Sunday, December 2, 2012

Rewriting Greek Myth Index

It started as a NaNoWriMo projected called As yet untitled novel based on Greek and Roman creation myths with more poetic licence than should ever be given to anyone which failed by 21,897 when the month ended.

I was using Hesiod, especially the Theogony, as the framework around which to amalgamate the various conflicting myths.  The trouble was that the Theogony is not chronological, instead it tends to follow a family line to its end, back up to the next family line over, tell that to it's end, and so forth.  Like solving a maze by only making right turns, and then, when you hit a dead end, backing up to the most recent turn you didn't take left and taking a left there followed by only right turns after that.  Repeat.  It's a system, and a fairly simple to understand one, and as has been pointed out it had poetic value as well (it was able to resolve early in the rule of Zeus in such a way that it made it seem like the conflict had all ended because all of the conflict after that point had already been dealt with in earlier family lines.)

Every time I attempted to chart things out so I could make them chronological for my project I ended up losing interest, or getting a headache, or getting distracted, or all three. (Or any combination of two.)

So I started taking up the family line thing myself, making notes as to where the stories cross over because those can be used to develop a chronology.

This is what we've got so far:

NaNoWriMo 2012, explanation and excerpt - An explanation of what NaNoWriMo is, and the beginning when I was trying to be chronological

The line of Nyx - From the beginning to Eris throwing an apple into a party (which sets off the Trojan War.)

Some more scenes from the line of Nyx - How Nyx made Zeus back down, Eris and Hemera watching a scene for the Aeniad.

The Line of Pontos - Most of the monsters seem to come from this line, so Hercules kills a bunch of stuff.  Also, footnotes.

Expanding the story of the Nereids through the time honored tradition of making shit up - I did try looking for actual information on the 48 or so that don't have much beyond names, but I came up short, thus this post in which I fill in the blanks the traditional way.

Invocation - Generally these go at the front, and if the project is ever finished it will.

The line of Tethys and Okeanos (Part 1) - In which I tell how short it would be if I stuck to Hesiod alone, and then discuss the lines of the eldest daughters.

The line of Tethys and Okeanos (Part 2) - In which I discuss the lines of the eldest sons and, how did I put it?  Keep in mind that this is Greek myth so there are multiple varieties of rape, Aphrodite and her son which is sort of on the love potion end of the rape-like spectrum, sex with a bear, transformation into animals, transformation into plants, incest, Sirens, rivers having sex with each other, suicide attempts, kidnapping, murder, trauma, tears, crossdressing to get into women only spaces (no, not the story about the guy who gets his head ripped off) me calling on a muse to fill in a hole in that story and writing about someone who appears to be pretty well trans, the death of humanity by flood with only a couple of exceptions, bullshit etymology to try to paper over plot holes, death by serpent, serpent death, resurrection, disavowing a predestination "own grandpa" paradox, an abnormal dislike of hermaphrodites and a strange fixation on castration, rape by use of wine after rape by jumping out of the bushes got the rapist killed, death by tree cutting, me making up names because I could only get 17 of the 20, random asides about transliteration, being turned into a flute, Hercules, and stuff. And that's probably about it.  Yeah, that's how I put it.

More on Daphne and Leukippos - I continue the story I called on Kalliope to help me fill in the whole in it, and first explain the historical record around the story.

A couple conversations of Cassandra - Because, why not?

Daphne and Leukippos on one page - Nothing new, except for some corrections where there were errors of one sort or another in the original, instead it's just the story of the nymph who becomes a huntress, the crossdresser/transcharacter who falls in love with her, Apollo being an idiot, and what happened afterward, all on one page without being surrounded by other stories (as the first part had been) or being prefaced by notes about the extant works that describe, and fail to describe, the story (as the second part had been.)

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