Paleothea: the Ancient Goddess

I’ve been playing around with favicons recently - you know, those little things that pop up in the left corner of your browser’s address line - and I’m a little excited to finally have found something I kinda dig. It’s sort of a “P” (as in paleo) with sort of a “t” (as in thea) in the same line, but sort of suggesting the symbol for women as well without beating you over the head with it. I hope. It’s mostly for me, but feel free to tell me how neato it is, too.

The icon is made thanks to Steve Cooley Presents, by the way, in case you also have a Mac and want to (oh-so-easily) make your own such thing.

I was gonna write a better entry than this, but again with the family and the craziness. I’ll be back with the normal in about a week.

Dear student,

I am flattered that after looking at my site for maybe 45 seconds, you have decided that your paper would be improved by my help. Therefore, I try not to ignore you when you email me asking for help. However, I would like to offer you a few guidelines for your future petitions for assistance:

1) “Tell me all you know about Amazons” (or “Greek Goddesses” or a major goddess like, say, Athena) should not be the main thrust of your request. All I know about [your ridiculously broad project topic here] could fill a number of books. In fact, it DOES fill a number of books and they are sitting on my shelf. If this is as it appears, and you know absolutely nothing about the subject you are covering whatsoever, do me the favor of reading what I have already taken the time to publish on it before emailing me.

2) Please DO tell me what you already know, and give me at least a general sense of what direction you want to go in. Will you be more or less giving a general summary to your teacher? Are you planning on writing a myth of your own with Amazons/Greek Goddesses/Athena as the main character? Are you planning a research paper on a more specific topic and ifso, what is the general thrust of your thesis? In other words, the more specific, the better.

3) If you have actually got more specific questions (which is great!) please do not make it glaringly obvious that you have actually just transposed the worksheet that was your homework. I will not be responding to emails asking me, “Please list the following: give a brief description of each of the Olympian gods and include their symbols, what their powers are, and what year they were born.”*

4) Although it is sort of hilarious, please refrain from cussing at me in your request.

I’m sure there are other points to remember, but these jump immediately to mind. Of course, there are similar guidelines for people who email me asking me stuff like “what’s your name and how do I cite you” - but that’s already laid out for you in the FAQ, and if your not looking there the chances of you looking here seem slim to none. I feel I should also tell you, dear student, that while many of you actually do write me great questions that I could easily answer, I am not ALWAYS available to write back that very hour. Thus, if your report is due at 9:00 AM Monday and you are writing me a 10:00 PM Sunday, you are very likely to be SOL.

Yours truly,

Ailia Athena

*P.S. What year the gods were born is generally a very silly question anyway. Think about it for a second.

So, in case it wasn’t terribly obvious, the whole “Sing, Goddess” thing comes from the first phrase found in so many ancient Greek hymns and even epic poems (like the Iliad). The idea is that the Muse/Goddess would be relating the story that follows.

But the thing is, I’m not sure that it’s really doing the trick in terms of telling people what I do here, so I’m experimenting. As I write this, I’m trying on “Blog of the Ancient Goddess” for size (the name “Paleothea” more or less meaning “ancient goddess”), but I am TOTALLY OPEN to other ideas.

I beg you, dear reader, what do YOU think this blog should be named?

ETA: Although I am totally tempted to go with “Goddess Panties,” I’m currently trying out Paleothea: the Ancient Goddess. Still open to suggestion, though!

Yay! My new Gallery is up! I’m not sure how many images were in the last one but it was really tough for me to add new ones because of the funky code (did I mention that I don’t use programs to code the website? I don’t. Barring this whole blog thingie, of course). But now the CSS gods have smiled on me and the whole thing seems to be working out well. Also I finally added Salmacis to the Nymphs page.

So, go check out the 529+ images that are now there, and if you see any mistakes (I’m sure there are plenty I have missed), please let me know!

Here’s a teaser. My favorite image (for today, anyway) is a painting of the Goddess of the Hunt and one of her dogs. Who is the artist? There will be a prize to the first correct commenter.

So, there’s a brand new quiz to take. I admit, it’s all female monsters, but then, this is a site for women in Greek myths …

I would love feedback on the quizzes. Do you like them? Do you want more? What would you change? Which one do you like best and why?

Go take it!

P.S. I’m the Sphinx!