Against Whitewashing

Beautiful FemShepard/Garrus Vakarian fanart. 

“One night off”. A gentle reminder that happy romances exist in BioWare games. <3.

Hell yes. 

what people think cleopatra dressed like:

What Cleopatra actually dressed like:

These are hilarious!

The Romans and Friends on Karaoke Nights

Caesar: Is the only one sober. Only sings bc the others beg him to. Does "All of Me" and is surprisingly good with the high notes

Pompey: Performs "Crocodile Rock." Throws up into someone else's hat that he thinks is his. Did not come in a hat.

Cleopatra: Nails "Hello", has the others crying

Brutus: is very shy and only gets up to sing when he's sufficiently inebriated and Cassius goads him into performing. Surprises everyone with how impeccably he sings Jeff Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah"

Antony: Drunk off his ass, sings mostly hit classics like "Mr. Brightside", "What's my Age Again", and "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" bc he has a *type* for music and it's all 2000s nostalgia

Octavia: Sings "Love Story" and "White Horse" by Taylor Swift while mildly tipsy, trips slightly on the stage but goes on singing

Cassius: Will only sing Fallout Boy. Gets really into his performance of "Centuries" but passes out afterwards and asks for more shots the moment he wakes up

Octavian: Sings "Bad Guy" by Billie Eilish while making unnerving eye contact with Antony

Cicero: gets too drunk and throws up in bathroom without ever singing, cries about his divorce when Cleopatra sings "Hello"

Julius Caesar after bailing Antony out of jail for the tenth time: You seriously can’t stay out of trouble for five fucking minutes?! This is the last time I’m paying. 

Mark Antony: You just keep telling yourself that. 

Very useful info. 

sorry if this might be an upsetting subject, but what was believed to happen to the souls of those who committed suicide? i read that hekate has reign over and can command spirits that still wander earth due to having died traumatic deaths, like murder or suicide, but that's all i know

Hello, Anon! Thank you for the forewarning, but I've studied ancient Greek and Roman funerary practices and I worship Persephone/ Proserpina and Hades/Dis Pater, so the subject of your ask isn't upsetting to me at all.

In ancient Greece, those who died by suicide were regarded as innocent victims and their bodies were accorded proper burial. ¹

As far as I've been able to determine, the cause of death has no bearing on the fate of the soul of the deceased - deeds are what matter. So if a person has, in life, performed notable or heroic deeds or been initiated into the Mysteries, they receive places of honor in Elysium or the Isles of the Blest. Those who were basically good in life are sent to the Asphodel Meadows. Those who commit hubris (a serious transgression against divine law, such as flagrant disrespect of the gods, cannibalism, violations of xenia, or the murder of kin) receive punishment for a short term or eternity. *

The wandering of souls on earth was generally attributed to the deceased not having received "the honors due to the dead", meaning proper burial and the subsequent commemorations with their names spoken aloud and offerings of garlands, food, and drink at the grave throughout the year and across generations. Those who died by suicide or murder, unbeknownst to their families or friends, may have received proper burial and festival offerings from charitable strangers, but not the rites and offerings expected from their living family, and some of them may been unburied as well as untended. Therefore, they would be among the restless souls led from the underworld by Hekate each month on the eve of the new moon, seeking redress of wrongdoing and their honorable due. Hekate's deipnon, a plate of food crumbs and scraps, was left at crossroads at this time, an offering to appease the goddess and the wandering spirits.²

Wandering spirits were also believed to congregate in the streets of towns during the three-day Anthesteria festival in the spring of the year. On Chytroi, the final day of the Anthesteria, a special porridge of fruit and seeds was offered to those spirits and the last act of the festival was to proclaim to them, “‘Out! Out! Anthesteria is over!” Herbert Jennings Rose proposed that these wandering spirits were "...the spirits of the unburied or at least untended dead...Once a year measures were taken to give these spiritual vagabonds at least a little relief, which done they were got rid of with all convenient speed." ³

It's important to note that when the ancient Greeks made offerings to propitiate restless spirits, they did so at some distance from their homes. One knows one's own beloved dead, and has a good idea whether encouraging any of them to hang out inside one's home would be helpful, but a random wandering soul can become a nuisance and should be encouraged to return to the underworld.

Hope this helps!

*I have no idea how the ancient Greeks who believed in reincarnation worked this. Presumably, everyone got to select some aspects of their next life, except for those who'd reached ultimate spiritual development.

¹ Naiden, F.S. "The Sword Did It: A Greek Explanation of Suicide." The Classical Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 1, The Classical Association, Cambridge University Press], 2015, pp. 85–95, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43905643

² Smith, K.F. "Hekate's Suppers." Temenos, https://sites.google.com/site/hellenionstemenos/Home/festivals/hekatesdeipnon/hekate-d-1

³ Rose, Herbert Jennings. “Keres and Lemures.” The Harvard Theological Review, vol. 41, no. 4, Cambridge University Press, 1948, pp. 217–28, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1508045

I also consulted:

"Greek Underworld." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 October 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_underworld

The Greek Way of Death by Robert Garland, 2001 (X) is the best starter text the study of ancient Greek attitudes about death, the dead, and funerary practices, plus it has a rich bibliography for your tangents.

Beautiful fanart of Bastila Shan. 

Bastila Shan by Corbin Hunter

Bastila | Juhani | Revan | Mission | Canderous

You and she work well together, no surprise since you’re meant for each other–and I don’t just mean in the romantic way you keep botching up. You’re a team, a good one. You watch out for each other, and that’s good. But that doesn’t mean you’re meant to do every single little thing together. Yes, you have a shared destiny, but you have an individual one, and so does she.

Magnus the Raven, The Immortal Crown by Richelle Mead (pg. 307)

I agree wholeheartedly.

Roman history is like a bottomless well, interesting but very exhausting

Happy Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere! Happy Summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere!

Google Doodles created by /Olivia When (also known as Olivia Huynh), 2017 (X).

LOL. Atton is hilarious!

The Exile: Try not to kill anyone on accident. Atton: I’m not an idiot. I know how to kill people on purpose.