Rachel > Recent Status Updates

Magical murder mystery has me invested

I love a setting that feels like it’s own character

Fine I’ll continue reading depressing books with settings as a character

A roller coaster of emotions

Giving Eleanor Oliphant vibes so hoping it’s different enough to enjoy

Book XI
Even Bacchus has limits to violence
Midas gets the gold and loses his touch (plus donkey ears)
The (?) love story of Peleus and Thetis (Achilles parents)
Ceyx (should’ve listened to his wife) and Alcyone’s (doomed like Cassandra) easily avoided tragic love story (but at least they end up together as birds)

Book IX and X
Hercules outsmarts a god, gets the girl, is killed by the girl, and becomes a god
Byblis should’ve been a god because they get to have sibling spouses
Iphis and Ianthe’s story could’ve been wildly different if Iphis’s father wasn’t so misogynistic
Orpheus loses Eurydice (twice)
Pygmalion loves a statue into life
Myrrha (see Byblis)
Venus = lovely and terrifying

Book VIII
Daedalus’s full story is quite revealing- trapped on Crete he builds a labyrinth to keep the Minotaur trapped. This was only necessary because he helped Minos wife rape a bull. He was trapped on Crete because he murdered his teenage nephew because he has an inferiority complex.
On a lighter note - Baucis and Philemon are adorable.

Book VI & VII
The ladies have a really bad run here
Medea is really powerful and spiteful and fell for the wrong guy
Procris and Cephalus are an example of worst case scenario when you don’t trust your spouse

I’m having so much fun reading this

Book V
Start with a comical fight between Perseus and Phineus over Andromeda
Finish with the Muses & Calliope giving voice to many women (Ceres - mother of Proserpina, Cyane - who tried to save Proserpina, Arethusa - aided and calmed Ceres and then ran from her own would be rapist)

Book IV
Going to have to add Virgil to my reading list
The Minyads share some more stories of gods getting angry
Juno and Jove are menaces to society
Something really beautiful about Cadmus and Harmonia living life as friendly snakes
Perseus slays Medusa, saves and weds Andromeda, and brags about it (not told in that order)

Pyramus and Thisbe - the original star-crossed lovers who inspired Shakespeare

Book III
Poor Echo, forever doomed to never speak her own words
Bacchus, born from 2 wombs (one of which was his father’s thigh), who Pentheus wrongly assumes is all about partying

Definitely will be revisiting the Howard Hughes essay

Book II
Getting lots of lore here. Lots of rape (the assault and abduction kinds). Lots of transformations (into statues, cows, trees, and constellations). Phaethon has a most tragic trajectory. Should’ve listened to his father.