The Girliest Boss U Know

sketchys based on Go for it! Octomura by @pirozhkiparty :)) where Nakamura is a Cecaelia (obsessed with your writing fr fr)

Guys pls go read this fic it cures depression. It actually adopted 63 orphan children and solved world hunger. This fanfic has been ordained by the holy church of BL

right before this clip, Hirose shows Nakamura the game they’re talking about. He’s trying to include Nakamura, to not ice him out or make him feel excluded. He invited him to study and then to lunch! He clearly wants Nakamura here and enjoys his company. But Nakamura doesn’t know about the things they’re talking about and so can’t contribute.

We’re in Nakamura’s head for 99% of the anime. We know that in this scene, he’s writing down notes about what Hirose likes (music, shows, video games) so he can check them out later. But Hirose doesn’t know that, and they just came from studying at the library. So to Hirose, it seems like Nakamura doesn’t actually want to be there; that he’s just being polite and is trying to continue studying with his notebook. And that’s why Hirose looks so sad and guilty in a shot that we the audience are privy to, but Nakamura doesn’t notice.

And we see how Hirose deals with that guilt and sadness—by not giving up! By paying attention! He thinks Nakamura is sitting in polite discomfort, trying to sneak in some studying, and he tries to make Nakamura more comfortable. He asks him about what music he likes, he notices when his drink is empty and offers to get him more. He even gets sulky when his other friends usurp his gallant offer by asking him to get more for them, too, because that offer was to Nakamura, thank you!

Then, when Nakamura helps him get the drinks, Hirose takes that opportunity to apologize for his perceived offense of “making” Nakamura tag along.

And we get a nice subtle parallel here to when Hirose almost did the exact thing he’s worried Nakamura is doing now—politely tagging along when Takeuchi tells him to join so as not to rock the boat or be a “spoilsport,” as Takeuchi calls him. Forcing himself to go. And now Hirose is concerned that he acted like Takeuchi and pressured Nakamura.

This is such interesting insight into Hirose, and really helps further establish—outside of Nakamura’s biased POV—that he’s a genuinely kind and considerate person (even if he does have a bit of a mischievous streak with that prank he pulled on Takeuchi) and that he’s genuinely interested in putting in effort in being friends (and maybe more) with Nakamura.

I really hope we get more insights like this outside of Nakamura’s POV because Nakamura, our precious adorable unreliable narrator, is wrapped up in his own anxieties and stuck in his own head, and assumes Hirose is perceiving him through the same Doom Gloom Awkward Weirdo lens he sees himself and his actions through. But Hirose doesn’t know his thoughts, his plans, his hopes, and Hirose has his own internal world that Nakamura can’t see into, either.

Live Paris reaction

(he fled while Hermes chased after him and Hera bade him to stop. She was usually the first to speak to him, and spoke to him the longest)

Luckily he mentions the sources he took this from so it helps me to know what I should read

Apollonius Rhodius

Diodorus Siculus

Theocruitus's Idylls

Lycophrom

None of these sources seems to imply that she slept with Butes with the objective of making Adonis jealous. Apollonius only mentions Aphrodite saving Butes out of pity. Diodorus was more interested in relating the costumes of Sicily and praising Eryx, he mentions Butes only at the start and there is no mentions of Adonis. Theocruitus talks about the festival of Adonia with no mention of Butes. Lycophrom just briefly mentions Eryx. I am very inclined to not believe this narrative... I am quite relieved, Butes x Aphrodite is too goated for her to sleep with him just to make Adonis jealous. But now that I know that this guy is not that reliable I want to comment on some other stuff he says that I think it is misleading

The only source that I know that even mentions Adonis adding his portion of the year to Aphrodite is Pseudo-Apollodorus and it never say that she used her girdle to bewitch him.

That detail was very unnecessary to add and it really paints Aphrodite into a negative light of manipulating her lover's free will

Scholiast on Theocritus’ 15th Idyll, like 100:

δέσποιν' ἃ Γολγώς: πόλις Κύπρου ὠνομα- σμένη ἀπὸ Γολγοῦ τοῦ ᾿Αδώνιδος καὶ ᾿Αφροδίτης. Ἰδάλιον δὲ πόλις Κύπρου. Ἔρυξ δὲ πόλις Σικελίας ἀπὸ Ἔρυκος τοῦ 10 Βούτου καὶ ᾿Αφροδίτης. τὸ δὲ χρυσῷ παίζουσ' ᾿Αφροδίτα τοιοῦτον ἴσως ἐστίν, ὅτι οἱ ἐρῶντες χρυσῷ πείθουσι τὸ ἐρώ- μενον.

Here is a rough translation:

Mistress of Golgoi: a city of Cyprus, named after Golgos, the son of Adonis and Aphrodite. Idalion too is a city of Cyprus. Eryx is a city of Sicily, named after Eryx, the son of Butes and Aphrodite. And the phrase ‘Aphrodite playing with gold’ is perhaps of this sort: that lovers persuade the beloved with gold.

Scholiast on 103a is also interesting for Adonis

μηνὶ δυωδεκάτω: τινὲς δι' εξαμήνου φασὶν ἀνέρχεσθαι τὸν "Αδωνιν.

In the twelfth month: some say that Adonis ascends after six months.

Tzetzes’ On Lycophron 831a:

“Schoeneidi;” Schoeneis, Arenta, and Xene are epithets of Aphrodite. Adonis is called “Gauas” by the Cypriots. According to some, Adonis was the son of Cinyras, the king of the Cypriots, and not Theiantos, from whom Aphrodite gave birth to Priapus, who was ugly and deep-voiced. For Hera, being pregnant, touched her with a bewitched hand and caused her to give birth to such a child. Adonis was called “destroyed by the Muses” because the Muses, angry at Aphrodite for causing them to fall in love and making many of them give birth, killed her beloved Adonis. They sang a delightful hunting song, and hearing it, he was excited and rushed to hunt, where he was killed by a boar. Others say he was killed by Ares in the war. The Muses, carried away by their anger at Aphrodite, because she had stirred many of them to love and persuaded them to mate with men and give birth, such as Calliope giving birth to Orpheus and Cymodoce from Oeagrus; Terpsichore giving birth to Rhesus from Strymon; Cleio giving birth to Linus from Magnes; they killed her beloved Adonis. For they sang a delightful hunting song and caused Adonis, Aphrodite's lover, who heard it, to be excited and rushed to hunt. Ares, the god, being Aphrodite's rival, either transformed himself into a boar or, seeing Adonis rushing at a boar, came against him and killed him. And Adonis's blood flowing down turned the anemone, which was previously white, red; for Adonis happened to fall near an anemone. Aphrodite, learning of the tragedy, ran around barefoot, lamenting pitifully, and she herself, pierced by the thorns of a rose, turned the rose red with the flowing blood.

Tzetzes’ On Lycophron 831b:

🍐🐄 Hera Pais, the cow eyed bride🪵🏛

 "I sing of golden-throned Hera whom Rhea bare. Queen of the immortals is she, surpassing all in beauty: she is the sister and the wife of loud-thundering Zeus, -- the glorious one whom all the blessed throughout high Olympus reverence and honour even as Zeus who delights in thunder." -Homeric Hymn to Hera

"The presence of a cuckoo seated on the sceptre [of Hera] they explain by the story that when Zeus was in love with Hera in her maidenhood he changed himself into this bird, and she caught it to be her pet [in order to seduce her]." - Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 17. 4

I’m currently reading "The Transformation of Hera: A Study of Ritual, Hero, and the Goddess in the Iliad" by Joan V. O’Brien. She argues, sometimes speculatively, about the early cult origins of Hera, but I still find it very interesting.

The book suggests that Hera’s early rites in Samos might have portrayed her as arriving annually on a horse drawn chariot at a confluence of waters, where her bathing and binding to a cultic tree were believed to renew all life, presenting her as a goddess of the seasons.

There also seems to be an argument that she had a connection to the Potnia Theron, based on the large animals associated with her and the artifacts found at her temples, such as lions, griffins, and sphinxes. Her association with domestic animals like cows and horses could suggest that she was seen as a tamer of beasts, and her yoking of the bull may be parallel marriage and the "taming and yoking" of the bride.

I find this especially interesting because it aligns with my view of Hera as a goddess who makes things perfect.

In some traditions, it seems that she was worshipped in different life stages with epithets such as Hera Pais (the young maiden before marriage) Hera Teleia (the married woman)

Inktober 12: Young Hera racing.

“Hera’s cult at Olympia was administered by a college of sixteen women chosen from the most venerable and respected matrons of the district. These women organized the Heraia, or games held to honor Hera, concurrently with the quadrennial Olympic games. While women were generally excluded from the Olympic games both as competitors and spectators, the Heraia involved a footrace for girls of three different age categories. They ran in the same stadium as the men and boys, though the track was one-sixth shorter. The winners received a portion of the meat from the cow sacrificed to Hera and a crown of olive.”

Tbh I don’t have a definitive answer as to what the Greeks make of Hera’s jealousy because it depends if there was a commentary of some kind.

It’s true the Greeks wanted to trace their lineage to the gods particularly Zeus. Hera’s crusade toward his women and children to prevent them from usurping her position of power like you said is also true (though the details differs for each of the offspring).

In Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Hera expressed her anger toward Zeus for bearing better and stronger children than hers, provoking her to give birth to Typhon to challenge him. In Callimachus’ Hymn, Leto and Apollo were chosen as Zeus’ new primary family, basing off the Ptolemies political framework.

Likewise, Hera’s crusade toward Dionysus for similar reasons particularly in “Orphic” myths. And of course there’s Heracles, whose myth was retold in Euripides.

However, this overlooked the fact that the explanation is not applicable elsewhere.

Other victims of Hera’s persecutions are Io, Aegina and Aeacus, Lamia, Callisto, Aphrodite and Priapus. The problem with applying the explanations here is that they don’t fitted with the logic. Their children are not popular gods or heroes like Apollo, Dionysus, and Heracles. Doesn't help in some variations of the myths, Hera is not involved in the conflict at all like with Callisto.

Zeus’ sex escapades was a popular subject in Greek comedies, to the point out of mockery, but Hera was reportedly absent in these plays.

We do have mentions of Zeus or his woman fear in provoking Hera, famously with Io and Maia, but also Elara (Ps-Apollodorus Bibliotheca 1. 23), Othreis (Antoninus Liberalis  Metamorphoses 13). But, again we are not given why Zeus need to be afraid of Hera if he's the king and he could easily protect some of these women.

The closest thing that any of the authors addressed Hera's issues of her treatment toward the women was Plautus, a Roman playwright who lived during the Republic era. In the Amphitryon play, he eliminated Hera/Juno's role in the story and implied by Hermes/Mercury that she will be angry at Zeus/Jove instead of Alcmene, presenting them as bickering spouses

Io was Hera’s own priestess and she was the foremother of Perseus, Danaus, Heracles, Cadmus, Dionysus, and many other heroes. She was incredibly influential. The various scholarly hypotheses around her prehistory are very interesting and hard to express here.

The only sources for Hera persecuting Aegina/Aeacus seem to be Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Ps.Hyginus. Not saying that that means it’s totally fabricated, but also, Greek sources are very explicit about Aegina having been uninhabited when Zeus made earthborns (later punnily said to be ants) for Aeacus to rule over. Having Hera kill everyone there could be a poetic development of the Latin poets, it’s hard to tell.

The folklore of Lamia the monster, and even her transformation, predates Hera’s involvement in her story, and I’d conjecture that it had something to do with Lamia’s status as having lost her children, which was something a woman might blame Hera, a goddess of childbirth, for. Combined with stories of Zeus and a different Lamia hooking up = Hera fulfills her role as the stock villain in the stories of Zeus’ children.

Diodorus 20.41:

At the base of this rock was a large cave thickly covered with ivy and bryony, in which according to myth had been born Lamia, a queen of surpassing beauty.⁠ But on account of the savagery of her heart they say that the time that has elapsed since has transformed her face to a bestial aspect. For when all the children born to her had died,⁠ weighed down in her misfortune and envying the happiness of all other women in their children, she ordered that the new-born babes be snatched from their mothers' arms and straightway slain. Wherefore among us even down to the present generation, the story of this woman remains among the children and her name is most terrifying to them.⁠ But whenever she drank freely, she gave to all the opportunity to do what they pleased unobserved. Therefore, since she did not trouble herself about what was taking place at such times, the people of the land assumed that she could not see. And for that reason some tell in the myth that she threw her eyes into a flask,⁠ metaphorically turning the carelessness that is most complete amid wine into the aforesaid measure, since it was a measure of wine that took away her sight. One might also present Euripides as a witness that she was born in Libya, for he says: "Who does not know the name of Lamia, Libyan in race, a name of greatest reproach among mortals?"

Callisto is a similar case. Hera was added to the story later, while in Hesiod it was just Artemis and Zeus who were a problem for her. Part of the motivation for adding Hera to the story may have been to find a justification for why Tethys never let Ursa Major set in Oceanus (ie, she was an arctic circle constellation), and also partly to absolve Artemis of blame by saying Hera told her / tricked her to do it.

I can’t find any classical sources which make Priapus Zeus’ son; just the Suda says so. She curses him regardless of if he’s Adonis’ or Dionysus’ son in earlier accounts, so Zeus/infidelity of her husband doesn’t seem to be a factor in that story.

Conclusion: I don’t necessarily say all this to wholesale dismiss these stories, but just to address that there is a different cultural context behind them. Hera’s prehistoric hatred for Heracles is very different and unique from her Roman(?) hatred for Aeacus, or her Hellenistic hatred for Priapus. I’d go as far as to argue her persecution of most children other than Heracles seems to simply be inspired by her persecution of Heracles. See: Homeric Hymn to Apollo, which contains a doublet of the scene of Hera persecuting Heracles in the Iliad.

Her persecution of women I think would be inspired by her persecution of Io, which imo is her victim of most antiquity, particularly given their connection to Argos and Io having many different regional names. It’s been argued that Io is some prehistoric form of Hera, but I don’t have the eloquence to argue that.

The issue with the conclusion that Hera as a jealous nagging wife characteristics being invented by Classical Athenians as a misogynistic stock trope is that we have little to no evidences of this. We have a lot writings and plays about Zeus and his conquests and his mistresses, but we don't have reports of Hera making significant appearances in them, relegating to only off-hand mentions like in Euripides' Heracles and Prometheus Bound.

This famous characteristics of Hera who would get angry at her husband king including his affairs was already embedded in the Archaic sources. Famously in the Iliad, Theogony, and the Homeric Hymns.

Lamia was attested in Euripides and Crates, but we don't have any of their fragments. However, Hera's involvement was already attested in Doris of Samos in 3rd century BCE (further supported by Scholi. Aristophanes Peace 758).

The stuff about Io being a prehistoric form of Hera and having regional names, again there's no evidences of this and I haven't seen any reputable specialists arguing on this theory.

I disagree. Hera has a lot of issues with Zeus in the Iliad, but they don’t seem to be his infidelity. Her issue with him the entire time is that he undermines her attempts to raze Troy, her goal for the entire poem.

In the Theogony we see her going after Heracles, but again I don’t think there’s evidence of her going after any of his other lovers and children in the Theogony?

The Homeric hymns vary in date, but most are clearly influenced by the Homeric and Hesiodic, like Apollo’s. Dionysus’ contentions with Hera might be old as well, like Heracles’, mostly due to how their actual cults and priestesses had issues with each other in Athens, which implies a significantly older tension there