"Girlbosses" 🙃

Understand that I like all these "girlbosses". these are silly

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Fishy's books read in 2023

Since I like talking so much, I thought I might as well talk about the books I read this year.

I'll go through each of the books I finished reading this year and what I thought of them. All of the books I've listed below were read in their English versions.

John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) (2004)

I'd found out about this book because I'd heard about the movie that was based on this book. This book was about a little boy who befriended a girl, who was revealed to be a vampire. The book was creepy because it leaned towards the more gruesome and violent parts of being a vampire. There was also another character who I felt very creeped out by (if you've read the book, you probably know who I'm talking about). While I think the book was interesting in how it approached the relationship between the boy and girl, I didn't find any of the characters particularly interesting. That being said, I think this book might be of interest to people who want to read a vampire/crime novel with a darker take but be warned of the dark themes.

Elena Ferrante - The Neapolitan Novels (2012-2015)

This was a book about the lifelong friendship between two women in Naples. I will admit that several parts of this novel had my blood boiling. I sometimes hesitated to call the two women friends, but instead two women whose lives were intertwined. Why this novel made me so angry was that there were characters who treated others so poorly and yet our characters still gravitated towards them. As the outsider I was like "No!! Don't believe their lies!" but of course that had no effect. Despite the anger and the precarious nature of many of the relationships in this book, I felt that the author portrayed very unique relationships. I struggle even to describe what kind of relationships the characters in this book have because they are so unique. Just calling characters 'friends' or 'lovers' hardly captures the kinds of feelings that they have for each other. I struggle to say I liked the book because of the parts that made me angry but it definitely was good and rich.

An Oresteia (Translated by Anne Carson) (2009)

This was a collection of Ancient Greek plays surrounding the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, and the subsequent murder of Clytemnestra by her children Elektra and Orestes. I hadn't read any Greek plays prior to this and I found this work very interesting. It was not very long, there wasn't a lot of dialogue, but I could feel that within the space between the words, held the thoughts and feelings of the characters. That makes sense because these are plays, which would have acting to accompany the dialogue. While reading this work, I did some research on the Trojan War to try to understand the experience of the intended audience (an audience who was likely quite familiar with the Trojan War). This was an interesting read for my first Greek play.

Edmondo De Amicis - Heart (Cuore) (1886)

This was a children's novel, written from the point of view of a young boy over the course of a year of school before moving away. Since it was a children's book, I found that it was wholesome. I kept expecting some situations that were too good to be true to turn out to be a trick or trap, but those instances never happened. Instead, it was a journey of a boy learning to be kind, learning the meaning of friendship and such. Read this if you want something happy.

Edogawa Ranpo - Strange Tales of Mystery & Imagination (2000)

This was a compilation of some of Edogawa Ranpo's short stories. Edogawa Ranpo was a pioneer of Japanese literature, particularly in the genres of mystery. I'd classify the stories in this compilation as either being akin to detective mystery, or more peculiar tales bordering into horror. I have read some more contemporary Japanese mystery and thriller novels (translated into English). I could definitely recognize the influences that Edogawa Ranpo had on those modern writers, in the way the stories were paced, in the way the writers would look to the dark side of human minds, and in the ways that information was revealed. I was actually really impressed by the variety in this compilation. The short stories varied in content, in form, in style. I would highly recommend this short story series to fans of mysteries and thrillers and especially if you enjoy Japanese crime novels.

W. Somerset Maugham - The Painted Veil (1925)

Of Maugham's novels, I'd only read Of Human Bondage and I didn't like it too much. On the other hand, I found the Painted Veil a great deal more compelling. This book followed a woman who had married a biologist who was stationed in Hong Kong. Her husband found out about her infidelity and after a sequence of events, they travelled to a town that was hit with a cholera outbreak. I think this was an interesting novel about a woman finding her place in life, though it took a lot of loss to get there. I liked it and would recommend it for people who want a serious but short book.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón - The Shadow of the Wind (La sombra del viento) (2001)

For years, I had seen exceedingly positive reviews for this book, and as a result, I think this book was overhyped for me. This book was about a young man who tried to uncover the mystery behind an author of a book he owned. The mystery itself was decent as our main character uncovered the truth of the past which was resolved in the present. Why I didn't love this novel was because I felt that it was tropey. I understand why people would love this movie, because it has so many moving parts that are all connected. However, I didn't feel any close connections with any of the characters as they all felt like character archetypes. I think I would have enjoyed this if I had read it when I was younger, but I think I have outgrown this kind of writing now.

Keigo Higashino - A Midsummer's Equation (2011)

I've read a few of Keigo Higashino's novels and I have no intention of stopping. This was the third book that was translated to English in the Detective Galileo series focusing on Professor Yukawa. What's interesting about Detective Galileo mysteries is that Professor Yukawa is never the main character of these novels, and yet he is the main character of the series. In this novel, Professor Yukawa was attending a panel discussion in Hari Cove, where a death occurred. While the police conducted their investigation, Professor Yukawa would conduct his own parallel investigation, often more casually.

What set this book apart from the previous two translated novels in the Detective Galileo series was the human aspect. While the previous two novels did contain human dilemmas, I felt that it was more prominent in this novel. I don't want to get into spoiler territory but I felt that this book forced me to confront the facts that the characters were humans who were affected by crime, rather than just hand-waving the human aspect and focusing on the gimmick of the crime. This novel also emphasized that while Professor Yukawa was a very competent investigator, he was not an officer of the law, which I thought was an interesting stance to take. I definitely recommend the Detective Galileo series for people who like crime novels. All of the novels in this series are compact but very cool.

Closing Remarks

I'm actually surprised by the number of books I read this year. I just assumed that other than the Neopolitan Novels (the longest book I read this year), I hadn't read very much. But I fit quite a few short books in this year.

Unfortunately because I am a slow reader, it takes me a long time to get around to reading different kinds of books. But I am always on the lookout for interesting books and I do have a to-read book list. It's just that it might be 10 years before I finally get to a certain book lol.

Anyway, did you read any of the books on this list? What did you think? Also let me know what books y'all read this year :)

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

Jennifer Saint follows in Sophocles' footsteps by painting the titular character as merely vengeful, but crafts beautiful and emotional narratives around her secondary characters.

⭐⭐⭐/5

Elektra is a simply written yet well-written novel that offers readers intriguing insight into three iconic female figures in Greek mythology: Elektra, Clytemnestra, and Cassandra. It is an especially satisfying read for those looking to dive deeper into the stories of the female characters on the periphery in Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles. 

Where Elektra suffers, unfortunately, is in its depiction of the titular character. While the explorations of Cassandra and Clytemnestra are dramatic, nuanced, and frustrating in all the ways a reader craves to be frustrated while reading a good drama, the exploration of Elektra is frustrating in its one-dimensionality. This is not necessarily the fault of Jennifer Saint, however. Anyone who's read Sophocles' Elektra knows that Elektra kinda... sucks. She only wants one thing: revenge. A revenge-obsessed protagonist is not inherently lacking, but they need sufficient justification for their vengeful spirit and other complex personality traits to make readers care about their fate. Unfortunately, Elektra lacks both. 

Elektra’s desire for revenge stems from the fact that she loves her father, Agamemnon, more than anything in the world, and she hates the people who took him from her. However, Saint never shows her readers why Elektra loves him so much. The two lack a compelling relationship in this book. Furthermore, her desire to avenge her father is her only personality trait. If Saint had found a creative way to better develop Elektra and Agamemnon’s relationship and make Elektra more complex, she could have broken Sophocles’ curse and enabled readers to empathize with this character. 

The creative freedom to enhance famous myths is what makes these retellings fun to read, and Saint does not capitalize on the opportunity she has to flesh out this character. In contrast, the reason I ached for Achilles so much in Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles is because of how many other aspects of his personality were spotlighted, beyond his pride: his sense of humor, adventure, ability to love, compassion, etc. Seeing these things in broad daylight makes readers all the more furious at him for becoming so blinded by his pride. I do not ache for Elektra because she is only shown to be a hateful, vengeful person.

Conversely, Saint succeeds in giving dimension and color to Clytemnestra and Cassandra. Readers see Clytemnestra transformed into a cold-hearted tyrant in the wake of a truly devastating event, and seeing that transformation play out in-narrative is gripping. Likewise, Cassandra is burdened with a horrific curse of being able to prophesy, but always written off as insane by those with whom she shares her visions. With both of these characters, Saint evokes emotional investment from readers that is on par with Madeline Miller’s works. If you are a lover of mythology, Elektra is worth the read for the great storytelling around Cassandra and Clytemnestra. Just be prepared to think, "Ugh, girl, shut up," every time Elektra opens her mouth. 

hello do we know why Elektra did not murder Clytemnestra because like, she's totally capable of doing it? So why wait around for Orestes? And this is VERY far fetched but I haven't read anything on Orestes' backstory, so did he just drop by for crime? Him being the son can't possibly be the only qualifying thing or is it? I'm sorry if this is all over the place, I'm still new to these plays and haven't read as much as I'd like to have!

yeah girls don't get to kill people. that's part of clytemnestra's transgression, she usurps the masculine role of killer and avenger. orestes as his father's son has more of a right (and an obligation) to avenge him than electra as his daughter. (this gets interesting when you look at euripides where electra very much does have a hand in clytemnestra's death, but she still has to wait for orestes to return. she can't kill clytemnestra herself.)

and also because orestes doesn't know clytemnestra. he didn't grow up in argos, he's been in phocis for some years by the events of the agamemnon and stays away for seven years after that. when he comes back to kill her it's a woman he hasn't seen since he was a small child. she's only his mother in the abstract. electra's lived with clytemnestra since she was born, including the last seventeen years when clytemnestra was her only parent in the house. and it's debatable how involved clytemnestra was in actually raising her, but even if you hate her it's still much harder to kill a mother you've lived with your entire life than the woman other people have had to tell you is your mother.

family ties are really really important to the whole trilogy, and there's a lot of tension around where a woman's loyalties (ought to) lie. a woman's primary obligation is supposed to be to her husband, at the expense of relatives she's actually biologically related to (parents, siblings, children, etc), and it's that expectation that clytemnestra defies when she places her daughter above her husband. there's a consistent tension throughout a lot of greek literature about where a woman falls should conflict arise between her husband and her father or brother, a running anxiety about where women's familial loyalties really lie. the reason athena is able to create a sort of resolution at the end of the trilogy is that she doesn't have that tension. as an eternal maiden and eternal daughter her loyalty is always to her father and she's never threatened with being torn between husband, father, siblings, children like mortal women are. that's a spectre that haunts electra. as a human woman she can't be an eternal daughter, she will one day owe her loyalty to someone other than her father. that's also (in my opinion) why she doesn't appear in the libation bearers. electra is a woman who will ultimately one day get married and be meant to put her husband before her brother and her father's memory. that's a tangle of loyalties that the play doesn't want to deal with.

🍓 tell me about Berenice!

YES real problematic fave hours! [warning for references to alcohol, child death]

Like a ton of my other OCs, she’s immortal. (NOT invulnerable.) As such, she’s been around for...over 2000 years. (Also why the timeline might seem strange because “....Cleopatra....Brennus...English invading....WHAT?”)

Was VERY free-spirited as a young child, her favorite place growing up was the Lighthouse of Alexandria, where she used to watch the ships coming in with Marcus (a ward of her father’s that they found on the streets of Rome after he saved Berenice’s life when they were children), Atria (her future royal physician, Marcus’ sister), and Khensa (her future spymistress), all of them trying to guess where they came from, Berenice usually carting at least one or two books up in order to read in peace.

This stopped when her father disciplined Atria once for something that she did. She swore afterwards that she would never endanger her friends for the sake of her own fun, and she tries to hold religiously to that. It might be her one scruple left, actually. 

Met Cleopatra Philopater once as a small child and it made such an impact that she took quite a bit of inspiration from her, including learning Egyptian. 

Knows at least ten languages, though not all of them to a strong degree of fluency. (She knows at least Latin, Greek, Egyptian, Aramaic, English, a little bit of Irish [though she has issues with it] and Gaulish.) 

Is actually a quarter Persian, on her mother’s side, the rest of her being thoroughly Macedonian. Her grandmother married one of Alexander the Great’s officials, producing Berenice’s mother. 

When her father was murdered by a former suitor of hers, her brothers were also killed, leaving her with no support, as well as the full knowledge that her half-siblings wouldn’t hesitate to kill her if they had a chance. She hid her father’s body for well over a week while waiting for her uncle to arrive.

She was the one to kill said former suitor herself, when Marcus held back, unable, despite his various wrongs, to be the one to plunge the sword in. (Though he was already incapacitated - When he tried to aim for Atria, who was next on his list of “People Berenice Loves” list, she stabbed him in the leg. Part of why Marcus and Berenice never let the full details of what happened that night slip is because of their fear of what would happen if the truth was revealed. It was easier for Marcus, as a lower class man and a former ward of the family, to take responsibility and accept exile instead of execution. Berenice begged for him to be allowed to stay, saying that, if he left, her conscience would leave with him, but no luck. And she was true to her word.) 

Totally commissioned a “Justice for Clytemnestra” book after re-assuming power after the death of her second husband.

She used to be friends with her greatest rival, Elektra, when they were children, the two noble girls viewed as natural companions for each other. But, when Berenice befriended Marcus and Atria, the other girl looked down her nose on them, refusing to play with street rats, and Berenice told her that, if that was the case, she wasn’t going to play with her either. Elektra never forgave the insult, and, while a ton of things happened in the meanwhile to make them reach a point of no return, the first pebble in the avalanche fell there. 

Lives up to the stereotype of Ancient Macedonians and alcohol - She can outdrink even mythical figures RENOWNED for their ability to hold their liquor, and one of the first canonical words out of her mouth is “I was told there would be free wine.” While she was hardly sheltered from it as a child, her usage did intensify in the wake of her father’s + brothers’ deaths, as well as Marcus’ subsequent exile and her second, disastrous marriage. Brennus’ presence, ironically given he’s never been one to hold back from the alcohol, tends to temper her usage.

Whenever Atria publishes a new book on medicine, Berenice always has multiple copies of it made. Part of it is her flexing as Atria’s patron, part of it is that she’s genuinely proud of her friend’s accomplishments and wants the whole world to know that Atria Did A Thing. 

 Married twice, both of them arranged, and twice widowed. Though she loves Brennus dearly, she has massive reservations around actually marrying him, because of what it would mean for her independence.

When her second husband died, she worked quickly to get rid of all his other consorts and children, in a purge that many shuddered to think about decades down the line. 

No cold tolerance - When she had to move from Alexandria to a much colder climate, someplace akin to Alaska in climate, she very nearly died, since her body wasn’t used to the extreme change of temperature. While she’s doing much better these days, she still gets sick quite easily in the winter and needs multiple fur covers on her bed. Brennus, hardened northerner that he is, mocks her RELENTLESSLY for it. 

There are a TON of rumors swirling around her, both among her own people and the New Anglians. At this point, she takes a certain tongue in cheek mentality to it. (”Ah, yes, you see, I was just climbing out of my daily bath of virgin’s blood when the courier came to me and said-”) 

Somewhat ironically, despite her reputation for ruthlessness, she is one of the most aggressive pursuers of murderers, particularly the ones that we would call “serial killers”. All these years, and she’s never forgotten her father’s death, and how easily it could have been avoided if they’d just gotten rid of that man when he’d been killing people on the street. The technology isn’t there to make her as effective as she’d like, but she tries. She doesn’t care if the victim was a fruit seller or one of her court officials: If you kill someone under her watch, you’re going to die a horrible death. 

Keeps a MASSIVE wardrobe of jewelry and clothes. Many of which the New Anglians took when they invaded, but some of which she retains. When she had more personal possessions, she used to hand out her hand-me-downs to Atria and Khensa, so the three of them often look like they have a very similar style. (Atria literally can’t be bothered to go shopping most of the time, spending most of her money on specimens for her medical research/natural philosophy, and Khensa’s work as spymistress tends to mean that her funds are constantly running low.) 

 Is either the single most beautiful or the second most beautiful person in the entire continuity (depending on whether or not you hold that Bres is prettier.) It’s caused her her share of problems, as a woman in the time she’s living in. 

Her family have always felt like they were personally descended from Poseidon, which means that she tends to draw on that a lot for her propaganda, though she herself feels a stronger pull to Aphrodite.

She sometimes doubts her own personality, given how often she finds herself playing a role. She definitely feels like she’s become a monster and, to a certain extent, embraces it as something that was necessary under the circumstances. When Eleanor is a young queen, forced to choose between raising her tyrant brother’s daughter or taking the power for herself, Berenice strongly advised for taking the power, which Eleanor ended up roundly rejecting. 

Her personal color scheme is Tyrian purple and gold, though rose gold also pops up a lot when I’m doing aesthetic stuff for her. Common motifs for her tend to be peacocks (as a nod to Hera and, subsequently, Berenice’s persecution of her husband’s children by other consorts) and beetles. In a Daemon AU, I’ve always thought her Daemon would be a golden snake. 

Writer Tag Game

I was tagged by @its-a-goode-day ages ago and I’m so sorry it took forever to respond!

Your name:

Ithinkyourewonderful - a line from poet Frank O’Hara, and a reference to my first email address many, many moons ago :D

Fandoms you write for:

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina - I keep trying to quit fic, but caos keeps luring me back in

Where you post:

AO3 now, but I have a back catalogue on ffnet...

Most popular one-shot:

I can’t even spell one-shot... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Most popular multi-chapter story:

Stars Set Alight - The Devil Wears Prada

Modern Love - Call The Midwife

My favorite story I’ve written:

Maybe my old ER fix it for Kerry and Kim that exactly no one asked for... 

The story I was most nervous to post:

Not ‘story’ per se, but there’s a chapter of ‘This Tornado Love You’ which went a little more graphic than I felt comfortable with?

How do you choose titles:

Song titles... Is there any other way?

Do you outline?

Oh boy do I... My outlines are detailed, broken into chapters, with reference images, films, snippets of dialogue and callbacks to other chapters and notes that are set ups for future threads... 

How many of your stories are complete?

thank u, next.

How many of your stories are in progress?

Two point five?  I want to finish ‘This Tornado Loves You’, start/finish the arc with ‘My Empire for Ashes’ (the point five), and then return to my Bletchley fic ‘If You Wait’

Coming soon:

The last arc of ‘Last Night I Dreamt’, called ‘My Empire for Ashes’

Do you accept prompts?

Nope, I’m nowhere near that good.

Upcoming story you’re most excited to write?

My non fic screenplay & stage play about Elektra and Clytemnestra... 

I tag whoever is reading this and thinks no one ever tags them, because I am tagging you with my heart <3 

Thanks so much @its-a-goode-day :)

The House of Pelops

Hello everyone. Today we’re going to talk about another child of Leda: Clytemnestra. Besides having the name I constantly misspell, her story is very interesting so let’s go. 

This will go off on a lot of tangents I’m sorry.

Agamemnon’s Ancestors

 We’ve already discussed the birth of Clytemnestra (if you would like to read it you can do so here) so we’re going to talk about her husband, Agamemnon. With that we can talk about one of my favourite things in Greek Myth: family sagas. Often times in myth, if you look at the parents and grandparents of the character, it can tell you something about the character themselves. We’ve seen this with the descendants of Io continuing the cow theme with Minos and Europa, and now we see it here with the House of Pelops.

The House of Pelops is defined by their first son of Zeus: Tantalus. He’s famous for how he must spend the rest of his days: always thirsty and hungry, and always just in arm’s reach of water and food. Why did he end up in such torture though? Well, he wanted to prove that the gods didn’t know anything. So, he invited them to a dinner party where the main dish was his boiled son, Pelops. Zeus was quick to notice that he had served his grandson and punished Tantalus for his imprudence. They bring Pelops back to life but this was only the beginning of the bad.

(Side note: Demeter actually ends up accidentally eating a part of him because she was a little depressed over her daughter being abducted. They make him a new arm and she feels really bad.)

Pelops would have a fling with Poseidon, before going to find a bride. He fell for Hippodameia, but there was a problem. Her father was very protective of her. Only the one that would be able to beat him in a chariot race (the horses a gift from Ares) would be given her hand in marriage. If you lost, you would be killed. 

Not wanting to die and to get the girl, Pelops bribes the charioteer to tamper with the axels. When the father crashed and is on death’s door, he curses the charioteer. The charioteer then turned on Pelops by trying to steal Pelops’ new girl, but he gets yeeted into the ocean, but not before cursing Pelops and his descendants. This would continue haunting the family. 

Pelops and Hippodameia would have three sons. One of these three sons was not a piece of shit: Pittheus. Pittheus was a good king and grandfather to Theseus. Everyone loved him. But his two brothers, Atreus and Thyestes, were the complete opposite to him: vengeful, wicked and violent. 

When Heracles’ commissioner of labours accidentally gets himself boiled alive, an oracle says that a son of Pelops will now rule over Mycenae. But the question is: will it be Atreus and Thyestes? It is decided that whichever son brings the golden fleece will rule. Atreus tells Artemis that he will sacrifice the golden lamb to her if she gives it to him. Like a bro, she does, but then not like a bro, Atreus hides the lamb and sacrifices another lamb instead.  

This ends up backfiring when Atreus’ wife, who had been cheating on him with Thyestes, finds this out and brings the golden fleece to her bae. As the rules are whomever has the fleece rules Mycenae, Thyestes shows up with the fleece and becomes the king. 

Since Zeus was invested in this family and was annoyed that Atreus was not king, he told his great grandson to make a counter bargain. If the sun could be reversed, so it would set in the east, Atreus would be king. Thyestes agrees, Zeus makes it happen, and then Atreus is king again. 

But Atreus is still angry that he’s being cucked by his brother, so he pulls a page from his grand daddy’s book by inviting his brother to a meal. Like Tantalus, son is on the menu. This time it is up to three sons. 

Thyestes would end up gaining the throne again when his son, Aigisthos (who was born by his daughter by the way) kills Atreus, and then he banishes Atreus’ sons—Agamemnon and Menelaus. 

Now We Can Actually Talk About Agamemnon

With the help of their father-in-law, Agamemnon and Menelaus successfully take over Mycenae once more. Menelaus goes back to rule over Sparta with Helen. Some versions of the myth suggest that Agamemnon actually won Helen’s hand, but he gave her to his brother Menelaus as a gift (which is why some adaptations of the myth include Agamemnon ‘taking’ Helen during the fall of Troy, suggesting he wanted her for himself the whole time). Other versions have Menelaus winning her for himself. Agamemnon marries her sister, Clytemnestra, who is known as being hot, but like, not Helen hot. 

Agamemnon would have 4 kids with Clytemnestra, but only three matter to us: Elektra, Iphigeneia, and Orestes. 

Helen’s non-deity daddy made everyone who fought for her love to vow that if someone were to steal her away, everyone would fight to bring her back. So, when she is successfully seduced and or stolen depending on the variant of the myth, Menelaus comes crying to his brother Agamemnon to help him get her back. Agamemnon becomes the head of the Greek army.  

Right as they’re about to head off to fight Troy, Agamemnon does the great job of saying that he’s a better hunter than the goddess of hunt herself, Artemis. This does not make the goddess very happy.  

Artemis retaliates by making it impossible for them to leave for Troy. When asked how they could please her, the oracle tells them that they will have to sacrifice Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigeneia. Depending on the telling, she is brought to the Greek camp under the pretense that she is being married to Achilles, and that a wedding will bless their travels. She is sacrificed like an animal. Depending on the version of the telling, Artemis can save her and turn her into one of her huntresses or not. 

This makes Clytemnestra mad. 

(side note – some modern retellings of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia include Agamemnon actually being sad and torn over killing his daughter? These retellings also refuse to explain why the Greeks are stranded in Greece in the first place, just leaving it to “Poseidon hates us”. This is to probably make Agamemnon a more complex and complicated character while not realizing what makes him either of those things in the original texts.) 

Return of Agamemnon 

Agamemnon is one of the first people to return from the Trojan War. He comes back, heralded by praises of his military prowess, wearing the royal purple and throwing the spoils of war around. One of these spoils of war is Cassandra. 

Very quickly but for those who are not aware of her myth: Cassandra is one princess of Troy. She catches the eye of Apollo (which makes sense because Troy did like Apollo, which ends up fucking things up for the Greeks during the war) and he tries to get her as his new bae. She says sure: just give me the sight of the oracle, thus to be able to see the future and I’ll date you. Apollo gives her this, and in return Cassandra ditches him. The god is very angry that a mortal played him. So, he makes it so that while she can see the future, no one believes her. 

When Agamemnon is told to come inside by his wife, Cassandra is begging him not to do it. With her curse, no one listens to her. 

Let’s talk about Clytemnestra. So, at this point she’s spent the entirety of her life as the hot-but-not-Helen-hot sister, watching her brothers go on adventures and such, and being married to Agamemnon, which just based on how he is in in the Iliad, isn’t the nicest thing to be married to. Then her husband is roped into a war because her sister gets abducted again. Then when you think your daughter is going to be married to the famed hero Achilles she’s sacrificed because your husband is an idiot. And even when he returns from war and things seem to be fixed, he comes back with a girl. 

All I’m saying is I understand Clytemnestra’s choice to a) cheat and b) convince her new bae to kill Agamemnon. 

Surely her new bae wouldn’t need much convincing: it’s none other than Aigisthos—the guy who exiled Agamemnon and Menelaus in the first place! 

His wife runs a bath for him, and it is there where he is killed by Aigisthos. At the same time, Cassandra is killed by Clytemnestra. 

(Side note: the death in the bath is symbolic for the end of the war.) 

She later has a recurring nightmare of giving birth to a snake. Then, her son Orestes comes home from exile. 

Orestes 

There is a list of things that you do not do in Ancient Greece—having sex with Zeus, trusting Theseus, not sacrificing the thing that you promised the gods you were going to sacrifice to them. In the criminal justice system of Greek Myth, killing family members is considered especially heinous. And at the top of the worst family member you can kill is your mother. Those who capture those who do these crimes are called The Furies. 

Orestes learns that his mother and her new bae have killed his dad. He, in return, pretends to be a bearer of his own death. When Clytemnestra calls for her new lover to share the news, he kills them both. 

(Side note: depending on the version, he doesn’t do it alone, but with Elektra. She isn’t chased by The Furies, however. The Elektra complex is supposed to act as the father-daughter version of the Oedipus complex because she avenges her father.) 

The Furies learn of this matricide and start chasing Orestes so he can be dragged to Tartarus and he can meet his ancestor Tantalus. They chase him from Mycenae all the way to Athens.  

(Side note: it should be mentioned that these myths are from a series of plays, called The Oresteia, written by Aeschylus. It should also be mentioned that the author is from Athens. As everyone loves the myths around the Trojan War, and with The Odyssey, we know that Agamemnon was killed, Aeschylus [and later on others would add on to what happens to Orestes] made it his job to tell the story.) 

Orestes begs Apollo, who feels partially responsible with the whole Cassandra thing and because he also persuaded him to kill Clytemnestra, to help him with dealing with The Furies. He sends him to Athena, because she’s the goddess you go to if you need a plan.  

Athena steps in and decides that he should be put on trial. Apollo acts as his defendant. The judges end in a tie. As the patron goddess of Athens, Athena is given the final ruling. 

She lets him go. Now: why. 

For those who don’t know about Athena’s backstory, a quick summation: Zeus is told that his wife will bear him a son that will usurp him. But she’s already pregnant. So, like any sane King of the Gods, he eats her whole. Then about 9 months later he has this splitting headache. He asks Hephaestus (or Prometheus, depending on the story) to just hit his forehead with an axe. As you do. From his forehead Athena springs out, fully grown up and in battle armour. And everything’s fine.  

Athena rules that since she was technically born from only her father, that for her, and thus in Athens, the father was all that mattered. So, if you want to commit matricide, do it in Athens. 

She renames The Furies into The Friendlies (which sounds more menacing in my opinion) and Orestes is allowed to go free! Yay! 

Notes 

I don’t think I have many notes for this one. Just um, I should write about The Iliad. 

Also the ruling by Athena always annoyed me as a kid.  

Berenice, Bianca, Elektra

(Finally getting around to this, woohoo!)

Full Name: Berenice. Gotta love the Greeks for keeping it simple. I have a vague idea that her name might have been something else at some point, but it’s always just “Berenice” or “Berenice of Alexandria” when I’m talking about her. (Funny story, though: The inspiration for her character came from my first Webkinz named Beatrice, so you could count that as an alternative name, I guess. Now read the rest of this entry with that knowledge. Go on, imagine a Webkinz doing all of this.)Gender and Sexuality: Female/Possibly straight (All her love interests have been men, but I also take a Sims approach to sexuality with my OCs so…)Pronouns:She/Her. Ethnicity/Species: About a quarter Persian, three quarters Macedonian. She’d probably be white passing by modern standards, but, considering the way things worked in her time, I’m not sold on her being considered fully “white” by ancient ones.  Birthplace and Birthdate: Alexandria, sometime around 38 BCE. Guilty Pleasures: She’s a full blown Epicurean; she doesn’t have guilty pleasures. The closest thing I can think of is her affair with Bran, but that’s because (1) He’s a barbarian, (2) She was married at the time, and (3) He has *history* with her people, so it was more worry than guilt. She was perfectly happy to tap that; she just wasn’t sure about the fallout. Phobias: Deathly afraid of heights. Is also paranoid over assassination attempts, though, considering her track record, I’d say it’s not so much paranoia as taking the right precautionary procedures. What They Would Be Famous For: She’s one of the most influential, intelligent, and glamorous women of her time, and that makes her both famous and infamous. To her allies, she’s The High Queen and so is held onto this kind of pedestal as the daughter of a respected king who’s kept them from further civil wars since her accession and, later, as a symbol for their cultural continuity even after defeat, as well as a noted patron of the arts and natural philosophy. To her enemies, well… They put every single negative stereotype of women, particularly “Eastern women” onto her, making her into some oversexualized, decadent, vain sociopath who regularly twirls her mustache as she gleefully celebrates the downfall of civilization. (I lean more towards her being a little of both.) Either way, she’s an absolute icon as a ruler, for better or worse. What They Would Get Arrested For: Multiple counts of murder, including murder of at least one minor, treason, and, considering the time period, adultery. That one would actually probably be more likely to have serious consequences than the other two. OC You Ship Them With: Bran. I also lowkey ship her with Eleanor, and if Marcus weren’t so aggressively ace, I’d probably go with it. OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Well, Elektra and Theron certainly gave it their best try, with John Hawtrey and Emma continuing the grand tradition of father-daughter pairs trying to kill her. In the present, Diane is probably her biggest threat, but I don’t think she would really kill her because, on some level, she admires her too much and doesn’t see how much of a threat Berenice is even when she’s been stripped of most of her power. Favorite Movie/Book Genre: She loves tragedies with her favorite, naturally, being Agamemnon. (She’s particularly fond of the ending and might or might not have commissioned at least one writer to write fix-it fic for Clytemnestra’s fate.) I also like to think that, in the modern AU, she has a soft spot for the Sword and Sandal films, the more cringe inducing the better. Yes, including (especially?) “Alexander.” Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: Hates black and white morality, especially when it comes to female rulers and how they’re perceived. Like, she knows she’s a monster, she owns up to it, but she’s tired of insipidly sweet princesses triumphing over evil queens. Her take on power struggles like that is that, while they’re inevitable (she killed most of her father’s and her husband’s concubines and children to keep her own power,) they involve the princess transforming into the evil queen, not defeating her. “Virtue rewarded” narratives just don’t appeal. Talents and/or Powers: Very intelligent, witty, and manipulative. She can effortlessly go from one mode to another, adapting her mannerisms to each one. Like all of her people, she has an expanded lifespan, as well as the ability to switch between her animal form and her human one. (Though the animal form is little used by her considering it’s also very conspicuous.) Oh, and she knows, like nine languages. Why Someone Might Love Them: In a time when women aren’t expected to rule in their own rights, she managed to seize power. She has a policy of religious and cultural tolerance, appointing the best people for a given position instead of strictly keeping to Macedonian or even Hellenistic in general citizens. Despite her claims that she’s gone cold over the years, she still obviously has a spot spot for her old childhood companions, showing more of her true self in their presence than she does around almost anyone else. Why Someone Might Hate Them: She’s absolutely ruthless in the measures she takes to keep her power. She’s literally killed babies and betrayed the love of her life to the tender mercies of their enemies. Like, come on. If you’re not ready for that kind of darkness in a character, particularly one who, at least as of this moment, has had no serious repercussions (ie death) for it , that could be jarring. I do think she’s troubled by it in her own way, especially the latter one which completely broke her for a while, but, at the same time…the girl’s dark. I’ve tried to not tone down what royal women of this time did to survive, for better or worse. I’d understand hating her 100%. How They Change: The first half of her character arc (losing her father and brother, taking her revenge out on Theron for their murders, the civil wars that resulted from not having a clear line of succession, marrying her uncle to ensure that she wasn’t swept away by the power struggles, participating in the murder of her half-siblings, having to marry Theron’s nephew, saying goodbye to her childhood friend and protector, throwing Bran to the wolves, and then orchestrating the murders of her husband, his other wives and concubines, and his children by them) is about her essentially having to lose touch with her human connections in order to survive. The second half of it (saving her old childhood friend, helping Eleanor in her rebellion against her brother, devoting a considerable amount of time to Bran’s recovery even when she thinks that he’s never going to forgive her for it, offering Ada a place at her court so that Atria will be happy and then protecting her when her past comes to haunt her, deciding against taking power from Eleanor despite it potentially playing to her advantage) is showing a possible restoration of those connections and the possibility of changing how things are done. I don’t think she’ll ever get a full redemption, because I’m not sure there can be a full redemption for all she’s done, but she gets the closest thing to it that I can imagine. Why You Love Them: She’s basically my love letter to the great Hellenistic queens, specifically Olympias and Cleopatra VII, with traces of the others threading their way throughout her backstory and characterization. It’s an absolute thrill bringing the best and worst of that time to the fray and getting to write someone as complex as her from the beginning of her character development to the end. She’s the kind of female character I’ve always latched myself onto, the ones who have grand schemes and ambitions and who manipulate and scheme their way into fulfilling them (I’ll give you a hint: The first female character I can remember loving was Anck-su-Namun from “The Mummy,” the second was Cleopatra, the third was probably Morgan le Fay) and I finally have the chance to have her run free and do her own thing without having to tragically die at the end. She also makes such a fantastic foil to Eleanor, with Eleanor ultimately deciding not to go down the path Berenice went down despite being exposed to similar traumas, though I don’t think I ever want to see them set up in a traditional protagonist-antagonist way. I prefer the two of them bouncing off each other, one the older, more Machiavellian queen, the other the more humanistic queen, with both kind of drawing closer to each other by the end. 

I just…really love Ber as a character, okay? She’s probably one of my all-time favorites. 

Full Name: Bianca CostaGender and Sexuality: Female, demisexual. Pronouns: She/Her. Ethnicity/Species: White/HumanBirthplace and Birthdate: Since they’ve been magicked off to another world by the Fae, time and dates don’t work the same, but going off of the 1580 starting point, she was born sometime around May 1, 1616 in the New Papal States. (Essentially, where all the Catholic colonists clustered together to get away from the Protestant colonists and the new pope was selected, according to them, by divine revelation.)Guilty Pleasures: SweetsPhobias: ThunderWhat They Would Be Famous For: She’d probably be right up there with Anne Boleyn and Marie Antoinette on the list of popular tragic queens, though, considering she didn’t die, she’d probably be best remembered as Eleanor’s mother. What They Would Get Arrested For: Adultery and treason. OC You Ship Them With: Duncan, happiness. OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Diane. Like with the Ber/Elektra example, she’s certainly tried enough times. Favorite Movie/Book Genre: The old Chivalric Romances are her jam, especially Amadis of Gaul and Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart. She’s not particularly fond of Tristan and Iseult, though. Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: Romanticized abuse in any form, especially when it’s claimed by the writers to be “just part of the times.” I can see her viewing session of a *certain* time traveling romance being put on hold shortly after beginning, with her needing Dunc to hold her and reassure her for an hour or so afterwards (at least) that she’s safe with him and he’d never treat her like that. Talents and/or Powers: No real powers that I know of; I’ve toyed with giving her an interest in alchemy, but that comes a little too close to Atria’s whole “natural philosophy” shtick and even though I’m all for more female characters in STEM-like (okay, as close as you can get in Early Modern England) concentrations and even though historically, there were a number of women involved in alchemy, I just don’t feel it as much. I still like the idea of her as an expert horsewoman and hawker, so there is that. I especially like the hawking, as then you have the whole symbolism angle + historical accuracy and that makes me feel good about myself so yeah. In some ways, I think I’m still waiting for her to “click” with me as a character. Why Someone Might Love Them: Like her daughter, she has a great amount of spirit, though, also like her daughter, she’s very subdued in showing it. Years with Giles have only made it worse, but she still keeps fighting for her daughter, despite everything. I often tie a lot of Eleanor into her more distant ancestors, with that whole “Heroic Lineage” thing often coming up, but I think that a good portion of her strength comes directly from her mother. Why Someone Might Hate Them: I can see people hating her for having an affair, despite Giles being explicitly abusive, especially since that affair brought a child into that kind of situation. She and her husband’s illegitimate daughter, Cat, do not get along, and sometimes she can be overly sharp with her as a sort of revenge by proxy. We’re not looking at Snape levels of spite here, but she is supposed to be the adult despite the horrible circumstances both of them find themselves in. How They Change: She started off as this very spirited young woman, optimistic, innocent, and absolutely sure that people were as they appeared. She fully believed Giles when he presented the image of the perfect prince to her, only for him to turn on her after their marriage. Now, that spirit’s mostly gone; she’s more or less sedate. Her faith in humanity is certainly gone, her faith in society even more so as she’s watched them turn a blind eye to what their king’s been doing for the better part of two decades. Duncan, who had helped sustain her in the early years of her marriage, is distant out of fear of the consequences for her if Giles found out. She’s basically become lost from herself after all this time and, with Diane’s treatment of her daughter, it only gets worse from there as her anxiety and guilt preys on her. Like with Ber, I would like to build her up from this point, I would like to see her start to recover and learn to trust again, I’d like to see her relationship with her daughter grow after Eleanor learns the truth of her parentage, I’d like her to forgive herself, I’d like to see her start a new family with Duncan. I’m not sure how much of that I can do, considering I’m feeling a strong tug towards a bittersweet ending for them, probably in the vein of the old Chivalric Romances since so much of their relationship’s already been inspired by them, but I also have a hard time giving any of my ships a bad ending, particularly not the ones like this where both parties have already been through Hell to be together. Why You Love Them: I like that she’s not a perfect mother or a perfect person, that she makes mistakes, that she snaps at her husband’s daughter at times, that she’s catty with his mistress. I don’t like writing paragons, I don’t like writing models of ideal femininity, and she’s certainly not. Writing an abuse victim from a historical angle is very complicated and it’s something that I try to be sensitive about,and it’s one that I’ve tried to take in as realistic a direction as I can, so that is interesting to take on as a challenge. Sobering, depressing, but also interesting, especially dealing with her after Giles’s death when she’s nominally free and trying to rebuild. She’s also a religious minority (Catholic) in a very Protestant country, and seeing how she deals with that is interesting to deal with. 

 THANK YOU for asking about Elektra. When I first put her up there, I wasn’t sure about much besides maybe 1-2 traits. She was a dead backstory character, a little roadblock in Ber’s character development. Now, it looks like we’re together for the long haul. That being said, I kept in all my old remarks + added in some new ones in parentheses as my way of marking the character development. 

Full Name: Elektra (See above about the Greeks and naming and how convenient it makes my life.)Gender and Sexuality: Straight, though, like with Ber, the Sims Rule of Sexual Orientation applies. (HaHahahahaHAA no. Girl’s either bi, pan, or lesbian, with her marriages being a way of keeping power. That was so cute that I used to think she was an evil straight girl.)Pronouns: She/HerEthnicity/Species: White/Shapeshifter. Birthplace and Birthdate: Athens, September 12, sometime around 37-39 BCE. Guilty Pleasures: I like to think that, for all the crap she gives Berenice about drinking unmixed wine *like a barbarian*, she indulges from time to time herself. Berenice knows, of course, and is endlessly entertained by it. Phobias: Honestly, I wasn’t sure about this one, but I think she’s afraid of being abandoned. Like, her father was never a particularly good parent to her, though he sometimes threw her a gift or two, her mother didn’t care for her, and then her father abandoned her mother for a girl her own age. Which is far from the worst thing he did. And I think she takes a lot of that with her in her revenge quest; it’s like she feels that if she can avenge his death, she’ll have the love she’s always wanted and she’ll be able to move on. What They Would Be Famous For: She is, unfortunately, the Cleopatra Eurydice to Berenice’s Olympias, so she is going to remembered either as (a) one of the poor, innocent victims of The Bad Queen or (b) as a necessary roadblock, the “other woman” that got in the way of Ber being happy and who had to be removed. None of these stereotypes are true, she wasn’t innocent but Ber and Arion would never have been happy together even in an Elektra-less world. Her marriage to Arion just sealed Ber’s disgust for him, as she considered it to be a personal betrayal that he married the daughter of the man who killed her father. What They Would Get Arrested For: I mean, attempted murder? She and Ber would probably have to share a cell. OC You Ship Them With:  I don’t know, she’s only with Arion, who’s the closest thing she has to a love interest, for the power and to hurt Ber. (Don’t worry, I figured it out.) I suppose I could ship her and Ber in the right AU. (Incidentally, I’m still down for this.)

Her and Khensa would be an interesting enemies-to-lovers ship, with Khensa being so absolutely devoted to Ber’s success as a queen, Elektra being devoted to tearing Ber down, and both of them having unresolved issues with their fathers’ murders. (Yes, there is a theme here and I’m aware of it. Some people work out their daddy issues by long talks and a lot of therapy, I work it out by inflicting a bunch of dead and/or useless fathers on my characters so they can suffer too.) There could be a lot of great opportunities for hatesex there, and, in a fluffier AU, the possibility for them to work out their issues. When Ber finds out, she’s completely speechless, at first thinking that this is a prank Khensa’s pulling on her and, after Khensa assures her that she’s 100% serious, she probably faints. It takes her an additional three days to process the information, even longer to accept it, and she never fully trusts Elektra, but she realizes the value of having her as a potential partner in Khensa’s spying operations, especially given her own relationship with Bran. (And because Khensa’s too valuable to alienate by ordering the relationship terminated or by having Elektra assassinated, especially since her usual hitwoman’s the one with hearteyes.) The two of them then proceed to pretend to hate each other’s guts during the day so that potential rebels would be drawn to Elektra while making out behind every pillar they can find at night. 

Ah, if only things had been different.  

(Note:This is actually what made me change my mind about her, but it’s so hilarious in hindsight that I’m keeping it all as-is. Khensa x Elektra [Khelektra? Elensa?] is 100% canon. And still angsty because why not.)

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Ber murdering her is (Not!) canon at this point. Alas, poor Elektra. I didn’t know you well and I didn’t particularly like you until having to fill out this meme, but that was a harsh one. (Well, safe to say that’s been scrambled, though Ber’s still the most likely. I mean, it wasn’t for lack of trying.)Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Like Ber, Tragedies. Unfortunately, unlike Ber, who recognizes her role and adapts and learns from it, she refuses to see herself as anything other than the hero in her given story. (Which is why we have characteeeeeeer develoooooopment. And necromancy.)Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: I think “If you kill him you’ll be just like him” has to be near the top. From her point of view, she could never sink as low as Ber has and would bristle at the suggestion that she already has. (Still agree with this.)Talents and/or Powers: She’s a very accomplished witch, having taken up the dark arts recently. As such, she has command over a vast array of powers with the proper ritual, including raising ghosts to do her will. (Believe me, this comes in handy. And is also part of the New!Elektra, in case anyone cares about chronology here.) Why Someone Might Love Them: In another story, she could have been the heroine looking for revenge for her father’s death against an evil queen who puts on a facade to fool those around her and kills her enemies mercilessly. Unfortunately for her, she wound up in the wrong story, the evil queen was just as much a victim as she was, and her father was the reason she started off on that path to begin with. The fact that she was (not!) murdered while she was pregnant only adds to the tragedy, as well as the fact that, unlike with her father, there’s no one left to avenge her. There’s something tragic about it, really. Why Someone Might Hate Them: I never intended for Elektra to be a sympathetic character, so I’d actually be more surprised by people liking her than not. She absolutely refused to listen to the evidence of her father’s guilt, even when it was absolutely conclusive. After she finally accepts that he was a serial killer, she defaults to saying that “It was just whores,” denying his role in the deaths of Ber’s father and brothers and refusing to believe that her father was completely, utterly evil. I actually understand her on this one to some extent (no one wants to believe the man they loved and trusted is a monster + cultural norms regarding prostitutes and their status coming into play,) but I can still see her being labelled “the stupid bitch,” especially given that she made the vital mistake in her final scene of gloating to Ber over her pregnancy. In her defense on that one, she had no way of knowing that Ber’d had an abortion a short while before and the whole situation with Bran (I mean, she knew about it, but she didn’t realize the extent of the mushy feelings involved) and so Ber being unstable enough to just stab her right there wasn’t something she’d calculated in. As I mentioned above, I can also see people misblaming her for the failed marriage between Ber and Arion, with people probably labeling her a homewrecker or a whore (while probably ignoring that Bran is also a homewrecker by those standards), when the crux of the conflict between the two women isn’t over Arion; it’s over power and the cycle of revenge. (Elektra’s father murdered Ber’s father, Ber killed her father, and so now the two of them aren’t going to be happy until all traces of the other are wiped off the face of the Earth.) The fact that they also happened to share a a husband and that he happened to prefer Elektra was just a bonus. 

(Now, with me deciding to have her survive Ber’s little stabbing spree and get a redemption arc, there’s a new set of problems developing, as in any case of redemption. Like, both Ber and Elektra have a casualty count at this point, and any talk of “redemption” is always going to be a polarizing thing.)

How They Change: I think that Elektra’s development is running counter to Ber’s, so that while Ber’s slowly gaining her humanity back, Elektra’s slowly losing it. The measures she takes to get rid of Ber become even more desperate, until she’d probably be willing to kill herself if it could hurt Ber in any way. (Surprise, surprise, now I have her isolating herself from society/separating herself from the figures in her past as being her victory while Ber’s is re-integrating herself/reconciling with the figures in her past, so good call Past!Me)Why You Love Them: There are very few characters who I can say were decent adversaries for Ber and, even though Elektra ultimately lost, she at least gave Ber a run for her money. On some level, I think she more or less becomes the standard that Ber compares later enemies to (”Elektra wouldn’t have done this”). As much as I love Ber, I also love anyone who’s capable of slapping her into the next stage of character development. 

(Also, in the present, the fact that she grows and learns and is able to somewhat reconcile with Ber after everything both of them have done to each other (and team up together to defeat the loser on Ber’s throne) is really cool to see, especially since this is all on her. It’s not really on me; I’d been happy to leave her lying in a puddle of her own blood in a marble room. So, props to her for making me realize what I was missing out on. 

Oh, and she’s a witch. Like, writing a historically accurate Greek witch is everything I ever wanted but didn’t know I needed.)