Pagan Tropers Unite!

Actually Athena was conceived the traditional way, but due to Zeus swallowing her mom she was simply born in his head.

Which is why I oppose Athena having children.

Depends on the version. The one I read involved Zeus being hit in the face.

Well obviously there are different versions, but there are only so many completely spontaneous births out of the head that I can stomach before my suspension of disbelief cannot hold anymore.

...For some reason, that sentence is absolutely hilarious.

... Deities. That's even better than wizards. How did that happen? A god did it. But how d- a god did it. Bu- DEITY.

Given how ridiculous myths can come across and the wide variety of versions I personally didn't mind it. Athena having literal brain children?

Well.

If we talk to parrots and fish because their parents died. And then trek around the world with teenage dragons. And get pregnant from feathers.

My disbelief is pretty much suspended to hell and back with myths and things based on them.

^Pretty much that. Though our official reasoning is "Magic god science we don't know and don't need to know. Go sit under that tree and shut up."

edited 18th Aug '12 3:46:48 PM by Aondeug

... So my SA crew is Italian.

I asked Moritz if he knew the Lady, and he went "Yeah, that's Mom!"

And then I kept in mind that spirits/deities don't have language barriers like we do, so I asked the Lady if she was actually Finnish.

She laughed and went, "No—Italia."

So I banged my head against the wall until the SA crew stopped laughing at me, and now I need to find pre-Catholic Italian practices.

Might she be Laverna? This sounds like the kind of thing she'd do to someone. If so, say hi for me.

The thing is, in the original myths Athena was pretty prodigious in terms of students, wards, protegees and whatnot, but never had any actual children of her own, brain-spawn or otherwise, which underlines her virginity pretty solidly.

There could have been a serious secondary plot about how wards of Athena either:

1) Feel inferior due to being adopted, not only because they have no blood relations and can't enter the camp, but because they're regular humans chosen by Athena for their smarts and/or martial prowess and everything that isn't normal about them has been given to them (like the ability to see monsters, perhaps with special glasses)
2) Feel superior due to the fact that they were specially chosen and tutored by Athena where the other demigods might not even get claimed by their blood parents until sixteen
3) Both, alternately

They could have had issues about being torn between between the camp, where they had to learn ancient Greek before 16 just to get around (and Athena would have had them learn it the regular way instead of just granting them the ability, because that'd be the first test of their intelligence), and the regular world where they have to keep up a masquerade that they can't even see by themselves. Assuming there is a masquerade.

Basically Athena could have been Batman.

edited 18th Aug '12 5:44:04 PM by Leradny

You might like the third book, it sort of deals with that.

Still don't know who Moritz's Mom is.

But I was looking up Stregheria deities and there are two names that Wendla went "Yay!" to. Like, she's literally giggling and clapping her hands, going "Yay!"

Thalna - Etruscan Goddess of Childbirth; depicted as a youthful woman.

Turan - Etruscan Goddess of Love, Health and Fertility; usually portrayed as a young woman with wings on her back.

Now to find everyone else.

edited 18th Aug '12 5:46:48 PM by Sharysa

Not Laverna, then? Shame. She's sadly neglected.

RTL: Do I have to read the other two books?

Apparently Laverna "has many children." So Moritz being one of them isn't too much of a stretch.

@Lera: Well, the third one won't be as good... The books aren't entirely faithful to the source material, but I think they're all fun reads. Certainly better than that poorly paced film, at least.

Eh... I won't go out of my way, but I'll look through the books if I see them.

Did you say...Italic or Etruscan deities?!

OMG, my specialty! That has to do both with part of what I'm majoring in, and my own spiritual path. Yes. If you have any questions, I can definitely (try) and help :)

I find it very interesting that Thalna and Turan are two deities who have called your attention, especially with their natures/etymology/symbols. Especially because they often appear together on mirrors.

The third one is my favorite, but then I am an absolutely horrible person who likes thinking of things like Zoey<Artemis.

THE YURI.

Calls me.

Wait, so Thalna and Turan are always together?

Is that why Wendla went YAY to both of them?!

Also, it's very possible that Laverna is the goddess who pretended she was Finnish for about a week, the Aradia states that Laverna "has many children," and Moritz called the Lady "Mom."

Yet I can't find any of Laverna's actual CHILDREN on the web.

edited 18th Aug '12 9:02:51 PM by Sharysa

The other thing that made me think of her is, y'know... the fact that her name sounds so damn much like it means 'springtime greenery'.

They aren't always together, but they are on several depictions.

The most famous is probably this mirror, with Turan (seated, on left) crowning Thalna.

They are also shown with other deities, such as Tinia and Menrva/Menrfa.

Many Etruscan figures were depicted with wings. Turan was sometimes associated with the dove, and Thalna...well, her name is thought to be from a word meaning "growth", and she's a goddess of springtime and fertility.

EDIT: More name throwing, sorry! I'm thinking that the Mother might be Cupra, Uni, or Vei...

edited 18th Aug '12 9:24:31 PM by Iulla

Laverna's name apparently comes from either "latere" (to lurk) or "levare" (to steal). Fitting, as a chthonian goddess of thieves.

So I'm currently looking at Etruscan stuff. Still haven't found anyone except Wendla's potential identity.

Mostly because a lot of it blends with Roman stuff, and the Romans have gods for EVERYTHING.

Edit: ...You know, lately I've been hearing "Ursa" very, very faintly, and at first I thought it was a remnant from a couple of awesome Avatar The Last Airbender dreams I had this week, but then I remembered that Ursa is Latin for bear.

Then I remembered that Callisto got pregnant and she had a boy, but was changed into a bear for Hiding Your Pregnancy. And they were turned into the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

So I headed out to the patio to look for Ursa Minor, because I keep remembering how people tell you "look for three stars in a row" to find the middle of the Little Dipper, and there are three stars in a row RIGHT OUTSIDE MY FUCKING APARTMENT.

Aaaaaaand the sky is fucking CLOUDY.

More word when the skies clear up.

edited 18th Aug '12 11:25:30 PM by Sharysa

Yeah, the Romans did that. The Greeks thought it was absolutely hilarious. Comes from everything having a numen, or the "expressed will of a divinity". Thus you get Cardea, goddess of door hinges, and Deverra, goddess of apotropaic brooms.

Callisto is originally a Greek figure, though, and Ursa Major was called Arktos.

And the thing I noticed after going through my notes is how I kept getting the Star in my Tarot readings.

Plus, I don't think they're all from one pantheon. Mostly due to the fact that one's mainly featured in English folklore, one's a Celtic interpretation of the animal, and the other doesn't really match ANYTHING besides being The Trickster.

Speaking of which: I had a really weird dream last night, which may have been Hanschen's attempt to point me in his direction. I was dancing with Melchior in some sort of street festival. We were drunk and happy and then Fox!Hanschen walked through the air over to us and turned human, and someone called out, "This is the Day of the Dead!"

I heard that and got really weirded out because apparently I'd either joined in without realizing why everyone was celebrating, or maybe I'd remembered what it was after getting reallyreallyreally drunk. And at some point me and Melchior just stopped dancing, because Hanschen was just standing there in the middle of the street looking at us intently, and I keep remembering how deathly pale he is.

When I remembered the whole thing, I think I remember hearing about the Baron Samedi at some point. Isn't the Baron a Creole figure?

Also, is there a "day of the dead" in Voodoo? I can only find stuff about the Mexican and European festivities.

I know that Samhain is when the boundary between this world and the spiritual one is thinnest, and then I remembered the Old Man telling me to "wait for winter."

edited 19th Aug '12 2:01:50 PM by Sharysa