It has leaked at last!

 

 Spinoff has a great post with screen caps taken from the trailer here.

 

And it's being taken down from websites almost as fast as it goes up, but this link might work (New still working link New New Still Working Link Portuguese website with working video!) to watch the trailer itself. Watch it while you can!

 

  Fellow Thor Lovers, I have to admit that I am floored. I did not expect this movie to look as good as it does right now.  This trailer is long (five minutes), but it is full of goodness-- Go watch it, and then come back and let us hear your thoughts! Love it or Hate it? Why or why not?

 

 My thoughts are below the cut, as always.

Comment (10) Read More...

 

Folks, we have a lot of new images being put out pre-Comic Con, and it is only going to get better on Saturday, from what I can tell. The ramp up for Thor is hard core. We have HIGH RES stills, including our first view of Loki WITH his horned helmet and a very golden throne room in Asgard. We have two of the warriors three. We have Comic-Con movie concept-art posters for Cap AND Thor. AND. AND we have Thor standing in the rain flexing every muscle on his body. Follow the links for the Better quality images at their sources!

 

Let me begin with the poster art released by Marvel. It'll be available at the Marvel booth at the con!

 

 

I dare you to look at that poster and tell me that this movie looks lame.

 

Higher resolution image of the Hall of Asgard, a la LA Times, which came through for us again. The original release was print only, but they threw up the digital not long after. Incidentally, Russ Fischer at Slashfilm.com did a great job pulling out the details for us on this image for a close up of Loki, Frigga, Hogun and Fandral while Thor kneels before Zod Odin. Slashfilm.com also includes the original bootleg EW image of Thor and Odin in high res in that article, which can also be found on Marvel's site. I'll post a lower res of the Hall of Asgard image here, as a preview but definitely go get the full effect! (EDIT: YES WE HAVE HELMETS THANK YOU COMIC CON!)

 

 

 

 The Money Shot and my thoughts below the cut!

Comment (2) Read More...

 

My friends, we have some new imagery from Thor! Brought to us by Marvel and the LA Times (The LA Times article is well worth the read), we have some news too. It has been officially announced that both Thor and Captain America will be finished in 3D.

 

Perhaps in an attempt to stop us from wondering if this is a good thing or a bad thing, they've also released a shot of Odin, Thor, and Loki!

 

 

 

 My thoughts below the cut, as usual!

 edit: There's another image from this week's EW article here!

 

Comment (8) Read More...

 

Oh man, my friends! The dam has burst, and Thor media is flooding the internet! At the risk of this being the only thing I ever write about on GeekaChicas, I can't imagine letting anyone else get the jump on sharing the latest with you loyal fans! (At least, it is my greatest hope that you will all come to love Thor as much as I do!) Just days after getting the nod about the Captain America and Thor movie logos, there's more!

 

You can all imagine my excitement to hear that ET went on the set of Thor. And we have video!

 

 

My thoughts beneath the cut, as usual!

Comment (0) Read More...

 

Just the other day I was shaking my fists to the sky wondering why we were getting Concept Art for Captain America and not for Thor, when obviously Thor was coming out first! (Don't get me started on the fact that the time for concept art was BEFORE the first image of Chris Hemsworth as Thor was released...) But thankfully, Marvel, or whoever is leaking something that looks like it could be the real deal, didn't let me down!

 

Yesterday these renders were released, in the exact same style as the Captain America art, and we got our first unofficial, and possibly (but probably not) false, images of Thor's full costume and Mjolnir! 

 

The photoshopping leaves something to be desired (I think this is like the uncanny valley phenomenon), but the overall look is great!  I'm really pleased with the way Chris Hemsworth looks as Thor so far and the only question I have left is this: Where the heck is his iconic and awesome helmet?! You know-- the one that inspired this fabulous and incredible winter hat on etsy?  (Which, by the way, I'm dying to get for myself even though I no longer live in a place with real knit-hat-wearing winter weather.)

 

I can't wait to see more real images, and if Marvel doesn't give us a teaser trailer at Comic-con I might cry.  My thoughts on Captain America's concept art beneath the cut!

Comment (4) Read More...

 

My friends, if you do not know it by now, I am a fan of Thor. So imagine the level of geeking out that just took place in my home when I saw that the FIRST Thor still had been released of Chris Hemsworth in costume!

 

Guys. This movie could make all my dreams come true. They have already hit it out of the park in the adaptation of Thor's costume from what this picture shows us.  I'm eagerly awaiting further stills and news!

 

But what are your feelings on the forthcoming film? Thor: Hoping to Love, or Fearing You'll Hate?

 

Comment (4)

 

I've been working with the character of Thor, the Norse god of thunder and lightning, for years. Years of research and reading and false starts and conversations in the dark with the ceiling that resulted in terrible stories and drafts while I struggled to pinpoint what was there. Years of trying to understand what was at the heart of this god, who was so loved by his people, honored even in many ways above Odin the All-Father. Loved so much, even now, that he was re-imagined and transported into the medium of the comic book for the modern world. Thor, who we will soon be over-saturated by, in the quest for world domination and movie marketing schemes. Hollywood always knows how to run a good man into the ground. But for myself, I'm hoping they do him justice, because after years of trying to find the answer of this god's character, this god's essence, this god's spirit within the scraps of mythology we're given, he became my most favorite of all mythological heroes. (Theseus may be coming in at a close second, but don't tell Thor. I think he'd be hurt, after all our time together.)

 

I think that there was a very good reason that Thor was the preferred god of the everyman, and I don't think that it was because he was stupid, or because he was always getting into brawls and slaughtering giants, or because he was often drunk on mead and loved to feast with the best of us. I don't even think it was because he cross-dressed, although Mimzy tells that story better than I've ever heard it before. I think the reason Thor was so beloved was because he always helped his people. Thor was the god that could be depended on, no matter what had happened, to go out and do what had to be done-- whether that was beating down on Loki, or killing off giants, or drinking a ton of mead, or dressing up as a woman. Thor was intensely loyal, unwavering, and good.

 

That's not to say he couldn't be led off track every so often. Loki makes this perfectly clear in all the stories where they travel together to accomplish some task, or just for the sake of getting out and about. Perhaps Thor is trusting to a fault. Certainly he doesn't seem to take to deception very easily when he's forced to employ its arts. He's not at all like Loki in that way. He'd much rather bust down the door and employ a frontal assault, even if he can't win. And that in itself is something admirable, too-- it's one of the things that I, as a woman, have always respected in those men who also share that characteristic. The men who throw their punches and then shake it off, and buy one another a drink afterward.

Comment (2) Read More...

 

As an aspiring author, it behooves me to support the publishing industry. Usually this means that I just overspent at the bookstore, and almost always this means I came home with a new comic book trade. This weekend, I picked up Superman: Red Son, and let me tell you my friends, it was totally worth the cover price. I love a book that makes me think, and Superman: Red Son delivers that in spades.

 

Red Son is an alternate reality story answering the question "what if Superman had crashed in the USSR instead of Kansas?" and I think they tackle it in incredible ways. Superman is still Superman, still struggling to find a way to give the world the peace he knows it deserves, to give humanity safety, security, the basics of food and shelter, and he is still very much a sympathetic hero, communist dictatorship aside.

 

The really incredible thing for me, in this story, was realizing that the differences in Superman's choices are ultimately very slight. These are choices that Superman might have just as easily made as an American--the difference is not the politics and economics of his homeland, but the cries of the people he loves. The results of those slight differences, however, are incredibly large, and in Red Son, we see Superman take the world into his hands as a political leader, as a lawmaker, as a ruler. Instead of choosing to lead by example and allowing humanity to make it's own mistakes, he tries to keep humanity from making any mistakes and fix the systems in place that are already broken through his own personal interference. Superman decides he knows what's best for the world, and sets it into motion.

 

It would have been very easy for this story to have been made into the typical pro-capitalism propaganda, and they didn't escape those overtones entirely, but they did succeed in writing a story that at least allowed the reader to consider that capitalism and America's Way isn't the only way. In Red Son, there are glimpses of what communism and the Marxist revolutions were meant to be-- a chance at utopia and an ideal world. 

 

Comment (1) Read More...

 

It seems that no matter what mythology we find them in, being a hero is the crappiest of all lives to live. Maybe if you're a demigod and particularly lucky, you'll end up not entirely dead, but for the most part being a hero means one thing: years and years of struggle, conflict, and death defying acts of courage to be repaid with some kind of betrayal and a really pathetic and ignoble death. Let's start with the men, shall we? The most classic of heroes!

 

Three Case Studies:

Theseus
Son of Poseidon and King of Athens, Theseus fights his way through monsters as a young man when his trip to Athens takes him by the six entrances to the Underworld. Once in Athens and recognized by his other father, he defeats the minotaur, freeing his people from paying tribute, in lives, to Crete. He takes the amazon queen for his wife (he kind of has a history of womanizing). He battles centaurs. He travels with Pirithous to the underworld and comes back again! When he gets back he goes into retirement. Why not, right? He's had a long and busy life, and after a trip to the underworld, he probably isn't interested in continuing to push his luck. He makes arrangements with a King friend of his to move back to the country island lands of his ancestors. When he gets there, he's either betrayed and pushed off a cliff, or, worse, he slips and falls on his own. To his death.


Lame Factor: 4 (out of five) if he was pushed. 5 if he fell. But 3 if someone can find me proof or hearsay that Poseidon rescued his immortal self and turned him into a god.

Comment (4) Read More...

 

Let me start this review with a few disclaimers.

1) I am usually a very forgiving movie-goer. Especially about movies made from books. I know that things have to change, and for the most part, I have no trouble accepting those changes.

2) This forgiveness of sins doesn't make me a very critical reviewer. But occasionally, I see a movie which raises my ire, and for which I can also tell you EXACTLY what I thought was wrong.

3) Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is one of these movies.

The Quick Version: If you never read the books, you might not dislike this movie-- but if you have read them, you'll hate it.

 

I'll be honest with you, I read a lot of YA and middle grade fiction. I'm not afraid of it. One of my favorite series was ANIMORPHS (why haven't they turned THAT into a movie yet?), and I got totally sucked into Twilight (which I don't recommend, in spite of the fact that I read it compulsively). I was a little bit late to the Percy Jackson parade, but once I started reading the books, I was hooked. Why? Because as a Classicist and a writer who works a lot with myth, I thought Rick Riordan did an amazing job of updating these myths and heroes and making them accessible within a modern world. He made me believe that Poseidon was hanging around dressed up like one of the captains from Deadliest Catch, and Hermes had embraced modern technology to make sending messages back and forth more efficient. He made me believe the gods were alive on Olympus watching reality tv.

I was excited to see the movie, even when the previews showed that Percy had been cast as someone much older than 12, and the plot was a little bit messed up from the book. I could overlook it, because man, it would be awesome to see how they dressed these gods up in modern clothing and characterized them in updated ways!

I was, unfortunately, to be disappointed.

Comment (6) Read More...

 

I'm a sucker for comic books.

I love the art. I love the story telling. I love the combination of art and story telling. I love that they use art to tell a story just as much as they use dialogue and narration. And I love bulked up superheroes, flawed and perfect. I love that we've taken the richness of classical myth, and recreated it for our modern world in a way that people who would never otherwise pick up a book on the topic can find meaning. The reinvention of myth and even the reinvention of what it means to be a hero. I love it all.

Lately, I've been taken in by the relaunch of Marvel's Thor title. It started innocently enough. I've always been fascinated by mythology, pantheons, and the cultures that worshipped them were always my favorite part of history classes. I took a class on Norse Mythology in college, in fact. It's impossible to ignore the influence of the Scandinavian people, and their heritage when you live in North Dakota for any extended period of time-- but I'm pretty sure my love for Norse Myths, and Thor in particular, came before I fell into that Midwestern (and I say it lovingly) black hole.

The Thor title in its previous incarnations (588 issues? really?) never attracted my attention, though. For one thing, it wasn't until my teens that I cultivated any real independent taste for comic books that wasn't influenced by my older brother, and for another, it's a little bit hard to jump into those titles when they're on issue 500 and counting, and you have no idea what the heck is going on. In my opinion, this is the number one problem with the big titles, today. Superman, Spiderman, X-men, Avengers-- you almost have to know the entire history, as well as read every other title in the universe to have a context for the story in the issue you picked up off the rack, but that's another post altogether.

 

But I was totally blown away by Ultimate Thor-- that is, Thor as he appeared within the Ultimates 1 & 2 titles (3 was a catastrophe that I've been trying to repress). The idea of turning Thor into a hippy conservationist using his powers to try to save the planet, ecologically, while boozing it up with his fellow activists was so alarmingly different, so incredibly unique a take, that I couldn't resist. Who can say no to a thundergod smiting a whaling ship with a bolt of lightning? Not only that, but this incarnation of Thor didn't feel at all compelled to speak awkwardly in the third person with outdated language! I was hooked!

 

So naturally, in my casual stroll through the graphic novels section of the bookstore, when I happened across volume one of this new title in trade paperback form back in August of '08, I had to pick it up. Why not, I thought? I had a long train ride ahead of me to go visit my sister, and some reading material was in order. But once I read the first couple of pages, that was it. Marvel had me. Again. Just when I had given up on them because of that horrible Ultimates 3 fiasco. Here was a Thor I could respect! And more importantly, a story that treated him as more than a musclebound oaf.

Comment (3) Read More...

 

Remember that show, My Two Dads?

Not really an original theme. For instance: Theseus has two fathers. And he isn't the only Greek (and when I say Greek, I also mean Roman) Hero suffering from a redundancy of dads.

To understand this, maybe I need to go into the philosophy a little bit. You see, back in the day, men in their infinite wisdom (a la Aristotle) operated under the common misconception that women really weren't more than just an oven. The sperm did all the work of making a baby, and the wife contributed little if nothing at all to the resulting offspring, other than providing the space for incubation. Semen was the provider of all...well, they didn't really consider it genetic material then, so lets say life-forming matter or spirit. As a result of this understanding if a woman had intercourse with two men in the same day, or the same night, the child born was believed to be a mix of those two men--fathered by both.

In Greek Myth and History we see the Dual-Dad syndrome in children born of the gods, pretty exclusively as far as I know, which is convenient because it relieves them of the burden of being illegitimate heirs. I have to admit, I'm not exactly sure what the lot of an illegitimate child was, but the fact that the children are labeled as such in works like The Iliad leads me to believe that they were probably not given the privileges of their legitimate brothers and sisters. Certainly Hera had no love for Zeus's bastard children, and legitimacy seems at the very least to be required of one who will inherit any kind of land, wealth, or kingdom.

Comment (5) Read More...

 

My friends, Santa Claus saw fit to gift me with the flu this holiday season. Christmas day I was struck down with the mung, and as a result all my holiday plans were canceled. Needless to say, I had plenty of time to catch up on my reading, from Icelandic Sagas to Greek Myths to Grimm's Fairy Tales. Whether you find this a gift or a curse for your reading pleasure today is another story, but hopefully my ah HA! moment can be your food for thought.

 

We're all familiar, of course, with the basic fairy tales. Most of us are probably far more accustomed to the Disney versions, which while they preserve something of the story, sometimes miss a bit of the meat and all of the horror--you'll never see a Disney movie about "The Maiden Without Hands." Thankfully, I have a copy of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, Translated by Jack Zipes (Bantam, 1992), from which to refresh your memories of the important bits for the purposes of this post.

I'd like to start with an excerpt from the fairy tale of Brier Rose AKA Sleeping Beauty.

 

[...] the queen gave birth to a girl who was so beautiful that the king was overjoyed and decided to hold a great feast. Not only did he invite his relatives, friends, and acquaintances, but also the wise women, in the hope that they would be generous and kind to his daughter. There were thirteen wise women in his kingdom, but he had only twelve golden plates from which they could eat. Therefore, one of them had to remain home.

[...] When eleven of them had offered their gifts, the thirteenth suddenly entered the hall. She wanted to get revenge for not having been invited, and without greeting anyone or looking around, she cried out with a loud voice, "In her fifteenth year the princess shall prick herself with a spindle and fall down dead!"

 

And maybe we should throw in an excerpt from Snow White as well? Just to make it interesting. Same edition.

She had a magic mirror and often she stood in front of it, looked at herself, and said:"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
who in this realm is the fairest of all?"

Then the mirror would answer:"You, my queen, are the fairest of all."

That reply would make her content, for she knew the mirror always told the truth.

Comment (3) Read More...

 

Today, the writing community across the blogosphere gathers in celebration of the No-Kiss by sharing scenes from their works-in-progress of that moment when you think the leading character and his or her love interest are finally going to lock lips... but they don't.

In honor of this UST blogging-palooza, I thought I'd share the most excellent no-kiss and kiss moments in existence-- those shared between Princess Leia and Han Solo.

My fellow Geeks, I present to you an awesome selection of Han and Leia scenes, brought to us by the power of youtube and one tangerineclem.

 

Personally, my favorite is in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, when Leia falls in Han's lap, followed closely by their exchange in the South Passage where Leia utters the most fabulous line "I'd just as soon kiss a wookie!". Which Han and Leia moment do you love the most?

For more No-Kiss moments be sure to head over to Frankie Writes for a complete listing of blogs taking part in today's event! (My own original contribution from my WIP is here.)

 

Comment (4)

 

Looking for something other than the traditional Star Wars holiday ornament from Hallmark? Check out this list for the Star Wars fan in your family.

 

To my intense dismay, Macy's seems to have stopped selling the awesome Boba Fett Hoodie, and the Rebel Pilot Hoodie, but you can still pick up a Clone Trooper, Darth Maul, Classic Storm Trooper, or Darth Vader. The Boba Fett and the Rebel X-wing Pilot are still available from shopecko, but you'll pay a premium price for them. These hoodies strike me as the perfect gift for the college-aged Star Wars fan, but anyone else who can't be parted from their hooded sweatshirt and is proud to show off their love of the franchise will be thrilled to have one!

 

In the same price range, you can purchase the Taun-Taun Sleeping Bag for a younger Star Wars lover. It's big enough for an older fan, as well, but it would probably go over best with someone in the ages 9-12 bracket. Old enough not to be terrified, young enough to appreciate and make use of it. 

 

Another great gift for your younger (8 and up) Star Wars fan is the Dagobah Frog Habitat from ThinkGeek. Seriously, if they're going to keep amphibians, they may as well do it in style. It even comes with a Yoda figurine to teach your froggy friend to use the force for good. Or to mind trick said child into remembering to feed him...

 

For the friend who still angsts over Special Edition, give them the gift of a shirt that says it for them: Han DID shoot first.

 

A little bit on the pricey side, but a great conversation piece at a party that needs a trash bin for recyclables, or a helpful hint to your slovenly Star Wars loving friend, the R2-D2 trash can might be just the thing. Sick of your roommate leaving his garbage around the apartment/basement/dorm? Maybe giving them R2 will teach them to love cleaning up after themselves. 

 

And of course, the greatest gift you can give a non-star wars fan, is the opportunity to watch the movies! Amazon offers the Original Trilogy in a three pack for a pretty good price--25.99 (subject to change) means you get free super saver shipping, too. 

 

 Unfortunately the Build Your Own Lightsaber Kit doesn't seem to have the same availability it did last year, but you can still get your hands on a micro-light saber of a handy almost keychain size for your trips into places with inadequate lighting.

 

If none of these items strike your fancy, head over to the Star Wars Shop, or ThinkGeek for a broad selection of Star Wars items to meet your every need!

 

Comment (1)

 

One of the things I love about Norse Mythology, is that it's so piecemeal. That seems kind of a weird thing to say, but just stay with me for a minute.

What we have of Norse Mythology are remnants passed down through oral tradition, and not put down on paper until after 1100AD (as late as 1200-1300 in some cases), in the Eddas and sagas. We have no written record before this time, and the dates are not exactly during the Viking glory days, but more toward the end of the era. These facts were not the only serious factors which influenced these sagas and stories about the gods as they were finally written.

For starters, one of our greatest sources for Norse Mythology was written by Snorri Sturluson (around 1200 AD). He's attributed with writing the Prose Edda which contains a very coherent account of the Norse gods, the creation of the(ir) world, and its destruction. But Snorri himself is clearly looking at the stories of the gods which he's transcribing as MYTHS surrounding actual men who may have lived, not as truths of living gods. Not to say that he was wrong, but this context is certainly something that should be taken into account when reading. Snorri's Christian viewpoint may certainly have corrupted the stories, even if the fact that he was writing about them on the way out, didn't.

 

This Euhemerization of the gods is not unique just to Snorri's transcription of the Norse gods, either. Why? Because the year was 1200 Anno Domini and Christianity had become pervasive. The Christian worldview of One True God was impossible to avoid completely. We have to take into account, when reading these sources, that either the writers of the Sagas were influenced by Christianity themselves, as believers, or that in order to justify and preserve the mythology they believed, they had to make it fit inside the Christian world, by making the gods into men, instead of immortals and creators with power in their own right. (And the fact that the gods are sustained only by Golden Apples, and not their own power, could be seen as evidence of this too--Are these Golden Apples stolen power from another God? from THE God?)

Comment (7) Read More...

 

This may come as a surprise, given the recent deluge of Classical content in my posts, but I'm absolutely obsessed with Norse Mythology. Obsessed. Granted, this might have more to do with Thor (and Marvel's latest takes on his character--Ultimate Thor makes my knees weak!) than it does with the rest of the mythology, but the fact remains that the history, myths, and culture of the Vikings and Norsemen is beyond cool.

 

Of course, the sources for all this Viking goodness are unfortunately written in a language that is not my first. Sure, I could go pick up translations, but if there is one thing I've learned studying Classics, it's that translations are incredibly variable, and the best answer whenever possible is to read things the way they were written originally! Get as close to the original sources as possible, and have a field day.

 

My friends and readers, I present you with a gift. Thanks to the internet and what I'm sure is a brilliant marketing scheme to increase tourism to Iceland, you can now learn the language of the Norse Sagas! That's right! You, too, can learn Icelandic, FOR FREE, online!

Comment (0) Read More...

 

Today is the last day to push your wordcount past 50,000 words to join the ranks of NaNoWriMo Winners! A few words of advice before we hit the final letters for the Not-Yet-Of Troy series!

1) Double check and make sure your timezone is correct! Because of daylight savings, you might be an hour ahead of yourself if you didn't correct your timezone after you started! This could mean that instead of having until midnight to verify, you only get until 11pm. Which leads me to my next point--

2) Verify EARLY! Do everything in your power to get yourself verified before 11pm local (or earlier if you can swing it!). The Word Counter for the NaNoWriMo site may shave some wordage off your word processor's count, and you will want time to be able to recoup those numbers before midnight! Also, there is usually a rush to validate at the last minute which slows down the site-- don't let yourself be timed out and lose the win after all your hard work!

3) Pat yourself on the back for making it this far! Whether you got to 50K or not, you answered the challenge to write a novel, and that's something to be proud of. If you didn't quite make it to 50K this year, you can always try again  next November! And I hear that NaNoWriMo is trying to put together a year round program, too--assuming they make their donation goals.

 

(Previous Letters: Helen to Pollux, Pollux to Helen, Letters from the Kings, Helen to Theseus, Theseus to Helen, Letters Between Theseus and Pirithous, Letters Between Helen and Menelaus.)

 

Now, the last letters-- From Theseus to Helen, and from Helen to Pollux.

Comment (5) Read More...

Previous Letters: Helen to Pollux, Pollux to Helen, Letters from the Kings, Helen to Theseus, Theseus to Helen, Letters between Theseus and Pirithous.

 

When I began writing Helen, I was certain that she loved Menelaus. Part of the history and the myth is that Menelaus and Agamemnon spent some time in Sparta/Lacedaemon during their youth, after a usurper took the throne of Mycenae. Tyndareus helped them to reclaim it. Later, Tyndareus marries both his daughters to these Sons of Atreus-- Helen to Menelaus, and Clytemnestra to Agamemnon-- which made me wonder exactly what kind of relationship Tyndareus had with these men.

 

Was it just that Agamemnon was so powerful a neighbor? Or could it have been something more? A relationship between Tyndareus and these orphaned boys that was like a father to his sons? And if Tyndareus cared for them, brought them into his home, helped them to reclaim their own city, might not Menelaus and Agamemnon have had relationships with Tyndareus's children too? That would certainly have an affect on any marriages arranged, and I was certain that Helen must have been relieved, even pleased, to be married to a man who had been a friend and brother to her in her youth, rather than some stranger twice her age who only wanted her for her beauty.

Unless of course there was some mitigating factor-- like a foreknowledge of what was coming. If Helen knew that marrying Menelaus would result in such a terrible war, how would that affect her relationship to him? And if Tyndareus loved Menelaus as a son, would he listen to the warning Helen brought him? Helen, just a girl, and with only dreams to back up her argument, probably would not have swayed her father if he was determined to make Menelaus his son in marriage as well as friendship.  This is the warning Helen gives Theseus in the earlier letters, telling him that if he wants her as his bride, he must act immediately, and ultimately I believe it is what convinces him to abduct her, though he could not have known who Helen was meant for.

But Menelaus knew. And watching Helen become friendly with Theseus, a son of Poseidon, and a great hero, could not have been easy on his ego. Menelaus was not a king, nor could he claim any divine heritage. He was just a man. And in comparison and competition with Theseus, how confident could he really be about his chances?

Comment (2) Read More...

 

Previous Letters:

Helen to Pollux, Pollux to Helen, Letters from the Kings, Helen to Theseus, Theseus to Helen.

 

Theseus has his own very rich mythology. His own challenges and adventures. He is in many ways the Athenian version of Heracles, right down to his divine heritage and the trials he faces. A parallel hero.  I hadn't realized at all until I started doing the research that Heracles and Theseus were contemporaries and were known to team up, nevermind that they were also contemporaries (relatively speaking) of Helen.

 

There's so little source material for his abduction of Helen (and it varies widely). Just a line here or there that he made off with her, and then her brothers took her back. It's almost an absentminded recollection. "Oh yeah, well, you know Theseus, always making off with some pretty girl or another, it's hardly worth noting. And there was no lasting harm." Of course, that's the greatest place to start when you want to write fiction-- finding something that hasn't really been explored in great detail, and seeing where it leads. It was the perfect opening!

 

Neither Theseus nor Heracles made it to the Trojan War, but they almost certainly witnessed the events leading up to that point... Well, witness maybe is too strong a word. Theseus was trapped in the underworld for a while, and Heracles had to go fish him out. Both of them, however, had sons who fought against Troy.

 

So who is this Pirithous? He's a fellow Demi-god and king. A son of Zeus! By all appearances, he's one of Theseus's closest friends. Close enough that when Pirithous proposed a trip to Hades to kidnap Persephone, Theseus had no qualms about helping him out. To repay a similar kindness, perhaps?

Comment (0) Read More...