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That it’s a tragedy doesn’t make it not a love story. A “love story” isn’t just a story with a fluffy ending where everything turns out okay.

It was someone on here, actually, and forgive me but I’ll probably never find it again, who said something like “the tragedy is that it was their first love but it shouldn’t have been their last.” It was a tragedy because of their families’ stupid feud and absurd expectations of their children that they couldn’t put aside for long enough to listen to what was going on with their kids. Because Capulet was too determined to sell his 13-year-old daughter into marriage with a man at least twice her age to shut up for ten minutes and take her feelings into consideration. (Romeo’s age is never firmly established, although he’s widely assumed to be a little bit older than Juliet, but even if 17 is basically accurate, he’s a vastly more socially appropriate option for her. Juliet is not being stupid here.) Because nearly every adult in the play is too spineless and self-interested to actually speak up for the kids.

Here is the full list of my various posts summarizing/analyzing/breaking down/exploring Hell as depicted in Dante Alighieri’s poem “Inferno”, the first part of his work “The Divine Comedy”.

What is it all about? : General introduction to “Inferno” ; the shape and structure of Hell

The best… well “least worst” part of Hell: From the Gates of Hell to King Minos

Storm and mud, winds and rains: The Second and Third Circles (Lust and Gluttony)

Two sides of the same coin: The Fourth and Fifth Circles (Greed and Wrath)

The Midlands of Hell: The City of Dis/The Sixth Circle (Heresy)

Three rings to damn them all: The Seventh Circle (Violence)

Ten little frauds… : The Eighth Circle (Fraud)

Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of essays I like/find interesting/are food for thought; I’ve tried to sort them as much as possible. The starred (*) ones are those I especially love

also quick note: some of these links, especially the ones that are from books/anthologies redirect you to libgen or scihub, and if that doesn’t work for you, do message me; I’d be happy to send them across!

Literature + Writing

Godot Comes to Sarajevo - Susan Sontag

The Strangeness of Grief - V. S. Naipaul*

Memories of V. S. Naipaul - Paul Theroux*

A Rainy Day with Ruskin Bond - Mayank Austen Soofi

How Albert Camus Faced History - Adam Gopnik

Listen, Bro - Jo Livingstone

Rachel Cusk Gut-Renovates the Novel - Judith Thurman

Lost in Translation: What the First Line of “The Stranger” Should Be - Ryan Bloom

The Duke in His Domain - Truman Capote*

The Cult of Donna Tartt: Themes and Strategies in The Secret History - Ana Rita Catalão Guedes

Never Do That to a Book - Anne Fadiman*

Affecting Anger: Ideologies of Community Mobilisation in Early Hindi Novel - Rohan Chauhan*

Why I Write - George Orwell*

Rimbaud and Patti Smith: Style as Social Deviance - Carrie Jaurès Noland*

Art + Photography (+ Aesthetics)

Looking at War - Susan Sontag*

Love, sex, art, and death - Nan Goldin, David Wojnarowicz

Lyons, Szarkowski, and the Perception of Photography - Anne Wilkes Tucker

The Feminist Critique of Art History - Thalia Gouma-Peterson, Patricia Mathews

In Plato’s Cave - Susan Sontag*

On reproduction of art (Chapter 1, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger*

On nudity and women in art (Chapter 3, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger*

Kalighat Paintings  - Sharmishtha Chaudhuri

Daydreams and Fragments: On How We Retrieve Images From the Past -  Maël Renouard

Arthur Rimbaud: the Aesthetics of Intoxication - Enid Rhodes Peschel

Cities

Tragic Fable of Mumbai Mills - Gyan Prakash

Whose Bandra is it? - Dustin Silgardo*

Timur’s Registan: noblest public square in the world? - Srinath Perur

The first Starbucks coffee shop, Seattle - Colin Marshall*

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai’s iconic railway station - Srinath Perur

From London to Mumbai and Back Again: Gentrification and Public Policy in Comparative Perspective -  Andrew Harris

The Limits of “White Town” in Colonial Calcutta - Swati Chattopadhyay

The Metropolis and Mental Life - Georg Simmel

Colonial Policy and the Culture of Immigration: Citing the Social History of Varanasi - Vinod Kumar, Shiv Narayan

A Caribbean Creole Capital: Kingston, Jamaica - Coln G. Clarke (from Colonial Cities by Robert Ross, Gerard J. Telkamp

The Colonial City and the Post-Colonial World - G. A. de Bruijne

The Nowhere City - Amos Elon*

The Vertical Flâneur: Narratorial Tradecraft in the Colonial Metropolis - Paul K. Saint-Amour

Philosophy

The trolley problem problem - James Wilson

A Brief History of Death - Nir Baram

Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical - John Rawls*

Should Marxists be Interested in Exploitation? - John E. Roemer

The Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief - Scott Berinato*

The Pandemic and the Crisis of Faith - Makarand Paranjape

If God Is Dead, Your Time is Everything - James Wood

Giving Up on God - Ronald Inglehart

The Limits of Consensual Decision - Douglas Rae*

The Science of “Muddling Through” - Charles Lindblom*

History

The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine - Maria Dolan

The History of Loneliness - Jill Lepore*

The Anti-Che - Jay Nordlinger

From Tuskegee to Togo: the Problem of Freedom in the Empire of Cotton - Sven Beckert*

Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism - E. P. Thompson*

All By Myself - Martha Bailey*

The Geographical Pivot of History - H. J. Mackinder

The sea/ocean

Rim of Life - Manu Pillai

Exploring the Indian Ocean as a rich archive of history – above and below the water line - Isabel Hofmeyr, Charne Lavery

‘Piracy’, connectivity and seaborne power in the Middle Ages - Nikolas Jaspert (from The Sea in History)*

The Vikings and their age - Nils Blomkvist (from The Sea in History)*

Mercantile Networks, Port Cities, and “Pirate” States - Roxani Eleni Margariti

Phantom Peril in the Arctic - Robert David English, Morgan Grant Gardner*

Assorted ones on India

A departure from history: Kashmiri Pandits, 1990-2001 - Alexander Evans *

Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World - Gyan Prakash

Empire: How Colonial India Made Modern Britain - Aditya Mukherjee

Feminism and Nationalism in India, 1917-1947 - Aparna Basu

The Epic Riddle of Dating Ramayana, Mahabharata - Sunaina Kumar*

Caste and Politics: Identity Over System - Dipankar Gupta

Our worldview is Delhi based*

Sports (you’ll have to excuse the fact that it’s only cricket but what can i say, i’m indian)

‘Massa Day Done:’ Cricket as a Catalyst for West Indian Independence: 1950-1962 - John Newman*

Playing for power? rugby, Afrikaner nationalism and masculinity in South Africa, c.1900–70 - Albert Grundlingh

When Cricket Was a Symbol, Not Just a Sport - Baz Dreisinger

Cricket, caste, community, colonialism: the politics of a great game - Ramachandra Guha*

Cricket and Politics in Colonial India - Ramchandra Guha

MS Dhoni: A quiet radical who did it his way*

Music

Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil - Samuel M. Araújo

Color, Music and Conflict: A Study of Aggression in Trinidad with Reference to the Role of Traditional Music - J. D. Elder

The 1975 - ‘Notes On a Conditional Form’ review - Dan Stubbs*

Life Without Live - Rob Sheffield*

How Britney Spears Changed Pop - Rob Sheffield

Concert for Bangladesh

From “Help!” to “Helping out a Friend”: Imagining South Asia through the Beatles and the Concert for Bangladesh - Samantha Christiansen 

Gender

Clothing Behaviour as Non-verbal Resistance - Diana Crane

The Normalisation of Queer Theory - David M. Halperin

Menstruation and the Holocaust - Jo-Ann Owusu*

Women’s Suffrage the Democratic Peace - Allan Dafoe

Pink and Blue: Coloring Inside the Lines of Gender - Catherine Zuckerman*

Women’s health concerns are dismissed more, studied less - Zoanne Clack

Food

How Food-Obsessed Millennials Shape the Future of Food - Rachel A. Becker (as a non-food obsessed somewhat-millennial, this was interesting)

Colonialism’s effect on how and what we eat - Coral Lee

Tracing Europe’s influence on India’s culinary heritage - Ruth Dsouza Prabhu

Chicken Kiev: the world’s most contested ready-meal*

From Russia with mayo: the story of a Soviet super-salad*

The Politics of Pancakes - Taylor Aucoin*

How Doughnuts Fuelled the American Dream*

Pav from the Nau

A Short History of the Vada Pav - Saira Menezes

Fantasy (mostly just harry potter and lord of the rings)

Purebloods and Mudbloods: Race, Species, and Power (from The Politics of Harry Potter)

Azkaban: Discipline, Punishment, and Human Rights (from The Politics of Harry Potter)*

Good and Evil in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lengendarium - Jyrki Korpua

The Fairy Story: J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis - Colin Duriez (from Tree of Tales)*

Tolkien’s Augustinian Understanding of Good and Evil: Why The Lord of the Rings Is Not Manichean - Ralph Wood (from Tree of Tales)*

Travel

The Hidden Cost of Wildlife Tourism

Chronicles of a Writer’s 1950s Road Trip Across France - Kathleen Phelan

On the Early Women Pioneers of Trail Hiking - Gwenyth Loose

On the Mythologies of the Himalaya Mountains - Ed Douglas*

More random assorted ones

The cosmos from the wheelchair (The Economist obituaries)*

In El Salvador - Joan Didion

Scientists are unravelling the mystery of pain - Yudhijit Banerjee

Notes on Nationalism - George Orwell

Politics and the English Language - George Orwell*

What Do the Humanities Do in a Crisis? - Agnes Callard*

The Politics of Joker - Kyle Smith

Sushant Singh Rajput: The outsider - Uday Bhatia*

Credibility and Mystery - John Berger

Quickly go over the material that will be covered on the exam. Put each topic into a category of "Good" "Okay" and "Bad" based on your understanding of that topic. (Day 0 - Before revising)

Look at steps 3-10 and put them into a study plan that you can follow. This will keep you on track and ensure you cover everything. (Day 0 - Before revising)

First, start with your "Okay" list. Briefly revise each topic, focusing on definitions, formulas, and general concepts. At this point, you should be ensuring that you know the information, not focusing on exam practice. I like using flashcards for this step to ensure I actually know the information (Day 1)

Now, do the same for your "Good" list. (Day 1 or 2)

Once you've done steps 2 and 3, you're ready to practice! If your professor has given you practice/review questions, use those. You can also find great questions in your textbook or from past assignments. (Day 2)

Now, focus on your "Bad" category. Do a much more thorough review of the information in this category, almost as if you're learning it for the first time. This is a step where flashcards may be super helpful, especially if you need to power through a lot of memorization work (Day 3).

This is where you practice your "Bad" category. Make sure to do multiple questions for each topic to ensure that you're prepared for anything that comes your way (Day 4).

Revisit all the information you've studied over this process, and do more practice problems on the topics you're struggling with the most. (Day 5)

Take a deep breath, get some sleep, and eat a good meal! (Exam day!)

Hi! If you're learning French and are looking for something to read, here's a list of books I read and loved as a French pupil that you might want to discover!

Beginners (A2-B1)

Tistou Les Pouces Verts, by Maurice Druon: This is the story of Tistou, a child who can make flowers sprout wherever his hand lands. Tistou uses his power to help adults around him to bear the difficult aspects of life, such as war and sadness. As it is a kid book, it is quite easy to read and full of vocabulary (especially for learning the names of flowers!)

The Laure and Compagnie series, by Catherine Missonier: This series of five books recount the eccentric adventures of elementary school pupils. The stories are all very funny (ranging from a class discovering that their teacher is a secret agent to a story about an alien who turns into a human and lands in a fifth-grade classroom)

Intermediate (B1)

Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: You may already be familiar with this book, as it is widely known. It tells the story of a little boy traveling from planet to planet in the universe looking for a place to settle. It is a very touching philosophical tale and by far my favorite book on this list.

Le Petit Nicolas, by René Goscinny: Nicolas is a boy living in France in the 50s. He writes about his daily life in post-war France, his relationship with his friends, with school, and his parents. I loved these books as a child. They are easy to read and very useful for learning about French society in the 20th century.

Intermediate-Advanced (B2)

Le Château de ma Mère and La Gloire de mon Père, by Marcel Pagnol: these two novels are autobiographical. The author recounts his youth in Provence. The author's style is simple to understand, but his stories are moving and give the impression of falling back into childhood.

Advanced (C1)

La Passe-Miroir, by Christelle Dabos: La Passe-Miroir is a series of French fantasy novels. Ophelia, a young woman living on the planet Anima, can tell the history of objects just by touching them. Her story begins when she gets engaged against her will to Thorn, a mysterious man from a frozen planet...

La Parure, Aux Champs and Le Horla, by Guy de Maupassant : Maupassant is one of France's most famous authors of short stories. I discovered those three in high school, and I really liked them because of their unexpected endings. These texts are short, but Maupassant lived in the 19th century, so his style is a bit more difficult to understand.

Voyage au Centre de la Terre, by Jules Verne (or, really, anything by Jules Verne): I think I must have read this book at least fifty times and I'm still not tired of it ;-)! Verne narrates the story of Axel and his uncle, Professor Lidenbrock, who, one day, find a map that might be able to lead them to the center of the Earth... The story is fascinating and the characters are quite endearing. However, there is a lot of scientific jargon that might be difficult to understand without a dictionary.

Hope these suggestions can help you find something to read!

When I studied Latin and Ancient Greek, I was taught that they each had three genders. So I was fascinated to read this article about how the Romans and the Greeks didn’t necessarily think of their own languages that way, featuring many quotes from original texts. Excerpt:  

As a Latin teacher, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I present grammatical gender to my students. Latin obsessively genders its speakers. From pronouns to choice of name and use of adjectives, it’s one thing if you identify as masculine or feminine, but Latin presents real questions for non-binary speakers. In addition, there is a chauvinism inherent in Latin grammar, like in the way that mixed-gender groups are referred to as masculine. There is a similar chauvinism in the Latin pedagogical tradition: the very ordering of adjectival forms as masculine/feminine/neuter (-us/-a/-um) presents a hierarchy of being masquerading as a lexicographical convenience.

On top of that, I worry that our modern pedagogical practices implicitly present students a highly essentialized vision of gender: every noun has one gender exclusively, rigid and unchanging.

Yet grammatical gender is actually complex and shifting, a fact that Greek and Roman grammarians were highly conscious of. They debated whether grammatical gender was inherent in the things themselves or a product of human convention. They devised a technical vocabulary to articulate the difference between grammatical gender identity and grammatical gender expression. They argued about whether their language had three genders — as we teach — or perhaps only two, or maybe five, or even as many as seven, if you count “fluid” and “uncertain” and as distinct categories (and they did!).

Grammatical gender, at its most basic, is a system of noun classes whose forms agree with other inflected words, like adjectives. French nouns have two genders, German three, Chechen six, and Ganda ten. Wikipedia has a handy list of languages by type of grammatical gender.

The fact that we think of these classes as “genders” at all is a product of historical circumstance rather than linguistic necessity. There is nothing inherently feminine about aqua (“water”) or masculine about rivus (“stream”). From a purely morphological perspective, we could dump the very concept of grammatical gender and call these groups “noun classes,” which is apparently the usual term for them in Bantu languages.

Take advantage of that lower workload in between exam periods to make good notes, clean your house, get work experience and do the things then rather than when you’re busier

Use Highlighters instead of pens to save time. Or vice versa depending on you

Change the timing in the pomodoro technique to suit you rather than the other way round

Use a planner to 

Work out what time of day you study best. You could get up and study in the morning if you’re that sort of person

Attend your tutor or form sessions. Even if you don’t do much in them, you can

Keep your planner small and carry it everywhere

Even better, put your planner on your phone

 Don’t sulk if you fail, look back at why you failed and try to improve

If you get distracted by wanting to do something when you should be focusing, write it down. It gives you a checklist of things to do later

Do these things on the checklist in your study breaks

Answer questions without your teaching asking you to

Read about your subjects outside of your classes, especially in high school

Sit at the front of the class room

Don’t sit by yourself in class

Get an early nights sleep

Or at least use sleepytime to get a good time frame

On school days when you wake up, get up straight away, it stops you lazing about

Work hard from the start of the year. There isn’t a time to slack off

Try spaced repititon for learning key facts or a revision schedule

Have snacks and a drink during study sessions. Preferably water.

Summarise and make all your notes onto smaller bits of paper for revision, it helps you cognise what the important facts are

To avoid study stress, take breaks and avoid studying for more than two hours a day

It’s also good to have a day where you don’t study at all once a week

Don’t schedule too far in advance, you’ll just get busy in the meantime or change your methods

When you’re feeling too stressed to work properly but not studying stresses you out, do easier tasks like reviewing flashcards or watching videos on your course

Do as much of your work in school as possible

Prioritise your classes. Especially if you have loads

Make any big habit changes you’ve been thinking of at the start of a term or new year

Study a little before bed, you’ve probably seen that study that says you remember more just before bed

Only make flashcards of the things that you don’t get or are important, not everything

Use online sites like Brainscape, Memrise, Anki or Quizlet for flashcards between devices

Print off your powerpoint slides before a lesson

If you can’t do that, read ahead in the textbook

The syllabus is your guide, so use that as a framework for your revision notes

Your stress and nerves are normal, don’t worry

Aim to finish your revision a week before your exams, it makes you start earlier and finish earlier, you also can rest before your exam

When you pick your subjects, choose the subjects you love

Don’t drink alcohol when you’re studying or any type of drug

Don’t listen to how much everyone is studying. A lot of people big it up or say they do none, usually both aren’t being truthful

Take messy notes in class and neaten them up later

Or take your notes online or on a computer

Have a folder to put your loose sheets and handouts in

Keep your to do list and schedule all in one place, whether that’s a book, app or phone

If you fall behind or are ill a lot, your classmates are your friends for a realistic description of what you’ve missed

When at school, know all the places you’d like to study in case one of them is busy

Don’t work in your bed if it makes you tired

Or work in your bed if all your seats are uncomfortable and it’s distracting

Don’t have too much coffee! And energy drinks are just terrible for you so maybe not have those either

You don’t have to be truthful to your actual opinion in essays, just go for what option has the most points

Listen to your teacher

Have your window open, the fresh air helps

Use practice papers and questions, they really help

Try to teach others as well or if you can’t, explain it in your own words to yourself

Combine more than one technique, so that the weaknesses of each method gets covered by another

Seriously just listen to your teachers

Check your emails every day

Set realistic goals and try not to be too harsh and unrealistic about the time you’ll spend achieving these as well

Use loud and annoying alarms to get you to do things

If you have to read, read out loud rather than in your head

Use a hair tie if you have long hair to keep it out of your face

Keep clean and get dressed for studying

Don’t waste your term making your notes pretty, if it helps, make sure the benefits outweigh the time problems

Study when you can. Don’t study if you’re too exhausted to do so.

Keep your desk as clean as you can

Know your sources of motivation. Possibly find a way to put that in your study space.

Attend as many classes as possible and don’t skip

Keep yourself busy with stuff that isn’t studying

Reward yourself for your hard work

Before you go back to school, start to wake up earlier so you’re ready

Wear comfortable clothes to school

Or wear whatever makes you feel good, feeling bad can be pretty distracting

Always think about the next step early, whether thats getting work experience, choosing subjects, finding a job or picking a thesis

Always eat breakfast

And always eat lunch too! Especially at school

Do whatever is best for you. Don’t follow a studyblr trend, do what’s best for you.

Make your studying a habit. Do it nearly every day for a long time and it’ll begin to feel more like second nature

Get to know your teachers if you can

And don’t be afraid to ask them for help outside of a lesson, either by email or afterwards, it helps a lot 

Look at the types of questions you often get wrong as well as the topics you keep missing out on 

Keep a spare bit of food in your bag, I usually have some sesame snaps in my bag as a small snack so I don’t have to get up to get food

Make productive friends and people with similar goals to you

When revising, revise everything and then focus on your weak points

Don’t spend too long on tumblr, and if you are right now, then this is your reminder to log off!

Don’t panic when you don’t know all the answers in a test, do you really need 100%?

Break your studying into smaller bits and spread it out over time to avoid headaches, burnout and all the problems that come with it

Eat better. Get enough fruit and vegetables

Don’t forget about Protein, from meats, nuts, etc. it helps a lot

If you’re falling asleep in class, I usually drink water, pinch myself, take lots of notes and fidget to keep myself up

Regularly clear out your bag, because a lot of stuff builds up

If you’re a more artistic person, use drawings like visual notes, mindmaps, timelines and literal drawings to help you study

If you study with a friend, quiz each other

Study on public transport if you can, notes and flashcards on phones are good for this

Don’t neglect any of your subjects, make sure they all get some time spent on them

Also focus beyond your first exam, it’s easy to overprepare for the first test and then not be ready for the rest

When taking a test look through it quickly before hand

Remember you don’t have to take the test in order

Review your notes all the time, review helps the memory

If you want to pull an all-nighter see if you can do it in the morning or day instead, and don’t do it the night before anything important

Always look at the details, especially if you get a mark-scheme or guide for your assignments

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Making websites easier to digest:

Dark Reader - Changes any webpage to dark mode.

Mercury Reader - Simplifies the layout of any webpage to eliminate distractions and irritating formatting.

Podcastle AI - Turns any article into a podcast. This is a lifesaver for being able to process what I’m reading, to be honest.

Spelling/grammar:

LanguageTool - Spelling and grammar check for those of us who regularly type in more than one language.

Grammarly - Spelling and grammar check for those of us who only type in English. Can be used with LanguageTool installed, which is what I do.

Google Dictionary - Define any word on the webpage with a double-click.

Google Translate - Translate an entire webpage or even just a short segment.

Misc:

AdGuard Adblocker - After trying quite a few adblocker options, this is the one I find the best.

The Great Suspender - Automatically suspend inactive tabs to help with performance. <- as an edit, I don’t believe this is available anymore

Honey - Try coupon codes automatically to save money on online purchases.

i would start with phonetics, you can easily find videos on youtube like these ones: vowel sounds, consonant sounds, more

then you could try the app duolingo, just to get a general idea, but i do advise you pair that with a textbook to learn grammar and vocabulary more comprehensively. i'm not sure what your native language is but you can find quite a few textbooks in different languages for free online (z-library as well), for example this one for english speakers

other resources: learn italian with lucrezia youtube channel, mondadori italian for foreigners, BBC - learn italian, italian vocabulary, italian verbs conjugator

artemis and aphrodite are the classic madonna (virgin) and the whore

athena is deliberately stripped of her femininity in order to be goddess of wisdom, springing fully formed from zeus’ head instead of being born from a woman

hera is the jealous, vindictive ball and chain, etc etc.

and the kicker? pandora was a revamped character from an older myth, in which she created every single thing in the universe, good and bad. she didn’t just open a box and ruin everything by not being able to follow orders. pandora literally means “all-giving”. and in the greek mythology we know today, she’s the first woman on earth and manages to fuck things up for everyone. sound familiar? like eve, maybe?

Things that this post gets entirely right:

Greek mythology is deliberately patriarchal (which should be obvious, because it was written by people living in a patriarchal culture, so of course it reflects their values)

myths changed with time

Pandora had another, more positive role

Ancient Greece is given more attention than other, equally deserving cultures

the OP doesn’t have sources

That’s it. That’s literally it. As for the things that this post gets wrong, let’s take it step by step:

1. Pre-Greek matriarchal religion, “nearly all traces of which were systematically erased”

This pre-Greek matriarchy is usually identified with the Minoans of Crete, who depicted many women in prominent positions in their art. Unfortunately, as I’ve outlined before, this isn’t enough to prove that the Minoans had a matriarchal society and religion. What’s more, the Minoan script (Linear A) remains undeciphered to this day. So until the Minoans can tell us about their myths, beliefs, and social hierarchy in their own voices, I’ll be very skeptical about anyone who claims they were definitely matriarchal (or patriarchal, for that matter).

As for their traces being “systematically erased”, I can only laugh. The Minoans (like the Pelasgians, i.e. the pre-Greek people of the Greek mainland) weren’t erased. The Mycenaean Greeks eventually took over Crete, but Minoan civilisation continued to exist, and many cultural and religious elements were incorporated into Mycenaean society - including writing. From an article about an early Mycenaean tomb:

The griffin warrior’s grave at Pylos offers a radical new perspective on the relationship between the two societies and thus on Europe’s cultural origins. As in previously discovered shaft graves, the objects themselves are a cross-cultural mix. For instance, the boar tusk helmet is typically Mycenaean, but the gold rings, which are rich with Minoan religious imagery and are on their own a hugely significant find for scholars, says Davis, reflect artifacts previously found on Crete.

(…) This has led Davis and Stocker to favor the idea that the two cultures became entwined at a very early stage. It’s a conclusion that fits recent suggestions that regime change on Crete around the time the mainland palaces went up, which traditionally corresponds to the decline of Minoan civilization, may not have resulted from the aggressive invasion that historians have assumed. The later period on Knossos might represent something more like “an EU in the Aegean,” says Bennet, of the British School at Athens. Minoans and Mycenaean Greeks would surely have spoken each other’s languages, may have intermarried and likely adopted and refashioned one another’s customs. And they may not have seen themselves with the rigid identities we moderns have tended to impose on them.

TL;DR: The Mycenaeans didn’t erase Minoan religion. They liked it, and syncretised it with their own.

The only reason many of these Minoan beliefs vanished was due to the Late Bronze Age collapse, which saw the end of Mycenaean Greece and Minoan-Mycenaean Crete. Many elements of early Greek civilisation were lost, or preserved in fragments thanks to mythology and epic poetry. This collapse was obviously not a systematic erasure, but a widespread destruction of civilisations, caused by foreign invasion, drought and famine, internal revolts, earthquakes, or a combination of the above. Eric Cline’s book 1177 BC: The Year Civilisation Collapsed (2014) is an excellent discussion of the topic.

2. Earlier versions of Greek myths

Any time someone mentions the “pre-patriarchal” or “original” version of a myth, be skeptical. Be very skeptical.

The problem with these “original” myths is that we have little to nothing to base them on. Their reconstruction is a theory - often a modern feminist theory - not a certainty. I should also point out, as @rembrandtswife​ did, that Lost Goddesses of Ancient Greece is “basically AU fanfic of the Greek mythology we have”. It’s retellings and speculation, not earlier myths that we can confirm existed.

You know what are earlier myths that we can confirm existed? Mesopotamian and Anatolian myths. These have been extensively studied, and it’s been shown time and time again that they influenced Greek mythology - especially Homer and Hesiod. Martin West’s The East Face of Helicon (1997) and Mary Bachvarova’s From Hittite to Homer (2016) are good introductions to the topic. Here’s a recording I made which shows obvious parallels between the Babylonian Enuma Elish, the Hurrian-Hittite Song of Kumarbi, and Hesiod’s Theogony. Looks pretty different from the modern speculative retellings, doesn’t it?

This isn’t to say that there weren’t earlier myths in which women had different, more influential and positive roles. Pandora does in fact fit into this category: her names (Pandora, “all-giving”, and Anesidora, “sending up gifts”), as well as ancient sources (scholia on Aristophanes’ Birds being one example), attest to her originally being an earth deity. Hesiod is well-known for his misogyny, so him transforming her into a mortal woman and giving her a negative role makes sense. However, I would advise against applying this theory more broadly, and taking it as proof that there was a widespread revamping of female deities to make them fit patriarchal ideals. I would especially advise against taking any of this as confirmed fact, when the “original” myths themselves are lost.

3. The Gods as archetypes

I am personally very against interpreting the Gods as archetypes (i.e. Artemis as madonna, Aphrodite as whore, etc). There are far, far more aspects to them than these, and reducing them to single-word descriptions erases the complex reality of Greek mythology (and religion, while we’re at it).

What’s more, these archetypal interpretations are incredibly modern and don’t reflect Ancient Greek perceptions. The idea that Athena is “deliberately stripped of her femininity” because she is not born from a woman, for one, sounds very much like late 20th century radical feminism. (I’d also love to know if Typhon, who was born from Hera alone (see the Homeric Hymn to Apollon), was “stripped of his masculinity” for the same reason.) But more broadly, these Jungian-like archetypes correspond perfectly to 19th century views, which liked to fit the Gods into neat categories. Most notoriously, Apollon, who represented order and enlightenment, was opposed to Dionysos, who represented chaos and madness. Thanks Nietzsche.

I’ve said this before, but to interpret Greek mythology, we need to look for Greek sources. Not the theories of a 19th century philosopher. Not the speculation of a 20th century feminist. If the Gods were viewed as complex figures in Ancient Greece, then we need to study them as complex figures. Simple as that.

4. Why we are taught Greek mythology, aka “the reason the modern West is so obsessed with Greek mythology specifically is that it aligns so closely with our own patriarchal values”

Actually, no. If you think Greek mythology aligns closely with our own values, then you’ve been reading retellings and Mythology 101 books, not the original texts. (Or, alternatively, you’re very confused about what modern society’s values are.) Here is an abridged list of gender-related values from Ancient Greece that we don’t share:

female identity is tied to weaving

rape can only happen in the countryside or in deserted places

men who cry openly are still manly

marriage is between a 15-year-old girl and a 30-year-old man

funerals are women’s business

it’s okay to have gay sex if you’re a top

wearing boots and being a shopkeeper is unmanly

and more

The more you study Ancient Greece and read the texts themselves (preferably in the original language, so as to avoid as much modern bias as possible), the more you realise how different the Ancient Greeks were from us. This is a foreign culture with foreign values. Yes, a lot of it is familiar, too - much of European civilisation has its roots in Ancient Greece, hence why it aligns with a certain number of our values. But claiming that the ideas promoted in Greek mythology are virtually identical to our own is doing a disservice to the rich, unique culture that was Ancient Greece.

So why do we focus on it so much, as opposed to other cultures? Unfortunately, this is because of how history played out. Ancient Greece highly influenced Rome, which went on to conquer most of Europe; many countries went on to claim it as their ancestor, from the Ottoman Empire to the Napoleonic Empire to Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, other cultures which had influenced Ancient Greece itself (and therefore modern Western culture) disappeared: the Hittites of Anatolia had been virtually forgotten since the Late Bronze Age, Mesopotamia was on its way out by the first century AD, and Ancient Egypt by the beginning of the Middle Ages.

As a result, a lot of emphasis is put on Ancient Greek (and Roman) culture when in reality, we don’t owe much more to it than to the Sumerians. I absolutely think that we should study other cultures more. I also absolutely think that the fact we don’t has nothing to with patriarchal values.

5. Sources, aka “I don’t have sources because I learned this in a college class like 3 years ago”

Okay, so I have nothing against people taking electives in college and posting about what they learnt. By all means, do so. But it becomes a problem when people start reblogging without fact-checking or thinking twice about information that is presented without sources, by someone with very little experience in the field, and lathered in rhetoric.

Speaking of rhetoric, other people have pointed it out in the comments, but the person who shared the Lost Goddesses of Ancient Greece book is a TERF. This obviously doesn’t mean OP is a TERF as well (I had a look through their blog and they seem not to be), but you may want to think about what ideas the LGoAG person is encouraging here, as well as what could appeal to a TERF in this post, and consider whether that’s something you want to align yourself with.

A lot of novels set in that time period revolve around the Trojan War, or at least include it (hence the “trouble brewing between Greece and Anatolia” in my post). As a result, bear in mind that most of the books listed below combine history with mythology, sometimes to an excellent, accurate effect, sometimes… a little bit less well. In any case, here are all the books set in the Late Bronze Age that I have read, as many as I can recall:

The Troy trilogy by David Gemmell*: a retelling of the Trojan War and the events surrounding it, also featuring the Thera eruption, the Uluburun shipwreck, and Moses and the Twelve Plagues of Egypt. Has a large cast and shifting POVs, but focuses mainly on Andromache and Aeneas (Helikaon). Well-researched and highly entertaining. 9/10

Ransom by David Malouf: a short but intense retelling of Priam and Achilles’ encounter in Book 24 of the Iliad. Emotional, reflective, and really brings this small (but important) moment to life from the perspective of both characters. 9/10

Circe by Madeleine Miller*: a novel revolving around (surprisingly) Circe, also featuring less popularly retold myths like Prometheus stealing fire, the Minotaur, and Daedalus and Icarus. Very well-written, refreshing and entertaining. I’m currently reading it so can’t say more than that, but so far I’m enjoying it. 8/10

I the Sun by Janet Morris*: the only novel set in the Hittite kingdom that I know of, told from the perspective of Šuppiluliuma I. Very immersive and accurate (at least at the time it was written). Unfortunately also quite graphic, with some sexual violence and a sometimes very unlikable main character. I personally still like the book because of its setting and writing style. 8/10

The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller*: a retelling of - guess what - the Trojan War, told from Patroclus’ perspective and focusing on his relationship with Achilles. Very well-written and immersive. Not always great when it comes to character depictions (its portrayal of Patroclus as entirely sweet and pure has received some criticism, which I agree with to some extent). 7/10

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker: a retelling of the Iliad (with some passages clearly inspired by Euripides’ Trojan Women) from the perspective of Briseis. Also includes Achilles’ perspective later on. Has a few anachronisms. Gritty, sometimes too graphic, echoes the modern #MeToo movement in many ways. 7/10

Kassandra by Christa Wolf: yet another a retelling of the Trojan War, this time from the perspective of Cassandra. Very well-written, with some interesting reinterpretations. I read it a long time ago in German so can’t comment much more than that, but I remember liking it. 7/10

The Gods and Warriors series by Michelle Paver: a children’s series bordering on fantasy, revolving around a Mycenaean shepherd boy and a Minoan priestess’ daughter. Excellent descriptions of the setting, though it doesn’t have as much of a Late Bronze Age “feel” as some of the other books on this list. 7/10

Red River by Chie Shinohara: a manga about a Japanese teenager who gets transported to Hittite Anatolia and falls in love with prince Muršili (Kail). Sometimes surprisingly accurate, often completely off-the-marks, always entertaining. I’m currently reading it and have a liveblog here. 6/10

The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley: the worst retelling of the Trojan War I have ever read. Flat, preachy, unnecessarily graphic, and doesn’t feel like the Late Bronze Age at all. More of my opinion on it here. I do NOT recommend it. 1/10

Like come on:  

“And for thyself, may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires; a husband and a home may they grant thee, and oneness of heart—a goodly gift. For nothing is greater or better than this, when man and wife dwell in a home in one accord, a great grief to their foes and a joy to their friends; but they know it best themselves.” (Odyssey Book 6)