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The Biggest Penelope Fan Since Odysseus

@captainkaltar

Kal, 26, she/her, bi. I have a history degree, I work in Byzantine studies, and it all really shows. Mostly Medieval and ancient Mediterranean goings-on. Leftist, witch, Hellenic pagan, intersectional feminist, future librarian.
🦉Athena devotee 🦉

Did you know there’s a museum in the Athens airport?

Like so many buildings in Greece, the Athens airport sits on top of a wealth of archaeological objects. Many of them are ancient farm sites, with artifacts like this decorated amphora and clay beehive 🐝

The museum also hosts a couple replicas of famous ancient Greek artifacts, like the Peplos Kore (the original lives in the Acropolis Museum in Athens)

~ Three Graces.

Date: late 3rd-early 4th century

Medium: Barcelona, Archaeology Museum of Catalonia (Barcelona, Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya).

Medium: Marble, vitreous paste

tiktokers who say classic lit is bad because its not relatable 1. thats not the fucking point 2. you've clearly never read twelfth night as a trans bisexual

you've clearly never read Frankenstein as a student

If you're fucked up enough a lot of classic lit suddenly becomes uncomfortably relatable tbh.

This is 100% true, but also: literature is a great way to engage with people you don't actually relate to, and practice feeling empathy for them anyway. I have never been in a battle, but I have cried over the Iliad multiple times because I was suddenly made very aware that every single war has people like Hector in it, who leave their families one day and just never come home to them. Please keep looking for things you find relatable in unexpected places - but not everything has to be relatable for it to be worthwhile.

Not everything has to be about you to be worth reading

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Pectoral and Necklace of Sithathoryunet with the Name of Senwosret II, Middle Kingdomca. 1887–1878 B.C.

„Hieroglyphic signs make up the design, and the whole may be read: The god of the rising sun grants life and dominion over all that the sun encircles for one million one hundred thousand years [i.e., eternity] to King Khakheperre [Senwosret II].”

Have finally reached Alexander the Great in my reading... Frankly a boring individual apart from being one of history's greatest generals

well it isn’t like he had a lot of time to do anything else, what with the whole ‘spending almost his whole adult life on campaign and dying young’ thing; at what point in the life of alexander would you want him to have learned how to play the trumpet or invent bifocals or whatever

That’s not a defense, that’s an explanation of why he is in fact boring

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isn't that a similar critique to anyone who's spent their life being a domain expert in some field, like Roger Federer say? the nasty little secret that biopics won't tell you is they spend their whole lives obsessively focused on their niche interest!

If you’re willing to look into… ahem… slightly less historical accounts… then Alexander’s life gets significantly more colorful. What if I told you that Alexander the Great

• Invented the diving bell?

• Scared sea monsters away from Alexandria by making effigies in their own image?

• Was carried into the sky by griffins?

• Slew a dragon?

• Was rewarded for slaying that dragon with gifts that included a horned rabbit?

• Massacred the antelope population of Mesopotamia?

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One of these is not like the others; unless I have a WILDLY incorrect idea of what an "antelope" is.

Whoops, it was India, not Mesopotamia. But yeah, according to Topsell Alexander is single-handedly responsible for their extinction!

Wasn't it more than one dragon and also a bunch of other monsters?

I had the single dragon on Dragon Island in mind!

I've been on a White People Expedition Diary kick recently. I see why Lovecraft was fucking obsessed with this as a framing device, they are insanely compelling.

July 17th, 1884: "Food supplies are low. The Dutchman has eaten so many dog livers that he is now hallucinating from vitamin A poisoning, which is a thing that can happen apparently."

July 18: "We kicked that faggy Austrian botanist into a ravine. Lmao. Had a lovely bath."

July 19th 1884: "The Dutchman has been confined to the sled. We have sacrificed our belts to restrain his movements, lest we lose another Austrian to his Poop Madness."

July 20th 1884: "The men are demanding I leave behind my bathtub. I will not."