Rachel Alexander's Blog, page 281
February 9, 2019
via-appia:
Roman fresco from the house altar/lararium, House of...
Roman fresco from the house altar/lararium, House of Julius Polybius, Pompeii, 1st century AD
therkalexander:
“Sisyphus is dangerous, mother.” Persephone said as the Oneiroi lifted into the air...
“Sisyphus is dangerous, mother.” Persephone said as the Oneiroi lifted into the air and circled about them again. She reached out toward the circle of flames and pulled their destination closer. The walled citadel of Ephyra appeared before them in the widening pathway through the ether. The Queen of the Underworld took a step toward it and looked at her mother one last time. “But so am I.”
— Persephone to Demeter
Destroyer of Light by Rachel Alexander
learningtolovedeath:
therkalexander:
The Goddess laughed and...
The Goddess laughed and lifted her cup to her lips. “I did him a favor. If he so much as touched you, your husband would have his testicles. And only because those would be the only parts left of poor Apollo once you were through with him.” She swirled the wine in her cup. “I know who you are, Praxidike.”
— Aphrodite to Persephone
Destroyer of Light
By Rachel Alexander
I imagine the goddess would rip his testicles off herself, before Hades even got close to it, because that’s…just how she is.
February 8, 2019
therkalexander:
OK. SO I GUESS MY BOOK, THAT’S RIGHT, THE BOOK...
Fuck. Yeah ok, uh, wow. I’ll take it. However, *pushes nerd glasses up* it is actually a duology, although I have at least seven other books planned for the series.
Destroyer of Light, the sequel to Receiver of Many, comes out on March 20th and is already available for preorder on Amazon ($19.99) and Kindle ($5.99), and coming soon for preorder on iBooks and Barnes & Noble.
ancienthouseofydell:
enveniya:
Persephone...
Persephone Falling
HEART
thunders in my chest.
The cypresses quake above-
smothers my throat with your essence
as I, trembling
descend into the darkness.
—
SO! To celebrate Receiver of Many’s release plus the Fall Equinox today, here’s another piece from the illustrated fanfic-story-thing I’m working on.In the book Charon describes how the Styx receives the souls lost at sea in the world above. I figure this is one of many ways Persephone chooses to descend back into Hades ;)
Based off Receiver of Many by Rachel Alexander.
I love the idea that she chooses different deaths to go home sometimes instead of just walking through the ether or catching the boat. But I imagine, that gets really fucking boring after so many years & since she can’t actually die, why not see what it’s like anyway.
I’m sure Hades doesn’t have a fucking heart attack every time she does it. He is fine. It is fine.
#HEADCANON ACCEPTED
therkalexander:
The Goddess laughed and lifted her cup to her...
The Goddess laughed and lifted her cup to her lips. “I did him a favor. If he so much as touched you, your husband would have his testicles. And only because those would be the only parts left of poor Apollo once you were through with him.” She swirled the wine in her cup. “I know who you are, Praxidike.”
— Aphrodite to Persephone
Destroyer of Light
By Rachel Alexander
teashoesandhair:
So, my university does a lot of outreach Classics work, trying to make it less of...
So, my university does a lot of outreach Classics work, trying to make it less of an elitist subject and more accessible to children, and as part of that, I went to give a talk to a class of 6 and 7 year olds a few months back.
And here’s the thing. Classics is really often portrayed as the last bastion of academic privilege, a subject that is only taught to rich white kids so that they can brag about knowing Latin and get jobs as Tory MPs. But these kids were OBSESSED. They had already done some stuff on myths, and they were so excited to talk about it. They knew all the stories, all the heroes, the gods, the monsters. I have never seen such an excitable group of kids as these 6 year olds shouting about Odysseus.
For the lesson, I asked them to think of their favourite myth and to consider it from the point of view of the monster rather than the hero. The end goal was to show that often the monsters and heroes are quite similar. We decided to do Polyphemus (the Cyclops) in the Odyssey, and so I asked them why they thought Polyphemus might have been so angry at Odysseus that he killed some of his men.
Because he came home and found lots of strange men in his house, eating his food, said the kids.
So, I asked them, do you think that was a good reason to kill people?
No, they said, but he was very cross, and he didn’t do it because it was fun.
And then this KID, this SIX YEAR OLD CHILD, put her hand up and said “well, it was very bad of him, but if we’re cross with him then we have to be cross with Odysseus too, because when he came home from his adventure and found lots of men in his house, trying to marry his wife, he killed them, and that’s the same thing, isn’t it?”
AND LET ME TELL YOU
I am a published Classicist! A PhD student! And I have never made that connection before! Not once! And this child was six years old! And she made the link! By herself!
And so I tried not to show how gobsmacked I was, and we talked more about other monsters, including Medusa, and at the end of the lesson a lot of them said that they thought the monsters were not as evil as we usually think, and then I went home.
But I honestly haven’t got over how excited and engaged those kids were, in a totally regular primary school. Classics, in that classroom, was not elitist or inaccessible. It was something they understood, could really get their teeth into and use to think of new ideas of good and bad, of why we demonise different people for doing the same things. And that’s how I like to think about Classics. Not a series of dry texts in ancient languages, but as living stories that you actually can’t help but love, just a bit.
This makes me so completely hopeful and happy you have no idea.
Hey, did you guys already picked persephone for the cast? And will you choose any new/unknown/inexperienced actress/actor for the cast?
My producer is looking for an unknown/little known actress for Persephone in particular.
But Persephone has to COOK as an actress. That’s one role that cannot go to someone who doesn’t have the chops to transform the way she does throughout my books.
I think there’s a couple roles that will require someone with experience and gravitas but most of the roles will be open to newcomers, I think.
