you shouted back, “I’m sure I will. And take care my friend!”

After that, you headed off on a journey to find yourself. You traveled from village to village, helping those you came across and fighting off the monsters that threatened you or others. After half a year, you came upon a place that needed your help. They had had a flood and many of their crops had been ruined. Having traveled for most of your life, you knew what types of edible plants would grow in nearly every condition. So you taught it to the people and even stayed to help them learn the best ways to cook the plants. You left with a smile on your face, happy to have finally found what you wanted to do; help those who needed knowledge on food and survival.

As the year ended, and the second year was coming near an end as well, you had gained a reputation as a hand of mercy, who helped all those she came across. You were happy to help, but you never knew that your reputation would be what brought about your downfall. 

~~~~~

You had just finished helping the people of a village learn how to hunt and take down the fleet footed deer in their surrounding area. Normally, it wouldn’t be that hard, but the deer were faster than normal and had enhanced hearing, so they could easily get away from the hunters, leaving the village to survive mainly on half-eaten vegetables that the deer had gotten into. The villagers were grateful for your help, so they had let you stay for a few days to rest.

On the third day, one of them came to where you were resting on a bench in a courtyard filled with flowers. “There’s someone here to see you,” the villlager said.

”Okay,” you responded with a gentle smile, “Please, let them in and tell them where I am.”

”Of course.”

After that, you waited for the individual who sought you out to come. You figured it was a messenger from another village that came asking for your help. All of a sudden, a loud shout of “(Y/n)!” broke your peaceful atmosphere as you had recognized the voice, even after two years apart.

But, before you could flee, a pair of arms wrapped around you and lifted you into a strangely possessive grasp. “Let me go,” you cried, struggling to get away from Sun Wukong.

”Why would I do that,” he asked in such a strangely lovesick tone that you stilled out of shock, “Especially when I finally have you in my arms.”

”What do you mean? Didn’t you say that you didn’t love me? Why are you acting like this?”

”Becuase I was wrong! I do love you, I just never realized until you were gone. I took your love for granted and now that I don’t have it or you, I am here to take it back.”

With that, your face was lifted up and Sun Wukong leaned down and kissed you. As he deepened the kiss, tears began to run down your face. When he finally pulled away, you started to sob. “What’s wrong,” he asked worriedly, “I know this must be surprising, but there’s no reason to cry over it.”

”You’re so dense,” you sobbed, “How can you say you love me when you broke my heart and stomped all over it? Especially when I’ve gotten over it. You really are cruel Sun Wukong. First, I love you and try to confess. Then you turn me down in the coldest and cruelest way possible. After that, my heart finally heals and I manage to get over you, but then you come bursting in, expecting me to love you after you told me I was basically a waste of space. I can’t ever truly hate you Sun, but this has brought me very close to it.”

After you finished, you pushed out of Sun Wukong’s limp grasp and ran. But this time, before you could get away, a hand grabbed your wrist and roughly yanked you back against Sun Wukong’s chest. “Never,” he started, scaring you with his suddenly angry tone, “Never run away from me. Never again. I let you get away one time, not again. You are mine now. Even if you try to fight it, I will force you to be mine.”

”No,” you cried out, struggling against his iron grip, “I don’t love you anymore. And you can’t force love Sun Wukong. Please, just leave me alone!”

You heard him growl in frustration before he slammed his lips onto yours. As you gasped from how roughly he had done so, he took that opportunity to slide his tongue into your mouth. You pounded on his chest, trying to get him to stop, but he wouldn’t stop until he had had his fill and savored the sweet taste of your mouth. 

When he finally broke away for air, he picked you up bridal style. He looked down at your flushed face, dazed eyes, and swollen lips and smirked. He gave you a final kiss, before whispering, “Don’t worry. You’ll learn to love me again. And even if you don’t, I still will never let you go. You will always be mine, my flame of mercy.”

You tried to struggle out of his arms again, but he quickly shifted you into one arm so he could pinch a nerve cluster on the side of your neck. With a gasp, you could feel yourself quickly losing consciousness. The last thing you heard before you woke up far from humanity and in the arms of the one you had loved, yet who you now feared was, “You’ll never get away from me again. Life has no meaning without you in it, so I will do everything in my power to make you mine and keep you there.”

Annin tofu is a soft, jellied dessert made of apricot kernel milk, agar, and sugar. It is a traditional dessert of Beijing, Cantonese, Hong Kong, and Japanese cuisines.

[tertain-the-original]

Been watching Snapcube play God of War, just started Ragnarok! I’m so excited. Anyway, Atreus has a Yellow Guy haircut in the new game so this came about:

[gods-favorite-autistic]

I really need people to understand that they didn’t not listen to Cassandra because she was a woman she was quite literally cursed. Like Apollo got all pissy over something (varies from version to version yknow mythology stuff) like the gods tend to do and cursed her so that she could tell the future but no one would believe her. It was not because she was a woman like I’m begging you if you’re talking about people not listening to women talk about anybody else-

[theamazingannie]

One thing I really don’t like about the pjo show is they are very tell not show about EVERYTHING. One thing I loved from the books is them teasing who the monster or god they were meeting was and getting the chance to pull from prior Greek mythology knowledge and figure it out myself. It was like a game and, yeah, most of the time it was someone new and I couldn’t guess but it was still fun having a tease up until a reveal and THEN they would share the story for those who didn’t know. The show just keeps straight up telling the audience who everyone is and instead of unknowingly walking into a trap and building suspense they go in expecting something to happen and then have a less exciting trap happen later (Medusa and the Lotus Hotel being the main ones). It’s like they both want to cut the teasing because the book readers already know and want to explain things simply to show watchers who probably aren’t well versed in Greek mythology but it takes all the whimsy away. One part I loved in the Lotus scenes in the book was Percy figuring out that they were in a time warp because he meets the kid from the 1970s and realizes what’s going on but in the show he notices cuz it’s…dark outside? Like yeah okay it works but going “it’s dark outside even tho it feels like it’s been 20 minutes and that means we are in a time warp and oh yeah the flowers are in the air even tho I’ve given no reason prior to have figured that out” is not NEARLY as compelling as “I lost track of time cuz I was having fun but huh this guy I’m playing with talks weird and dresses weird and oh boy he’s from the 1970s and now that I’m pulled out enough to look around I see that everyone here is wearing period clothes and this is trouble”. I know the extras were wearing period clothes but it never cuts to them long enough to make it seem like it’s anything but a costume that would be typical in a Vegas casino. You can argue that the Hermes scene wasn’t pointless but aside from Grover’s scenes to an extent it just wasn’t compelling and not just in an inaccurate adaptation way

[fromedennn]

cannibalism—

“eat your young,” hozier // “hansel and gretel,” anne sexton // cronus devouring his son, peter paul reuben // “a little priest,” sweeney todd // “what did jesus do?” adam gopnik // “saturn devouring his son,” francisco goya // what's eating you?: food and horror on screen miller, ripner // tantalus

[tricksterfly]

i hope Sköll saved his appetite for the sun today. the Earth has a big plate ready for hims

[eegyo]

I AM LATE TO THE GAME BUT I JUST FINISHED READING MADELINE MILLER’S CIRCE 🥲

I’m definitely feeling all the feelings, as it was a long and dragged out journey (even though I was thoroughly hooked before I read the first words) because of work and yenno - my mental health lol.

It was so so soooooo beautifully written. The imagery and details were literally AMA-ZA-ZING 🤩✨

A physical embodiment of a female experience/journey of womanhood; and how figuring out and finding oneself can feel like an eternity. It also perfectly captured the melancholic, yet beautiful fear and joy that comes with living, and how worth it it is to go through all of it.

Circe is probably the MOST likable character of all time 🥲😭😭❤️❤️🥺

Her bravery in the face of danger

Her curiosity and wonder

Her appreciative spirit for simplicity

Her humility

Her steadfastness and patience

Her playful spirit

Demur yet confident

+ TELEMACHUS is the BIGGEST WALKING GREEN FLAG OUT THERE OMG 💚

So if you are reading this and you haven’t read Circe by Madeline Miller yet, please do yourself a favor and go read it!!!

And if you have read it before — read it again hehehehehehhe

Some of my fave quotes:

“I was too wild to feel shame. It was true. I would not just uproot the world, but tear it, burn it, do any evil I could …”

“But make him shiver…then you will hear from him”

“Whatever you do, I wanted to say, do not be too happy. It will bring down fire on your head. I said nothing, and let her dance.”

“My whole life I had waited for tragedy to find me. I never doubted that it would”

“Despite your wet-mouse weeping, I saw how you would not be ground into the earth.”

. “Timidity creates nothing” — this one definitely struck a nerve lol

“But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.”

“You have been tame your whole life, and now you will be sorry. Yes father, yes father — see what it gets you”

“As it turned out, I did kill pigs that night after all”

“Tear down, I thought. Tear down and build again”

“Death’s Brother is the name poets give to sleep” ****

“He showed me his scars, and in return he let me pretend that I had none”

“I cannot guard against shadows. Give me something to face and fight”

“You do not know what I can do”

“Then child, make another.”

“Such is the folly of humanity. Is it not our human tragedy that some men must be beaten like donkeys before they will see reason?”

“I lifted my hands in blessing and gave my son to the world” — I LEGIT CRIED READING THIS😭😭 made me think of my mom

“It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that me be crushed in a moment’s carelessness. If I had believed it, I no longer did” —WOOHOO GIRL POWER 😈

“‘You are wise,’ he said. ‘If it is so,’ I said, ‘it is only because I have been fool enough for a hundred lifetimes’”

“‘I must tell you, all my past is like today, monsters and horrid no one wants to hear.’ … ‘I want to hear’ he said.” - bitch I SWOONED

“The next sentence should be: let us go together” — :3 I cannot

“ ‘I have not pressed you,’ he said, ‘ and I still will not. I know there are reasons you cannot answer me. But if–’ He stopped. ‘I want you to know, if you go to Egypt, if you go anywhere, I want to go with you.’” - AHHHHHHHHHHHHH WTF 😳🤯😱😶‍🌫️🥵🥴😮‍💨

“He had never met a god who enjoyed their divinity less.”

“‘Then we will go back. We will go back until you are satisfied.’ It was so simple. If you want it, I will do it. If it would make you happy, I will go with you.” —😭😭😭🥰. Crying, screaming, puking

“We would take pleasure in the simple mending of the world”

“This time you are not alone” - I cried ngl

“Circe, he says, it will be alright… He does not mean that it does not hurt. He does not mean that we are frightened. Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet. This is what it means to be alive.” - 😢😭😭😭

“But I see now [gods] are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands”