#Like i didn't read the illiad

[blueywritespoetry]

dear Zeus

king of kings, god of gods

what purpose have you for immorality?

powerhouse among the power blocks

who dishes punishment due to precedent

who has only love for his immortality

Zeus, who is untouchable

nobody told me Zeus wore suits of charcoal

greying hair, stuffed pockets, checkbooks

nobody said he passed the bar flyingly

but oh Zeus, who takes advantage of

us petty laypeople with such ease

what can he be, other than what he is?

Zeus, with a penthouse apartment

Zeus, with only designer labels

Zeus, who's wallet weighs him down

drowns him out at sea

Zeus who's money breaks his head.

Zeus. king of kings, god of gods

if he can't be good, how can I?

[burnin0akleaves]

Here's the draw six fanarts meme I decided to participate in 4 years late

In true burnin0akleaves spirit I didn't ask anyone for requests and just went ahead with all of the characters that have been the most impactful/important to me, so there is a high chance you've seen me draw these guys before.

By the way, unlike the rest of the blorbos here Siyra is an original character and belongs to @nineteen-rats!

Close-ups and rambles under the cut because it's my blog

Ohh the Dark Urge. My latest obsession. I love his design so much, I'm a slut for white/red color schemes, but I feel like it's a double edged sword that takes you out of the horrors he's commiting at the same time?

Durge is supposed to be murder incarnate, someone that does every fucked up thing related to death imaginable; but when you see a giant lizard eating babies or humping corpses, it dulls the effect a bit since you automatically view it as an animalistic act. Dragonborns are obviously a fully sentient humanoid race in-universe; but when the violence you're seeing is already toeing the line between horrifying and hilarious, seeing a scalie doing it just pushes it over the line. I still think it works really well most of the time and I'm very glad that this is the default durge we get! It's just funny to me that when you choose to play as the giant lizard, the dark and disgusting horror story turns into the hilariously edgy bloodfest.

Reminding everyone again that Siyra belongs to @nineteen-rats! I love this man so so so much. I am the Siyra fandom. I am the number one Siyra fanartist. He did nothing wrong and I will defend his every decision. I also hope terrible horrors befall him and that his actions keep him awake for the rest of his life. Pookie bear xoxo

COMING IN WITH THE STEEL CHAIR IT'S WILL TREATY

He is on my mind, always. I don't talk about him as much but he's probably still the fictional character who had the most impact on me as a person.

PATROCLUS! PATROCLUS!!! SIR I'M YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN!!

I got into patrochilles and the Illiad in general thanks to "The Song of Achilles". It was one of the first queer books I got to have in real life and the prose captivated me instantly, I still have it on my shelf. After reading the Illiad itself however, I hate that book so much. I'm sorry it's genuinely beautiful and I get why people like it but I can never forgive that horrible Patroclus characterization after seeing what he was originally like. Achilles too for that matter.

Hades swooped me up into its arms like I was a sick baby bird and nursed me back to health with its portrayal of the two though and for that I am forever grateful. I can't wait for Hades 2, death to Chronos.

God Half-Life is such an important series for me. My dad would let me play through a few levels since I was a child, he grew up with the games, but I REALLY played through the entire series one summer shortly before dad moved out. He was there watching me play most of it and getting to enjoy someone actually translate the game's dialogue for him for the first time.

Gordon may not speak once but I like the hints of his personality we get throughout the games, most importantly from the way Alyx talks to/about him. I have my own characterization of him obviously but I do really think you can get a good understanding of the kind of man he is meant to be in-universe just by paying attention to his surroundings. Also another reason the games were so immersive for me is that I'm just as in love with Alyx as Gordon is. I must have let her get hit only once or twice the entire time just out of how protective I was over her. I'd topple the entire Combine empire just for her hand in marriage. I rewatched the ending of Half Life Alyx recently and cried.

I read the entirety of LOTR in one week in 11th grade, carrying that damn brick of a book everyday to school and back. I'm so glad I did honestly. Frodo and Sam are my important little guys and I find myself going back to them when I need something to calm me down in a way no other series except LOTR can. I've read most of Tolkien's work at this point, but nothing captivated me like those two little hobbits. Everytime I read a bad take about their relationship I sketch them making out.

People liked seeing my drawing process before so here's the original sketch and the little notes I wrote to myself trying to set the mood. I followed like half of them.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Entertain us with some stupid Bonaparte facts plz.

Hahaha I've answered a lot of these, so there will be some repeats, and I'm not sure any of these could as stupid facts but they're all things I enjoy thinking about from time to time:

I love that he was described as having a lovely smile that could change the weather if he was turning on the charm (also his eyes were described as one of his chief charms). People also described him as having more the air of a scholar than that of a soldier.

That said, Napoleon didn't do small talk so much as a full-frontal barrage of questions which uh...isn't intimidating at all.

Napoleon liked to say he was born on a rug embroidered with an image of Caesar but Letizia apparently replied to that story with “is it not enough that he was born, but it must be upon a rug decorated with Caesar?” (or something to that effect). 

One time on St. Helena he got Barry O'Meara champagne drunk and teased the man about this lass he was in love with and was like "you're in your thirties, you need to get married!" and O'Meara was like "ummmm I've no money and am not ready" and Napoleon was like "nonsense".

In general, Napoleon loved playing matchmaker. He wasn't very good at it but he loved it anyway. He was an eighty-year old nosey, gossipy, match-scheming grandma at heart.

Napoleon enjoyed snuff but wasn't super graceful taking it so there'd be snuff powder on his suit coats sometimes. He would also fidget with the snuff boxes and regularly lost them.

Indeed, Napoleon was one of life's fidgeters. Which, coincidentally, made him difficult to shave. Constant recounts in his memoir:

[Napoleon] frequently talked, read the papers, moved round on his chair, turned suddenly, and I was obliged to use the greatest precaution to avoid wounding him. … When by chance he did not talk, he remained immovable and stiff as a statue, and one could not make him lower, raise, or bend his head, as would have been necessary in order to accomplish the task more easily. He had also one singular mania, which was to have only one side of his face lathered and shaved at a time. He would never let me pass to the other side until the first was finished.

One of Marie-Louise’s pet names for him was Nana and she would call him that in front of courtiers and Very Important People and Napoleon rolled with it. 

His favourite book was the epic poem Ossian because Napoleon liked campy over-the-top epics. Joseph would later try and claim his brother's favourite book was the Illiad (if I remember right) because Ossian was considered trash literature at the time. Like if Napoleon's favourite book was Game of Thrones and his brother is like "no, trust me, it's War and Peace. It's Real Literature~~. It's Dante's Inferno. It's anything that is More Serious. Please believe me".

He was a terrible rider, though he rode " very boldly and recklessly" (according to one of his secretaries). Napoleon loved to Go Fast - bit of an adrenaline junky I suspect. He was also known to ride for hours - the stamina was insane - and he was not easily deterred by treacherous terrain.

He was described by a cavalry officer as riding "like a butcher". Quote from Ernst von Odeleben, the cavalry officer in question:

Napoleon himself remarked at one time…that he had learned a great many things, but had never been able to make himself a complete horseman. His make was not indeed calculated for equitation. When he galloped, he sat carelessly in the saddle, generally holding the reins in his right hand, while the upper part of his body was jumbled, as the horse went on, forward, or on one side, and his left hand hung negligently down. If the horse made a false step, he immediately lost his balance. [...] As he was not a good horseman, all those who approached him mounted upon a mare were obliged to be cautious that they were not thrown out of the saddle by the capers of his horse. [...] Napoleon was passionately fond of going across the fields, without letting any person know whither he bent his course. The chasseurs of the guard were so accustomed to this habit, that by the first direction which he took, they became perfectly well acquainted with the place towards which he was going. He was so fond of bye-ways and paths, that finding himself, on several occasions, in craggy places, or impracticable roads, he was obliged to alight: it was always a disagreeable thing to him to hear of difficulties or impossibilities…and he seldom abandoned his intention til he was himself convinced of the impossibility of proceeding. 

Naturally, Napoleon did take some epic falls off his horses from time to time. This is the man who would trip and break his face if he wasn't careful.

Napoleon would sing upon occasion, though he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. Songs he liked included various tunes from the opera Henri IV, also the Marseillaise, various songs from the revolution &c. One of his favourite composers was Giovanni Paisiello.

---

I shall stop there. Thank you for the ask!

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Thinking about the post talking about how The Illiad could be read as Troy Story and I demand and Toy Story illiad crackfic were they are toys from a middle school class, except some belong to the school and others (the ones favored by the gods) to the students.

The war is an elaborated playtime story made by some kids during the year and their free time is just them being toys. Some ideas:

- Odysseus is a Solid Snake action figure but his kid (the nerdy crafty tomboy girl called Athena) has repainted him/made him new cloth clothes he uses over his normal Solid Snake style. Other kids namely Poseidon make fun of Athena for making Ody clothes and giving him a diferent name instead of just calling him Solid Snake( and some umamed assholes about playing with "boy" toys).

- Achiles does not belong to any kid instead he is everyone's favorite toy. Apollo hates him because his action figure Hector from the Troy Royal Family Collection used to be the coolest toy before the school got Achiles from a donation box.

- Helen is Afrodite's barbie doll. She is a special edition rare doll and every girl wants her. She had a fling with school toy Menelaus but Afrodite got Paris as a birthday present and is playing Helen and Paris as a couple (real feelings might arrise???).

- Penelope used to be one of Afrodite's dolls but she gave her to Athena as an apology gift (the girls are frenimies).

- Patroclus is also a school toy and he and Achiles are dating in Toy World. First time the kids played war, Hector killed Patroclus in the make belief world and Achiles refuses to talk to him ever since.

- Cassandra is the only toy from the Troyan Family (is an in-universe cartoon very like Thundercats with a bit lf the new She-ra)Special Edition Apollo doesn't have (tho he gave Paris to Afrodite). He tried to steal her once and was caught by the teacher and grounded. He hates her every since and gives her the worst playtime lines/stories. Only reason he didn't try to break it is cause he knows he'll just be more grounded.

[three-headed-monster]

https://www.tumblr.com/three-headed-monster/761811785436332033/do-you-think-luke-reads-jack-and-quinn-seem?source=share

I'm not sure I can see him as an avid reader just yet. I 100% think he could turn into one but he did say in the athletic interview that he didn't really enjoy school (even though he did seem to enjoy the history side of things) I also remember in the interview when he first joined the devils he mentioned that he would like to have dinner with Julius Cesar etc (lol) compared to Jacks hot women so he's definitely a little on the nerdy side, I would love someone to ask him more.

Sidenote, Secretariat being his favorite movie is one of my favorite things ever. What do you mean a Disney horse movie about a women navigating a male dominated industry in the 1970s (I believe?) is your favorite movie?! 😅 And the fact that he's brought it up several times! Although to be fair I do kinda like it myself

i definitely think though, as someone who is in school themselves at the moment, everyone who likes school also says they hate it while they're in it 😂 removed from it though, *i* personally always feel anxious and like i'm itching for something to do. so maybe he's also the same!

i don't think he's an avid reader either though, cause the majority of the people i know who are into history or humanities based majors don't read a lot during the year. obviously, because the classwork is so heavy, but also because they're generally interested in one particular period of time that is hard to find information on. if someone could dig deeper into that, for my sake that'd be fantastic. would love to know if he's read parts of the illiad for funsies.

AND THE SECRETARIAT LORE. him and jack quinn are both strangely obsessed with that movie, and i have no idea why lmao. i did watch it as "research" for this fic i'm writing on luke, and while i can admit it's an interesting watch, i wouldn't ever go out of my way to say it's my favourite. i will admit though, i made a very pertinent connection to it in the fic, and i think that might be why luke likes it, so you're just going to have to wait to see it 😉

[jules-ln]

Do you know where does the tale of achilles' cross dressing as pyrrha in skyros come from. I am very sure it isnt made up by miller because there are like old paintings depicting that and she might have adapted it in her retelling from somewhere but where does it really come from. Since in Illiad he went as a conquerer in skyros.

Actually is hard to know where exactly it came from because the iliad and the epic cycle are more complicated than what it might seem

Hmm

So, the epic cycle is a collection of poems that were (mostly) lost to time, nowadays we only have a few fragments here and there and a summary of a guy called Proclus. But we do have the Iliad and the Odyssey complete. You know why? Because people liked them so much that they actually bothered to conserve them lmao

(I don't blame them, I read the summaries and at some point the stories sound more like a bad videogame giving you side quest after side quest trying to make you play for longer lol)

But because people liked it so much, everyone started writing their own version of what happened in the epic cycle, as a sort of sequel and prequel to the Iliad and the Odysseus (Yah know, like what Marvel did with their movies)

Why is this important? Well, because our sources for Achilles doing drag at Skyros were written after the iliad

So you might then think that this means somebody made it up out of nowhere?

Not exactly

You see, before the Iliad, there was this oral tradition where bards would go and tell stories in form of songs and that was how stories got around

And this oral tradition is much older than the Iliad

What does that has to do with anything?

We have the Iliad and the Cypria, (the Cypria we only have fragments and the summary) and in these Achilles didn't hide as a woman but went as a conqueror to Skyros and.. Well, conquered

And why? Where does the version of Achilles dressing as a woman comes from then!?

It could be two things

1)These two things happened but the Iliad and the Cypria (or Proclus) omitted the drag part of it

2)The iliad changed the original oral tradition and the Cypria was based more on the Iliad than the oral tradition

If you go with the first one you could either say that after he was found at Skyros, Achilles pulled an Odysseus and got lost while going to Troy and he ended up at the same Skyros as before, so he sacked it (because he was already there, he didn't had anything better to do, it was friday, monday was his free day, so he might as well) or that there are two different Skyros and he got to the one that was closer to Troy after doing drag at the first Skyros

But if you go with the second option, then that implies that the original myth was still around, just that Homer decided to changed it, and then later sources that were aware of the original myth decided to write that version instead of what Homer wrote/said (I mean, Homer was allegedly blind, but it's more likely that he never existed to begin with, so lol)

(And this isn't the only thing that could've been changed, as is possible that Homer intended Achilles to kill Troilus in the battlefield in a more honorable way)

We can't be sure of any of this, we can only guess what happened because to be sure we would have to build a time machine and I don't see that happening any time soon lmao

But to answer your question my guess is that the story of Achilles doing drag comes from an oral tradition much older than the Iliad that then was written in later sources like Pseudo Apollodorus and the Achilleid

That's just my opinion though lmao

[lambergeier]

2023 bookpost 🥳🥳🥳

43 books read this year! about 2/3rds of last year's number, but i fell off pace in summer and for the last two months and never actually have a target or care about my pace anyways, so 43 is a good solid number imho. as last year, full list with light commentary below, recs are bolded:

JANUARY

Neuromancer by William Gibson

The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation by Miriam Pawel (i am punished for my desire to learn more about the two governors brown's effects on the state of california with: family hagiography. should have known tbh)

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman (SOOOOOO GOOD. apocalyptic/religious horror in 1350's france during the black plauge. for fans of the terror, and fans of people who are in love but for whom the love won't alwayshelp!)

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (hilary ilu u were one of the greatest novelists of the past hundred years it was an honor to be alive at the same time as you. this could have been 200 pages shorter. ilu tho)

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Seamas O’Reilly (short, sweet childhood memoir of the irish writer/comedian who, famously, tweeted that story about meeting the president of ireland on ketamine.)

FEBRUARY

Either/Or by Elif Bautman (girls can i tell you. i didn't realize this was a sequel until like 100 pages into the book. that was on me.)

Two Doctors Gorski by Isaac Fellman (ah mr fellman. lol)

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka (really cool piece of fiction, first half told from the collective viewpoint of a group of regulars at a public swimming pool, second half about the one specific swimmer who's losing her independence to dementia. short, packs a punch)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (UNDEFEATED!)

One Man’s Terrorist: a Political History of the IRA by Peter Finn

Nightcrawlers by Leila Mottley (love to see local 22yos succeed wildly. does NOT mean this book was good god bless)

MARCH

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy

Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy (to be clear, if you are not a cormac mccarthy fan, these books will not make you his fan. they are very much about this man's incredible hopelessness regarding a world that has invented and used the atomic bomb. what can be redeemed, etc etc. i loved them, despite a major part of the plot being consensual sibling incest, they were beautiful and phenomenal, they were not light reading)

APRIL

A Smile in his Lifetime by Joseph Hansen

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo (cannot recommend the audiobook highly enough. emma read the paper copy to catch up to where i was in the audiobook so we could listen together on a car trip, and she agreesTM that the audiobook is the way to go)

MAY

Barbarian Days by William Finnegan

The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Dianna Wynne Jones

JUNE

We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole (really really really cool nonfiction about ireland since the 1950s, part autobiography, more parts cultural history of a very quickly changing nation. fascinating to read this within 12 months of finn's one man's terrorist, which was a very leftist history of the IRA, and keefe's say nothing, which was an only very slightly leftist history of the IRA that was most interested in like, how compelling the history is (not a drag on it). o'toole not as big on the IRA as the other two! understandable!)

JULY

The Binding by Bridget Collins

The War That Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander (for all fans of the history of the story of the illiad!!! short and passionate!)

Flux by Jinwoo Chong (solid new debut scifi - who thought it could still happen!)

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy

The Witch King by Martha Wells (this book sucked ass!!! have mentioned this several times already this year!!!)

An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 by Eman Abdelhadi and M. E. O'Brien (some things about this book were fun, many were infuriating, absolute worst had to be the insistence that in the future: therapy would solve even more problems that it does today :))

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt (see my beautiful wife's post on the subject)

Stay True by Hua Hsu (beautiful, deserves the pulitzer, not 100% my thing but still very good)

AUGUST

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (the voice was hard to get used to for the first 50 pages, but i ended up really liking this tbh. i've never read copperfield, so not sure if that improved the experience)

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

The Boys by Katie Hafner (a mistake to read this, but at least the twist was funny! there wasn't anything else in the book, but only a partial waste of time at the end)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (finally read this, which has truly polarized my extended social circle, but i ended up liking it. i didn't always get what it was doing 100% of the time, and didn't so much feel compelled to find out, but i tore through it and will always be a sucker for a story about that doesn't fix you but does keep you alive. can see both sides of this debate)

American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts by Chris McGreal (we have to kill every sackler. solid history of the epidemic. EVERY sackler.)

SEPTEMBER

The Season by Kristen Richardson (half-baked history of the debutante social ritual. but, not like there's many other histories of the subject!)

All the Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin (funny, contained extensive dirtbag lesbian behaviors, but lacked some heft at the end)

In Memoriam by Alice Winn (do you s2b2? do you want some solid, tome-like origfic? do you want all of those things and also siegfried sassoon rpf? well great news!)

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller (pleaseeeeeee tell me if you have read this or do read this it was SOOOOOO GOOD and i had NEVER heard of this guy before!!! fantastically written prose, everything builds with infinite dread to a single horrible punchline, i am still wowed thinking about it)

The Trees by Percival Everett (haha hey wanna get fucked up. dark dark dark comedy)

OCTOBER

Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale (really enjoyable if slightly overlong romance novel that i got off a rec list for historical romances with disabled love interests. does a really good interesting job of giving the love interest full breadth and agency despite severe processing impairment following a stroke)

Mobility by Linda Kiesling

The Rachel Incident by Rachel O’Donahughe

NOVEMBER

NO BOOK NOVEMBER MFS

DECEMBER

Not Even the Dead by Juan Gómez Bárcena (would also like to know if anyone else has read this so we can try and figure out what the fuck was going on right at the end!! also the fact that this is primarily about mexican history, written by a spaniard, with the specter of the US very prominent in the book is like. hm i would love to be able to read some mexican press reviews of this lol)

When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era by Donovan X. Ramsey (picked this up following the opioid book, which discussed but didn't go deep on how the country's reaction to the opioid epidemic was so vastly different from the crack epidemic. put a lot of stuff into context lmao.)

WAIT AT SOME POINT THIS YEAR I REREAD RUMO AND HIS MIRACULOUS ADVENTURES BY WALTER MOERS. I DON'T KNOW WHEN. DIDN'T WRITE IT DOWN. BUT I DID REREAD IT. 44 BOOKS. shout out to mr. moers for writing some extremely fucking creepy books for teenagers <3

okay i was gonna do more about like general trends and vibes of this year's books, also about the four books i am still reading rn lol, but i have been typing for soooooooooooo long so i'm just gonna reblog with more thots in the morning. stay prepared everyone

[jesfern]

I think I would like epic the musical so much more if I hadn't actually read the odyssey. Like the music is good, I can see why people go insane about it even, I'm not personally insane about it, but I tried to listen to it ages ago and I just got angry at it. Disclaimer I have not listened to most of it.

Like I don't mind that it starts with the fall of Troy, most odyssey adaptations seem to fall into that trap, even though I personally think it's far more compelling to start in media res, like the actual Odyssey, because we hear all these things about Odysseus and see his son's journey to find him and hear all his old friends compliment him, and then we meet him finally after 5 books and he's crying on a beach. That's such an interesting character moment! You could have done that! It would have been so cool!

There's also the habit of acting like books 9-12 are the whole odyssey and ignoring the fact that they're narrated by Odysseus, we don't know if they're true or not!! He tells lies about his past so many times, we only have his words that all the journey happened, they could have leaned into the whole "lord of lies" thing. It could have been so much more...

But I wasn't really expecting that much, I can deal with that, but they also tried to make him a good person. He isn't! Tell me muse about a complicated man!! Conveniently cut out the bit where they slaughter the Cicones for no reason, because they're all still in their Illiadic mindset of plunder city.

Also why is the bit with the lotus eaters like that? That's not what happened! What is going on?

I also got unreasonably upset about the wine in Polyphemus' cave. Why did they make it so they put the lotus in it? That didn't happen! It's about barbarity and how he drinks the unwatered wine, not that he was drugged. I don't know why I got so mad at this bit, it isn't a big deal.

Why is Aeolus in the sky? What is going on? That is as far as I got.

Also he would not say that. He would not say that. What have they done to my guy?

I keep getting unreasonably angry about minor plot details that are just completely different and throw off the vibe of the scene and subtly alter the effect. It matters to me!

[ashilrak]

Something I find really interesting about writing/reading/talking about fic for PJO is how everyone sees Gods and Demigods differently.

I mod a couple servers and run events, mostly exchanges, so I've seen a lot of conversations about what people like to write and want to see. Mrthology got an ask the other day about how we write the Gods, and it made me think about one of the splits in how people see PJO that I see a lot: Gods and Demigods as more human vs Gods and Demigods as something Else.

Reading PJO is how a lot of kids got into the myths, and even more people read the books without sparking a sudden interest for mythology. But, I also know a few people who got into PJO because they were already into the myths; @mrthology read the Illiad long before she read PJO.

I definitely have a split in my mind between the Gods as I read/write them for PJO and how I see them when reading/thinking about them in other contexts, but it's impossible for me to see them as completely separate. The myths are part of the PJO canon (unless otherwise reinterpreted, and there are countless versions of every myth so there will always be room for discussion), so to me, I will always see the Gods as capable of these horrible things and that is SO important to how I see them, and want to read/write them.

But I know so many people who explicitly want to see the Gods as more human. They want to see the found family and learning to be better, to grow and to change and love. This is honestly more accurate to how they're written in the Riordan verse, and it's me bringing in the other sources/views.

I've gotten many comments over my fics about how I write the Gods so differently, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. And I guess it is different from how they're shown in the books, but to me it's just what makes sense. It's Gods being Gods. Apollo from the Illiad is the same Apollo we meet in Titan's Curse, layered underneath something more deceptively approachable. The rape myths are history, and what does that mean for the Demigods who know it's all real and find themselves alone with a God? There's a level of horror in every interaction.

I didn't see it when I first read the books. It's not really explicit in the book; they're written for kids. But I'm older now and I bring an awareness of other myths and stories that I can't shake away as I think about the Gods in PJO. It's between the lines, but it's undeniably there. To me.

The love is still there. I love writing Poseidon and Percy, and writing fics where a God unexpectedly falls for a Hero is self-indulgent and fun. I don't see them as all bad, but I can't see them as human either. Love means something else to a God, who feels everything so extremely, and it's not always going to be sweet.

There's not really a point to this, but I had a few minutes to sit and write it up and it's been on my mind.

[chaeilay]

Hello. I saw in your bio that you study ELL. May I ask where and for how long? Do you mind sharing some of your resources with a teenager who pursues the same dream as you? I'm interested in philosophy and sociology mostly but anything you want to share is fine. (I don't want to be a creep, I just like your blog and style and that's pretty much it. Thank you!)

Hello to you too dear. First of all, this is the first question I've ever got in this app and it being related to my major means the world to me so thank you for that.

I've been studying ELL for 3 years now in my homeland Turkey, but I'll soon be an exchange student transferring to a university in Europe. At first, I wanted to study linguistics but it is so hard to do that here as public universities usually don't teach it. So, I decided to go for ELL.

I'm not sure whether you're a beginner or advanced in this field but I'll state them as a list under the titles of the lectures I've taken from year 1 to 3, so it'll be easier for you to follow. Even without diving into the literature part it'll be a long list!

1. Textual Analysis (Personal favourite)

This course starts with the question of what is literature and continues with discussions developed over analyzable text types. In this course, it is aimed to provide analytical reading skills that are of maximum importance for literary studies, focusing especially on texts from the prose type. By using practical text analysis methods in the course, it is shown how the students should approach the text when they encounter similar texts.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2784.Ways_of_Seeing

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11298348-rhetoric-of-the-image

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6717156-a-meditation-upon-a-broom-stick

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7624.Lord_of_the_Flies

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2932.Robinson_Crusoe

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29903.The_Plato_Papers

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2355014.Ozymandias

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1349889.The_Shield_of_Achilles

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12204.The_Road_Not_Taken_and_Other_Poems

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81780.A_Poetics_of_Postmodernism

3. Mythology / Classical Literature

The aim of this course is to examine the Greek and Northern mythologies and the contributions of these mythological systems to English Literature in detail. In the second semester of this course, which consists of two semesters, students will be taught examples from Classical Greek drama so they will have made a preparation for the drama lessons they will take in their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/588138.The_Hero_With_a_Thousand_Faces

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30289.The_Republic

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13270.Poetics

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/752900.Medea

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1554.Oedipus_Rex

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12914.The_Aeneid

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35546041-the-saga-of-the-volsungs-with-the-saga-of-ragnar-lothbrok

We have also covered the Illiad, the Odyssey, and Theogony/Works and Days but they're the basics so I didn't include them necessarily.

4. Medieval Thought and Literature

With this course, it is aimed that students will read the texts of Chaucer and his contemporary authors. In the light of the characteristics of the period, the texts will be examined in a cultural and historical context, and the literary genres and traditions of the period will be examined.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/823647.The_Art_of_Courtly_Love

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/119073.The_Name_of_the_Rose

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6656.The_Divine_Comedy

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51799.The_Decameron

2. British Intellectual Thought (Personal favourite #2)

This course attempts to cover selected texts that contribute to British and European intellectual scene from the the 16th century onwards. It aims to teach the development of the British intellectual world while examining the selected works in relation to the socio-cultural atmosphere they were created in. It also tries to teach the students how to read and respond to the chosen texts critically.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/303488.A_Defence_of_Poetry

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7496681-advancement-of-learning-novum-organum-new-atlantis

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38483444-answer-to-sir-william-davenant-s-preface-before-gondibert

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250278.An_Essay_On_Criticism

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/584637.Utilitarianism

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/677591.The_Subjection_of_Women

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30529.A_Philosophical_Enquiry_into_the_Origin_of_our_Ideas_of_the_Sublime_and_Beautiful

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11971338-of-the-standard-of-taste

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/705331.On_Heroes_Hero_Worship_and_the_Heroic_in_History

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/251264.Culture_and_Anarchy

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/599840.On_Art_and_Life

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/637963.The_Decay_Of_Lying

5. Children's Literature

This course aims to introduce British children's literature through reading and analysing canonical texts of children's literature from different time periods and sub-genres such as fairy tales, children's fantasy literature, animal stories, picture books, Christmas narratives and adventure stories. This course is designed to equip students with the skills of reading children's literature from a critical perspective by scrutinizing recursive motifs, patterns, linguistic elements, social, cultural and historical codes embedded in the assigned texts.

I included this as well, as it also discovers the essays and works of various philosophers on learning, teaching, and the shaping motifs of society.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/90078.An_Essay_Concerning_Human_Understanding

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2273164.Some_Thoughts_Concerning_Education

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5326.A_Christmas_Carol

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2623.Great_Expectations

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/295.Treasure_Island

This will be all from me for a while as I'm on a vacation abroad; however, I'll try to add anything I could recall under this post. If you also need the PDFs, just DM me and I'll provide you with them right away.

Wish you the best with your and anyone's studies that saw this post!

[smalltownfae]

The Odyssey book 4:

The Telemachus x Pisistratus ship started as a joke, but it's getting deeper;

Not a fan of Helen calling herself a whore (might be the translation's fault and not in the original but damn they could have chosen a better word);

What exactly went on between Odysseus and Menelaus? I should have read the Illiad first;

Pisistratus sure can speak. I love how he addressed Melenaus;

Helen talking about how Odysseus told her of his plan and Menelaus speaking about what happened to him and how he came to know about all the deaths of his comrades;

I like how men aren't afraid to weep here;

Menelaus says he is gonna give Telemachus his most esteemed treasure and then hands him a bowl... that's it???

Poor Penelope has to deal with the suitors and now she finds out her son is gone and they are trying to kill him. I really like the love she has for her husband and son (even though she didn't notice immediately that he was not in the house...).

[c-53]

i just read this youtube comment that is fascinating to me. in the "i am %HERO" terminal from marathon durandal, all of the other heroes listed are known for being ridiculously ANGRY.

"The Illiad literally starts with "tell me of the rage of Achilles", and Roland's most famous story is Orlando Furioso, literally "Roland's Fury". Gilgamesh is the only one listed who didn't die a raging, walking disaster, but even he had his episodes."

sec officer has anger issues...

!!!!!!!!!! oh fuck yes I love the sorta elusive way the sec officer is characterized, and how marathon in general references classical literature, mythology, and history that feels like a 'click here to learn more!' where you go and look up the name or term dropped and you like stare at wikipedia like ooHHHH MY FUCKING GOD OK GOD.

ITS FANTASTIC

[catcoffeeenjoyer]

Tagged by @vostok3-ka let’s goo

1. Three non romantic duos

No one said they don’t have to be obvious, first one is Fedka and Kirillov, THEY ARE JUST IMPORTANT TO ME LIKE-

Perhaps more explenation would be well seen - Fedka is a run away convict, who was sold to the army by Stepan Trofimovic long time ago. Since the beggining of his life, he was dehumanised, because he was born as a serf - he was the property of Verkhovenskys, that is all. And even once he comes back to the city N, he is seen by most as a threat, or as lesser than them (here mostly Pyotr comes to mind), with exception of his family. And then he meets Kirillov - a man, whose whole idea revolves around self sacrifice and belief that once someone learns that they are good, they will be good. And while Fedkas mother was somewhere else, due to family death, Fedka stayed at Kirillovs, drinking tea and talking (also reading Apocalypse). That is to say, he stayed with someone who didn't really see him as a threat, and knew full well he was a murder, and yet treated him with kindness. And what happened? Fedka changed. Well, he still commited the murder, but he did change.

Then we got Cottard and Tarrou from the Plauge…

For those not in the loop, I recently reread the Plauge, and this storyline is similar however not exactly - Cottard is a man who keeps running away from the police, and is lonely. Like has no friends, because no one can relate to his constant fear, and he cannot talk to anyone about his fears because what if someone betrays him and out him to the police. Enter Tarrou - a man who is not a fan of police (due to his past, from what I understood), and who somehow finds out about Cottards constant escape. While Cottard is furious at first, soon he finds out that Tarrou is the only person he can trully talk to. He doesn't judge him, nor can he out him to the police. And they become friends. And at the end of the Plauge, once Tarrou is gone (and the Plauge), Cottard goes insane, because not only he might now be wanted again and no one can relate to him now, but also he lost his friend, the one he trusted the most.

The third is rather a comedic duo, more than a great and deep relationship... but you if I have the Plauge... if I have Demons.. then for the great trinity we have to have 1670 - the duo is Bogdan and Jakub

The reason he is only that they bounce of eachother well - and their subplot about exorcisms was funny. It had to be mentioned though, it was funny.

2. A ship that might surprise others:

... I don't think I have one? I'm pretty open about them.

3. Last song:

The age of the understatement by the last shadow puppets

4. Last film:

Niebezpieczni Dżentelmeni 2023 - rewatch for the fourth time

5. Currently reading :

Finishing up "The Text" by Gluhovsky, and then starting Illiad <3

6. Currently watching:

Alternatywy 4

7. Currently consuming:

Air

8. Currently craving:

Break from school

9. Tagged: whoever wants to do it lmao

[pushthequorumbutton]

Book 11

far more friendly to the vultures than their wives.

hell yeah hell yeah these descriptions of war are badass. also the peals of thunder, rain of blood, strife's piercing and dreadful call, the repeated imagery of a lion savaging deer. 11 books in and it finally feels like an epic lol i know i know it's about how war is terrible yet a natural/necessary part of life or w/e but i'm enjoying these descriptions ok

i guess it's kind of cool how the pain of childbirth is compared to agamemnon's wound?

oho, diomedes no longer carrying the achaens on his back. now odysseus is joining him haha

Diomedes spoke. He drew back his long-shadowed spear, then hurled it unerringly. The spear hit Hector,                           on the head, catching his helmet at the very top. Bronze deflected bronze—the spear missed his splendid skin, prevented by the triple layers on the helmet,                             which he’d been given by Apollo. Jumping back, Hector quickly rejoined the massed ranks of his troops. He fell on his knee and stayed there, holding himself up with his strong hand on the ground. Black night hid his eyes.

ah, a fun way to describe blacking out! and then diomedes being like "you only survived that because apollo is buffing you, coward" lmao, honestly diomedes is my fave guy so far. i didn't even remember him from my first read when i was in high school :'3

Odysseus being left alone and being like "uh oh" PFFT

oh but then he's badass, okay

sooo many comparisons of war to defending farmland from animals. i guess it makes sense to relate to the audience?

THE MENTION THAT PATROCLUS' INEVITABLE DEATH BEGINS OH NO

Book 12

Homer's interjections in this book are fun. "The fool!" "How wrong they were!" "It would be hard for me to report all these events," etc.

Hector is so arrogant in The Illiad, I feel like i remember him being much more sympathetic in The Aeneid? Which would make sense given it's from the trojan pov but like. i guess aeneid felt to me more like a narration with relatable chars in it than either illiad or odyssey... it's more modern so maybe that's why....? do i need to reread the aenied too

Oho its The Sign!! also it snowed? did this battle actually take place in winter and all the movies i've watched lie to me lmao

Sarpedon appears!!!

Glorious Hector, his face like night’s swift darkness, leapt inside. The bronze which covered his whole body  was a terrifying glitter. In his hand he held two spears. Once he’d jumped inside the gates, no one moving out to stop him could hold him back, except the gods. From his eyes fire blazed.

:)

Book 13

Zeus: time to slack; Poseidon: haha fuck you; me: yeah fuck you zeus

the two ajaxes talking about 'power in their lower limbs' and being 'ready to wrap conquering hands around their spears'... cough cough

lmao poseidon's backhanded mention of agamemnon, i approve

there are so many names and deaths, i definitely don't have enough knowledge of greek mythology to understand the importance of all of it

The keen arrow bounded off. Just as black beans or peas fly off a broad shovel on large threshing floors, driven by the sharp wind or winnower’s strength—    that’s how the arrow point glanced off the breast plate, then flew aside, away from glorious Menelaus.

how are these similes decided

But as Peisander charged, Menelaus hit him— right on the forehead, just above his nose. The bones cracked. Both his bloody eyes fell out into the dirt beside his feet.

BRUTAL

dude hector acts like he hates paris, why do i remember differently

[sizebrained]

Ben Realizes That He's Actually In College to Learn, Part 5

Ben gets a schooling from Hazel about an ancient counterpart.

CW: Adult themes, language, mention of fictional character self-harm/death, mental illness. *** "You remind me of him and...it worries me a little." Hazel said to Ben.

Hazel had steered Ben up to the third floor of the library, to the Classics section. She was pleased to find several different translations of the Illiad, including the ones she had first read so long ago. But she was overjoyed to find a new one she had not seen before--translated by a woman, a first at least in publishing. Hazel had demanded Ben grab it and they were flipping through it now together, Hazel remembering the different parts unchanged after thousands of years. But others were the same, familiar despite the passage of time. It made her feel young and old at the same time. They were deep in conversation between two aisles, like they were the only ones in the library at all. It was the first time Hazel thought Ben didn't seem to be the biggest thing in a space. Books towering over him somehow. She enjoyed it. "So I remind you of Ajax?" Ben asked still a little confused but following along as he reached a section about Ajax in a race with Odysseus. "Yes in some ways, and hopefully not others. But that remains to be seen. I take it that you have not studied the Greek classics then?" Hazel said already knowing what his answer would be if he didn't know of Telemonian Ajax. "By the way, we are bringing this book back with so you can hold onto it until your sister finds us again." Hazel said sitting down on his shoulder now, her feet dangling over the edge of him.

Ben flipped through the very thick book hoping for pictures, but there were only a couple of maps. He didn't recognize anything on them.

"There were two Greek heroes named Ajax actually, but you are definitely more like Ajax the Great. That is what is so worrisome." "Why?" Ben asked interested.

His neck was starting to hurt a bit. He wanted to just pick her up and set her down on a shelf so he could see her better. But he didn't dare try.

"Ajax the Great was considered to be the best Greek warrior...besides his cousin Achilles. They were both even trained by Chiron the centaur." Hazel started explaining. "There were centaurs?" Ben asked. "Yes. There were all manner of creatures and such in the Greek myths. Achilles had a bit of an unfair advantage though because he was a demigod, meaning one of his parents was a God the other a mortal. You can't really compete with that as a human." Hazel explained.

It made her pause and look at him slightly differently. Being around a human like this after so long. She'd forgotten what it was like, how disorienting and powerful. She better appreciated how the humans must have felt around demigods and gods. She noticed his enormous face scrunched trying his hardest to listen to her. Despite his size, he could be quite cute at times.

"Ajax was also always described as being the largest of the Greeks. A similarity you two share I think. He was colossal and towered over all the others. He was even the first to duel the Trojan hero Hector, the breaker of horses, until Zeus the king of all the Olympian gods intervened and called it a draw." Hazel went on the poetic descriptions rolling of her tongue fondly.

"Are you like...reading from this right now or did you memorize all of that?" Ben asked. He was a little amazed and scanned the page he was on to see if what she said was on it.

"Memorized. This is what you are supposed to be doing in college by the way. Learning? Instead of just great feats of athleticism in a game. Which is what the Greeks would have called your basketball, a distraction from their true tasks at hand. But they did love a game." Hazel said slightly teasing Ben from his shoulder.

"Besides, I do not know if you fully appreciate this, but it is a considerably greater amount of effort for me to read a book than you my darling boy. And their duel is not on this page." Hazel said before continuing with her original point.

"As I was explaining, Ajax was the biggest, and the bravest, and the strongest of the human Greeks. You are certainly like him in that way." Hazel added.

Ben could feel his cheeks threaten to blush at the way she said it. It was so different from what he was used to with other people.

"But it is how Ajax the Great died that makes me worry for you. I want your size and strength and bravery to be the only thing that you share with him...if he ever even existed." She said slower and softer than before. "What?" Ben asked confused rather than not being able to hear her. He was still trying to figure out if she was giving him a compliment or not anymore.

"The Trojan War was terrible Ben. It was said to have been the worst war that humanity had ever seen, up to that point. But your lot never seem to give up on trying to outdo the last war." Hazel said with a heavy sigh. "It lasted for ten years until Odysseus's trick with the horse. Ajax had survived the war and saved quite a few of his fellow Greeks. He was sometimes called the bulwark of the Greeks. Bulwark means wall by the way." Hazel went on.

"I know what bulwark means..." Ben objected before she continued.

"Ajax defended more than he attacked. In fact, he was known for having a gigantic shield that only he could carry just like Odysseus and his bow that only he could string and shoot. I supposed you could say it was his signature. Achilles and Ajax were sometimes called the sword and the shield of the Greek armies." Hazel said pausing.

"He did so much for the other Achaeans. Achaens means the Greeks by the way." She explained. Ben didn't know that one and stayed quiet.

"He endured so many terrible, bloody things in the stupid war over an insult. And then after Achilles died, there was a fight over who got to keep his armor. A trophy of sorts." Hazel said raising up one leg to pat the spot on her own leg when she mentioned Achilles' death. She learned during her time at the hospital that the mythical Achilles' injury was the namesake for that shared part of every human body. She loved that.

"There was a great argument over who got to keep Achilles' famous armor. And they decided to ask Trojan prisoners who they feared the most and it was decided that Odysseus was the most feared over Ajax. So the trophy of the armor went to him instead." Hazel said.

"Odysseus was so clever...and being Athena's favorite certainly helped." Hazel said getting lost in her own web of facts. She adored Odysseus the most of any of them. He even escaped a giant using only his wits once. A feat whose difficulty she appreciated, and she felt made him a kind of unofficial patron saint for her kind.

"Athena?" Ben asked. He was starting to she should be teaching a course at his college. No one would notice in a virtual class if the camera was close enough.

"A very important Olympian goddess...Anyway....you see...Ben...when Ajax did not get the armor...he went a little mad. So mad that he was so ashamed and embrassed over his behavior that he...killed himself. He cared so much about the opinions of others he would rather be dead than live with what he felt inside. Humans used to hide that sort of emotion with the word honor." Hazel said slowly.

Whoa...Ben thought but stayed silent. He moved his neck a little out of discomfort. Having to turn his head the way that he was just to see her perched on him was really making it sore. "Sorry this is...Can you hop off?" Ben stopped himself from apologizing.

He brought his shoulder right up against a bookshelf where there was a large empty space between the frame and the last upright book. He could see that she could just step down from him onto it. "I can only look at you that way for so long," Ben finished and Hazel nodded. She stood up from his shoulder and walked onto the bookshelf. She was only slightly below his line of sight now. Ben sighed in relief, rubbing his neck as he turned his whole body to face her and give his neck a break. She felt his green gaze on her. He was watching her with a mixture of confusion and thought across his face. "So you think I'm going to kill myself over not getting a trophy?" Ben asked confused. He had a bunch of those already in a closet back in his condo. "I'm not going to be playing basketball anymore anyway...I don't think why would I care about a trophy that much." He added.

Hazel sighed. At least he wasn't that far off the mark.

"No. Ben. I do not think you are going to kill yourself over a trophy. It is what the trophy symbolized. I do worry that you care so much about the opinion and perception of other people that you will suffer because of it. Unnecessarily, and I pray not fatally like Ajax." Hazel said taking a step closer to him on the shelf.

"You and the ones who love you are the only people's opinions who should hold sway over you. That is what the Trojan War was really all about I suppose, people defending what they loved." Hazel said and reached an arm out towards him.

He was just close enough that she could rest her hand on the long bridge of his nose while she continued. "I pity him him in his misery though he is my enemy because he is bound fast by a cruel affliction." Hazel whispered in a slight sing songy voice.

Ben thought it sounded way better with her accent.

"What page is that on?" Ben asked innocently but kept his eyes locked on Hazel instead of checking the book again. "It is not in The Illiad. It's from Sophocles." Hazel said quickly. "Who?" Ben asked and blinked slowly, his eyes still set on hers.

"Greek playwright, different book entirely. Parts of it survived. They may have a copy up here somewhere too, we should grab it." Hazel added sounding a little flustered. She was always a little flustered when he looked at her like that with his eyes.

"What?" Ben said having a hard time keeping up. He wondered how she could know all of this.

"Anyway, Odysseus said that about Ajax the Great. Ajax was so large and strong and brave that he could only be felled by a god or himself." Hazel said ignoring his confusion and trying to force her way through her own.

"I pity him in his misery. And I think Odysseus did pity him. He pitied himself and everyone who died in the war. Then he spent the next 12 years he trying to get home to his family. He cried through most of it." Hazel finished. "Talk about someone who they should put in that book about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." Hazel said under her breath, thinking shell shocked was far easier to say. He hand was still running up and down along Ben's nose while she spoke.

Hazel had learned the new term after she had made Ben and Sam go through several books looking for shell shocked. She asked where the card catalog was so they could find the proper book when her search was turning up empty.

Sam explained that she hadn't even seen a card catalog since she was in first grade. It wasn't even being used. The librarians just kept it around because they thought it was cute to see the kids play with it. Instead, Sam rifled through what she remembered from her college classes and found a basic psychology textbook.

Hazel stared at the page of the book when Sam held up and open for her. Shell shock was in a footnote as an outdated term for what is now properly called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She was fairly certain Ben had it and that it was the source of his panicked episodes.

Hazel was still stroking Ben's nose with one hand as she talked from her spot on the bookshelf in front of him. She was lost in her own thoughts again and didn't even seem to notice.

She set her fingers down first. Lightly. And then she lowered her the hand the rest of the way down. Skin on skin. Hazel pulled her hand down from her shoulder in one slow movement.

It was so intimate...and familiar.

Ben was frozen. He wanted to close his eyes and pretend that they were curled up together somewhere in the library. He imagined her human sized.

Like she was just someone he stumbled into at the library today. And it all started from polite small talk. But in his imagination, he was smooth and charismatic not awkward and forced. It made the imaginary version of her like him immediately. That would have been nice.

In Ben's mind, his head was now resting in her lap while she told him all of this. Playing with his hair. He was having a hard time listening to what she was actually saying anymore.

He didn't notice but he was holding his breath. Then his need for air snapped him out of his daydream.

"The only person capable of destroying Ajax was Ajax himself. His own thoughts caused him more harm than anyone else could. His death was another avoidable tragedy after countless others during the war."

Hazel stopped stroking Ben's nose and then patted it several times as she made her point more plainly. "That is what worries me right now my modern Ajax. Your mind is your own worst enemy. Ajax was so ashamed of himself that he took his own life. I would spare you from being so haunted and I think you have the power to change that if you want. We can take small steps at first, like with the librarian just now."

Hazel said and held her hand against Ben's nose. Her small bright blue eyes stared into Ben's. They were like great green lakes by comparison. She wanted to fall into them.

"You saved me like Ajax saved the Greeks so often. Because you both are so big and strong and duty bound....but I do not want you to end up like him despite those other similarities. Do you understand?"

Ben only nodded in stunned silence at her. Then he brought one hand up, the fingers curled towards his palm. The back of Ben's massive hand came up towards Hazel and tilted, the smooth back of his bent pointer finger grazed her cheek so lightly that Hazel could barely feel it. Hazel's breath stuck in her chest at the motion watching as Ben looked just as surprised as she did at having done it. His hand dropped and held onto the edge of the shelf where she stood. He looked away. Hazel's heart beat stronger a few times as she collected herself and changed the subject. "So on our way out you are going to find that librarian and apologize to her and try to engage in some polite conversation yes?" Hazel added. But then was interrupted before she could get her answer. "Hazel!" Cob shouted from on top of Sam's shoulder a few feet away. Sam had been watching them in silence. Hazel jumped, pulling her hand away from Ben's nose in surprise. She was so lost in Ben she somehow missed a nearly similar sized human walking towards her. Such was the effect he was having on her. It unsettled Hazel.

Ben looked over in suprised too, wondering how much his sister had heard or seen. Not that they were doing anything wrong it just felt...like they'd been caught.

"Uh sorry to interrupt. It's probably better for you that I did Ben. She can go on about the Greeks forever. I had an idea...a good one!" Cob added, their words garbled by so much gum in their mouth.

They were chewing and their tail was swishing wildly in excited anticipation. Her eyes were suspiciously looking at Ben. Sam blew a large bubble from several pieces of gum filling her mouth.

"Hey! Wait how did you do that with it?!" Cob asked trying to peer inside of Sam's mouth, not noticing Sam's face. Sam's attention switched to Cob as she opened her mouth wide to show how she spread the gum with her tongue then blew into a bubble.

Hazel did not look like she was going to agree that whatever Cob wanted to share would be a good idea. She watched the two of them silently.

Hazel and Sam looked directly at one another as Ben looked back down at the copy of The Iliad he was holding. He wished that he was invisible right now. He also wished the book had some more pictures. *** End Part 5