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In the Saturday Night Loser’s Club diary by chingchongchinaman the other night, DKos poster oculus* mentioned Phaedra as a loser which made me think about gods, goddesses, and heroes who were losers.
It seems to me that a great many of them came to sad ends even if innocent, or were involved in sordid deeds, or were punished for hideous crimes. You may question how they are considered losers when they end up as stars in the sky. I admit that is pretty cool. I hope you will mention your favorite gods, goddesses, heroes, and famous civilians in comments.
*
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Wiki list of Greek Gods
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Roman list
http://simple.wikipedia.org/...
List of Norse gods and goddesses
http://simple.wikipedia.org/...
Celtic list
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
I. Phaedra
http://www.pantheon.org/...
wiki says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
In Greek mythology, Phaedra is the daughter of Minos, wife of Theseus and the mother of Demophon and Acamas.
Though married to Theseus, Phaedra fell in love with Hippolytus, Theseus' son born by Antiope, queen of the Amazons. According to some sources, Hippolytus had spurned Aphrodite to become a devotee of Artemis and Aphrodite made Phaedra fall in love with him as a punishment. He rejected her. Alternatively, Phaedra's nurse told Hippolytus of her love, and he swore he would not reveal her as a source of information.
In revenge, Phaedra wrote Theseus a letter that claimed Hippolytus raped her. Theseus believed her and cursed Hippolytus with one of the three curses he had received from Poseidon. As a result, Hippolytus' horses were frightened by a sea monster and dragged their rider to his death.
Alternatively, after Phaedra told Theseus that Hippolytus had raped her, Theseus killed his son and Phaedra committed suicide out of guilt for she had not intended for Hippolytus to die. Artemis later told Theseus the truth. In a third version, Phaedra simply told Theseus this and did not kill herself; Dionysus sent a wild bull which terrified Hippolytus' horses.
Phaedra's story appears in several major works of literature, including:
Euripides, Hippolytus, a Greek play
Phaedra, 1962 film based on Euripides' play
Seneca the Younger, Phaedra, a Latin play
Jean Racine, Phèdre (1677), a French play.
Miguel de Unamuno, Fedra (1911), a Spanish play
Tony Harrison, Phaedra Britannica (1975), an English verse play.
Per Olov Enquist, Till Fedra (1980), a Swedish play
Matthew Maguire, Phaedra (1995), an English play
Sarah Kane, Phaedra's Love (1996), an English play
Robinson Jeffers, Cawdor (1928), an English long poem
Algernon Charles Swinburne, Phaedra, an English lyrical drama
Mary Renault, The Bull from the Sea, an English novel
Frank McGuinness, Phaedra (Donmar Warehouse, 2006)
Susan Yankowitz, Phaedra in Delirium (1998)
Phaedra in music
Phaedra is also the subject of a number of musical works, including:
Hippolyte et Aricie, an opera (tragédie en musique) by Jean-Philippe Rameau, 1733
Fedra, opera by Simon Mayr, 1820
Fedra, opera by Ildebrando Pizzetti, 1909–1912
she appears as a character in L'abandon d'Ariane, an "Opéra-Minute" by Darius Milhaud, 1927
"Some Velvet Morning", Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, 1967
Phaedra, album by Tangerine Dream, 1974
Phaedra, Benjamin Britten, 1976
"Phaedra's Meadow", song on the Blue Rodeo album Are You Ready, 2005
Phaedra, an opera by Hans Werner Henze, 2007
References
Virgil, Aeneid VI.445; Ovid, Metamorphoses XV.497
II. Ariadne and Theseus
wiki says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
In Hesiod and most other accounts, Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, and Dionysus rediscovered and wedded her.
In a few versions of the myth, Dionysus appeared to Theseus as they sailed away from Crete, saying that he had chosen Ariadne as his wife, and demanded that Theseus leave her on Naxos for him. The vase-painters of Athens often showed Athena leading Theseus from the sleeping Ariadne to his ship.
With Dionysus, she was the mother of Thoas and of the twins Oenopion, the personification of wine, and Staphylus (or Staphylos). Her wedding diadem was set in the heavens as the constellation Corona.
She remained faithful to Dionysus, but was later killed by Perseus at Argos.
Dionysus however descended into Hades and brought her and his mother Semele back. They then joined the gods in Olympus.
III. Arachne
wiki says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
In Greco-Roman mythology, Arachne (pronounced /ə-ˈræk-ni/) was a great mortal weaver who boasted that her skill was greater than that of Minerva, the Latin parallel of Pallas Athena, goddess of crafts. The offended goddess set a contest between the two weavers but, according to Ovid, the mortal weaver's subjects, the loves of the gods, was so offensive that Minerva destroyed Arachne's tapestry and loom. Ultimately, the goddess turned Arachne into a spider.
Arachne simply means "spider" (ἀράχνη) in Greek...
According to Ovid's Latin narrative, Arachne's tapestry featured twenty-one episodes of the infidelity of the gods, disguised as animals: Zeus being unfaithful with Leda, with Europa, with Danaë.
IV. Medea and Jason
wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Medea (Greek: Μήδεια, Mēdeia) is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children: Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides' play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of Corinth, offers him his daughter, Creusa or Glauce. The play tells of how Medea gets her revenge on her husband for this betrayal.
The myths involving Jason also involve Medea. These have been interpreted by specialists, principally in the past, as part of a class of myths that tell how the Hellenes of the distant heroic age, before the Trojan War, faced the challenges of the pre-Greek "Pelasgian" cultures of mainland Greece, the Aegean and Anatolia. Jason, Perseus, Theseus, and above all Heracles, are all "liminal" figures, poised on the threshold between the old world of shamans, chthonic earth deities, and the new Bronze Age Greek ways...
In Corinth, Jason left Medea for the king's daughter. Medea took her revenge by sending Glauce a dress and golden coronet, covered in poison. This resulted in the deaths of both the princess and the king, Creon, when he went to save her. According to the tragic poet Euripides, Medea continued her revenge, murdering her two sons by Jason. Afterward, she left Corinth and flew to Athens in a golden chariot driven by dragons sent by her grandfather Helios, god of the sun...
Fleeing from Jason, Medea made her way to Thebes where she healed Heracles (the former Argonaut) for the murder of Iphitus. In return, Heracles gave her a place to stay in Thebes until the Thebans drove her out in anger, despite Heracles' protests.
She then fled to Athens where she met and married Aegeus. They had one son, Medus, although Hesiod makes Medus the son of Jason. Her domestic bliss was once again shattered by the arrival of Aegeus' long-lost son, Theseus. Determined to preserve her own son's inheritance, Medea convinced her husband that Theseus was a threat and that he should be disposed of. As Medea handed Theseus a cup of poison, Aegeus recognized the young man's sword as his own, which he had left behind many years previous for his newborn son, to be given to him when he came of age. Knocking the cup from Medea's hand, Aegeus embraced Theseus as his own.
V. Orpheus
wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Orpheus (Greek: Ὀρφεύς; pronounced /ˈɔrfiəs/ or /ˈɔrfjuːs/ in English) is a legendary figure, probably of Thracian origin, venerated by the Greeks and Thracians of the Classical age as Apollo's son, a chief among poets and musicians, and the perfector of the lyre invented by Hermes. Poets like Simonides of Ceos said that, with his music and singing, he could charm birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance, and even divert the course of rivers. He was one of the handful of Greek heroes to visit the Underworld and return; even in Hades his song and lyre did not lose their power.
As one of the pioneers of civilization, he is said at various times to have taught humanity the arts of medicine, writing (in one unusual instance, where he substitutes for the usual candidate, Cadmus) and agriculture, where he assumes the Eleusinian role of Triptolemus.
More consistently and more closely connected with religious life, Orpheus was an augur and seer; practised magical arts, especially astrology; founded or rendered accessible many important cults, such as those of Apollo and the Greek god Dionysus; instituted mystic rites both public and private; and prescribed initiatory and purificatory rituals, which his community of followers treasured in Orphic texts. In addition, Pindar and Apollonius of Rhodes place Orpheus as the harpist and companion of Jason and the Argonauts.
His son was Musaeus, "he of the Muses"...
The most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of his wife Eurydice (also known as Agriope). While fleeing from Aristaeus (son of Apollo), Eurydice ran into a nest of snakes which bit her fatally on her heel. Distraught, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. He set off with Eurydice following and in his anxiety as soon as he reached the upper world he turned to look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper world, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever. The story in this form belongs to the time of Virgil, who first introduces the name of Aristaeus...
The story of Eurydice may actually be a late addition to the Orpheus myths. In particular, the name Eurudike ("she whose justice extends widely") recalls cult-titles attached to Persephone.
VI. Persephone
wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
In the later Olympian pantheon of Classical Greece, Persephone is given a father: according to Hesiod's Theogony, Persephone was the daughter produced by the union of Demeter and Zeus: "And he [Zeus] came to the bed of bountiful Demeter, who bore white-armed Persephone, stolen by Hades from her mother's side" Unlike every other offspring of an Olympian pairing of deities, Persephone has no stable position at Olympus.
Persephone used to live far away from the other deities, a goddess within Nature herself before the days of planting seeds and nurturing plants. In the Olympian telling, the gods Hermes, Ares, Apollo, and Hephaestus, had all wooed Persephone; but Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the Olympian deities.
Thus, Persephone lived a peaceful life before she became the goddess of the underworld, which, according to Olympian mythographers, did not occur until Hades abducted her and brought her into it. She was innocently picking flowers with some nymphs—, Athena, and Artemis, the Homeric hymn says—, or Leucippe, or Oceanids— in a field in Enna when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. Later, the nymphs were changed by Demeter into the Sirens for not having interfered. Life came to a standstill as the devastated Demeter, goddess of the Earth, searched everywhere for her lost daughter. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened.
Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds, (seven, eight, or perhaps four according to the telling) which forced her to return to the underworld for a season each year.
In some versions, Ascalaphus informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. When Demeter and her daughter were united, the Earth flourished with vegetation and color, but for some months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm. This is an origin story to explain the seasons.
VII. Hercules
wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Driven mad by Hera, Heracles slew his own children. To expiate the crime, Heracles was required to carry out ten labors set by his archenemy, Eurystheus, who had become king in Heracles' place. If he succeeded, he would be purified of his sin and, as myth says, he would be granted immortality. Heracles accomplished these tasks, but Eurystheus did not accept the cleansing of the Augean stables because Heracles was going to accept pay for the labor.
Neither did he accept the killing of the Lernaean Hydra as Heracles' cousin, Ioloas, had helped him burn the stumps of the heads. Eurysteus set two more tasks (fetching the Golden Apples of Hesperides and capturing Cerberus), which Heracles performed successfully, bringing the total number of tasks up to twelve.
Not all writers gave the labors in the same order. Apollodorus (2.5.1-2.5.12) gives the following order:
- To kill the Nemean lion.
- To destroy the Lernaean Hydra.
- To capture the Ceryneian Hind.
- To capture the Erymanthian Boar.
- To clean the Augean Stables.
- To kill the Stymphalian Birds.
- To capture the Cretan Bull.
- To round up the Mares of Diomedes.
- To steal the Girdle of Hippolyte.
- To herd the Cattle of Geryon.
- To fetch the Apples of Hesperides.
- To capture Cerberus.
After completing these tasks, Heracles joined the Argonauts in a search for the Golden Fleece...
Hesiod's Theogony and Aeschylus' Prometheus Unbound both tell that Heracles shot and killed the eagle that tortured Prometheus (which was his punishment by Zeus for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mortals). Heracles freed the Titan from his chains and his torments. Prometheus then made predictions regarding further deeds of Heracles...
His third marriage was to Deianira, for whom he had to fight the river god Achelous. (Upon Achelous' death, Heracles removed one of his horns and gave it to some nymphs who turned it into the cornucopia.) Soon after they wed, Heracles and Deianira had to cross a river, and a centaur named Nessus offered to help Deianira across but then attempted to rape her.
Enraged, Heracles shot the centaur from the opposite shore with a poisoned arrow (tipped with the Lernaean Hydra's blood) and killed him. As he lay dying, Nessus plotted revenge, told Deianira to gather up his blood and spilled semen and, if she ever wanted to prevent Heracles from having affairs with other women, she should apply them to his vestments. Nessus knew that his blood had become tainted by the poisonous blood of the Hydra, and would burn through the skin of anyone it touched.
Later, when Deianira suspected that Heracles was fond of Iole, she soaked a shirt of his in the mixture, creating the poisoned shirt of Nessus. Heracles' servant, Lichas, brought him the shirt and he put it on. Instantly he was in agony, the cloth burning into him. As he tried to remove it, the flesh ripped from his bones. Heracles chose a voluntary death, asking that a pyre be built for him to end his suffering. After death, the gods transformed him into an immortal, or alternatively, the fire burned away the mortal part of the demigod, so that only the god remained. Because his mortal parts had been incinerated, he could now become a full god and join his father and the other Olympians on Mount Olympus. He then married Hebe.
VIII. Orestes
wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
In Greek mythology, Orestes (pronounced /ɔˈrɛstiːz/; Greek: Ὀρέστης) was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and purification, which retain obscure threads of much older ones.
Orestes has a root in ὄρος (óros), "mountain". The metaphoric meaning of the name is the person "who can conquer mountains".
In the Homeric story, Orestes was a member of the doomed house of Atreus which is descended from Tantalus and Niobe. Orestes was absent from Mycenae when his father, Agamemnon, returned from the Trojan War with the Trojan princess Cassandra as his concubine, and thus not present for Agamemnon's murder by his wife, Clytemnestra, in retribution for his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigeneia to obtain favorable winds during the Greek voyage to Troy. Eight years later, Orestes returned from Athens and with his sister Electra avenged his father's death by slaying his mother and her lover Aegisthus...
In Aeschylus's Eumenides, Orestes goes mad after the deed and is pursued by the Erinyes, whose duty it is to punish any violation of the ties of family piety. He takes refuge in the temple at Delphi; but, even though Apollo had ordered him to do the deed, he is powerless to protect Orestes from the consequences. At last Athena receives him on the acropolis of Athens and arranges a formal trial of the case before twelve Attic judges. The Erinyes demand their victim; he pleads the orders of Apollo; the votes of the judges are equally divided, and Athena gives her casting vote for acquittal. The Erinyes are propitiated by a new ritual, in which they are worshipped as Eumenides, the "Kindly Ones", and Orestes dedicates an altar to Athena Areia...
Mourning Becomes Electra is a powerful play by Eugene O'Neill.
IX. Oedipus
wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes. Before he was born, his parents consulted the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The Oracle prophesied that Laius would be murdered by his son, who would then go on to marry his mother, Jocasta. In an attempt to prevent this prophecy's fulfillment, when Jocasta bore a son, King Laius had his ankles pinned together and gave the boy to a shepherd to leave on the side of a mountain. However the sympathetic man passed the baby onto a shepherd from Corinth and little Oedipus came to the house of King Polybus and his queen, Merope.
Many years later, Oedipus is told by a drunk that Polybus was not his real father but when he asks his parents, they deny it. Oedipus, unsure, seeks counsel from the same Oracle of Apollo. The Oracle does not tell him the identity of his true parents but instead tells him that he is destined to marry his mother and kill his father (though though not specifying in which order). In his attempt to avoid the fate predicted by the Oracle, he decides to flee from Corinth back to Thebes.
As Oedipus travels he comes to the place where three roads meet, Daulia. Here he encounters a chariot, driven by his (unrecognised) birth-father, King Laius. They fight over who has the right to go first and Oedipus kills Laius in self defense, unwittingly fulfilling part of the prophecy.
Continuing his journey to Thebes, Oedipus encounters the Sphinx who would stop all those who traveled to Thebes and ask them a riddle.
If the travelers were unable to answer correctly, they were eaten by the Sphinx; if they were successful, they would be able to continue their journey. The riddle was: "What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?". Oedipus answers: "Man; as an infant, he crawls on all fours, as an adult, he walks on two legs and, in old age, he relies on a walking stick". Oedipus was the first to answer the riddle correctly. Having heard Oedipus' answer, the Sphinx is astounded and throws herself to her death from a clifftop.
Grateful, the people of Thebes appoint Oedipus as their king and give him the recently widowed Queen Jocasta's hand in marriage fulfilling the rest of the prophecy. Oedipus and Jocasta have four children: two sons, Polynices and Eteocles (see Seven Against Thebes), and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene...
X. Niobe
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
According to the Greek myth, Niobe boasted of her superiority to Leto because the goddess only had two children, the twins Apollo and Artemis, while Niobe had fourteen children (the Niobids), seven male and seven female. Her famously quoted speech which caused the indignation of the goddess is as follows:
It was on occasion of the annual celebration in honor of Latona and her offspring, Apollo and Diana, when the people of Thebes were assembled, their brows crowned with laurel, bearing frankincense to the altars and paying their vows, that Niobe appeared among the crowd. Her attire was splendid with gold and gems, and her face as beautiful as the face of an angry woman can be. She stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks. "What folly," said she, "is this! to prefer beings whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes! Why should Latona be honored with worship rather than I? My father was Tantalus, who was received as a guest at the table of the gods; my mother was a goddess. My husband built and rules this city, Thebes; and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance.
Wherever I turn my eyes I survey the elements of my power; nor is my form and presence unworthy of a goddess. To all this let me add, I have seven sons and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. Have I not cause for pride? Will you prefer to me this Latona, the Titan's daughter, with her two children? I have seven times as many. Fortunate indeed am I, and fortunate I shall remain! Will any one deny this?
By using poisoned arrows, Artemis killed Niobe's daughters and Apollo killed Niobe's sons, while they practiced athletics, with the last begging their lives. According to some versions, at least one Niobid was spared, (usually Meliboea). Their father Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo for having sworn revenge. A devastated Niobe fled to Mount Sipylus and was turned into stone and, as she wept unceasingly, waters started to pour from her petrified complexion. Mount Sipylus indeed has a natural rock formation which resembles a female face, and it has been associated with Niobe since ancient times. The rock formation is also known as the "Weeping Rock" (Turkish: Ağlayan Kaya), since rainwater seeps through its porous limestone pores.
John Keat’s poem, Endymion mentions Niobe and many others:
The whole poem is here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/...
And then in quiet circles did they press
The hillock turf, and caught the latter end
Of some strange history, potent to send
A young mind from its bodily tenement.
Or they might watch the quoit-pitchers, intent
On either side; pitying the sad death
Of Hyacinthus, when the cruel breath
Of Zephyr slew him,--Zephyr penitent,
Who now, ere Phoebus mounts the firmament, 330
Fondles the flower amid the sobbing rain.
The archers too, upon a wider plain,
Beside the feathery whizzing of the shaft,
And the dull twanging bowstring, and the raft
Branch down sweeping from a tall ash top,
Call'd up a thousand thoughts to envelope
Those who would watch. Perhaps, the trembling knee
And frantic gape of lonely Niobe,
Poor, lonely Niobe! when her lovely young
Were dead and gone, and her caressing tongue 340
Lay a lost thing upon her paly lip,
And very, very deadliness did nip
Her motherly cheeks. Arous'd from this sad mood
By one, who at a distance loud halloo'd,
Uplifting his strong bow into the air,
Many might after brighter visions stare:
After the Argonauts, in blind amaze
Tossing about on Neptune's restless ways,
Until, from the horizon's vaulted side,
There shot a golden splendour far and wide, 350
Spangling those million poutings of the brine
With quivering ore: 'twas even an awful shine
From the exaltation of Apollo's bow;
A heavenly beacon in their dreary woe.
Who thus were ripe for high contemplating,
Might turn their steps towards the sober ring
Where sat Endymion and the aged priest
'Mong shepherds gone in eld, whose looks increas'd
The silvery setting of their mortal star.
There they discours'd upon the fragile bar 360
That keeps us from our homes ethereal;
And what our duties there: to nightly call
Vesper, the beauty-crest of summer weather;
To summon all the downiest clouds together
For the sun's purple couch; to emulate
In ministring the potent rule of fate
With speed of fire-tailed exhalations;
To tint her pallid cheek with bloom, who cons
Sweet poesy by moonlight: besides these,
A world of other unguess'd offices. 370
Anon they wander'd, by divine converse,
Into Elysium; vieing to rehearse
Each one his own anticipated bliss.
XI. Prometheus
wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Ancient Greek: Προμηθεύς, "forethought") is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of human-kind known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals. Zeus then punished him for his crime by having him bound to a rock while a great eagle ate his liver every day only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day...
Years later, periods of which vary from thirty years, to four hundred thousand years, to 3 million years, the Greek hero Heracles (Hercules) would shoot the eagle and free Prometheus from his chains...
wiki has the text
Prometheus, a poem by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
XII. Orion
wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Homer and Hesiod
Orion is mentioned in the oldest surviving works of Greek literature, which probably date back to the 7th or 8th century BC. In Homer's Iliad Orion is described as a constellation, and the star Sirius is mentioned as his dog. In the Odyssey, Odysseus sees him hunting in the underworld with a bronze club, a great slayer of animals; he is also mentioned as a constellation, as the lover of the Goddess Dawn, as slain by Artemis, and as the most handsome of the earthborn. In the Works and Days of Hesiod, Orion is also a constellation, one whose rising and setting with the sun is used to reckon the year.
The legend of Orion was first told in full in a lost work by Hesiod, probably the Astronomy; simple references to Hesiod will refer to this, unless otherwise stated. This version is known through the work of a Hellenistic author on the constellations; he gives a fairly long summary of Hesiod's discourse on Orion. According to this version, Orion was the son of the sea-god Poseidon and Euryale, daughter of Minos, King of Crete. Orion could walk on the waves because of his father; he walked to the island of Chios where he got drunk and attacked Merope, daughter of Oenopion, the ruler there.
In vengeance, Oenopion blinded Orion and drove him away. Orion stumbled to Lemnos where Hephaestus — the lame smith-god — had his forge. Hephaestus told his servant, Cedalion, to guide Orion to the uttermost East where Helios, the Sun, healed him; Orion carried Cedalion around on his shoulders. Orion returned to Chios to punish Oenopion, but the king hid away underground and escaped Orion's wrath. Orion's next journey took him to Crete where he hunted with the goddess Artemis and her mother Leto, and in the course of the hunt, threatened to kill every beast on Earth.
Mother Earth objected and sent a giant scorpion to kill Orion. The creature succeeded, and after his death, the goddesses asked Zeus to place Orion among the constellations. Zeus consented and, as a memorial to the hero's death, added the Scorpion to the heavens as well.
What do you think? Were they losers or champions who had deep troubles? Were they evil or playthings of the Fates? Was pride their downfall or was it their enemies? Were they trapped as Persephone was or did they make bad choices? Do we feel empathy for their mistakes as when Orpheus looked back?
Diaries of the week:
DK GreenRoots: Write On! Have you been stripped?
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Amsterdam: History And Art (Photo Blog)
by Turkana
http://www.dailykos.com/...
So beautiful and from my own state:
DK GreenRoots: My Lake Has Singing Sands.
by Muskegon Critic
http://www.dailykos.com/...
A Tourist In Your Own Town (a photo diary)
by trs
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Book reviews: A hit and a miss on the mortgage crisis
by SusanG
Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown
By Edmund L. Andrews
W. W. Norton, New York: May 2009
Hardcover, 240 pages, $25.95, 240 pages
Gimme Shelter
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
Simon & Schuster, New York: March 2009
Hardcover, 336 pages, $26.00
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The Best Kids’ Books Ever
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: July 4, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The Mad Logophile; Commonly Mispronounced Words
by Purple Priestess
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Misty Morning Backyard - Photo Diary
by Diogenes2008
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Which book next? (part 2 - final vote) UPDATE
by plf515
http://www.dailykos.com/...
plf says, The winner is Guns, Germs and Steel. We'll start next Sunday morning. (by Jared Diamond).
NOTE: plf515 has changed his book talk to Wednesday mornings early.
sarahnity’s list of DKos authors has grown so much that she has her own diary.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
sarahnity says:
It turns out that we have quite a few authors hanging out here who have published books in the real world. A while ago, I started keeping a list of books by Kossacks, former Kossacks and Kossacks-once-removed. I was posting it each week to the diary series What Are You Reading and Bookflurries, but the list has grown long enough, that I've decided to turn it into a diary and post it as a weekly series on Tuesday evenings.
Not all Kossack authors may wish to lose their anonymity, so I am only including the author's UID if he has outed herself here (gender confusion intended). If you'd like to be included on the list, or if you know of an author who is left off, please leave a comment or email me.
(sarahnity@gmail.com)