So.

Hi guys! So, this is obviously my first post, and I know some people may be kind of curious about my username and the title and subtitle of my blog. The ‘about’ page has a little background about me, so I won’t bother boring you with that.

Right, well, username. I’m a very organized person and I like things like this to have meaning to them, and since I’m fascinated with and studying the ancient world, that’s where most of my inspiration comes from — although this blog is definitely not going to be all about the ancient world! The name ‘Orithyia’ comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. For those who don’t know, Ovid is an ancient Roman poet who wrote mostly during the Emperor Augustus’ reign which covered the turn of the millennium.

In the Metamorphoses Ovid groups together, in 16 books, many different myths, all of which involve, as the title would suggest, a transformation of some kind — mostly of a human or humanoid (sometimes there are nymphs or dryads!) into another creature. The story of Orithyia and Boreas is one such tale. Orithyia was one of the four daughters of Erechtheus, king of Athens, and she was, naturally, very beautiful, and beloved by the North wind, Boreas. Unfortunately, Boreas hated the Thracians, whom enjoyed an alliance with Athens — this delayed his suit for quite some time. He gently wooed Orithyia, but failed, and so became angry, and thus kidnapped her. She then bore him two sons, Zetes and Calais, who later grew wings (the transformation!) and joined the Argonauts in the quest for the Golden Fleece.

That’s the story; as to my reasons for choosing her name to be mine, well, I happen to be absolutely in love with the idea of flying and of having wings (I love Warren in X-Men 3!) and I also found her name to be very pretty.

Moving on to the title; this’ll make my friends laugh. Aphatos is the ancient Greek word for ’speechless’. I hope they appreciate the irony; I talk a hell of a lot, you see. I wanted to inject a little comedy there, and I like the word, and I also wanted the connection to the ancient world.

Finally, the subtitle. These words are not mine; this is a quote from Sappho, a very famous ancient Greek poetess who lived on the island of Lesbos, and was in love with, from what scholars can tell, a fair number of girls. I think, perhaps, that this is the origination of the word ‘lesbian’.

Also, the image I have input into the header is in keeping with the ancient theme, in a way, in that it is a photo of the Turquois Myrtos Beach on the Greek island of Kefalonia. Beautiful, isn’t it? Please, let me know what you think — does it look alright on this page? I’m unsure.

I think that might be enough for an introductory post.