witchofconundrums - Tumblr blog

[witchofconundrums]

I want to see these two have a conversation

[witchofconundrums]

innocent children starved to death because Israel is blocking aid:

how are these pictures even real? how can people look at these pictures and not die on the inside? inhumane. the conditions they’re living in, the pain they’re going through is simply inhumane. no words at all. 💔

[witchofconundrums]

Me looking at the bitch I pulled by being autistic and a maniac

[witchofconundrums]

May Castellan, at some point, probably: Waiting... Luke when you come home, I'll be waiting... Even if you are the last thing I see, I'll be waiting...

(//source: 'Epic: The Musical', song: 'Underworld' by Jorge Rivera-Herrans//)

[witchofconundrums]

Fallen Angel – Alexandre Cabanel // The Horror and the Wild – The Amazing Devil

[witchofconundrums]

the horror and the wild. you agree. reblog

[witchofconundrums]

been thinking about Medea lately, and I think I’ve finally figured out why the attitude of “wow Medea was right, go off queen” (e.g. this post) really gets on my nerves: I think it’s sexist!

like, let’s be absolutely clear: Medea’s actions at the end of the Euripides play are deeply, deeply evil. Jason and Kreon treat her horribly, and there’s no excuse for their behavior, but like…Medea slaughters two innocent children and an innocent woman in cold blood, not to protect herself or someone else, but to ensure Jason’s suffering. that’s evil.

the idea that Medea could possibly be justified in such an action fundamentally requires us to hold her to a lower moral standard than a man in her same position. the implication is that Medea’s experience as a woman in Greek society entitles her to revenge at any cost: she has been wronged, so punishment is hers to exact. we don’t consider this acceptable when Achilles is asserting that his grief over Patroclus entitles him to the emotional torture of Priam, and in fact the great human moment of the Iliad is Priam’s plea to Achilles to return Hector’s corpse. same moral standard applies to Medea. her rage over her mistreatment is not the problem: her violence against innocent people in an attempt to drag Jason down with her is.

which is not to say that I think Medea is a one-dimensional character! I think Euripides was really onto something with the way Medea agonizes over what to do during the play, by turns committing to this great evil and shrinking back in horror at what she’s contemplating. I also like the emphasis he places on Medea’s divine origins, her connection to the world of the gods via both her bloodline and her practice of magic. it creates this sort of dualism in her character: there’s Medea the human woman, who’s deeply in love with Jason and in agony at his betrayal, who loves her children and is terrified of what will become of them, and of her, once she’s forced to leave Corinth. this Medea is angry and scared, helpless to save herself or her children, helpless to make Jason understand how badly he’s hurting her.

and then there’s Medea daughter of the sun, Medea the hero, whose response to Jason’s betrayal is to make his life a living hell. except Medea-daughter-of-the-sun and Medea-the-human don’t exactly share the same value set: the former is the latter with all of her humanity stripped away, whose purpose is wholly aligned towards divine justice. but divine-Medea is powerful, and if human Medea only lets her, she can make damn sure that neither of them ever feel helpless again.

honestly my ideal version of the play is a tragedy about Medea’s fall, whose central tension is whether the human part of her will give in to the divine part of her under the stress of betrayal and rejection. at the end of the play, Medea gets everything she ever wanted (power, glory, fear, vengeance)– all it costs is her humanity. but I think that only works if you frame Medea’s actions at the end of the play as horrific, rather than a triumph; if you take the morality of her actions seriously, as opposed to justifying them prima facie because she’s been through hell.

[witchofconundrums]

Euripides either chose to use an alternative version of Medea’s story or himself radically altered the known legend. He calls attention to the change by presenting his characters trying to take over the plot, each claiming it as his or her own. Creon and Jason attempt a sequel in Corinth without Medea. But she refuses to be written out. Medea alone succeeds in taking control of the myth.

'How I wish the Argo’s sails had never swept through the dark blue Clashing Rocks into the land of the Colchians; I wish the pine trees had never fallen in the groves of Pelion, cut down to put oars in the hands of the heroes who went after the golden fleece for Pelias.' (1– 6)

The play begins (line 1) with words of regret: the heroic event should never have taken place. If only it were possible to go back and rewrite the past. Then bad things would not happen to people we love. One past event caused all the present suffering.

-Luschnig, Cecelia Eaton. Granddaughter of the Sun : A Study of Euripides' Medea, BRILL, 2007

[witchofconundrums]

"Girlbosses" 🙃

Understand that I like all these "girlbosses". these are silly

Template down below for friends who wish to add to the collection ｡.ﾟ+ ⟵(｡･ω･)

[witchofconundrums]

"the tension is rising while odysseus is spiralling" sums things up really well

[witchofconundrums]

Odysseus: and that's the thing, you know? I cannot explain it but there's... a connection beyond words. It's not like neither would give any physical cues as one would expect, yet we know what the other is thinking. Or maybe we just think alike? Its-

Diomedes: Nestor saw me sleeping and he kicked me. Again. It wasn't even my watch, he just kicked me.

Odysseus: the first time it happened was at our wedding. Our wedding! We barely knew each other then, still we both knew what everyone was wondering: would we stay in Sparta or move to Ithaca?

Diomedes: I revere him as much as anyone here, but I think I'm becoming resentful.

Odysseus: she didn't make a big show of it, she just covered her face with her veil... I can't do it like her, it's like this with her hand, she does it better. And I felt so happy! I didn't say a word, anyway, because I thought a proper husband should look aloof. But I think she did like Ithaca, from the beginning. I would know if she didn't, right?

Diomedes: Do you think there's any cheese left in this encampment? That would really cheer me up.

[witchofconundrums]

Israel has deployed auto-firing quadcopters that emit the sounds of crying babies.

https://xtwitter.com/jam_etc_art/status/1780038184828608975

There is no possible reality where this is in any way capable of being passed off as self-defense. It was never self-defense. It is, and always has been, a genocide.

Crying babies. Crying babies. This is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, meant to draw out and kill civilians while also making it far more difficult to locate and aid children who are trapped or alone.

If you have money to spare, please consider donating to some of the fundraisers on Operation Olive Branch to help people escape this genocide.

End the occupation. Free Palestine.

[witchofconundrums]

"Odysseus when you come home, I'll be waiting. Even if you're the last thing I see, I'll be waiting."

"I'm right here, Mom. Can't you see I'm waiting? ...I took too long."

Jay, come here a second. I would like to have a word about why I'm silently bawling my eyes out at 1am because of Anticlea saying she will always love her son whom she died waiting for.

[witchofconundrums]

About the lines in "No Longer You" that go

Tiresias: I see your wife with a man... with a trail of bodies.

Odysseus: WHO!?

*half-beat*

The wording here and the half-beat are VERY INTENTIONAL, I think. The half-beat gives you JUST enough time for your brain to auto-fill an answer, and the word "who" rhymes with "you" (plus the fact that the word "you" has already been lingered on once or twice by this point in the song). All this comes together so that, when you hear this line, you instinctively want to shout back "You!" because you KNOW the answer and it's SO OBVIOUS, but Odysseus can't see it!

10/10 amazing artistry

(Also, most of us have seen this before. I won't explain it, but...)

[witchofconundrums]

When the prophet tells Odysseus that he sees a man with his wife, a dangerous killer with a trail of bodies behind him, and Odysseus screams like he never has before, even when the guy told them they were never going to get home- chef kiss

Knowing that that dangerous killer IS Odysseus- donkey kick to the gut.

[witchofconundrums]