Line up girls

Hey everyone.

It’s been some busy few days. Out with some friends and my brother finally got his Masters in engineering 🤩 The bro is brilliant.
I am so proud of him! ♥️

I am back at the drawing table with a little special edition of our line ups. This time some girls from the Disney series about Hercules.

While I understand why Disney decided to make some stories about the rich Greek myths, I am conflicted about them. I loved the myths as a child, and I knew some stuff even before I saw the movie Hercules. One thing I knew, was that Hercules was his Roman name, and that his name in Greek was Heracles. I knew his mom was actually Alcmene was actually the granddaughter of Perseus… making her the great granddaughter of Zeus - Hercules father… yeah…

Disney really chose a good and wholesome family story to animate. I mean - oh my gosh, half the people Hercules meet in the show are his half siblings.
Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Helen etc…

But I digress.

In this line up we have some of my favorites from the show.
From the left.

The ever sarcastic and wonderful Cassandra of Troy. The first time I saw the show I was very young, and I saw it in English, so I mistook Cassandra for a young Megara. I know dumb, but I did.
Cassandra was an oracle blessed by Apollo for her piety. But when Apollo tried his luck with her after he had blessed her, she said blatantly no.
Now this angered Apollo… because apparently men were also jerks back then, and he cursed Cassandra. She would see the future, but she was cursed that no one would ever listen to her. She foresaw the doom of Troy, but none listened to her.
I loved her in the show. That she is so sarcastic and cynical, I loved it. It kinda reminded me of myself in high school.

Then we have Alcmene of Tiryns.
As mentioned, the great granddaughter of Zeus and as beautiful as the dawn itself. She was married to the King Amphitryon. Disney chose to make them into farmers, thereby cementing them to pretty much the Ancient Greek versions of Jonathan and Martha Kent. They also seemed to be a bit older than the average parents - especially for the time period. But I actually did love them both in the movie. They were so caring and so lovable. Zeus and Hera’s child was in good hands.

Then there is Helen of Sparta.
The face that launched a thousand ships. All of Greece united under high king Agamemnon.
Helen was born to King Tyndareus and Queen Leda of Sparta. Now Helen‘s story is weird from start to finish. As mentioned, Helen is the daughter of Zeus, but Zeus was a swan when he had his fun with her mother. And also… Leda had previously had her fun with her husband that day… so she was knocked up… with 2 sets of twins… 😵‍💫 and… what’s even weirder, two of the kids inside her… where in eggs…
Yeah, weird… Her siblings from that very unusual batch of biscuits was Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux. Now, there are different opinions about which of the other children were Zeuses… I mean… apparently no one noticed which kids came out of the eggs… Damn people are idiots!
Anyhoo, Helen grew up and her looks more than made everyone sure, that she was the daughter of Zeus. Her radiant beauty was sought after by all the royalty and nobility of Greece. In order to ensure peace an arrangement was made, so that all the kings would swear to accept the outcome no matter what and swear that whomever gets Helen of Sparta to bride will aide her husband in retrieving her.
Somehow, Menelaus was either chosen or picked the right straw, and he became the next king of Sparta and fathered several children with her. She was as we all know abducted by prince Paris of Troy (that sleazy bastard!) but later - much later saved and brought back home. I mean… who wouldn’t go to war for her?

Last in the line is Tempest of the Amazons.
My favorite of the entire show. I loved her so much! I have a thing for powerful women. Tempest seems to be a Disney fictional character that doesn’t seem to be  derived from any mythological character. Her mother is thought a mythological figure. Hippolytus was (for a very short while) the lover of Heracles... before he… well… broke her neck… yeah… the myths are crazy 😱 But Tempest I loved, mainly because she stole the entire picture when she was in the show. I loved that the roles of her family was reversed in a way, so the more traditional roles of the wife were those of the husband - brilliant ♥️
She was loud, proud and full of bravado, and she seemed to be Hercules main love interest in the entire show.
I have a thing for no nonsense types. I adore them. And Tempest was all about that. Her name in danish was Stormvind, which means Storm Wind. So it was good enough - but her name stuck out because all the others had ancient greek sounding names… It made her stand out even more.
The amazons were a matriarchal society that were governed only by women. Boy children, if they were in fact allowed in their society at all, were sent away - either sold as slaves or (hopefully) back to their fathers.
It’s not so far of things we see in nature today. Many species live gender separated and there are even more species where the sole objective for a male is to breed and then die. So it might not be so outlandish as many could think.

I hope you like this

Yours truly
Hammer