I think it's sad that most people always think of bottlenoses as the "classic dolphin" since its the one that's always used for shows, and always think of dolphins as just straight grey when in reality there's so many varieties with so many different amazing patterns
Look at the common dolphin! They have a gorgeous X pattern and even some dull yellow/gold!!
Hourglass dolphins have gorgeous white streaks
Spinner dolphins have really pretty banding as well, AND they have a really sleek cute silhouette!
The atlantic spotted dolphin!!! Theyre spotted!!!!!!
and the pantropical spotted too!!
Dusky dolphins have a gorgeous airbrush look going on like straight out of a 2000s fantasy illustration
Striped dolphins sure have stripes!! How cool!!
And these I've shown you aren't even all of them at all, there are so many of them:
There's so so so many different types of dolphins people dont know about this isnt even all of them and some are SO gorgeous and underrated because people just dont know they exist so I'm here to fix that
20K notes
·
View notes
“Hunger is so heavy.”
I want to take a moment to rant about the role of hunger in Epic - specifically, the way nearly ever single saga is, at its core, a story about hunger and the way it affects us.
Let’s start with the Troy Saga. Odysseus’ men have won the war and are finally headed home when they run out of food. Upon discovering an island, Eurylochus immediately suggests they attack and take what they can. Right off the bat, the story associates hunger with violence. As we all know, Odysseus resists, and travels with Polites to the island of the lotus eaters - a society that has sacrificed their free will to slake their hunger for the glowing lotus fruits. If not for Odysseus recognizing the fruit, the crew could very well have met the same fate. Their hunger would have led to them losing their freedom forever.
Moving onto the Cyclops saga, the events of the Odyssey begin in earnest when Odysseus’ men slaughter Polyphemus’ sheep because they are starving. In response, Polyphemus decides to slaughter the entire crew and eat them instead - suddenly, theirs is not the only hunger that threatens their lives. The only reason they are able to escape is because Odysseus tempts Polyphemus with the “world’s best-tasting wine,” thus defeating the cyclops with his own thirst (I’m not going to differentiate between hunger and thirst here, as they are both intense physical cravings). Here, hunger is both a weakness and a threat. Giving in to hunger can lead to death and destruction, but hunger can also be used as a weapon, if you are clever.
Next up is the Ocean Saga. (This is where I start to seriously bend the definition of “hunger.”) This is the first saga in which food or lack thereof does not play a direct role. Here, Odysseus faces a new form of desire: exhaustion. Going back a bit, I described hunger as an intense physical craving for food. Well, what is exhaustion if not an intense physical craving for sleep? In this saga, Odysseus is given the chance to make it home. All he has to do is keep the storm trapped, and in order to do that, he has to stay awake. Odysseus resists his exhaustion for nine days, fighting off his desperate desire for sleep. But eventually, he relents and drifts off - which is when Eurylochus releases the storm and Poseidon kills all but 43 members of Odysseus’ crew. Once more, yielding to ‘hunger’ leads to tragedy.
Moving on to the Circe Saga, literal hunger plays a role yet again as Circe’s first move is to offer Odysseus’ men “something to eat.” The men soon discover that Circe enchanted their meal; upon eating, they are transformed into pigs - animals infamous for devouring anything in front of them. Here, hunger is portrayed as something animalistic, something which reduces the men from thinking, civilized beings to creatures, little better than livestock. Just a song later, though, Odysseus becomes powerful enough to face Circe when he consumes moly root. Notably, his consumption of this root was based on strategy, not hunger - a small but important distinction as it separates his consumption of the moly from his crew’s consumption of Circe’s meal. Wrapping up the Circe Saga, we have an entirely different kind of hunger as Circe offers to let Odysseus’ men go free if he shows his true colors in “acts of lust.” He refuses the promise of physical satisfaction because of his loyalty to Penelope, and in doing so, he earns Circe’s respect and assistance. Earlier in Epic, we were shown the power of hunger to inspire violence, tragedy and destruction. Here, we see it as an animalistic urge - the distinction between animals and men, then, is their capacity to resist such desires.
Writing this, the Underworld Saga was very frustrating for me because I could not find any significant references to hunger in any of the songs. Thinking back on it though, I wonder if that in itself is significant. The saga that takes place entirely in the world of the dead is the first saga not to heavily involve hunger or other forms of physical desire. Resisting hunger may be what distinguishes men from animals, but feeling hunger is what distinguishes the living from the dead.
Finally, we reach the Thunder Saga. The crew has run out of food for a final time, and in the grips of hunger, Eurylochus closes the cycle begun in the Cyclops saga when he slaughters the sun god’s cattle. At this point in the story, Eurylochus no longer believes they can return home. Eurylochus is exhausted, starving - he cannot bear to suffer any longer. Though Odysseus protests, Eurylochus insists that the crew cannot go on like this. They cannot survive much longer on these seas. His final defense as he slaughters the cattle? “I’m just a man.” The only person begging him to stop renounced his humanity in the Underworld.
Throughout Epic, hunger is a constant force. It inspires violence, steals free will. Submitting to it leads to tragedy, but it can also prove a powerful weapon. To resist it for a time is to be more than an animal. To feel it is to be alive. We cannot escape it forever, can’t fight it forever. In the end, we are bound by the needs of our fragile, ephemeral bodies. In the end, we must give in. And maybe, just maybe, that is what makes us human.
146 notes
·
View notes