What's in a name?

There exists a dominatrix called Hera. This fact boggles my mind. Why a domme would name herself after the Greek goddess of marriage is beyond me. I mean, what does she do? Flog single men until they vow to marry? Whip married men until they promise to be faithful to their wives?

I understand the allure of using names from mythology, but the effect is completely ruined when you don't bother to read the myths and learn about their significance. Would you fly with Icarus Airlines? Yes, they really did exist.

On the other hand, sometimes a carefully selected name gives away too much of the game. I'm hardly the only one who watched the first season of HBO's Rome wondering what dreadful fate would befall the lovely Niobe. (No idea what I'm referring to? Read this Mythography entry that explains it all.)


Niobe

Gorgeous gorgons?

I was surfing Amazon. Because I have purchased a number of books about Greek religion from them, all sorts of related products show up whenever I visit the site. Related, in some vague, barely comprehensible sense of the word. Example? Women who read Homer are expected to want to wear a Medusa costume for Halloween. If I had Medusa's power of turning people into stone I'd start with the guy who wrote the algorithm behind these inane recommendations.

Folding Medusa

Origamiwolf's Medusa might be the most impressive origami creation I have ever seen.


Medusa

Starstruck

This is probably only moderately interesting if you don't live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, but it made me happy so I'm posting it anyway. The University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh Science Outreach will present a show called “Monsters of the Sky” at the Buckstaff Planetarium Oct. 20, with shows at 7 and 8 p.m, telling the myths behind the constellations. More information is available at the Advance Titan.

So why did this make me happy? My introduction to Greek mythology was a children's show that told the myths of how Orion, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, and various monsters and animals ended up in the sky. Twenty-four years later I'm still hooked.


Orion, courtesy of the U.S.
Naval Observatory Library

I don't watch CSI:NY...

...but that might change. Being geographically challenged I'll have to wait a while for Hung out to dry, the episode shown the other day, but I hear Greek mythology played an important part, in the form of t-shirts with divine motifs and encoded messages.

The tees are made by edoc laundry, a clothing company that's part of the alternate reality gaming scene. From their web site:

"Woven into everything we make are hidden messages and codes most people can’t see. Edoc clothes break across the traditional categories of street, skate/surf, and classic by creating a new category that spans our entire line: Covert. Every piece of gear is a trapdoor into a hidden world. Check it out. We’ve got nothing to hide."

It does sound fairly entertaining, the t-shirts don't look bad at all, and solving a puzzle would give me something to do while I wait for Hung out to dry to reach this side of the pond and hopefully provide me with some snark material. The deities and monsters involved are Hades, Hypnos, Argus, and the hydra, meaning, of course, that the foobar potential is infinite.


The original hydra

Return of the Roman

"Why are so many novelists in the modern age drawn to write about the ancient world, especially Rome but also, to a lesser extent, Greece? The line of those who have done so goes back at least to Edward Bulwer-Lytton and The Last Days of Pompeii, written at a time—the 1830s—when classical studies were central to education throughout western Europe. Some such genre novels are actually very "literary"—Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurean, for example. But most, whatever their literary quality, aim to be popular, which is to say that they have a strong narrative, striking characters and richly dramatic scenes."

Allan Massie writes about historical fiction in the November issue of Prospect Magazine.



Julius Caesar

Ramayana

Dadasaheb Phalke’s debut film Raja Harishchandra set the trend for mythological films in Bollywood. It was in 1913. In circa 2006, mythological and theological characters, particularly Gods and deities, are back in vogue. The similarities: stories are from religious texts and folklore, the difference: the budget and, of course, star cast.

In 2007, Rajkumar Santoshi will begin work on his magnum opus — Ramayana. With a budget of Rs 100 crore, he has roped in one of Bollywood’s most popular couple, Ajay Devgan and Kajol to play the part of Lord Rama and Sita.

Read more at Hindustan Times.



Ravana, king of Lanka