Hey! I was really into Greek mythology in middle school. And high school. Even got a minor in college. I even have a set of Greek/Roman mythology tattoos!
Oh wait… I am gay. Fuck.
You’re in good company buddy. Don’t have the tattoo but I did have one planned. How can they blame us when half the mythological Greeks are just half (at least) naked hunks?
“I just like the stories, Mom!!!” Lol
TIL I’m gay? I actually carried around a copy of D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths in my backpack, and I have basically zero attraction to other men. Then again, I was over it by high school, so maybe that’s why I’m not gay.
I love that book. I still have a copy. That said, it is an incredibly sanitized version of what the Greeks actually believed because every bit of the sex is cut out and it’s basically 90% sex.
I’m planning to get a tattoo of the Kyparissos myth… for reasons
for reasons
you kill puppies?
Maybe I’m the puppy :'(
For me it just happened to be the same time that the percy jackson series came out
Roman history is amazing. Everybody hears of Julius Caesar and maybe Trajan and Hadrian but then pretend that nothing happened after that. Like poof, it was dead, inevitable, Franks and Caliphates are now a thing.
Then when you realise how much Rome had to screw itself over to even get to that point while being struck by famines, massive migratory invasions, the huns while still being in a moderately good shape… That’s the good stuff. The story of the fall is a marble being chipped away slowly while telling a beautiful story until there is nothing left of the Western Roman Empire. If Rome had a favorite hobby it would be waging war on itself.
Eastern Roman Empire was alive and kicking until the 1450’s and if you think there’s not much there then look up Justinian’s restoration. They even had horseback archers like the mongols and huns for a while that had to train for many years. Hell, even look at a map that goes back some years pre-caliphate period.
Even as recently as 1912 there were people in the Aegean islands that identified as Roman. I wish there would be a series that would cover the history of Rome properly and not just “CaEsAr KiLlEd gAuLs aNd sExEd cLeOpAtRa” for the billionth time.
It’s really a shame that even figures such as the Gracchi brothers (or really any of the pre-Caesar Populares figures) are hardly ever brought up as well, although I guess I can’t be too surprised that radical social reformers are being left out.
I’ve always thought the mid-late Roman Republic was more interesting than the imperial era, and the Gracchi are easily the most fascinating chapter. Noble aristocrats becoming populist ideologues, the increasingly bitter struggle over creaky governmental norms (like their weaponization of the tribunal veto to shut down the city), the introduction of political violence. Very instructive for our current era, imho.
I recently got through “The storm before the storm” by Mike Duncan. Very entertaining, if nothing else, seeing every “that doesn’t sound good” pay off.
I want an HBO miniseries on Scipio Africanus vs Hannibal.
Then I want another HBO mini-series on the Flavian dynasty. The eruption of Vesuvius, the first (?) Jewish rebellion, and the questionable conquest of Brittania all happened under Titus. I would love to see a dramatic reenactment of the Romans absolutely losing their minds at how fucking cursed their empire suddenly was.
off topic.
Look up the old BBC series ‘I, Claudius.’ Based on the Robert Graves novels, Featuring Brian Blessed as Augustus and Patrick Stewart as Sirjanus
I, Claudius is absolutely terrific and I’ve seen it more than once, but it is incredibly historically inaccurate.
If it’s “Game of Thrones”-like intrigue the people want, a miniseries about the Severan dynasty would kick ass. Let’s see what we get in just three generations or so:
-Year of the five emperors, with Septimius Severus coming out the victor and establishing the dynasty after a five-way civil war.
-Two brothers, co-emperors, who can’t stand the sight of each other with their mother mediating between them, with one eventually killing the other WITH THEIR MOTHER IN THE ROOM.
-Caracalla then gets killed while on campaign by the brother of a soldier he had executed.
-A grandmother putting a specific grandson on the throne, then changing her mind, having him and her own daughter KILLED and replaced with another grandson & his mother.
-The first grandson being, quite probably, the first trans emperor/ruler in ancient history, with immensely, uh, interesting consequences.
-The “Good” grandson becoming a successful and celebrated emperor, only to be killed by his own troops after trying to buy off peace with the Germanic tribes, thereby kicking off the crisis of the 3rd century which would need several miniseries in and of itself to really tell all its tales…
This is so true, the Severan dynasty is so much more intriguing politically than the Julio-Claudians.
Personally though, I’m sick of historical/fantasy political thrillers. I just want a sort of black comedy set around the Year of the Four Emperors and the Flavians. It’s actually absurd just HOW MUCH goes wrong for Rome, with a lot of it just due to natural phenomena or things out of their control.
“A fucking volcano? You serious??”
British history podcast is very nice for the history of Brittania. It covers the whole period and is very accurate.
Like poof, it was dead
I wish, so much of history (and especially people talking about history) is just recounting Greco-Roman history or trying to embody it. Even American nationalism feels like Roman nationalism v4.3.
I’m rather sick of everyone and everything trying to connect themselves to something roman or greek, then stopping dead. Everyone and their dog has a latin motto, multiple fields are all but written in latin, and that pantheon is the first and often only stop for mythology names; you’d think Caligula was still out there banging his worries away.
Anyway, y’all should look up my boy Gilgamesh.
I wish there would be a series that would cover the history of Rome properly
you mean like Mike Duncan’s The History of Rome?
I finished that one. It’s the GOAT history podcast.
Well, maybe you can continue with this then:
https://youtube.com/@TheHistoryofByzantiumPodcast?feature=shared
Robin takes over just when Mike stops. It’s a great podcast and it’s now reached the point right around 1204AD (spoilers)…
Hope you enjoy!
Currently enjoying it a lot, I’m currently at the Macedonian dynasty. Robin is great. :)
Even during “the Decline and Fall” there was plenty going on that was just people living their lives – it’s not like every place was being pillaged and everyone was being slaughtered all at once. And there were plenty of centuries before then full of fascinating history with lessons for today, and that’s just the stuff that we know about.
Shared this with my wife whose field is classical anthropology
Idk how im going to tell my wife im gay
She knows man
Welcome to bisexuality
Get your boyfriend to tell her boyfriend.
Can’t tell if it’s funnier if you’re a guy or a gal
I don’t know how to tell my wife I’m a swan.
If her name is Leda, she’ll be cool with it.
But babe, you said you were a carbonari sandwich!!
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“I like Viking stuff”
Might be just into Norse mythology. Might be into Nazis.
I loved all the Viking / Norse shit when I was younger. Comics, games, etc, I couldn’t get enough.
But then I started talking to people who followed that aesthetic and was disappointed by exactly 100% of them.
Still love the games. Lost Vikings, Rune, GoW, etc
Maps to the west, assicles, etc.
I like this band named Heilung, which has some Viking-ish costumes and lore etc. (although more like Conan’s Hyperborea). They have to put a disclaimer at the start of their videos which is basically a politer version of “Nazi punks fuck off”.
disclaimer at the start of their videos which is basically a politer version of “Nazi punks fuck off”.
The whole scene has been doing that since what 70 years or so now. After the war some groups of people started seriously wondering about what civilisation is, how it’s very much not rooted in whether or not you wear a suit or not, and started looking for roots. The old Germanic roots were at that time actually out of the question: The Nazis had appropriated and bent them to their brand of insanity, but Karl May existed and with the US there were actual Indians in Germany in the form of GIs. Cultural exchange happened, pretty much unnoticed by the general population, and with that came knowledge: Tradition is not the praying to the ashes, but the passing of the fire, that exchange helped people find genuine embers, small as they were. Once people started to flame the symbols of those embers Nazis came along and wanted to be part of it and promptly were told to fuck off – not just out of a general antifascist stance but also because Nazis, in particular, were the ones who poisoned the little that was left after Christianisation. Then time moved on and a lot happened. Baudrillard, for one. Bear with me:
You might’ve noticed that Heilung doesn’t have Germanic symbology front and left and centre – it’s not about the, or any, symbology. They’re not Asatru or something, their costumes and historical references go back further than the Norse (pretty much as far as they can). About the closest you get is song titles written in runic alphabet and some consistent choices in graphic design looking quite like Nordic carvings – but none of that is religious stuff as-such.
From what I can tell Nazis don’t actually try to get a piece of that particular pie: It’s not to their liking. They like their symbols, their flags to rally around, their fetishes, to distract themselves from realising what they’re actually doing. The “Nazi punks fuck off” part is there for people stumbling across it, vibing with it, and wondering whether it’s kosher. Yes, yes it very much is. They’re plain and simply modern shamans who happen to be history nerds, and western esotericism has been post-structural for long enough now that the lack of symbolic system shouldn’t really surprise, c.f. e.g. Chaos Magick. They write and perform rituals to speak to parts of the psyche that what we call civilisation may have forgotten, but certainly not the genome. That, you know, one great being that was always there.
Check out Brothers of Metal!
Or Norwegian were this is legitimate part of our culture and thought in primary school.
I am ex Norwegian Army, and we still use Norse imagery on unit insignias. And half sport tons of Norse ink.
100% into metal and might have poor hygiene.
“The sengoku period is so interesting”: this person is a massive weeb. I would know.
How many animes have you seen with Oda Nobunaga in them?
Actually him and not a cute or buff girl with his name? None.
Not the answer I was looking for, but just as telling
For real though you should read: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/SengokuKomachiKurouTan
*sweating* Haha yeah, I also enjoyed that new Dragonball z movie.
Me learning the names of the involved warlords with Pokémon…
“I’ve read the Book of Five Rings”
This person is a weeb who likes swords
“I’m really into WW2 artifact collecting!”
Only collects things associated with Wehrmacht / SS
Yeaaaah, buddy, collector you are!
What’s crazy is I have a Jewish coworker just like this… and I’m not sure what to make of it. But he voted for trump, so now I’m like… “Ehhhh. I don’t think I like this guy”.
I used to date a girl that had basically grown up in the antique shop that her father owned. It was amazing - we would watch Antiques Roadshow and she knew what everything was and almost exactly what the experts would say it was worth every time. After her father died she ended up with a ton of stuff in her house, and one day I went over there to find she had put up an “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer!” poster from the 1930s featuring good ol’ Adolf above the fireplace. She wasn’t pro-Hitler or anything, just thought it was an interesting bit of history. I was like “babe, c’mon, we want to keep our friends”.
I mean at least there’s an explanation that makes sense, but yeah that last part 😬
The opposite is kind of weird too. My late Jewish father was absolutely obsessed with the Holocaust. He had virtually every book ever written on the subject. There was a room in the house my mother and I called (much to his chagrin) ‘The Holocaust Room’ because of the vast number of books on the Holocaust there were inside it.
He did have sort of a reason for his obsession. He was in London from age 7 on through the war because his parents didn’t evacuate him and he spend the years 1939-1945 waiting for the Nazis to invade and put him in a concentration camp. So it made sense to me, but it was still going pretty overboard.
He saw Shoah more than once. It’s 566 minutes long.
It’s the same as gay conservatives.
You don’t want to overthink it else your brain explodes.
I don’t, but I’m also morbidly curious? Lol
My last boss was like this.
I loved listening to him when he brought up how his family was in WW2, his stories about his dad was a pilot in WW2 fighting Japan, and all the various battles in Europe.
Then after a few years of trust, he showed me all of the “nazi memorabilia”. On one end, I’m a color person, so he must have really trusted me. On the other, wtf. Kinda feigned interest after that and moved jobs after a year.
OK hear me out, what if the reason I like WW2 history is because there’s a lot of kicking nazi ass
Or to write lore accurate day in the life of a 40k human soldier
The WW1 trenches are also very rich with inspiration, and the Napoleonic era Sharpe books have influenced quite a few Black Library books if you want more to read
Thanks for reminding me that I need to finish the Sharpe miniseries.
Ah yes, Sharpe also exists as a movie serie with Sean Bean! That slipped my mind so thanks for the reminder :)
Summary of WW2: “Nazi punks fuck off”.
I like reading about all the spy shit and codebreaking that went on. WWII is really interesting if you’re into the history of computer science and encryption.
WW1 enthusiasts waiting desperately to be referenced just one time ever:
There, now they’ve been referenced. Never again.
WW1 was discussed a fair amount last decade during its 100-year anniversary. There was also the recent film 1917 which was well-received.
As a history student I was really afraid that I would meet a ton of right wingers. But I must say the worst kind of people so far are history students that only study history to become teachers. They keep laughing at me saying that at least they have a future and that I will eventually switch sides and become a teacher too, I just don’t know it yet :(
You may have met a ton of right wingers. In hindsight, most of my high school history and civics teachers had a right wing slant to their anecdotes.
Yeah, it wasn’t necessarily in civics or history class for me, but I do remember a few transphobic and sometimes racist things that my teachers said or did in elementary and middle school. I remember one time all the 7th graders were gathered together and explicitly told to not use the internet for research because someone found that men could get pregnant. Mind you, they didn’t mention transmen at all but presented it in another way. I left feeling so hung up on how one would go about transplanting a uterus into a male and why they made a scandal of something I had never heard of that seemed impossible and impractical. I only had the epiphany of what that was really about a couple years ago. /tangent
I don’t remember exactly which one said what, but I heard 1) The best thing that can ever happen to a county is to be invaded by the US because we will rebuilt their economy(only mentioned Japan though), 2) Disney fixed Times Square(yay Capitalism), 3) The real estate market only goes up(this was around 2003), 4) something something black mother with 12 kids wealthfare queen, 5) the only Unions that still do anything are teacher unions(completely unironic), 6) something something illegal immigrants.
In contrast, I had one mention from a science teacher supporting climate change and that was only because they were directly ask by a student.
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They have a point because I am European. Being a teacher in my area is pretty alright right now. Still, I was aware of what I was getting into and if everything goes downhill I can still work as a journalist or in an archive wich sounds waaay better than teaching history to children who really don’t care.
You could add International Relations to your degree. That would probably open up a lot of options.
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“I’m really interested in the history of the great flood and how it explains how dinosaur fossils are so many layers down in the geologic column even though dinosaurs lived alongside humans only 6,000 years ago. Plus the the flood formed the Grand Canyon in only a few weeks.”
If humans and dinosaurs did not coexist, how could Jesus have won the first Kentucky Derby and tripple crown riding his trusty velociraptor.
I’ve noticed that, after a relative lull, people are getting bullied for traditional reasons again. However the bullies code those reasons as deplorable, so that they can imply their targets are just assholes.
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here. Are you suggesting that telling people to be wary of history buffs (after decades of examples of “history buffs” being code for wild bigot/racist) is actually just bullying people who like history? Because if so that’s a gross over exaggeration of what the post is saying. Or are you talking about the Greek mythology thing? Because the tumblr user who posted it is queer and so am I so that conclusion would also be pretty heavily flawed and wrought with heterocentric thinking.
This post is laying the groundwork to say someone is somehow morally compromised for having certain interests. Those interests have been common interests for decades.
Right now, there’s 100 percent a mood that people who are morally compromised deserve to be mistreated.b
The end result of posts like these is nerds being bullied in the same way they used to before the whole anti bullying attitude started. Only this is even worse because the victims get told they are POSes who deserve it.
The Roman one specifically applies to basically every male history nerd. Same with WW2.
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If you instantly judge someone for having extremely common innocuous interests, you’re an asshole.
You do that, but leverage social justice rhetoric to act like you’re actually a good person for doing so.
I want to talk to you about the Greek mythology thing for a second: Are you now, or have you ever been a swan?
No comment.
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Right?
“If you have an interest in a period of history in which bad people lived, it’s probably because you secretly idolize them.”
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As someone who just really thinks its cool how an ancient civilization was able to become such a superpower with roads and infrastructure and then fall so harshly. 😢
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2024 looks great, right?
What about history pf philosophy? Im on episode 326 of the history of philosophy without any gaps podcast and I really enjoying it. We’re just finishing Byzantine philosophy and getting ready for the Renaissance.
Depends on your opinions re Ayn Rand.
That someone needs to set aside six hours, some strong alcohol, and a barrel to live in before engaging.
I’m a simple plucked chicken, I got no time for that philosophizing.
Sounds like you’re ready for a lecture on the Philosophy of Cynicism as practiced by Antisthenes and his student Diogenes. The latter of whom famously lived in a clay pot…
Sorry, I fell asleep halfway through reading your comment.
I’m interested in the subjects that I never learned in school, like Asian history or ancient Mesopotamian history. African empires seems interesting too, and I’m very curious about how the Polynesians came to be, seems wild.
I binged this History of Africa podcast last year, and it’s pretty good History of Africa Podcast
Thanks for the recommendation, looks interesting
So you’re saying I’m weird because I love history for history’s sake and not any particular political reason?
I am interested in the world wars, among many other things. Everything from 1940s/50s Hollywood scandal and crime to The Bronze Age Collapse and lots of other stuff in between.
I majored in Near Eastern Classical Archaeology, but I never equated any of it with particular personal beliefs.
So you’re saying I’m weird because I love history for history’s sake and not any particular political reason?
Literally no. The first group of people is exactly what you’re describing.
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Hyperdefensiveness looks really bad. We all like stuff that has terrible fan bases. I’m into anime/manga/manhwa, video games, and I do enjoy history and learning from it. I so know many people who share the same description who are straight up nazis, misogynists, incels, etc.
If this is like the MIAC report, where it noted data on both right wing and left wing domestic terrorists and some of their tendencies. For left wing it mentioned environmentalists, socialists, communists etc. For right wing it mentioned 2A, Ron Paul, sovereign city, tax protestors etc.
In no way for either side did it say that having those tendencies was the same as being a terrorist, just that they tend to have those interests. Right wing grifters and broadcasters lost their fucking .inds to the point this fact based report had to be retracted.
If you can’t acknowledge your interests have terrible fan bases as well as good and upstanding ones, it makes you look like the terrible one angry at being called out.
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Wow, you are amazing at missing the point. So let’s ask this, are there any people who like the same things as you that are horrible people? I’ll answer for me, you betcha. Are there people who like the same things as me who are better people than me? Again yes.
Can you say the same? Can you acknowledge that?
I don’t have to acknowledge jack or shit. If you think that everyone who knows about WW2 is a Nazi it isn’t on me to “not all” you. It is on you for not being able to process that other people know things that you do not.
You are arguing with a troll. Save your effort. Every single comment of theirs on this post is low effort nonsense or open harassment. Just block them and move on with your life.
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