Part 4 of The Constellations has arrived. You can read it here.
I don’t see why you’d read this blog post without reading the story, I must say. However, in summary, Hebe Conway runs freelance security jobs for water transports on Mining World 29-160-13001-2 (fondly known as Slag-off 2 to its inhabitants). Tune in for her latest bar fight; sometimes opportunity doesn’t come knocking- it comes brawling.
Damn, I should put that on a bumper sticker or a t-shirt. And sell them.
Sometimes opportunity doesn’t come knocking- it comes brawling.
-DLR
Right. Now that we’ve recovered from that display of my dazzling brilliance, we can continue with the blog post.
The constellation from which the story draws its inspiration is Aquarius, the Water Bearer or Water Carrier- in particular, from the ancient Greek mythology about the constellation.
I took a lot of Classics courses at university, okay?
Source: http://www.AlltheSky.com
Allegedly, this represents a person pouring water from an urn.
Maybe it will if I drink heavily.
Anyways, Aquarius was recognized as a constellation way back in the day, and there are bucketloads of myths associated with it, which I will cherrypick.
The Babylonians saw it as Ea (a major Mesopotamian god, associated with water).
The ancient Greeks identified Aquarius with Deucalion (see Book 1 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses for how Deucalion and Pyrrha survived a flood and re-started the human race from stones, which is why we are so tough and capable of enduring hard labor… has a nice parallel in “Aquarius,” don’t you think?) or with Zeus (who was pouring water into Eridanus [the River, an upcoming constellation]).
[Side note: Aquarius lives in a region of the sky that the ancients called “the Sea” or “the Water,” with a whole lot of other water-associated constellations like Eridanus and Cetus. Stories upcoming. ]
Mostly, though, the ancient Greeks identified Aquarius with Ganymede, the gods’ cupbearer. Clutch your pearls- it’s a sordid tale. Ganymede, a beautiful Trojan prince, was busy watching sheep in a field. Zeus became infatuated with him, turned into an eagle, and abducted him. Alternatively, Zeus sent an eagle to abduct him; the eagle is represented by the constellation Aquila (our next one!). Ganymede replaced Hebe (Zeus’s daughter) as the gods’ cupbearer on Mount Olympus. Zeus paid off Ganymede’s father, King Tros, with some horses, or a golden vine in alternate versions. The myth of Ganymede got bandied about rather a lot as the ancient Greeks talked about their peculiar brand of homosexuality. And that is a-whole-nother uncomfortable blog post that I intend to never write.
I find the tale of Ganymede and Zeus rather appalling (as, in fact, I find most of the myths about Zeus- who’d want that whackjob for a god?- but the Greeks were odd birds). I mentioned Hebe, who married Herakles (Hercules, for you Disney fans; also an upcoming constellation), which prompted her retirement from the cupbearing gig.
Well.
Leave it to the medieval Christian religious loonies in the Church of England to take a bad story and make it worse. Rather than accepting the ancient Greeks’ story that Hebe retired after she got married (a reflection of how their culture worked, with respect to girls waiting table), they decided to moralize things. Hebe, they said, tripped while serving, which dragged down her clothes and *gasp* let everyone at dinner see her birthday suit. Clutch my pearls and shut your mouth! For this horrible act of exposing herself, Hebe was shamed and dismissed.
A terrible story. Perfectly unrealistic. I mean, have you not read anything about these Greek gods? Lunacy. At least in the modern age, we throw money at women when they take their clothes off. Far more sensible thing to do with women in a state of undress, I say.
Some day we’re going to talk about what the ancient Greeks believed about lettuce.
Not today. Our discussion has been disturbing enough.
So.
Since I didn’t much fancy the Ganymede myth, or the rewrite of Hebe’s retirement, I decided to shake things up in “Aquarius.” There are water carriers, it stars Hebe (Hebe for Cupbearer 2020! Ganymede is not my cupbearer!), and she gets a fair shake. It’s ancient Greek mythology crossed with a Western. In space.
Bet you never thought you’d be reading that.
Fun fact: despite what the hippies said, the Age of Aquarius doesn’t start for another 600 years. It’s the Age of Aries right now (“An astrological age is identified by the name of the constellation in which the vernal equinox (the position of the Sun on the first day of spring, about March 21) is located.” -Mark Chartrand), and, yes, there is an upcoming story inspired by the constellation Aries.
There is something called a “green bean galaxy” located in Aquarius. Forget the actual definition- just imagine an entire galaxy of green beans. I find it oddly comforting.
Damn it, now I’m hungry.
Sleep well, my lovelies.