Thecatanictemple - Hail Catan - Tumblr Blog

thinking about edvard munch's "The Sun" (1911)

like yeah thats how it feels. thats what it feels like to exist sometimes. he gets it

you're not an horrible person you are 15 years old

reblog for a bigger garden :)

Woke up with this in my head…

(Apologies to Wright Barker)

I did do a boobs-out version as per the original, but: nipples

I think what bothers me about the countless retellings of the myth of Medusa as a victim story isn't the fact that Athena is "demonized" because Athena, within her mythical narrative, is overall not a women's Goddess.

She might authorize certain purely-feminine areas of ancient Greek life within her cult role (such as weaving) or, herself, function within gendered fields by the mere fact of being a woman (and thus posing no threat to her father as a successor) and so on - gender is important to her image. Yet, within myth, she covers purely masculine areas of heroic becoming and war.

Even heroines she helps are assisted through the prism of a higher-standing (as Athena's protege) hero she assists first and foremost. What I mean is:

Penelope might be under Athena's field of control as a weaver/woman shielded from unfair/untimely remarriage but it is ultimately Athena protecting her hero's position as a husband and a ruler.

Athena - alongside Ares - is a "sacker of cities" (despite also being a protector of them; e.g. Troy) and fall of a city implies all men dead and all women taken/violated (e.g. The Trojan Women).

She punishes impious behavior within her temples (Ajax the Lesser) but so does every other Deity and it has little to do with the gender field, impiety has to do with mortality-divinity, not masculinity-femininity.

Aithra (Description of Greece, 2.33.1) does Athena's bidding and offers libations to the charioteer of Pelops but is faced with Poseidon having intercourse with her in the process and proceeds to establish a temple to the Goddess.

Athena's relationship with gender is complex and specific, myth!Athena and cult!Athena have very polar relationships with the fields within which (ancient Greek) women thrive vs. those within which (ancient Greek) men do. So, I guess, what bothers me with the account of Medusa (or Arachne for that matter, though she gets much less attention) within modern stories is that it tends to follow two major plotlines:

Athena is antagonized against Medusa and authorizes her assault.

Athena is protecting Medusa because of her assault.

Meanwhile myth!Athena seems to be more concerned with her temples being untouched (like any other Deity) and has a much more nuanced, if not distanced, connection with her own gender - much less those of others. It's not that it's wrong to approach Medusa or Arachne, especially if their later accounts speak to you personally. I just get a little bit bothered when that's where talks on Athena's relationship with women and gender stops.

reblog if you think it’s ok to have plushies at any age

I’m not a classicist, but I suspect one of the reasons so many of the Greek gods are portrayed so unflatteringly was less because they were seen as villains than because they represented their domains.  Of course Zeus sometimes misuses his power, that’s what a king does.  Of course Artemis’s wrath is wild and painful, that’s what nature can be.  Of course Hades snatched away a young girl from her mother’s arms, that’s what death does.  This is one of the reasons callout posts for some gods comparing them negatively to ‘nicer’ gods are kind of missing the point.

huh I don't know these birds I wonder what their weird lifestyle is

Swifts have very short legs which they use primarily for clinging to vertical surfaces (hence the German name Mauersegler, literally meaning "wall-glider"). They never settle voluntarily on the ground where they would be vulnerable to accidents and predation, and non-breeding individuals may spend up to ten months in continuous flight.[4]

what???? surely this is like the albatross thing where it's just an unintuitive use of language and doesn't actually mean the thing it seems to mean

In the breeding season, non-breeding individuals usually spend the night airborne

what

Our data show that swifts are airborne for >99% of the time during their 10-month non-breeding period; some individuals never settled, but occasional events of flight inactivity occurred in most individuals.

what?!???!?!!

how the FUCK did I not know about these birds what the FUCK what the FUCK that's so cool what the fuck!!!!!!!

Swifts build their nests of air-borne material caught in flight

Except when nesting, swifts spend their lives in the air, living on the insects caught in flight; they drink, feed, and often mate and sleep on the wing.

im just starting to accept that they sleep while airborne (they do the split-brain sleeping thing presumably) and now I have to consider drinking while airborne are they darting about catching raindrops the same way they catch bugs?????

they spend a lot of their time hanging out (maybe catching high altitude bugs) at 2,500 meters. they flock sometimes but only sometimes (which apparently indicates it might be for social/information-sharing reasons rather than safety? there's so many unknowns about these birds, they're so mysterious despite apparently just being, around!!! what the fuck!!!!)

also

They often form "screaming parties" during summer evenings

There was an abandoned church where the faeries used to come out, tucked away in one of those neighborhoods in the city where only residents ever go. It was a beautiful stone building, covered in vines and ivy, half broken, resting between the corner stores and brownstones. They say it's so old that nobody even remembers the name of the god they worshipped there.

And there used to be faeries there. They would come out quite frequently. Nobody maintained the place, but it was ruined enough so you could just walk in through where the door used to be. And you could see them there, the kobolds who would sing their ancient songs in languages long forgotten. And the hollow backed women who would dance in the silver moonligh, and who turned men who tried to touch them into trees. There where spirits who'd look like dragonflies one momment, and than little winged people the next. And great dire trolls at times would come out and brew strange drinks from grass and root. There were mothmen who flew in the skies above the ancient church, looking down with big yellow eyes. There where witches who'd grant strange requests for strange prices, and who'd look like women from a far, and great mantises when near. And there were even darker things, faceless men, and black eyed girls, who'd come, but they never harmed a soul on those old church grounds.

They say it became a place where people who were grateful for such things would come. Urban sorcerers, and cryptid hunters, unmarketable artists, and outcasts and members of forgotten subcultures would come to. It was mostly just a place people in the city knew about, people who knew enough about the fae, people who had respect for the fae. A few faeries would let themselves show up in dim photographs, perhaps to appear on somebody's blog, but most people who would go there knew to ask first. And they say that. In her gratefulness to the ruins, for being a place where the children of Odin and the children of Gaia had found peace, the queen of the autumn faeries had gifted them a magic sword, that shined like sunset amber, planted forever in the ruins of the church's alter.

And once there was a magical sword there, something valuable there, the city decided it had to take notice. It wasn't just some worthless stone anymore, it was something with more money behind it now. They transfered the ruins' ownership from the underfunded historical society, to a successful real-estate company, who would know how to handle it well, and perhaps bring in some tourists.

And suddenly, things began to change. See, the sword needed to be well protected of course, so there were security cameras all over the place to keep out robbers, and guards of course to stand around and yell at people, and of course perhaps to fire iron bullets at any faeries who thought about hurting humans who wanted to be free to touch them and pet them and take pictures without consequences. And there were metal detectors of course, and there needed to be a closing time because suddenly there was a staff that had to be payed.

And somehow there were less and less faeries then, and the people who had used to come so often had gone away too. But that didn't matter, they still needed to turn a profit, and they had started advertising it, so soon tourists with their fancy cameras and expectations, and families with little children on leashes and dogs in their strollers, and fourteen year old boys who giggled because faerie could mean gay, all started to come, and waited on line to see the minority of faeries who were still there. And soon the walls of the old church had signs and ads and the walls were painted a green because the company thought grey was an ugly color, and the entrance had all those little marketable t-shirts and plushes for people to buy.

And soon there were no more faeries. They didn't want to come. The sword had turned black.

They say the last faeries to leave were the toughest of them, and that they didn't like the new type of guest, trolls would put human bones in their last stews, and witches would curse anyone who took pictures of them, and the black eyed girls and faceless men finally dragged people into faeland never to return. But even they left eventually, all of them did. They say the sword healed when it was bright and amber, but when it was black it's magic was no weaker, but it killed, anyone who touched the black sword would rot away. They say other magical creatures, meaner ones, found good homes in the church when it became so filled with the company's things, blood drinking vampires, and howling ghosts, and deal making devils, found the place to be a perfect hunting spot. The faeries never came back, and the church lost its profitability, they tried to rip it down, and use the land for some pretty shot or restaurant, but they could never clear the foundation, nobody could lift the sword.

Not to sound like a fuckin hippie but please for the love of god start noticing and appreciating the natural world around you. You don’t have to go hike the entire Appalachian trail or anything and I get that not everyone has access to the outdoors for various reasons, but just fucking … look around you when you’re outside. Notice the sky and the sun and the birds and creatures. Start caring about them. I’m begging you.

me fighting the urge to make references to my own OCs in conversation, knowing full well that nobody else is aware of their existence

having OC’s is crazy for real because no one else gives a fuck meanwhile you’ll be at the function thinking about them (guys who are not real) like

Another reminder that Greek mythology is always somehow symbolic, metaphorical, allegorical, since we are dealing with anthropomorphic personifications and other embodiments of cosmic powers.

For example: Demeter has sex with both Zeus and Poseidon. Something-something about the relationship of the Earth with the Sky and the Sea (or the celestial and chthonian powers). ESPECIALLY since these relationships are said to happen at the beginning of the world, in the primordial times during which the world settled itself for what it is now.

Herakles' wedding with Hebe, the personification of youth, checks in with when he becomes an immortal god (aka, an eternally young entity). What better way to symbolize a hero escaping the clutches of death than by him becoming the husband of the spirit of eternal youth?

Why is Hestia never leaving Olympus? Something-something about her being the literal personification of the hearth, which is at the center of the house/community and does not move.

Why is Ares getting his ass kicked by Athena? Because Athena is civilization, and Ares savagery, and in the Ancient Greek mindset intelligence, wisdom and craft will always be above brutality, bloodlust and random cruelty.

Do I need to spell it out that the myth of Persephone-Hades-Demeter is about the cycle of the seasons, and how the earth renews itself and brings back life after a time of death?

And I wonder why Ares' companions during his mass-slaughters are called Phobos, Deimos and Eris - Fear, Panic and Discord... Why would the goddess that breaks harmony and sows feuds and chaos be depicted as the close sister of the god of the ravages of war and of the brutality of conflicts, what a strange mystery!

And I can go on, and on, and on. Remember, the Greek gods aren't just super-heroes or wizards (that's more in line with more "humanized" mythologies, like the Irish or Nordic ones). They are embodiments of concepts and ideas, personifications of natural forces and cosmic powers, they are living allegories and fleshed metaphors. Zeus wields the lightning because he IS the lightning and thunder. Dionysos is both the bringer of joy and madness because he IS alcohol. Hades is both the name of the god of the dead, and of the realm of the dead. Hestia's name is literaly "hearth" in Greek, Hebe "youth", Nyx "night", Gaia "earth", Eros "desire". You can write "Eris met Helios at Okeanos' palace" or you can write "Strife encountered the Sun at the palace of Ocean" and that is the EXACT SAME THING!

[Mind you to limit the gods to being JUST allegories is also a mistake not to make. Greek deities are much more than just X concept or X idea... But one part of the myths will always be, down the line, some weather metaphor or some natural cycle motif]

New York City ballet production of Midsummer Nights Dream

If you have Spotify reblog this and tag what your number one song on your “on repeat” playlist is.

I did not expect this amount of esc content from this blog but it is very welcome :)

obviously can't say which song this one is... but if you know you know.

✨ Please reblog the polls to make them reach out to as many people as possible, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people listen to the music with an open mind 💖 Artists and titles will be revealed after the poll's conclusion, check the original post for an update! ✨

actually that's wrong. recounted and they have 24. gift that keeps on giving

saw trap where you have to remember the name of a mountain goats song you listened to once

not my art btw, secondlina gets all credit.

i love these crowwwwwssss <3

Happy Pride from Crow Time! 🌈🌈🌈🌈

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜❤️🧡💛💚💙💜❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Read Crow Time / Read Namesake / Patreon

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜❤️🧡💛💚💙💜❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Y'all want to know what thought is fucking with me today?

Parrots can learn the concept of questions. I don't know about the claim that chimpanzees that were taught sign language never learned to ask questions, or the theory that it simply wouldn't occur to them that the human handlers might know things that they personally do not, or that whatever information they have might be worth knowing. But I don't even remember where I read that, and at best it's an anecdote of an anecdote, but anyway, parrots.

The exact complexity of natural parrot communication in the wild is beyond human understanding for the time being, but you can catch glimpses of how complex it is by looking at how much they learn to pick up from human speech. Sure, they figure out that this sound means this object, animal, person, or other thing. Human says "peanut" and presents a peanut, so the sound "peanut" means peanut. Yes. But if you make the same sound with a rising intonation, you are inquiring about the possibility of a peanut.

A bird that's asking "peanut?" knows there is no peanut physically present in the current situation, but hypothetically, there could be a peanut. The human knows whether there will be a peanut. The bird knows that making this specific human sound with this specific intonation is a way of requesting for this information, and a polite way of informing the human that a peanut is desired.

"I get a peanut?" is a polite spoken request. There is no peanut here, but there could be a peanut. The bird knows that the human knows this. But without the rising intonation of a question, the statement "I get a peanut." is a firm implied threat. There is no peanut here, but there better fucking be one soon. The bird knows that the human knows this.

fun fact i counted all the tmg songs that start with 'going to'. they have 17

saw trap where you have to remember the name of a mountain goats song you listened to once

no appreciation for ladaniva, smh

anyway this blog is awesome pls check it out everyone <3

What song did you personally like the best out of this round? Did a song make an impact right away or did it require the full version? Did the artist reveal change your opinion for better or for worse? Tell me in a reblog! :D

(note: this is not a popularity contest or to vote for a favourite artist out of loyalty 💖 it's still about the song.)

251 here 252 here 253 here 254 here 255 here 256 here 257 here 258 here 259 here 260 here