adubloveee

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[oifaaa]

You know those scared straight school trips where they take the wannabe delinquents to prison to scare them into doing better so they don't end up in lockup in that place? Jason pretends to be a prisoner and does that on weekends to destress. At first he was just breaking in but now the guards all know him and just let him in. It's not like they could really keep him out, or are even paid enough to try.

I don't think you can really call it "pretending to be a prisoner" when Jason is meant to be in prison he doesn't need to break in bc he's meant to be in a cell the guards are just confused why he keeps breaking out if he's the one surrounding to custody every few months

[ditzycore]

EAH did more for glasses wearers than any other cartoon:

Apple White, the most popular princess, needs glasses but doesn't wear them because she's insecure about it which definitely fits her character.

Rosabella is never really shown to be a nerd she also is presented as the love interest to the most popular prince in school, Daring. (Which normally glasses wearers are presented as ugly/undatable unless they go through a makeover and remove the glasses.)

Dexter is not really a nerd and is shown to be just as handsome as his brother, Daring, although not as charming personality/confidence wise. And is still presented as the love interest of one of the main characters, Raven.

Ginger Breadhouse also arguably is not a nerd her only interest shown in the show is baking.

Humphrey is a nerd but that's ok because there's nothing wrong with being a nerd. (Just wanted to point out the times that they broke the stereotype of glasses = nerd.)

Anyways, I love it and honestly this is so much more realistic than a show with a school that only has one or two at most glasses wearer(s).

[oklotea]

Art I am especially proud of, from 2023 <3

Happy new year everyone!

[wimbledon2008]

having hate sex with your rival with benefits is all fun and games until you're asking him to stay the night and making him a tuna melt

[faaun]

procrastination is starting to have its consequences finally

[sprout-battlecats]

frostfur

[mortemcatabasis]

melancholic morning for my dear transvestite dog

[moeblob]

Just casually dropping relationship statuses after Azure Gleam or something.

(I really should play more SB but hhhhhh)

[gingermintpepper]

Why did Apollo favor the trojans in the Illiad?

So, dear Anon, I've been thinking about how to answer this question since I got it a couple days ago and I think I kind of want to make something clear before I get into it.

The Iliad by itself as a poem only covers some of the events that occur in the final year of a long protracted conflict that had been brewing for at least two decades and was an active war for ten. Within the space of the Iliad itself, the motivations and affairs of the major players are often referenced but there are many, many parts of the story that are not there because they belong to a different story cycle that has been since lost or was never recorded with words. In the space of the Iliad Apollo's motivations are questioned a lot - his pride is questioned by Poseidon who thinks Apollo should be just as angry at the Trojans as he considering Apollo was treated equally as poorly by Laomedon while they worked together. His honour is questioned by Hera who chastises him for taking the Trojans' side when he'd proclaimed that Achilles would live a long life and prosper at Thetis and Peleus' wedding. His own sister calls him a coward for refusing to fight when Zeus gives permission for the gods to go wild on the battlefield. For all that there's this image of Apollo in the Iliad as some staunch and unwavering protector of the Trojans, believe it or not, I largely think of Apollo as neutral in the war.

Which, I suppose, comes back to the question - why did Apollo favour the Trojans? The truthful answer is that I don't know. The Iliad and all its connected stories isn't something I've done enough research on to have an answer or a reference to an answer off the top of my head. The reasoning I'm aware of is that Apollo was a Patron God of Troy and really a god doesn't need any reason besides that to protect his people but it's not like Apollo abandoned the Greeks either. Calchas is the biggest example of that I can point to - descended directly from a priest of Apollo and one who attributed his mantic power to the god, Calchas was pivotal in ensuring the Greeks even got to Troy in the first place.

From a personal perspective however, I think Apollo was more dedicated to the house of Priam than he was the city of Troy itself. Apollo's affection for that house and all its members ran deep - from his admiration of Hecuba and Hector to his love and attempted courtship of Cassandra to his blessings given to Helenus, Deiphobos, Cassandra, Troilus and even his partnership with Paris - Apollo loved the house of Priam. When you think about the times Apollo lashes out against the Greeks, it's generally because they've done some nonsense to earn his ire. The plague was caused by Agamemnon disrespecting his priest, his aid in the slaughter of Patroclus was because he didn't respect him, his minor grudge against Diomedes too was because he tried to test Apollo's mettle and well, the less said about Achilles the better. Apart from his obvious favouring of Hector in the skirmishes, Apollo doesn't really oppose the Greeks. He has a ton of reasons to by the time the Iliad rolls around, including avenging the death of two of his sons, but he remains mostly satisfied with conducting his father's business and overseeing the war from a somewhat professional perspective. To me, it's always been less about Apollo caring about the fate of Troy as a city itself and more about him just really wanting to protect the people in the city that he's come to love and respect.

Of course, I encourage you to take my words with a big tablespoon of salt - like I said, I don't really know enough about the facts in particular to give a solid, confident answer but I can give you my interpretation of it. Maybe consult someone like @littlesparklight for a more comprehensive and grounded response 🤔

[samskaterguy]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINGER BREADHOUSE!! 🍪🍭🧁

(January 24th!)

[housewifebuck]

respectfully, how have you never tried Sprite before???

I grew up with an abusive and extremely controlling parent so I wasn’t allowed to eat anything but the same like 6 meals on rotation for the first 15 years of my life hope that helps🫶🏻

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

Prayers for my dog Ginger would be really really appreciated <3

[simstoyourdismay]

yay it’s the full theo pic 😋

[br1ghtestlight]

love how elusive the years between 18 and 30 are for both bob and linda in the show. we dont know ANYTHING we don't know if linda went to college if she had friends or roommates how she met ginger if she was still living with her parents how she met hugo WHAT HER PREVIOUS JOB WAS?? and for bob we don't know if he still worked at his dads restaurant after their fight if he still lived with him where he could've lived or worked otberwise if he had friends or roommates what his plan in life was. and we'll never know the answers to these questions either bcuz I don't think the writers actually thought that far ahead

[filletedfennysnake]

how much I have improved at digital art in under two months, as evidenced by my multiple drawings of gaheris holding raw poultry with oven mitts