#themiscyra

Cass wakes up and finds herself surrounded by mysterious giant women in cosplay brandishing swords and initiates combat mode immediately. The amazons spend the next several days searching for her in the woods like the plot of First Blood. All the while Hippolyta's just like

"On entering the city there is a monument to Antiope the Amazon. This Antiope, Pindar says, was carried of by Peirithous and Theseus, but Hegias of Troezen gives the following account of her. Heracles was besieging Themiscyra on the Thermodon, but could not take it, but Antiope, falling in love with Theseus, who was aiding Heracles in his campaign, surrendered the stronghold. Such is the account of Hegias. But the Athenians assert that when the Amazons came, Antiope was shot by Molpadia, while Molpadia was killed by Theseus. To Molpadia also there is a monument among the Athenians." Pausanias, Description of Greece

"For our country was invaded by the Thracians, led by Eumolpus, son of Poseidon, who disputed the possession of Athens with Erechtheus, alleging, that Poseidon had appropriated the city before Athena; also by the Scythians, led by the Amazons, the offspring of Ares, who made the expedition to recover Hippolyte, since she had not only broken the laws which were established among them, but had become enamored of Theseus and followed him from her home to Athens and there lived with him as his consort." Isokrates, Panathenaicus

"They were especially eager to punish the Athenians because Theseus had made a slave of Antiopê, the leader of the Amazons, or, as others write, of Hippolytê. [2] The Scythians had joined forced with the Amazons, and so it came about that a notable army had been assembled, with which the leaders of the Amazons crossed the Cimmerian Bosporus and advanced through Thrace. Finally they traversed a large part of Europe and came to Attica, where they pitched their camp in what is at present called after them “the Amazoneum.” [3] When Theseus learned of the oncoming of the Amazons he came to thee aid of the forces of his citizens, bringing with him the Amazon Antiopê, by whom he already had a son Hippolytus. Theseus joined battle with the Amazons, and since the Athenians surpassed them in bravery, he gained the victory, and of the Amazons who opposed him, some he slew at the time and the rest he drove out of Attica. [4] And it came to pass that Antiopê, who was fighting at the side of her husband Theseus, distinguished herself in the battle and died fighting heroically. The Amazons who survived renounced their ancestral soil, and returned with the Scythians into Scythia and made their homes among that people" -Diodoros Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica

"So much, then, is worthy of mention regarding the Amazons. For the ‘Insurrection of the Amazons,’ written by the author of the Theseid, telling how, when Theseus married Phaedra, Antiope and the Amazons who fought to avenge her attacked him, and were slain by Heracles, has every appearance of fable and invention. [2] Theseus did, indeed, marry Phaedra, but this was after the death of Antiope, and he had a son by Antiope, Hippolytus, or, as Pindar says, Demophoon. As for the calamities which befell Phaedra and the son of Theseus by Antiope, since there is no conflict here between historians and tragic poets, we must suppose that they happened as represented by the poets uniformly" "Here, he says. the Athenians were routed and driven back by the women as far as the shrine of the Eumenides, but those who attacked the invaders from the Palladium and Ardettus and the Lyceum, drove their right wing back as far as to their camp, and slew many of them. And after three months, he says, a treaty of peace was made through the agency of Hippolyta; for Hippolyta is the name which Cleidemus gives to the Amazon whom Theseus married, not Antiope. But some say that the woman was slain with a javelin by Molpadia, while fighting at Theseus’s side, and that the pillar which stands by the sanctuary of Olympian Earth was set up in her memory" -Plutarch, Theseus

I have been reading and enjoying Absolute Wonder Woman for some time. In reading about the series, I discovered it was considered a spiritual successor to Wonder Woman Historia, and so I sat down to read it. I am... not sure how to feel about it.

Sing, o muse, and tell me a story of women scorned

Of suffering inflicted by the violence of men

And sing of the seven goddesses, six defenders, one lapsed

Who sought to warriors make, and so brought gifts

And from these were born those women who could act

To protect women in their time of need: the Amazons!

It is not often writers remember that Diana of Themiscyra is a creature of myth and legends. She is not just a superhero, she's an advocate and ambassador from the mundane to the strange. And if she comes from a people of myth and legend, what legends then must they have to tell?

For the good: God, what artwork! Every page drips with character and glorious, glorious detail. The goddesses alone are rendered more abstract than normal, in a way that makes them alien but also understandable; Athena has an invisible body but for a mask of steel for a face, and she's the least freaky thing about the gods.

The story feels mythic as well, as befits the title. I can see where Absolute Wonder Woman set its similarities, for the gods are capricious and vain, and the male gods, especially, represent an order enforced on women to control them. The things they say are deeply uncomfortable and realistic, which is surprising when Zeus looks like a blue thundercloud most of the time. It's a book that sticks to its guns and does its best to make the best version of this story.

And that story is... questionable.

I'm almost certainly not the best resource for what feminism and stories about feminism should and should not be. But one thing I always found inspiring about stories of the Amazons were that they were oppressed people who rose up and attained strength and self-actualization. To have the Amazons, then, be created by the six goddesses as defenders of women, unrelated to the suffering inflicted by men... it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I had heard the Amazons were a group of women who learned to be strong, but in this story it was actually a bunch of other women warriors who did all the saving? I know that's not the most charitable interpretation, but I can't make this feeling go away, and I still don't like this element of the story. (EDIT: on reading more about the story, they appear to be made from the souls of women slain by violence. While I think this design choice is excellent, the characters created by this process are functionally their own people with no memories of who they were before, so the complaint stands)

Speaking of characters: the framing of the story flattens the characterizations of the gods. I am aware it's framed as a story the Amazons tell themselves, so it's not exactly unbiased. But the problem exists among the female and male gods, and not just the males.

Like, of the six goddesses - Demeter, Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, Hestia and Hecate - only Athena, Demeter and Artemis get focus and characterization. Hecate is just "the person who says things cryptically" in their group, and Aphrodite is just the hot one (though the art does show she is very hot!). There's a particular breed of girlboss feminism that's on display here, implying the heavens would be better if the women were in charge, when we have seen all six act as badly as Zeus, if not quite so heinous in their actions.

This problem of characterization also exists amongst the Amazons. With the gods, I am at least understanding that the men had their worst traits and the women their best traits emphasized for the story. But the Amazons are almost wholly original characters, and we're introduced to thirty of them right away. I cannot remember one distinct character trait among them beyond the shallow (this one is big and strong so she is boastful, and this one is of Aphrodite's clan so she is curious and catty). They felt like Magni and Modi in God of War (2018), where they are less their own characters than their own, smaller versions of Thor, and so the original thirty Amazons mostly feel like alternate versions of the goddesses that spawned them.

This problem does not exist amongst the purely human Amazons. They are all of them defined by something other than their connection to the goddesses and so are free to form their own path. Hippolyta, in particular, gets a strong, focused lens on her personal journey and growth as an Amazon.

I do not wish to prescribe what stories "should" have been. I want to take the stories at face value and determine where and how they succeed or fail at connecting with me. But the version of this story I wanted is included in miniature with the seventh tribe of Amazons: scared women on the outskirts of society, rising up to defend themselves and liberate others like them. It feels so obvious to have the story just be about them, and their empowerment by the goddesses.

Diana is my wife i love her sm

general hcs:

so this is more hc for the prompt I posted here

Themiscira

Themiscira’s Amazons can see through the Mist and they fight their share of monsters

Hylla’s Amazons are like another version of the Amazons powered by the myth like the Roman versions is different from the Greek gods

They keep mostly separate because of Fate bullshit—the Amazons aren’t demigods so they can’t choose not to follow the magic rules

(Even Diana, she’s animated magic clay, and Donna is her childhood-playmate-magic-clone, so not ‘halfbloods’)

Why Cassie Sandsmark didn’t go to CHB:

Now Cassie is an actual demigoddess.

But she became Wonder Girl right after getting her powers, before even knowing she was Zeus’ daughter

so the gods pretty much pretend she’s just a part of Themiscira’s sphere, Cassie herself doesn’t know of the Camps and the other demigods, because:

1) she’s in the spotlight as a member of the hero community, so she risks attracting the JL’s attention on the Camps (like a few magicians vaguely know of them but that’s all), and if they learn of it the heavy hitters of the JL can and will confront the Pantheon about it (the JL got too thoroughly Bat-magic-proofed to be fooled by a quick Mist trick)

2) Cassie’s existence is an infraction to the Oath of the Big Three, so it’s more convenient to pretend as if she doesn’t exist, to keep peace (while banking on heroing statistics so that she dies before accomplishing the Great Prophecy)

next part: Grayson kid at Camp Half Blood

The Amazon War 13

Although the Thracians were still numerically superior to the Amazons, they now found themselves assailed on two sides, with the river hemming them in on a third. Anticleia’s sudden arrival had thrown warriors who had been anticipating total victory into confusion. Added to this, the renewed vigour of Electra’s survivors as they crashed into the men’s disintegrating ranks in what was now their rear, sowed the first seeds of panic.

Leonidas sensed the tides of battle turning. Ordering Hyperion to attempt to blunt the charge of the Thermidor defenders, Leonidas sought to rally his men by plunging directly into the fray himself. Hacking down Amazon warriors to his left and right, and followed by his loyal Companions, the Thracian king made for Anticleia herself, who was shining like a beacon in her golden, blood-streaked armour. Kill the whore, Leonidas reckoned and these viragoes will collapse into the whimpering females they truly are. The king broke through the last of Anticleia’s guard and hurled himself at the Amazon commander. “Bitch!” he roared over the din of battle as he closed with the woman. “Prepare to meet your precious Hera!” The two leaders’ swords clashed…

To be continued.

New Amazonian Lore just dropped