The earliest source of the Pandora myth is Hesiod, and he mentions two different versions of this myth in his two works, first in Theogony:
And Zeus who thunders on high was stung in spirit, and his dear heart was angered when he saw amongst men the far-seen ray of fire. Forthwith he made an evil thing for men as the price of fire; for the very famous Limping God formed of earth the likeness of a shy maiden as the son of Cronos willed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her with silvery raiment, and down from her head she spread with her hands a broidered veil, a wonder to see; and she, Pallas Athene, put about her head lovely garlands, flowers of new-grown herbs. Also she put upon her head a crown of gold which the very famous Limping God made himself and worked with his own hands as a favour to Zeus his father. On it was much curious work, wonderful to see; for of the many creatures which the land and sea rear up, he put most upon it, wonderful things, like living beings with voices: and great beauty shone out from it.
But when he had made the beautiful evil to be the price for the blessing, he brought her out, delighting in the finery which the bright-eyed daughter of a mighty father had given her, to the place where the other gods and men were. And wonder took hold of the deathless gods and mortal men when they saw that which was sheer guile, not to be withstood by men.
For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth. And as in thatched hives bees feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief -- by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own bellies – even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil. And he gave them a second evil to be the price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them. And as for the man who chooses the lot of marriage and takes a good wife suited to his mind, evil continually contends with good; for whoever happens to have mischievous children, lives always with unceasing grief in his spirit and heart within him; and this evil cannot be healed.
In this version Pandora herself, who is not named, seems to be the punishment of humanity, for the theft of fire, along with all women in general, in an extremely misogynistic context, with no mention of other types of evils.
This version, which considers women in general as a punishment for men, an idea that is consistent with the general misogyny of the Greeks, seems to have been mentioned by Sappho as well:
"After creating men Prometheus is said to have stolen fire and revealed it to men. The gods were angered by this and sent two evils on the earth, women and disease; such is the account given by Sappho and Hesiod."
Already in Works and Days, Hesiod retells this myth, with some more details:
For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste. But Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it, because Prometheus the crafty deceived him; therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against men. He hid fire; but that the noble son of Iapetus stole again for men from Zeus the counsellor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him in anger:
`Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire -- a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.'
So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And he bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athene to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature.
So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Cronos. Forthwith the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Cronos purposed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her, and the divine Graces and queenly Persuasion put necklaces of gold upon her, and the rich-haired Hours crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athene bedecked her form with all manners of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus, contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. And he called this woman Pandora (All Endowed), because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread.
But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Argus-Slayer, the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift. And Epimetheus did not think on what Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood.
For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sickness which bring the Fates upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus.
In this version the context is still the same, Zeus decided to send a punishment to the humans because of the fire stolen by Prometheus, and he does it almost as if he were a cartoon villain, even laughing when talking about his evil Plan, in this version Pandora is named for the first time, and there is also the first mention of a jar, not a box, containing different types of evils, Pandora opens this jar, and releases different types of plagues and diseases, but leaving only hope.
What I find interesting about this is that Hesiod never says that she opened the jar out of curiosity, seeking to know what was inside, which is how this myth is usually remembered, this version, where Pandora is a curious and naive girl, which even contradicts what Hesiod says about her in both versions, does not seem to have existed in any ancient source, the closest to it seems to be one of Aesop's fables:
"Zeus gathered all the useful things together in a jar and put a lid on it. He then left the jar in human hands. But man had no self-control and he wanted to know what was in that jar, so he pushed the lid aside, letting those things go back to the abode of the gods. So all the good things flew away, soaring high above the earth, and Elpis (Hope) was the only thing left. When the lid was put back on the jar, Elpis (Hope) was kept inside. That is why Elpis (Hope) alone is still found among the people, promising that she will bestow on each of us the good things that have gone away."
This fable seems to resemble the modern version that we have of Pandora, where she opens the jar out of curiosity and impulse, seeking to know what's inside, and hope is the last thing that remains, despite that, it still has important differences, instead of evils, the jar contains good things, which goes away when the jar is opened, and Pandora is not mentioned, and it seems to be a man who opens the jar.
All things considered, it seems to me that in the version of Pandora and the jar, she may have released the evils on purpose, knowing what was inside, and in fact she would not be curious or naive, but cunning and deceitful, a beautiful evil like Hesiod described her.
The first version emphasizes this even more by making Pandora, and through her all women, the very punishment, with which men would, foolishly in Hesiod's view, willingly associate themselves, following the example of the foolish titan Epimetheus, This view seems to be exemplified in this fragment:
"Pandora, donor of evil (kakodôros), man's sorrow self-imposed."
While different, both versions have in common blatant misogyny, and seem to have been used as justification for a distorted view of women among the ancient Greeks, inspiring contempt and mistrust, and I would even say fear.

The earliest source of the Pandora myth is Hesiod, and he mentions two different versions of this myth in his two works, first in Theogony:
And Zeus who thunders on high was stung in spirit, and his dear heart was angered when he saw amongst men the far-seen ray of fire. Forthwith he made an evil thing for men as the price of fire; for the very famous Limping God formed of earth the likeness of a shy maiden as the son of Cronos willed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her with silvery raiment, and down from her head she spread with her hands a broidered veil, a wonder to see; and she, Pallas Athene, put about her head lovely garlands, flowers of new-grown herbs. Also she put upon her head a crown of gold which the very famous Limping God made himself and worked with his own hands as a favour to Zeus his father. On it was much curious work, wonderful to see; for of the many creatures which the land and sea rear up, he put most upon it, wonderful things, like living beings with voices: and great beauty shone out from it.
But when he had made the beautiful evil to be the price for the blessing, he brought her out, delighting in the finery which the bright-eyed daughter of a mighty father had given her, to the place where the other gods and men were. And wonder took hold of the deathless gods and mortal men when they saw that which was sheer guile, not to be withstood by men.
For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth. And as in thatched hives bees feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief -- by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own bellies – even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil. And he gave them a second evil to be the price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them. And as for the man who chooses the lot of marriage and takes a good wife suited to his mind, evil continually contends with good; for whoever happens to have mischievous children, lives always with unceasing grief in his spirit and heart within him; and this evil cannot be healed.
In this version Pandora herself, who is not named, seems to be the punishment of humanity, for the theft of fire, along with all women in general, in an extremely misogynistic context, with no mention of other types of evils.
This version, which considers women in general as a punishment for men, an idea that is consistent with the general misogyny of the Greeks, seems to have been mentioned by Sappho as well:
"After creating men Prometheus is said to have stolen fire and revealed it to men. The gods were angered by this and sent two evils on the earth, women and disease; such is the account given by Sappho and Hesiod."
​
Already in Works and Days, Hesiod retells this myth, with some more details:
For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste. But Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it, because Prometheus the crafty deceived him; therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against men. He hid fire; but that the noble son of Iapetus stole again for men from Zeus the counsellor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him in anger:
`Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire -- a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.'
So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And he bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athene to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature.
So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Cronos. Forthwith the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Cronos purposed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her, and the divine Graces and queenly Persuasion put necklaces of gold upon her, and the rich-haired Hours crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athene bedecked her form with all manners of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus, contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. And he called this woman Pandora (All Endowed), because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread.
But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Argus-Slayer, the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift. And Epimetheus did not think on what Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood.
For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sickness which bring the Fates upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus.
In this version the context is still the same, Zeus decided to send a punishment to the humans because of the fire stolen by Prometheus, and he does it almost as if he were a cartoon villain, even laughing when talking about his evil Plan, in this version Pandora is named for the first time, and there is also the first mention of a jar, not a box, containing different types of evils, Pandora opens this jar, and releases different types of plagues and diseases, but leaving only hope.
What I find interesting about this is that Hesiod never says that she opened the jar out of curiosity, seeking to know what was inside, which is how this myth is usually remembered, this version, where Pandora is a curious and naive girl, which even contradicts what Hesiod says about her in both versions, does not seem to have existed in any ancient source, the closest to it seems to be one of Aesop's fables:
"Zeus gathered all the useful things together in a jar and put a lid on it. He then left the jar in human hands. But man had no self-control and he wanted to know what was in that jar, so he pushed the lid aside, letting those things go back to the abode of the gods. So all the good things flew away, soaring high above the earth, and Elpis (Hope) was the only thing left. When the lid was put back on the jar, Elpis (Hope) was kept inside. That is why Elpis (Hope) alone is still found among the people, promising that she will bestow on each of us the good things that have gone away."
This fable seems to resemble the modern version that we have of Pandora, where she opens the jar out of curiosity and impulse, seeking to know what's inside, and hope is the last thing that remains, despite that, it still has important differences, instead of evils, the jar contains good things, which goes away when the jar is opened, and Pandora is not mentioned, and it seems to be a man who opens the jar.
All things considered, it seems to me that in the version of Pandora and the jar, she may have released the evils on purpose, knowing what was inside, and in fact she would not be curious or naive, but cunning and deceitful, a beautiful evil like Hesiod described her.
The first version emphasizes this even more by making Pandora, and through her all women, the very punishment, with which men would, foolishly in Hesiod's view, willingly associate themselves, following the example of the foolish titan Epimetheus, This view seems to be exemplified in this fragment:
"Pandora, donor of evil (kakodôros), man's sorrow self-imposed."
While different, both versions have in common blatant misogyny, and seem to have been used as justification for a distorted view of women among the ancient Greeks, inspiring contempt and mistrust, and I would even say fear.

Ohhhh boy, lots to unpack here. This week was a wild ride and I'm dying (no pun intended!) to know what you all think.
This week we're reading right to the end. If you missed last week, join us! It's a very quick read. We'll be taking a week's break after this and then starting our reading of "The Library of Greek Mythology" on the 20th of May.
This week, on the ancient and the merciless...:
Medea has hatched her plan to trick Jason by asking him to keep the children here. Then, she will kill the princess with a poisoned silk gown and gold diadem. From this moment, she knows that she will kill her children. No one will ever take them from her. The chorus begs her to reconsider, but Medea is steadfast.
Jason comes back to see her and Medea lays it on thick about how sorry she is and how she's just a foolish woman which Jason agrees with. She leads him into a cunning trap, using her tears and soft words to convince him to do what she wants. Her sons deliver the poisoned crown and gown to the princess and come home. Medea almost decides that she can't go through with it, but her pride pushes us forward. Her passion and love for Jason has driven her to this, she argues.
A messenger comes to tell Medea that she has to leave, the princess is dead and Medea presses him for details. The poison was so strong that the crown caught fire and the delicate gown ate into her flesh. The King got caught in the gown when he tried to mourn his daughter and was killed by it as well. The Chorus begs Helios to intercede and save the children, but no one stops Medea.
By the time Jason comes, the boys are dead and Medea is high above him in a Chariot of Helios, sent to save her from their enemies. She is beyond his reach and so are their children. He begs to hold them one more time and she refuses him, both of them blaming the other for this tragedy before Medea leaves to go Athens.

Does anyone know where I might be able to source an original copy of the Athens Messenger from Nov 16,1966? Front page has the first article eluding to Mothman. Can’t find anything on eBay, any help is appreciated.

Hello everyone. I recently platinummed Assassin's Creed Odyssey after around 140 hours (also, it apparently took me exactly 4 years, 4 months and 4 days to accomplish this lol) and would like to talk about the experience.
Overall, this was a very straightforward game to Platinum. Unlike other massive open world RPGs, there are no trophies for choosing certain story paths or for ensuring certain fates for characters. There are no trophies for difficulty modes. There aren't even any missable trophies. The vast majority of trophies are either related to reaching certain points in the story, completing certain side quests and activities, or performing certain actions related to customization.
So you can really play the game however you like and work on getting the trophies in a more lenient and fluid way. The game even seems intentionally designed in such a way as to not require a guide to get the platinum. A bit of a rarity for the series and in the genre (though, there were issues with this in practise I will get to later). I really like this approach because it means regardless of if you casually play this game and then wish to platinum or aimed to platinum it beforehand, it's not a huge inconvenience to do so. There's no need to replay the entire game just to make 1 random decision in 1 side quest because you missed that the first time.
Ok, I lied. there actually is one trophy that's missable. It requires you to get laid. So sadly, you cannot roleplay a virgin and get the platinum.
In all seriousness, while I did say earlier that the game is straightforward to platinum, that doesn't mean it isn't tedious. The game's main story takes around 40-50 hours to complete. Getting the platinum would take around 70-ish hours to platinum if you knew beforehand what quests and activities were worth doing and skipping everything else. The prior non-RPG ACs could be platinummed in half the time even if you weren't planning for it. And as Ody begins to repeat a lot of content and areas, it becomes quite tedious. I burned through a lot of Podcasts when I was playing it.
In addition, Ody is normally quite good at accounting for if the player does quests out of order as well as notifying the player if there are new quests in previously completed locations (the game even encourages sequence breaking). During my playthrough, I decided to do ALL the side content and missions first, and then tackle the main quest and then mop up any remaining trophies. For the most part, this worked out well. But there were a few rare times some quests struggled to keep up. And unfortunately, these happened to be the trophy related ones.
Here are the most problematic trophies:
"Hermes's Homie - Unveil all sub-regions of Greece". This trophy requires you to visit every sub region on the map. The way the game tracks is that when you open the world map, locations you haven't visited either have a rocky texture if they are on land or have a paper-like texture if they are on water. Once you do visit them, their texture updates to reflect what they actually look like. On paper, this sounds like a fair system. If you explore the map and do all the POIs, you should naturally hit most if not all of the locations. And unlike Origins which asked you to complete all locations, Ody lets you skip the activities themselves and only just set foot in the local area. You don't even need to fully explore the area. But the problem is that it includes small random islands scattered all over the map. Some of which have the same texture unexplored as they do explored. So if you haven't been keeping track of which of these random islands you visited, it can be really tedious to find them. On top of that, the trophy is said to be buggy where even if you have met the requirements, it can pop hours later. Unlike past AC games, climbing viewpoints doesn't unveil large sections of the map so they don't help much.
I got this trophy by looking up YouTube comments that mentioned "places you likely missed" that provided a list of such random small islands and where they were. I noticed that I had visited most of these locations because my pursuit to 100% the game required me stopping on such islands to complete their activities and bounce. The trophy popped for me when I visited Kradia Island under Samos. The only island that didn't have any activities whatsoever so it never popped up on my radar.
A similar thing happened to me for the "Child of Poseidon - Complete all underwater location objectives" trophy. There are 42 underwater locations all over the map. I did 41. The only one I was missing happened be in the middle of nowhere in the sea where there no POIs nearby. I feel the game would be better served here if such trophies only required you explore 75% of the map or complete 75% of the activities. Doing them all is really tedious and offers no leeway if the player misses one or it happens to bug out.
"Stink Eye - Recover the Cyclops's eye from a goat on Kephallonia" is another infamous trophy people have complained about. It requires you to kill goats on Kephallonia until RNG drops the Eye you need. It's really annoying. I was lucky and found it after 10 minutes but it can take much longer. One suggestion I've seen is that it may be faster to start a new game and play until you encounter the goat in the cutscene and kill them there.
For me, the 3 hardest and most unexpectedly stressful trophies were "Master of the Hunt - Complete the Daughters of Artemis questline", "Trust Me, I'm a Doctor - Complete the Hippokrates questline", "A Pirate's Life for Me - Complete Xenia's questline". Because the game didn't properly update or mark where their next steps were.
"Master of the Hunt" consists of 2 individual quests. The first quest requires you to hunt down 8 legendary animals all over Greece. Upon completing this, the next quest is available on a far away island. I completed the first quest but the second did not pop up on my map or radar or quest log like the game normally does. All the guides I looked up only had info for the first quest which is normally the hardest and most involved part and told me to just play it through. Even PSNProfiles didn't have the complete picture. I was convinced I had broken the quest somehow and there were even YouTube comments of other players expressing a similar concern. I only managed to get this one after watching one particular YouTube video that happened to also include the final step to the far away island. When I visited this island, the quest didn't pop until I came very close to its start point. Normally, this shouldn't happen. The game usually does a great job in either highlighting when the next quest in the chain is, or at the very least, having the icon show up on the map even if you haven't fully explored the area before. It was a similar case with "Trust Me, I'm a Doctor" only with 3 "hidden" quests instead of 1.
"A Pirate's Life for Me" was really wacky. The quest tasks the player with finding treasure maps and using them to find 6 lost treasures all over the map. While you can collect some of the treasure maps and the treasures themselves beforehand, the game gives you the quests to collect them individually and sequentially. Moreover, this is the only quest in the game where the quest markers are disabled for most of it. Even if you have Guided Mode turned on. On paper, this isn't a problem. You can use the treasure maps to find out where to go and if you get stuck, you can use a guide. Except, with the way how I played the game beforehand, the quests kinda broke.
Ok, so normally, like I said, Ody is pretty good at accounting for the player doing stuff out of order or completing quests before officially accepting them. The quest usually then has the player character going "oh, I already did x" and the quest giver going "Oh great job. You're even better than I thought. So we can skip this next step you should do Y now". This pirate quest is in a weird sort of limbo where it will let you complete some parts of it out of order, but the quest objectives and progression act like you're doing it "intended way". For example, one of the middle quests ask you to use a treasure map to find a treasure. I already found both beforehand 100+ hours ago but the quest didn't acknowledge that for some time until after the quest "started". I was then able to turn in the quest but the treasure maps remained in my inventory and I hadn't seen it yet so it had the "new item" icon on it. This caused some confusion later on as I was using the wrong treasure maps thinking it was the newest one.
And one of the later quests task you with using 1 treasure map to go find 2 other treasure maps and using them to go find the 2 actual treasures. Normally, when you find the first spot, the quest updates and points you to a merchant you need to interrogate who points you to a chest you need to loot to get the 2 final treasure maps. And then the game becomes hands off again like it usually is for this quest. But when I reached the spot, it didn't update because I had unknowingly already looted the 2 final Treasure Maps and just had to go find the treasure. I didn't know this and began worrying I had soft locked the quest. When I looked up guides, they said to go interrogate the merchant and loot the chest he points you to. I could still interrogate the merchant and get him to tell me where to go, though no markers appeared like they normally would and nothing in the game indicated I had already gotten what I needed. I couldn't even loot the chest as I had already looted it before. And when I browsed my inventory, the "new map" I had looked nothing like the one from the guides and there was nothing there. I really was convinced I'd had to do a NG+ run or something and properly do the quest. Before trying that, I decided to try one last leap of faith and follow the guides to see where the treasures actually were just to see if that would complete them somehow and not further break the quest. And to my surprise....that worked. I could pick up those treasures and complete the quests and get the final trophy I needed for the platinum. And it was only afterwards, looking through screenshots of other people's guides, that I realized I had all the treasure maps but the hands off nature of the quest and its weird progression didn't inform me.
So yeah, for the most part platinumming this game was straightforward if a bit tedious, then it became really confusing as I was troubleshooting why certain quests and pop ups weren't appearing. They really soured the experience. So if you are going to platinum this game, I hope my experience here helps you out.
With the trophy review all done, here my review of the actual game itself:
In many ways, I'd say Odyssey is the best AC game. It fully becoming an RPG allows it to improve many features of prior AC games and allow the player much more agency in the gameplay. But in others, its attempts to make changes dilute both its own positives and staple AC aspects.
Let's start with the basic gameplay.
-Basic Gameplay:
Odyssey expands on the foundation of its predecessor Origins. It retains Origins' improved combat where you can mix light and heavy attacks, parries and dodges, different weapon types that actually have different animations and properties, ranged bows and abilities into a single combo. But makes quite a few key improvements. You can no longer perpetually block (which was also awkward to use in Origins) and makes parrying more useful to compensate. Perfect dodging now gives a Flurry Rush effect which slows down time giving you more of an opportunity to pummel enemies. Put this all together and you have a really fun combat system where you can get this long unbroken combo going where you're always capable of attacking multiple enemies in some form. However, it does feel a bit unbalanced. AC Valhalla would later add in a Stamina Meter to prevent the player from just spamming heavy attacks and dodges which improves the combat but Ody's system still works well.
The new Combat Abilities are also quite fun to play around with. Such as Sparta Kick gives a reliable way to knock enemies off ledges so using elevation as a weapon is much more feasible or Ring of Chaos giving you a nice area of effect attack.
Stealth is also improved from Origins through the additions of new abilities. In Origins, many of the ways the player had to sneak through areas and take out enemies was somewhat limited. The hidden blade could only be upgraded a few times and couldn't be further boosted. This led to situations where if the player was underlevelled, it would no longer be feasible to OHKO some enemies using stealth as the raw damage of Hidden Blade Stealth Attacks would no longer be sufficient. Ody introduces new abilities that are both quite fun to play around with and allow you to boost your Stealth Damage to take out enemies even if your raw damage is insufficient. Abilities like Critical Assassinations allow you to deal 300% your raw Stealth Damage to a single enemy. Rush Assassin allow you to teleport between up to 4 enemies and deal around 200% Stealth Damage each time (and even teleport to the same enemy multiple times to hit them multiple times). Ghost Allows you turn invisible for a short time and Ghost Arrows all you to shoot Arrows through Walls. So there's a lot more fun tools to play around with.
In addition, all these abilities are limited by the amount of adrenaline charges you have which is a good way to address an issue prior AC games often had where it was too easy to spam your most powerful tools to cheese encounters. In Ody, Adrenaline refills by doing damage to enemies using normal moves and attacks so there's more of an element of planning out attacks present. You might consider saving and building up your Adrenaline by performing regular Assassinations on basic guards so you can perform a Critical + Assassin Strike + Overpower Combo on an elite Enemy (so around 5 bars of Adrenaline) to take him out without drawing attention. Even if you're underlevelled, playing on Easy Mode means these abilities can often compensate for the low damage at least on regular enemies and can make harder enemies easier to deal with.
I also like how these abilities can be mixed and matched in different situations even if not explicitly assigned to that specific situation. For example, Rush Assassination is marked as an Assassin Ability. You normally can't use it in a combat encounter. But you can use hit and run tactics where you can break line of sight to get enemies to line up together when searching for you and reuse the tactic. Sparta Kick and Overpower are normally designed for combat situations but you can use them in stealth to take out certain beefy enemies without drawing attention. Hermes Speed is intended to give the player an edge in combat but you can use it in Stealth to slip through gaps in enemy patrols and guard routes. Ghost Arrows can be used both in combat to damage enemies through their shields and in stealth to damage enemies through walls while remaining undetected. This gives the player way more options and flexibility.
A common criticism levelled against Ody is that "you can't OHKO enemies using stealth anymore". Often followed by how ridiculous it is that enemies can withstand being stabbed in the throat. I've always disagreed with this. Firstly because in past AC games, both the player character and enemies have animations where they survive being stabbed (see AC3). Secondly, one can simply play on Easy and Normal and simply upgrade their Assassin gear and abilities to more than compensate. And Thirdly, I'd argue this RPG logic also helps balance playstyles in AC.
According to the original creator of AC games, Patrice Desailits, AC games have always wanted to make both combat and stealth viable options as opposed to other Stealth games where only Stealth was viable and combat was designed to be a last resort. Which is an admirable goal but the past AC games often struggled with balancing both playstyles. In something like Brotherhood, it was easy to use chain kills to easily slaughter entire armies while stealth was quite slow, tedious and limited.
Ody being an RPG where your potential in combat and stealth is dependent on your gear and abilities result in both playstyles always being viable but never at the same time. This is something the game actually lies to the player about. The loading screen tips say the player can either be a specialist (investing in mostly combat or stealth) or being a generalist and spreading out their investment. But being a generalist really dilutes a character's potential. They'll be a stealthy Assassin that isn't great at stealthy Assassinating and also a combat focused Assassin that isn't great at combat. It is clearly better to specialize into one or the other and swap gear if needed. Ody even has slots where you can save different setups and give them different labels which highlights this aspect (which granted, can be quite expensive to maintain).
Also, that's kinda how Assassins have worked in the lore. Most Assassins weren't amazing in every category. Using the crew of AC2 as an example, canonically speaking, Paula is better at social stealth than Ezio and La Volpe who is better at Parkour than Ezio and Paula. Bartholomew is better at combat than Ezio, Volpe and Paula but terrible at Stealth. And Ezio, canonically is only well rounded at each of these aspects in AC2, not a full master. So it would be logical for an AC RPG game for the player's character to have trade offs or mix-max in different areas.
In addition, the way Ody handles its RPG systems is also a step up from Origins. Origins limited progression to only weapons, certain upgrades and skill points. Which resulted in Bayek kinda playing quite similar for many players. It wasn't really doable to make min-max Bayek in completely different playstyles as much. An endgame Bayek would be about as good in combat and stealth as another. But in Ody, between gear for both 3 weapon slots and 4 armour slots (each of which can be engraved to receive certain buffs and nerfs or allow entirely new mechanics), an entire system for allocating skill points to all kinds of modifiers (like chance to receive health on hit, or damage while airborne etc), and way more abilities. It is far more feasible make radically different Misthios Builds that play quite differently and have different strengths and weaknesses. I made a Misthios build using the Gold Travelers Gear that made my Invisibility Power last forever and further boost stealth damage and give extra adrenaline for performing stealth attacks at the cost of being really frail and having limited raw combat potential.
As a result, Ody finally feels like a full on RPG. Something the AC franchise first introduced in AC2 with gear that had stats which didn't matter is now finally a deep system one can really engage with.
Ody is also quite forward thinking with many of its systems. Missions and their rewards scale as the player levels up meaning the player will always receive an appropriate reward for completing missions no matter when they do them. This addresses a criticism I always had of games like Witcher 3 and Borderlands 2 where once you level up past a certain point, side quests x levels below your current level don't give enough XP or rewards. With the game essentially punishing you for doing side content. Ody on the other hand is content to give the player thousands of XP and Drachma for doing a quest they picked up at level 5 at level 60.
Another feature I really like is gear upgrading. If you really like specific pieces of gear, you can pay a rather expensive fee to bring them up to your current level making them always usable.
A common criticism I've heard of Ody is that the game forces the player to grind since the level requirements for the next main mission jump and this is also to encourage players to buy XP boosters. I will not argue that Ubisoft weren't tempted by or adjusted the XP of missions to encourage that. But I will say that the game doesn't encourage the player to grind or replay content in order to progress. From my experience, I found most side quests in an a region or maybe an adjacent region sufficient to give me enough of a buffer to do the main quests for quite a long time. So the player is at least always experiencing new content should they ever need the experience.
In addition, I like to play open world games by doing all possible side content before starting the main quest. I was able to make it to around level 60 by the time I had explored all the regions and done everything before interacting with anyone in Megaris which is well above any requirement.
-Map Design, Social Stealth and Parkour
This is probably going to be my most negative section.
The world in Ody is absolutely beautiful. I'd go so far as to call it the most impressive map I've ever seen in an open world game.
It is extremely massive yet is so varied and full of detail. You have large cities and lakes of salt with NPCs going about collecting them. You have large red lakes caused by algae. You have massive cities like Athens with large bustling marketplaces where vendors sell their wares, kids and animals play in the street and people go about their day. You have places like the village of Olympia where you can see athletes train and merchants mess with tourists. You have large farms where you can see NPCs having animations for working on the land. There are large snowy mountains and deep volcanoes.
You know how a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 has extremely detailed and intricate NPC routines? Ody feels like it's only several levels below that but the sheer scale and variety of its world kinds makes it more beautiful.
Yet I feel it's a massive negative aspect of the game.
Consider the following analogy. Imagine if Insomniac made a new Spider-Man game but set it in rural Kansas or something. A place with no large skyscrapers so web swinging was made less useful so you often had to drive from point to point as Spider-Man instead of Web Swinging. Even if every other aspect of the game was amazing, the fact that web swinging was so situational instead of a core part of your moveset would kinda be a bummer.
That's how Ody's map works. Yes, there are large cities like Athens and Sparta, as well as smaller locations with a fair amount of urban development to them that would be quite fun to parkour around. But the overwhelming majority of Ody's map is either rural meaning there are few large buildings and crowds of people, or its water so you can only sail on it.
As a result, 2 of AC's most novel features that were quite iconic, parkour and social stealth are quite diluted. Consider 2014's Assassin's Creed Unity as an example. That game's map was set in Revolutionary Paris and said Paris was a sprawling mass of buildings, alleys and roads that were quite interconnected. As a result, parkour was a lot more fun as you could use more advanced movement options like side and back ejects and navigate the maps in cool and fun ways. There was a clear distinction between a skilled player that had mastered Unity's movement systems in how they navigated compared to a beginner. In addition, the presence of urban environments also meant large gatherings of crowds of people so it was more feasible to seamlessly blend among them like some sort of sus imposter. Giving the player more options for how to approach objectives.
Granted, I will be the first to admit that Social Stealth in past AC games wasn't exactly the deepest, nor the parkour mechanics often necessary for completion. But they still added to and improved the past games. But in Ody's case, not only have these mechanics been removed, their reintroduction wouldn't significantly improve the experience because of the way the maps are designed. See Valhalla as an example.
Currently, Ody treats parkour as just a climb button. There's no options for manual jumps, side and back ejects or any advanced movement. Even if Ody had the same parkour mechanics as Unity somehow ported into the game as is, you'd only be able to use them relatively sparingly in certain cities and forts as they aren't really useful on plains, mountains and forests. Same for Social Stealth. Large crowds don't tend to gather on mountains. Even ignoring the mechanical side, It takes away from the Assassin's Creed feel if instead of parkouring my way to my next objectives, I'm just riding a horse the whole way. Or if I need to escape from a fight, instead of parkouring my way up a building to break line of sight, I just ride my horse away.
It's shame because I feel these things could have added to and improved the RPG systems of Ody. Like Imagine if Social Stealth was another playstyle one could invest into as a way to complete objectives without needing to fight or "manually sneak around".
As it currently stands, I would have gladly traded 75% of the current map and had the game set in mostly city environments if it meant the game would have both the environment and mechanics for social stealth and parkour. It would also help the game feel less repetitive overall.
-Cultists
I feel the way the Cult is implemented more than makes up for how the Mercenary System works. The Cult system is one of Ody's coolest and best ideas.
Now technically, prior AC games have had a menu where you can check out your progress in taking out the local Templar population. AC1 had it as a side quest letting you know how many optional Templars are in the area. But AC2, the way the Conspiracy Menu works is just as a progress bar showing you how many Templars Ezio has killed and how many he has left to kill based on his knowledge at that point in the story. So basically it works like badges in Pokemon. And it works a similar way in Origins. These menus are cool narratively but since you only interact with Templars as part of the main story, there's no real interaction with these menus.
In contrast, Ody's Cultist menu shows how much info you have on the local Cultists and how many you've killed so far. And it's not a static system as many Cultists actually physically exist in the world as regular NPCs. You can kill said Cultists in the open world even before you unlock this menu and it will count towards completing this. Because I played the game by doing ALL the side content before progressing the main story, I found I had already whacked quite a few Cultists when the menu unlocked. Plus, killing Cultists often gives you clues to finding others. If you find all the clues pointing to a specific Cultist, that Cultist will then be highlighted on your map. But the kicker is that you can still use some of these clues to find and kill them beforehand. I remember one particularly cool example was when one of the clues I found was that "This Cultist is a super rich dude in X region" and "This Cultist is a slave owner". I remembered that in that region, there was a salt mine I had cleared out a couple hours earlier but still decided to fast travel there and take a look. I did and when using Ikaros to scope out the area, I saw a dude in purple clothing walking around I just casually decided to kill him and found he was a Cultist. I felt so clever because I managed to kill a Cultist using only some clues and my own knowledge of the open world. I honestly wish the map was smaller so this could be made more often as I feel this is a really interesting and creative mechanic in an open world game.
In addition, there can even be some side quests that take advantage of the Cult System. I recall there was one side quest where a local leader of an area asked my help in taking down a Cultist. I agreed only to find they were the Cultist and had a twin sibling to throw me off. That quest made me quite paranoid afterwards as with every quest afterwards, I was constantly wondering if every NPC I met was a Cultist. Ody managed to accomplish what no prior AC game ever did. It actually made me feel conspiratorial and that anyone could be a Templar. It really gives a sense of how widespread and powerful the Cult/Templars are here.
Sadly, I do have some criticisms here.
The main one is the way Ody depicts the Cultists. It has a very black and white view of them. Just about every Cultist is some sadistic and cruel person in a position of power. And I think that's a shame. One of the things I really liked about games like AC1, AC3, Rogue and Unity was how they explored how grey the 2 sides were. The Assassins aren't just the good guys because you play as them. They are a faction with their own specific philosophy. A philosophy that can be critiqued. Prior AC games have shown how the Assassins with their "free will no matter what" philosophy can often result in a less stable society at times. Meanwhile the Templars believe that humanity isn't responsible enough to handle such free will so much be guided from the shadows and have often helped people and societies find a stability that Assassins couldn't. That is one of the reasons why the Templars typically have had the upper hand throughout the Assassin/Templar conflict.
The game eventually stops being creative with many of the Cultists. The side missions that feature them eventually stop being subtle and just make it clear that the local dude with lots of power who is a terrible person just happens to also be a Cultist. It was disappointing seeing the quests devolve like this when they started so strong.
I'd argue the Cult of Kosmos would be a far more interesting antagonist for both the player and the Misthios if there was a bit more moral ambiguity to the situation. For example, lets say the Cult were more like the Grey Templars in their beliefs. Like imagine one quest where you work with a local businessman who genuinely helps people by providing employment to the community take out a more heartless one. But then you find out said businessman is a Cultist so obviously you have to kill him since he poses a danger to the Misthios' family. But killing him would hurt the local economy and render many people homeless. This would be a great way for Ody to highlight that the 2 sides aren't black and white. That the Assassins' goal of killing Templars here might provide the people with more freedom, sure, but many would rather just have that stability instead. That stability you the player took away by being an Assassin. Plus, the people already made their choice. They chose to be under the Templars there and you even took their choice away with your actions.
Now imagine if the side quests featuring Cultists had them be more important to the local area and their deaths had some negative outcomes. Not only would that make the 2 sides more interesting but it would also show the Cult as even more of a threat to the Misthios given how interwoven they are into so many aspects of Ancient Greek Society. It would even add to the gameplay since Ody is a full on RPG now, it would put the player in their character's shoes and experience said conflict for themselves.
-Other features
The game uses a yellow diamond as the main marker for the currently tracked quest. This is a problem because many towns and areas have a yellow colour. So the icon blends in well. And there is no "point to the marker" option in the map. You can track a quest but may have a hard time finding what it's tracking. I find I often need to pan the map over to the sea, zoom in and then see which corner the yellow diamond is on. Then follow it until I see where exactly it is and what the nearest fast travel point is. Such an easy fix would have been to make it a Blue diamond instead.
The game got a patch where if you play the game on a PS5, you get to play the game at a higher resolution of 1440p at 60FPS with much faster load times, improved draw distance and visual details. This isn't a separate PS5 version. Just the PS4 version with some improvements. So no fancy haptic feedback (which I really love in games). But the higher framerates and better load times are a godsend. I don't really care much for the resolution. I honestly would drop it down to 720p if I could to get an even higher framerate. Hopefully that becomes a standard for the 9th generation.
I love the game's implementation of Photo Mode and wish it was the standard for all over games. Here, you can enter Photo Mode and take a picture at any point. That photo now shows up on your map and in the games of other players. You can even see the photos taken by other players, upvote them and the photo with the highest votes in the last 24 hours gets highlighted as the photo of the day. Personally, I'd love if this was taken a step further with an optional "Dark Souls-esque" system where you can see in the world, icons that a player has taken a photo here and see the photo rather than using the map. There is one downside however. In more "unique" places such as bossfights with Medusa or other monsters, or in Isu Temples, there tends to be a lot more photos by players which does spoil the surprise. Personally, I don't mind since so much of the map isn't unique that ways to highlight what content is there that's unique is great.
The game brings back Discovery Mode From Origins, allowing you take in the history of the world in a virtual museum mode. I do wish the codex from prior ACs was still available tho.
During the minotaur challenge questlines, one quest requires you to obtain a challenge token. If you choose to buy it, one of the other competitors will admonish you for wanting to "pay to win" and ask you "where is your sense of pride and accomplishment". Which is ironic given the game has a microtransaction store.
If you choose to romance Kyra, the Misthios says "We have a lot in common. I was hoping when the smoke clears, we could find somewhere quiet". Kyra responds: "And what exactly do we have in common? ". The Mishtios responds: "I just... We... I just thought that's what people said to each other. I wasn't expecting a follow-up." I found this funny.
The Alexois Meets Alexa ads on YouTube are amazing and all of you reading this should go watch them.
I wish there was a master audio option as then I could more conveniently knock the volume up or down depending on when I am listening to podcasts through the Spotify app (also, the PS5 Spotify app is terrible compared to the PS4 version).
-Story
--Modern Day
Ody continues Layla's story in the modern day from Origins. And to be honest with you, while I love the premise of AC's modern day sections, I dislike their gameplay.
I have written about this before.
https://mieckfram.blogspot.com/2019/09/critique-against-assassins-creeds.html
But in short, the modern day in AC games, even when they have a great story going on, are often boring to play because at their best, they play like a diet version of the Animus section. In Ody's case, Layla's sections don't have a massive open world to explore, there's no interesting combat or stealth. The levels are extremely linear so there's no real challenge or stakes.
Ody takes this to the extreme with Layla only having 1 super linear mission and story event in the base game. It takes 30 minutes to complete. It is super cool seeing the Misthios in the present and does highlight the new way the Animus works having more potential for surprises like this. But this entire story is set up and "resolved" in a mini-cliffhanger so quickly. Of course, the Paid DLC Expansions do follow this up but this is a review of the base game + any free content it got. Not the Paid DLC expansions.
There was free DLC for Ody that sets up Layla's story for the paid Atlantis DLC Expansion. I won't comment on the paid stuff here. But with the Free DLC, I like the premise and I'm surprised it's taken this long for AC to try something like this. The idea of the Past Protagonist being aware they are being watched by someone in the future who needs their help so there's some indirect back and forth between the past and present is cool on paper. I always felt this idea should have also been done in Brotherhood and Revelations since Ezio (from his POV) was told by what he assumed was a literal Ancient Roman Goddess that his whole purpose in life was to be a messenger to some future phantom.
Sadly, in Ody's case, it is boring to actually play though. It consists of replaying some of the basic tombs that were already completed back in the Animus. These tombs were already super linear and lacked much gameplay to begin with so the return trips with Layla aren't very exciting.
It's a shame because like I said, I do love the story and premise of AC's modern day. I just hate playing through it. I love that Layla's character is far more active and reckless than Desmond (who admittedly, was way too passive until AC3) and the story flags the possible consequences of the bleeding effect she is exposing herself to in addition to how wacky the Isu are (some dramatic irony since we know these red flags exist given what happened to Desmond). But I hate how boring these sections are to play. None of what's neat about Ody's gameplay (the decent combat and stealth and RPG mechanics, the massive open world, hell even the ship sailing) is present here.

• Mercenaries, further analysis of the Animus main story and the game's development, the nature of being an Assassin, Side Quests, and Custom Quests:

Due to Reddit's comment limits, I have to cut these sections out. I have the full uncut version of this post here: https://mieckfram.blogspot.com/2023/05/platinumming-assassins-creed-odyssey.html
In closing, I love Ody's combat, stealth abilities, RPG systems, graphics, custom story creator and photo mode. I feel many of these are improvements over past AC games and even more fun than some other RPGs.
I feel the game is held back by its world design and padding. Resulting in a massive game with so much repeated content and filler. As well as diluting the franchise's staple parkour and social stealth gameplay. My ideal version of Ody would be a game 25-50% the current size, set mostly in large cities like Athens and Sparta, have systems that incorporate parkour and social stealth and have a greater proportion of more interesting and replayable quests. As well as being less of a chore to Platinum.
Anyway, what do y'all think? Join me in 4 years when I platinum Valhalla and talk about how it repeats Ody's pros and cons.

Most messengers I've read about were sent on horseback, obviously to make their message delivered quickly. Athens also wanted to waste no time if legend is believed, in asking Sparta for help in the coming battle of Marathon.
Did Athens not have cavalry or horses used for logistics? Why was not one horse found, even if there was no cavalry, certainly scouts were on horseback, or if not was scouting done on foot as well?
Or perhaps was it a tradition given the Greek Peninsula can be traversed by foot, but to run 225 kilometers (140 miles) to convey an urgent diplomatic message would be unthinkable without looking for a horse first. Or was the status of the runner being an athlete playing a role here and he was expected to run. Wiki's article on Pheidippides states he was a herald or a professional runner, perhaps indicating that not just him but most heralds and messengers were expected to run with their message.
So my question is, where are the horses and why was Pheidippides expected to run such a large distance himself to inform allies of enemy's landing?

This is a top of the most powerful Greek gods, obviously I can't include them all because there are too many gods, so only the Twelve Olympians will be on this list and some honorable mentions that don't have a place for some reason that I'll explain when I arrive, it's also worth noting that there are many versions of many myths and not all of them coincide, so that could bring some changes to this top and it is one of the reasons why some of these gods are in honorable mention, although I did it based on what most say from historical sources, but as I said, they don't always coincide, so if they disagree on any of them, it's completely valid too
I was thinking better of it and I think that Hestia also deserves to be in the honorable mentions but I leave that to your opinion since she is one of the goddesses about which there is less information but it is believed that she had the same authority as Zeus, so now you know
then I intend to bring from other mythologies for everyone to have a sense of the strength of each God in their mythology or at least a sense of their importance.
1- Zeus ( it's ragnarok )
In the first place is obviously the king of the gods and Olympus, god of thunder and the sky who together with his brothers and sisters defeated their father Cronus and the Titans, the Cyclops created lightning for him as a thank you for freeing them from Tartaros He is described as a fair and good god but with a great weakness for carnal desire, which has made him the father of many gods outside of his marriages and many demigods as well.
2- Apollo ( it's ragnarok )
In second place is the favorite and most powerful son of Zeus as well as his most reliable heir, he is probably the most multifaceted god since he is the god of the Sun, of light, of masculine beauty, of music, of medicine, of prophecies, of war, of sports, of plagues, of justice, of archery and of the arts, he was also the second most worshiped god in ancient Greece after Zeus, it is said that his power is so overwhelming that the first time he entered Olympus all the gods trembled in his presence and that the only god capable of defeating him is his father Zeus, a curious fact is that during the Olympics, as expected, he defeated Ares in hand-to-hand combat and he beat Hermes in a race
3- Athena
In third place is Athena, daughter of Zeus and Metis, it is said that an Oracle prophesied that Zeus and Metis would first engender a goddess and then a god who would surpass his father and overthrow him so to avoid this Zeus ate to Metis when she was pregnant with Athena and then she was born from the head of Zeus, she is the goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare, civilization and the arts as well, although Apollo was the favorite of the children of Zeus Athena She was the favorite among her daughters and together with Apollo it could be said that she is a candidate to be his heir, she was the patron saint of the city of Athens that owes its name to her
4- Dionysus
Ok, this is where many are going to get confused, they probably didn't expect the god of wine and parties to be so powerful but he is, he is almost at the level of Apollo and Athena and he managed to defeat 5 giants by himself in the Gigantomachy, is the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, who was one of Zeus's lovers, when she was pregnant with Dionysus Hera tricked her into asking Zeus to appear before her showing his true divine form, to which After hesitating, the god agreed and inadvertently burned it, leaving only the heart of the unborn baby, then Zeus implanted it in his leg until the young god was born, who was left in the care of Hermes and some nymphs to protect him from Hera. Due to his great power, when he gets drunk, he can cause certain problems and it is Apollo who is in charge of controlling him, both being opposite gods and thus the terms of Apollineo and Dionysiac.
5- Ares
This is where opinions will be divided, there are those who will say that I put him too high because he always loses and there are those who will say that he is too low, any opinion is valid because as I already said there are many myths, son of Zeus and Hera is the god of bloody war, he is hated by the other gods of Olympus due to his bellicose and violent character except for Aphrodite who is his lover, in Sparta he was worshiped as the perfect warrior, he is very strong and has great power but the reason why he always or he almost always loses is due to his lack of brains, which has meant that warriors weaker than him can defeat him, if he only thought more instead of being a brute he would be much better and would be higher up in this top, although when Sparta managed conquering all of Greece was represented as Ares finally defeating Athena demonstrating his power, but hey, that is already the interpretation of each person, it is worth mentioning that although he is a violent god, he is a very good father and loves his children and descendants.
6- Hera
In sixth place is the queen of the gods, sister and wife of Zeus, she is the goddess of marriage and fidelity and to a lesser extent sometimes of the earth as well, as queen of the gods she is very powerful, during the Trojan war she defeated Artemis in combat, she is well known for taking revenge on the lovers and bastard children of Zeus, since as she is the goddess of marriage she cannot divorce her husband, also, even if she could, they both love each other in their own way because Zeus despite being unfaithful has shown that he loves Hera just like she loves him even though their relationship is the perfect example of a toxic relationship XD
7- Artemis
In seventh place is the goddess of the hunt, of the forests, of the moon and of virginity, she is the twin sister of Apollo who is very overprotective of her, loves nature and would punish anyone who dared to harm her without hesitation. She swore that she was going to remain a virgin for the rest of her life and it is something that she also demands from her hunters, although there are stories that say that her relationship with Orion led to something more intimate or that she even had relationships with Apollo in the past but those are minor myths and not very reliable, although it is true that she was in love with Orion until he accidentally killed him by a trick from Apollo because he was beginning to neglect his obligations, or perhaps because he was jealous, still both of them they get along very well, during the Trojan War she was able to face Hera but was finally defeated by the queen of the gods
8- Hermes
In eighth place is the messenger of the gods, god of speed, commerce and travelers, he is also in charge of guiding souls to the entrance of the Underworld, son of Zeus and Maya, during his childhood he was very hyperactive, he stole Apollo's cattle and then he started it by making a lyre for him, resulting in a great friendship between them, although he is not a god that stands out for his physical strength or his great power, he is very fast, which makes him almost untouchable and makes him very powerful, he is very loyal to his father Zeus and in general as a messenger god he maintains a good relationship with all the gods
9- Hephaestus
The reason why Hephaestus is in this place is because there is no text or evidence indicating that he was a warrior god or skilled in fighting, his physical strength was formidable but being lame he had certain limitations, he is the son of Hera only or According to other versions, the son of Zeus and Hera, his mother threw him from Olympus because of his ugliness and he was raised by some nymphs. When he grew up, he developed great skill in blacksmithing and created a golden throne as a gift for his mother, but this was actually a trap as revenge for having despised him and when she sat in it she was trapped, all the gods tried to convince him to release her but he refused, and they could not destroy him because Hera would be trapped forever, until Zeus sent Dionysus to get him drunk as the last option and it was then that Hephaestus agreed to release her only if they allowed him to stay on Olympus as the blacksmith of the gods and also granted him the hand of Aphrodite in exchange, although we all know that did not end well for him, something that in my opinion he deserved it for forcing her
10- Demeter
The tenth place is for the goddess of the harvest, the truth is there is no myth or text that details her power but it is believed that she is not as powerful as her brothers since she could not prevent them from doing what each one did to her
11- Hestia
The eldest of the children of Cronos was a peaceful and homely goddess who did not fight or discuss Olympian issues, in fact she left her throne to her nephew Hermes and dedicated herself to living only in her mansion, there are no myths that detail that she knew how to fight or something similar outside of the Titanomachy where it is not that it stands out much either, but that it is in this position does not mean that it is weak and insignificant since it was one of the most important goddesses of ancient Greece, but unlike Hades that although it has never shown her power, since she does not leave the Underworld, it was always or almost always said that her power was comparable to that of Zeus, with Hestia there is no myth that speaks of her power

 *honorable mentions* 

-Hades ( it's ragnarok )
god of the Underworld and the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, possesses the Helmet of Darkness created for him by the Cyclops, he was the most feared god in ancient Greece, even people did not dare to pronounce his name, if well, modern culture wants to make him look like the "bad guy" this is totally false, what's more, it's likely that he is fairer than his other two younger brothers since they always describe him as severe but not evil, in fact there are times when He has shown a kind and pious side, despite being one of the most important gods, he was not considered one of the Twelve Olympians since he was not interested in any matter that did not affect his kingdom and he almost never left it, unless it was totally necessary, for example during the Gigantomachy he went out with his wife Persephone leading a legion of the dead to face the giants and help the gods, although there is no myth where his power is seen and that is the reason why he is here numerous sources and writers affirm that his power was equal to that of Zeus and Poseidon, with the three brothers having the same power, even Zeus himself respected him and sought to avoid all kinds of conflicts with him since a confrontation between them would be devastating for the world.
-Poseidon ( it's ragnarok )
god of the seas, brandished the powerful Trident created by the Cyclopes with which he controlled the sea. As I mentioned before, there are stories that make him as powerful as Zeus and Hades, but when he revealed himself against Zeus, he was punished for what he did. It is not known if it was because Zeus's authority is greater or if it is because his power is greater, in any case it is mostly said that the three brothers have comparable power so if you like you can place them first next to Zeus.
-Hercules ( it's ragnarok )
the demigod who became a god after his death, is here because as a demigod he had the strength of a god and managed to defeat Ares and Hera, as well as draw with Apollo in a fight that did not seem to end until Zeus he intervened to separate his children as a good dad that he is XD, it is not known if when he became a god he acquired some other ability or he just stayed the same but now he is immortal, so that is why he is here although it is very likely that he is in a place at the top tie with Apollo and Athena

This is a top of the most powerful Greek gods, obviously I can't include them all because there are too many gods, so only the Twelve Olympians will be on this list and some honorable mentions that don't have a place for some reason that I'll explain when I arrive, it's also worth noting that there are many versions of many myths and not all of them coincide, so that could bring some changes to this top and it is one of the reasons why some of these gods are in honorable mention, although I did it based on what most say from historical sources, but as I said, they don't always coincide, so if they disagree on any of them, it's completely valid too.
I was thinking better of it and I think that Hestia also deserves to be in the honorable mentions but I leave that to your opinion since she is one of the goddesses about which there is less information but it is believed that she had the same authority as Zeus, so now you know.
then I intend to bring from other mythologies for everyone to have a sense of the strength of each God in their mythology or at least a sense of their importance.
1- Zeus
In the first place is obviously the king of the gods and Olympus, god of thunder and the sky who together with his brothers and sisters defeated their father Cronus and the Titans, the Cyclops created lightning for him as a thank you for freeing them from Tartaros He is described as a fair and good god but with a great weakness for carnal desire, which has made him the father of many gods outside of his marriages and many demigods as well.
2- Apollo
In second place is the favorite and most powerful son of Zeus as well as his most reliable heir, he is probably the most multifaceted god since he is the god of the Sun, of light, of masculine beauty, of music, of medicine, of prophecies, of war, of sports, of plagues, of justice, of archery and of the arts, he was also the second most worshiped god in ancient Greece after Zeus, it is said that his power is so overwhelming that the first time he entered Olympus all the gods trembled in his presence and that the only god capable of defeating him is his father Zeus, a curious fact is that during the Olympics, as expected, he defeated Ares in hand-to-hand combat and he beat Hermes in a race
3- Athena
In third place is Athena, daughter of Zeus and Metis, it is said that an Oracle prophesied that Zeus and Metis would first engender a goddess and then a god who would surpass his father and overthrow him so to avoid this Zeus ate to Metis when she was pregnant with Athena and then she was born from the head of Zeus, she is the goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare, civilization and the arts as well, although Apollo was the favorite of the children of Zeus Athena She was the favorite among her daughters and together with Apollo it could be said that she is a candidate to be his heir, she was the patron saint of the city of Athens that owes its name to her
4- Dionysus
Ok, this is where many are going to get confused, they probably didn't expect the god of wine and parties to be so powerful but he is, he is almost at the level of Apollo and Athena and he managed to defeat 5 giants by himself in the Gigantomachy, is the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, who was one of Zeus's lovers, when she was pregnant with Dionysus Hera tricked her into asking Zeus to appear before her showing his true divine form, to which After hesitating, the god agreed and inadvertently burned it, leaving only the heart of the unborn baby, then Zeus implanted it in his leg until the young god was born, who was left in the care of Hermes and some nymphs to protect him from Hera. Due to his great power, when he gets drunk, he can cause certain problems and it is Apollo who is in charge of controlling him, both being opposite gods and thus the terms of Apollineo and Dionysiac.
5- Ares
This is where opinions will be divided, there are those who will say that I put him too high because he always loses and there are those who will say that he is too low, any opinion is valid because as I already said there are many myths, son of Zeus and Hera is the god of bloody war, he is hated by the other gods of Olympus due to his bellicose and violent character except for Aphrodite who is his lover, in Sparta he was worshiped as the perfect warrior, he is very strong and has great power but the reason why he always or he almost always loses is due to his lack of brains, which has meant that warriors weaker than him can defeat him, if he only thought more instead of being a brute he would be much better and would be higher up in this top, although when Sparta managed conquering all of Greece was represented as Ares finally defeating Athena demonstrating his power, but hey, that is already the interpretation of each person, it is worth mentioning that although he is a violent god, he is a very good father and loves his children and descendants.
6- Hera
In sixth place is the queen of the gods, sister and wife of Zeus, she is the goddess of marriage and fidelity and to a lesser extent sometimes of the earth as well, as queen of the gods she is very powerful, during the Trojan war she defeated Artemis in combat, she is well known for taking revenge on the lovers and bastard children of Zeus, since as she is the goddess of marriage she cannot divorce her husband, also, even if she could, they both love each other in their own way because Zeus despite being unfaithful has shown that he loves Hera just like she loves him even though their relationship is the perfect example of a toxic relationship XD
7- Artemis
In seventh place is the goddess of the hunt, of the forests, of the moon and of virginity, she is the twin sister of Apollo who is very overprotective of her, loves nature and would punish anyone who dared to harm her without hesitation. She swore that she was going to remain a virgin for the rest of her life and it is something that she also demands from her hunters, although there are stories that say that her relationship with Orion led to something more intimate or that she even had relationships with Apollo in the past but those are minor myths and not very reliable, although it is true that she was in love with Orion until he accidentally killed him by a trick from Apollo because he was beginning to neglect his obligations, or perhaps because he was jealous, still both of them they get along very well, during the Trojan War she was able to face Hera but was finally defeated by the queen of the gods
8- Hermes
In eighth place is the messenger of the gods, god of speed, commerce and travelers, he is also in charge of guiding souls to the entrance of the Underworld, son of Zeus and Maya, during his childhood he was very hyperactive, he stole Apollo's cattle and then he started it by making a lyre for him, resulting in a great friendship between them, although he is not a god that stands out for his physical strength or his great power, he is very fast, which makes him almost untouchable and makes him very powerful, he is very loyal to his father Zeus and in general as a messenger god he maintains a good relationship with all the gods
9- Hephaestus
The reason why Hephaestus is in this place is because there is no text or evidence indicating that he was a warrior god or skilled in fighting, his physical strength was formidable but being lame he had certain limitations, he is the son of Hera only or According to other versions, the son of Zeus and Hera, his mother threw him from Olympus because of his ugliness and he was raised by some nymphs. When he grew up, he developed great skill in blacksmithing and created a golden throne as a gift for his mother, but this was actually a trap as revenge for having despised him and when she sat in it she was trapped, all the gods tried to convince him to release her but he refused, and they could not destroy him because Hera would be trapped forever, until Zeus sent Dionysus to get him drunk as the last option and it was then that Hephaestus agreed to release her only if they allowed him to stay on Olympus as the blacksmith of the gods and also granted him the hand of Aphrodite in exchange, although we all know that did not end well for him, something that in my opinion he deserved it for forcing her
10- Demeter
The tenth place is for the goddess of the harvest, the truth is there is no myth or text that details her power but it is believed that she is not as powerful as her brothers since she could not prevent them from doing what each one did to her
11- Hestia
The eldest of the children of Cronos was a peaceful and homely goddess who did not fight or discuss Olympian issues, in fact she left her throne to her nephew Hermes and dedicated herself to living only in her mansion, there are no myths that detail that she knew how to fight or something similar outside of the Titanomachy where it is not that it stands out much either, but that it is in this position does not mean that it is weak and insignificant since it was one of the most important goddesses of ancient Greece, but unlike Hades that although it has never shown her power, since she does not leave the Underworld, it was always or almost always said that her power was comparable to that of Zeus, with Hestia there is no myth that speaks of her power

 *honorable mentions* 

-Hades, god of the Underworld and the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, possesses the Helmet of Darkness created for him by the Cyclops, he was the most feared god in ancient Greece, even people did not dare to pronounce his name, if well, modern culture wants to make him look like the "bad guy" this is totally false, what's more, it's likely that he is fairer than his other two younger brothers since they always describe him as severe but not evil, in fact there are times when He has shown a kind and pious side, despite being one of the most important gods, he was not considered one of the Twelve Olympians since he was not interested in any matter that did not affect his kingdom and he almost never left it, unless it was totally necessary, for example during the Gigantomachy he went out with his wife Persephone leading a legion of the dead to face the giants and help the gods, although there is no myth where his power is seen and that is the reason why he is here numerous sources and writers affirm that his power was equal to that of Zeus and Poseidon, with the three brothers having the same power, even Zeus himself respected him and sought to avoid all kinds of conflicts with him since a confrontation between them would be devastating for the world.
-Poseidon, god of the seas, brandished the powerful Trident created by the Cyclopes with which he controlled the sea. As I mentioned before, there are stories that make him as powerful as Zeus and Hades, but when he revealed himself against Zeus, he was punished for what he did. It is not known if it was because Zeus's authority is greater or if it is because his power is greater, in any case it is mostly said that the three brothers have comparable power so if you like you can place them first next to Zeus.
-Hercules, the demigod who became a god after his death, is here because as a demigod he had the strength of a god and managed to defeat Ares and Hera, as well as draw with Apollo in a fight that did not seem to end until Zeus he intervened to separate his children as a good dad that he is XD, it is not known if when he became a god he acquired some other ability or he just stayed the same but now he is immortal, so that is why he is here although it is very likely that he is in a place at the top tie with Apollo and Athena.

Everything is named after the gods. All the planets, science, and trade. All the NASA "moon landings" named after Apollo the God of light. The statue of Liberty represents Helios the sun God. The Goddess Columbia reigns atop The U.S. Capitol building, and named after the Goddess The District of Columbia. MERCURY the messenger god meets you outside the Capitol building. The modern EMT symbol, and symbol from medicine comes straight from the Greeks, and the good Apollo's son teaching medicine to man. The snake emblem also reflects the Rod of Asclepius, widely used as the symbol of medical care worldwide. There are several theories as to its development; it is named for the Greek mythological figure Asclepius, who was said to have possessed healing power.
The American colonial revolutionary, Thomas Greenleaf, subtitled his newspaper "The Argus" after the mythological watchman and took the slogan "We Guard the Rights of Man."
The Pegasus appears frequently on stamps, particularly for air mail. In 1906, Greece issued a series of stamps featuring the stories from Hercules' life. Australia commemorated the laying of an underwater cable linking it to the island of Tasmania through a stamp featuring an image of Amphitrite.
The United States military has used Greek mythology to name its equipment such as the Nike missile project and the Navy having over a dozen ships named from Greek mythology. Greek mythology has been the source for names for a number of ships in the British navy as well as the Australian Royal Navy which has also named a training facility in Victoria called HMAS Cerebus. The Canadair CP-107 Argus of the Royal Canadian Air Force is named in honor of both the hundred eyed Argus Panoptes the "all seeing" and Odysseus' dog Argus who was the only one who identified Odysseus upon his return home.
In science and technology
The Apollo 16 lunar module on the moon Many celestial bodies have been named after elements of Greek mythology. The constellation of Scorpius represents the scorpion that attacked Orion and the scorpions that frighted the horses when Phaëton was driving the sun-chariot; while Capricorn may represent Pan in a myth that tells of his escape from Typhon by jumping into the water while turning into an animal - the half in the water turned into a fish and the other half turned into a goat. Demeter, a main-belt asteroid discovered by Karl Reinmuth on May 31, 1929, is named after the Greek goddess of fruitful soil and agriculture.[25]
The elements tantalum and niobium are always found together in nature, and have been named after the King Tantalus and his daughter Niobe. The element promethium also draws its name from Greek mythology, as does titanium, which was named after the titans who in mythology were locked away far underground, which reflected the difficulty of extracting titanium from ore.
The U.S. Apollo Space Program to take astronauts to the moon, was named after Apollo, based the god's ability as an archer to hit his target and being the god of light and knowledge.
Written more than two thousand years ago, texts by ancient Greeks still have a major impact on the modern militaries of today in numerous ways.
At the start of the Cold War, the then US secretary of state, George Marshall, read the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, convinced that the events of the Peloponnesian War and the fall of Athens were worthy of review in those unprecedented times when the United States and Russia— the Athens and Persia on the contemporary age, faced each other in conflict.
Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War is still studied at many military academies, including West Point, the Command and Staff College of the US Marine Corps, and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Recruits at army and naval colleges are encouraged to study what the text has to say about strategic leadership, garnering support in a protracted war and the impact of biological warfare.
The “Melian Dialogue” is considered particularly important, containing the Athenians’ justification for conquering Melos in what was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the late 5th century BC.
Also known to have studied Greek military texts are Colin Powell and David Pet­raeus, whose fall from grace in 2012 after the revelation that he had leaked classified information to his mistress has often been noted in Sophoclean terms. It did not go unnoticed at the time that “Petraeus” was the name of a centaur, a half-man, half-horse figure of Greek myth, renowned for his sexual appetite.
But Greek text also have a therapeutic nature for the military, as well as victims on the other side of the conflict.
The Greek tragedies of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides continue to provide a powerful lens through which soldiers heal after returning from conflict. In his recent book, The Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today, Bryan Doerries describes his work with Theater of War, a traveling drama collective that performs Sophocles’s most intense explorations of the psychological impact of war for US soldiers and veterans.
USS Prometheus USS Triton (SSRN/SSN-586), a United States Navy nuclear-powered radar picket submarine, was the first vessel to execute a submerged circumnavigation of the Earth (Operation Sandblast), doing so in early 1960.
The mythological Greek god Triton was the messenger of the seas. He's usually represented as a merman.
This can be associated with Triton because it explores the seas and it was the first submarine to go around the Earth.
Greek mythology in the military The Nike Missile Project was a U.S. Army Project proposed in 1945 and finished in 1953. The Nike Zeus, Hercules, and Ajax. Nike was the Greek God of Victory and can be associated with speed. It was made to shoot down jet aircraft.
Nike Missile Project USS Medusa (AR-1) was the United States Navy's first purpose-built repair ship. She served in the U.S. Navy from 1924 to 1946. Medusa wasa gorgon. Whoever looked in her eyes was turned to stone. Medusa can Be Associated with the ship because it was the first type of ship, like Medusa was the first mortal gorgon sister.
Gorgon Stare is a video capture technology developed by the United States military[1]. It is a spherical array of nine cameras attached to an aerial drone.[2] The US Air Force calls it "wide-area surveillance sensor system"
HMAS Cerberus has always been Navy personnel training. With the establishment of four tri-service schools over the last 13 years, this role has been extended to training Army, Navy and Air Force personnel. Cerberus was Ares' three headed hellhound which had a serpent's tail, a mane of a snakes, and a lion's claw. This can be associated with the military because it is a military base that trains 3 different branches (like Cerberus' three heads)
The Argus was made for the Royal Canadian Airforce. In its early years, the Argus was reputedly the finest anti-submarine patrol bomber in the world. Argus was Odysseus' dog, the only one to recognize Odysseus when he first got back. The airplane can be associated with Argus the dog because it detects submarines/hidden things. Like Argus when he was the only one to detect Odysseus.
Canadair CP-107 Argus USS Prometheus (AR-3) was a repair ship that served the United States Navy during World War I and World War II.
Prometheus was a Titan, not a god. He is known to have given the mortals fire. Prometheus joined the Gods in the Titan war, instead of the Titans.
It can be associated with the Titan in the way that it repairs other ships and helps them, like how Prometheus helped out mortals by giving them fire.
HMAS Cerberus
USS Triton
USS Medusa
What is Project NIMBUS? Lightning has long perplexed scientists. Not only are atmospheric scientists unsure of exactly what initiates lightning, but they also don’t understand precisely how and why it is able to propagate over great distances, and where it will strike. That makes it, in DARPA’s view, “one of the major unsolved mysteries in the atmospheric sciences.”
First up is a fascinating request for proposals from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, who is looking to build a “Positioning System for Deep Ocean Navigation.” It has the handy acronym of POSYDON.
POSYDON will be “an undersea system that provides omnipresent, robust positioning” in the deep ocean either for crewed submarines or for autonomous seacraft. “DARPA envisions that the POSYDON program will distribute a small number of acoustic sources, analogous to GPS satellites, around an ocean basin,” but I imagine there is some room for creative maneuvering there.
The idea of an acoustic deep-sea positioning system that operates similar to GPS is pretty interesting to imagine, especially considering the strange transformations sound undergoes as it is transmitted through water. To establish accurately that a U.S. submarine has, in fact, heard an acoustic beacon and that its apparent distance from that point is not being distorted by intervening water temperature, ocean currents, or even the large-scale presence of marine life is obviously quite an extraordinary challenge.
As DARPA points out, without such a system in place, “undersea vehicles must regularly surface to receive GPS signals and fix their position, and this presents a risk of detection.” The ultimate goal, then, would be to launch ultra-longterm undersea missions, even establish permanently submerged robotic networks that have no need to breach the ocean’s surface. Cthulhoid, they will forever roam the deep.
U.S. naval forces need a way to project key capabilities in multiple locations at once, without the time and expense of building new vessels to deliver those capabilities.
DARPA has initiated the Hydra program to help address these challenges. Named for the multi-headed creature from Greek mythology, Hydra aims to develop a distributed undersea network of unmanned payloads and platforms to complement manned vessels. The system would integrate existing and emerging technologies in new ways to create an alternate means of delivering various capabilities above, on and below the ocean’s surface. The goal is to create a force multiplier that enables rapid, scalable and cost-effective deployment of assets close to the point of use

Wonder Women

Issue 38: The Whirlwind
Written by u/VoidKiller826
Edited by u/Deadislandman1
Arc: Genocide
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“Greetings.” Normal speech.
‘Greetings.’ Thinking speech.
[Greetings.] Comms and phone speech.
{Greetings.} TV and Radio speech.
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Sandsmark Household - Gateway City - TIME: 10:47 A.M
Athena.
The Goddess of Wisdom, Strategic Warfare, and Justice. Patron of the Amazons.
Hephaestus.
The God of Smithing, Fire, and Metal. Creator of legendary weapons.
Aphrodite.
The Goddess of Love and Beauty.
Apollo.
The God of Light, Prophecy, and Music.
Hermes.
The God of Speed and the Messenger of the Gods.
Perseus.
The Hero that beheaded the monstrous Medusa
Heracles.
The Legendary Hero and the slayer of the Nemean Lion.
Numerous names in Greek history and mythos. Gods, heroes, and even some are viewed as villains depending on the stories. These figures have affected the entire history of Greece, inspiring many and still to this day those who still follow them such as the Amazons of Themyscira.
What all have in common, other than being names in history, is that each of these Gods and Heroes is children of Zeus, the God of Lightning, Skyfather of Mount Olympus, and chief ruler of the Greek Pantheon, a man with no need for any introduction. And unlike his children, he is a man who represents the very best of the Olympians, and it's very worst as his lust for other women and infidelities are just as well known as his wins in great wars against Titanomachy and the Anunnaki.
And among his children, who carry his best and others carry his worst, none reached the level of infamy as closely to Zeus as his son with Hera, the God of War, Ares.
A God that carried many names and lives like his father, Ares lives up to his moniker and thrives in battles, seeking challengers across the land and fighting in his father's wars without any complaint as it satisfied his purpose in life. He faced down the Gods of the West, he battled Anunnaki's best warriors without fear and he cut down other Gods who challenged his family.
His action made the name Ares known and feared, the God of War is closely associated with him more than anyone else among the Gods, and he earned it.
Despite his reputation and love for battle, Ares cared for one thing other than the thrill of the battle, and that is his armor, created by his brother Hephaestus and gifted to him by his mother Hera. The armor is strong thanks to it being built with Olympian steel, the God of War, unsatisfied with the work, decided to change it to fit his taste on what it should be.
Already skilled with magic along with his skill in battle, Ares began coating his armor with his magic, finding new runes and spells to make sure it can enhance his powers to serve Olympus, and when that is not enough, he added steel from his fallen foes, specifically from other cultures and pantheons, transforming the magic into something new, chaotic, evil.
And when he began his campaign and rebelled against Olympus out of jealousy of his father’s favoritism to his sister Athena, he started a war that nearly burned down all of Greece, and from this war, his power grew more because of his armor, the magic that came out of it changed the man into a vicious monster, and it’s been said he has grown so powerful he could rival Zeus the longer his war continues.
But instead, he lost to Athena’s champion, Hippolyta of Themyscira, then Princess of Paradise Island, in an epic clash in Athens as she led her sisters to battle against Ares’s army.
His loss forced him into exile after Hera pleaded with Zeus to spare her son and ever since then the former God of War was never seen or heard of again. But his legacy still lingers on in the halls of Olympus, the Amazons of old still remember his terrible war and his armament being the only living proof of his powers.
And now, one set of his armor, his helmet, his signature that he was in his battle, is active and making its story come true.
\CRASH!\**
Hitting back first into a wall, Artemis shook her head, already with a cut above her brow, she stood straight and quickly rose her shield at the last second as Cassandra Sandsmark, covered in black armor, flew towards the Amazon and aimed to deliver a punch, but was blocked with her shield. The impact of that punch sent shockwaves around the living, breaking every glass from the windows to the drinking glass to the vases.
She continued wailing at her, with every punch shaking the house and pushing Artemis further into the wall. Then she grabbed the edge of the shield, trying to pull it away but the Amazon tightly held on and planted her foot on the wall to push herself off, landing on the armored Cassandra with her on top.
“Cassandra! Listen to me!” Artemis pleaded with Cassandra, she’s been trying to get a response from her friend for the past five minutes, but all she received was silence. What disturbed the Amazon more than the lack of response, is the lack of light behind Cassandra’s eyes, it was lifeless as if she was in a trance. “Whatever you are going through you must fight it-”
Before she could finish her plea, Cassandra put her hands on the center of the shield and fired a torrent of wind, sending the Amazon crashing into the ceiling of the home, and into the hallway of the first floor.
Staggering to stand up, Artemis leaned against the nearest wall, her arm that held the shield was bleeding, along with the shield itself being bent. Taking a deep breath through the pain, she let the shield loose and grabbed her arm in pain, the wind attack nearly took her arm off, and if it wasn’t for her shield, it would have happened, but it still damaged her arm greatly.
‘By Osiris’s grace… is this Cassandra’s actual strength?’ she knew that Cassandra held back her god-like gifts, but the power behind it felt similar to the New Cheetah with Urzkataga’s blessing. ‘Is this because of the armor?’
The power behind her punches, the wind magic that came out of her hand, added with the overwhelming magic that is coming out of the armor and the helm, there was no mistake that is Ares’s legendary armor, the same one he wore during his time as the God of War.
And now Cassandra, a child of Zeus, is wearing the cursed thing, and it enhanced her already powerful strength and unlocked what she suspects to be her magical gifts from her divine side. The armor’s magic must be influencing her mind or a different spell altogether but it is enough to make her act like an emotionless drone.
She turned her head to see Cassandra jump through the hole she made and landed in front of her, the room’s air being sucked out the moment she entered.
“No use talking to you while that damn thing is on your head…” Artemis muttered as she cut the straps that held her weapons, she can’t risk hurting Cassandra, and even if she fought, she is a one-armed woman against a child of Zeus wearing a War God’s armor.
Quickly wrapping her lasso around her bleeding arm, biting her teeth in pain, she tensed up as Cassandra flew forward, shaking the hallway with her speed. For anyone else, the speed would have overwhelmed them, but Artemis has trained her eyes and reaction to time her attacks and to anticipate her prey, and Cassandra is fighting without any tactics, so she can use that to her advantage.
Using Cassandra’s momentum against her, Artemis moved out of the way and Cassandra crashed through the wall behind her. Seeing an opening, Artemis jumped on and pushed her to the ground, planting her knee on Cassandra’s back, she used her lasso to tie her arms and legs.
“Forgive me, Cassandra,” apologized the Amazon, quickly wrapping the lasso. “Give me a few moments and I will remove the helm-”
Cassandra, for the first time since this fight started, made a sound, and that is a howl as she used her inhumane strength to stand up straight, pushing the Amazon off of her and lunge at her again, pushing her towards a wall, violently, then punched at full force on her chest, sending flying across the hallway toward a door at the end of it, crashing through it and destroying the door into pieces.
Bell rang around her ears, her mind going hazy the moment she got that hit. The impact shattered her breastplate armor completely, but she definitely felt that hit. ‘This power… it's greater than the one I received from the New Cheetah…’ Artemis tried to stand up, and catch her breath, but instead, she collapsed, forcing her to use the bed in the room for support.
“Anubis Breath…” she swore in pain. “You are much stronger than you thought, Cassandra…”
From the open door, came Cassandra entering the room, stalking Artemis with slow steps. The Amazons thought of different strategies to subdue Cassandra, but all of them would mean hurting Cassandra, and using her weapons is out of the question.
Then Cassandra stopped.
Artemis furrowed her brows, confused at the halt of attack as she stood up, using the bed in the room for support and noticing Cassandra was facing something behind the Amazons. Following her gaze, her eyes widened.
Behind her was a large poster of Diana of Themyscira, standing proud and smiling brightly. Artemis realized the entire room was covered with different posters and WW shirts scattered everywhere. On one wall there were a series of pictures of a young Cassandra, each showing her taking it with different people, some with Diana, some with her old Titans team outside of costume, and even one with the original Batman.
‘This is Cassandra’s room…’
She knew that Cassandra admired Diana long before she became Wonder Girl or found her powers, her reaction when she first met Artemis and told her she doesn’t deserve to be Wonder Woman makes sense now. Cassandra idolized Diana, and the fact the posters are still hanging up even years after her death shows it still affects her, despite not showing it to others, it’s clear that she looks at these posters every day when she wakes up as a reminder.
“D…ia…na…”
The image of Diana managed to break through the magical influence of the armor as her eyes were starting to have light behind them, her fingers twitching as if she was trying to get free from her trance. Standing up straight and fighting off the pain, Artemis slowly walked up to Cassandra, if the armor is truly influencing her mind, then she can try to remove the helmet without any issue-
\CLINK CLINK\**
Artemis’s ears perked up, hearing what sounded like chains echoing around the room, then Cassandra’s head swiveled at the Amazon’s, her eyes had light back at them, but the irises changed.
And they were red.
“Ge…No…Cide!”
Artemis raised her arms as Cassandra’s entire body started to turn
*************************************************************
The backyard of the Sandsmark Household- TIME: 10:50 A.M
Whatever is going on inside the Sandsmark home, it’s clear the fight is an intense one judging by the shaking that they are feeling out here.
“Man… now I understand why most of these guys fight outdoors.” Miguel muttered, nervously watching the house as the fight continued inside. Turning to the others, Miguel noted the different reactions each of the women carried.
Helena Sandsmark was hysterical, holding Julia closely as she stared at her home being destroyed inside and out, but none of that matters as her mind still focused on Cassandra. With Julia Kapatelis being a supportive hand as always.
Vanessa Kapatelis was pacing back and forth, she acted quickly to push them out of the house before the fight started, and really looks as nervous as everyone else, growing pissed off as more time passes. Miguel still feels uncomfortable around her after finding the fact that she is a SCYTHE soldier, and not just any soldier, Hector Hall’s second in command, who also happens to be a family friend to the Sandsmarks.
While Emily, who was standing by his side, was staring off to the distance, muttering some words about a chain and fire. Whatever she saw or felt when she stood in front of that door must have affected her greatly.
“Vanessa, what is going on?” Julia Kapatelis asked her daughter, keeping Helena steady.
“I am still trying to find that out, mom,” said Vanessa, a bit too quickly. Before turning to Helena. “Helena, what did that caller say to you? Do they have Cassie? Did they send someone to take us out?”
“I…” Helena tried to get a word out before taking a deep breath, clearly whatever the caller said to her affected her greatly. “All they said was that they have Cassandra and all I have to do is open some doors and I will see here…” she explained, shaking her legs in nervousness. “It doesn’t make any sense, what door did they mean?”
“Yeah… what door…” Vanessa turned back to the house, the fighting stopped judging from the lack of shaking. “Unless…”
She turned to Miguel and Emily, specifically to the Asian girl, remembering back at Saint Elias when the Cheetah nearly killed her before the girl stopped him with her fire powers, burning the overgrown cat and then turning into literal water to protect herself. Whatever her powers were, it has something to do with those elements.
“Emily Sung, right?” Vanessa asked as she walked up to her. “How did you know someone was behind that door?”
“Woah there,” Miguel came in front of Vanessa. “I get the whole ‘I am the Law’ thing down pat, but this ain’t exactly the time to go all in with the whole interrogation routine with us, SCYTHE lady. Not shocking from Commander Hardass’s number two, with all the unwarranted arrests and beatdowns you give to criminals.”
“I am not interrogating, I am asking her, big difference there,” Vanessa said, glaring at Miguel who crossed his arms. “And by the way, it’s Lieutenant of SCYTHE, it’s my job to ask around.”
“Sure…” Miguel narrowed his eyes, unconvinced. “Just trying to forget that your boss is Commander Fascist-”
“Calm down, Miguel,” Emily patted her friend’s shoulder before anything escalated, Vanessa looked like she was close to decking him for the name. “She is just worried about Cassandra,” she turned to Vanessa. “Look, I know what you will ask, and I can’t explain it.”
“Try me,” Vanessa assured. “Anything that can help us with finding Cassandra and hopefully-” the house started shaking, indicating the fight between Artemis and whoever came through the door is still ongoing. “-Help the Amazon from not getting killed.” she finished with a sigh.
“Wait, you know about the whole power thing?” Miguel asked, nervously taking a step back. He never told anyone about his powers except Cassandra and Emily… and his mom and dad who shockingly did not freak out.
“If you are worried about the Commander knowing, don’t, he doesn’t even know about Cassie.” Vanessa disclosed. “Plus, she saved my life back at Saint Elias.”
Miguel nodded, impressed. “Guess you are not a mindless follower like I thought.”
Vanessa gave him a quick annoyed glance before turning to Emily.
“I can’t easily explain it,” Emily began, her eyes going back to the house. “But all I can say is that I can… sense the magic flowing through the air, it’s how I knew someone was at that door, the mixture of… evil coming through just…”
“Scared you,” Vanessa noted. “It’s why you were staring stiff.”
Emily nodded. “But it’s not because of the magic that scared me… it's who it's mixed with…”
“Mixed with?”
Emily turned to Vanessa, her expression was that of terror, but not out of fear, but realization. “It felt like… Cassandra.”
Vanessa and Miguel’s eyes widened, but before they could say anything more, the windows upstairs exploded open, creating a large hole that led inside a room in the Sandsmark household. And from the house, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall came flying out and landing in front of them, bleeding but still awake.
“Artemis!” Julia and Helena ran up to Artemis, who tried to stand up before they helped her. With Emily and Miguel running up to them.
Vanessa in turn came in front of them, lifting the sleeves of her jacket to reveal two wristbands on her arms, they were metallic, black and silver. She clicked them together, letting out a loud echo around the backyard, then it started to expand, covering her entire arms then it continued to her entire body and stopping at her lower half of her head.
Her armor NIGHT armor shined from the bright sun that came on them, her silver wings extended from her back, the Silver Swan is ready for battle.
“Command, this is Swan,” Vanessa called through her comms attached to her ears. “Calling in a serious problem I am facing here, send backup to my location.”
[Swan, this is Brawen, confirm on the request, sending in a squad to your location.]
“Good,” Vanessa smiled, happy to hear Branwen’s voice. “But send in Scarab and the Twins, this one looks to be a code yellow-”
Vanessa stopped talking as she saw a figure starting to come out of the large opening, and she realized that was Cassandra’s room, recognizing Diana’s posters that littered inside. And then she tensed up as she saw the figure standing by the edge, their black armor and horned helmet, and the air around them started to shake wildly, as the clouds began to cover the skies and the sun, as if a hurricane was starting to come through the city.
“Vanessa…” Artemis called for the SCYTHE soldier, trying to stand straight as she pushed everyone away. “Vanessa it is Cassandra!”
Everyone’s eyes widened in shock, turning to Artemis first then to the armored figure. Emily gasped, confirming her fears. Miguel and Julia stared in shock and Helena whispered “No.” under her breath, getting down on her knees and tears began to fall as she saw what her daughter had become.
[Swan? What was that?] Branwen spoke to Vanessa but the Lieutenant did not answer, too shocked to even listen as she stared at the armored Cassandra. [Vanessa! Backup is on its way-]
“Geno…cide…” Cassandra said in a low tone, her eyes were glowing red, focused at the group’s direction. Then raised her arms at them.
Emily and Artemis realized just what would come.
“Get out of the way-”
Artemis shouted, just as Genocide fired another powerful torrent of air from her arms.
*************************************************************
A few houses away from the Sandsmark Household - TIME: 10:55 A.M
The Millers are a family of five that lives right down the street of the Sandsmarks. A typical family living the typical American life in a good neighborhood.
The mother, Vicky, is a typical housewife with dreams of being a writer, even started writing some short stories for herself in her free time. An old friend of Helena, she occasionally helps her out in the Museum as a volunteer whenever there is a chance.
Her husband, Edward, is an Empire Enterprise office worker, who is taking a break following the Snowman incident last year, and enjoying his time with his family with the free time he got, even if EE called him tomorrow to come back, he might give them an excuse to stay longer with his family, if they fire him, even better.
Their son, Ronnie, just graduated from Gateway University and was a childhood friend of Cassandra, a bright young quarterback with a future to play in football. Maybe even play for the Gateway Archers if he passes through their youth club. His parents tend to tease him about his crush to Cassandra who seemed oblivious to his feelings even when they shared classes at college.
A typical family, a typical life.
And now they sat on their couch of their home, their bodies burned to crisps as they were set up beside each other.
“Fire give me… fire bless me… fire love me… embrace me… and accept me…”
Seated cross legged in the middle of the living room was a dark skinned woman, bald headed and covered in a white robe. On the floor where she sat was a magical circle, written in blood, fresh and taken from the Miller family.
The circle is in perfect shape, filled with symbols in each corner of it, old symbols dedicated to different Gods in different pantheons, written in a language thought dead, each written in blood. White candles with a small light were also on each corner
The priestess, Zara, took a deep breath as she said her prayers, rubbing her hands together with the blood, she continued. “Crimson Flames, hear me, as your believer, as your follower, strengthen me, and accept these souls as an offering. Pure souls, and empower me with your grace.”
She clapped her hand, and in finishing her chanting, the entire circle flamed out, and the candles erupted in flames, then it disappeared, melting the waxes off completely, covering the room in smoke.
Then symbols began to glow under her robe, tribal tattoos, brightening underneath it then it disappeared. She opened her eyes, orange orbs, that flickered, like a small flame behind them.
‘The spell should be working for a few more hours…’
Zara raised her arms, and a transparent chain appeared wrapped around them, they were black, charred, and going upward and through the walls of the house and into the direction where the Sandsmark household is located.
\CLINK CLINK\**
Zara moved the chain, then pulled, the chain can't be seen, heard or sensed by the naked eyes except those with magical abilities, making it possible to pass through walls and weightless, easy to move around if one wishes to. The chain's cufflinks had golden markings on it, that of a golden bull.
"The chain of heaven is ready should she appear... her place demands her to appear to the world..." Zara said coldly, her voice calm and stoic. "The Skychild's gifts should be enough to warrant attention, and her gifts by her father is enough to bring the very heaven's attention to this battle."
Zara gave one more pull before going back to praying, letting the silence seep in as she waited.
*************************************************************
Sandsmark Household:
Vanessa had her eyes closed, expecting the powerful torrent to come at her, but nothing came, except for the shaking in the ground. Opening her eyes, she saw a large purple brick wall in front of her, shielding her and everyone behind her from the attack.
“Holy shit…” Miguel Barragan said behind her, arms above his head and Vanessa realized they were all inside a domed circle. “It actually worked!”
“Miguel?” Emily asked, looking at the bricked shield in awe along with the others. “Is this like the one used back at the Raging Pig?”
“Sure is!” Miguel smiled excitedly. “Even got the brick walls right!”
Everyone let out a relieved sigh that Miguel protected them, but then they heard the wall shake.
“Oh hell…” Vanessa muttered, realizing that Cassandra is trying to punch through.
“Stay behind me,” Artemis pushed Julia and Helena back, standing in front of them. “It is not over.”
“How is that thing Cassandra?” Vanessa asked, turning to Artemis. “Cassie isn't some rampaging monster!”
“I don’t know…” Artemis grimaced in pain, holding her arm out to Vanessa. “But all I know, the armor she is wearing makes her act that way. So I believe if we remove the helmet it will hopefully break off the control that has a hold over her."
“And the airbending powers she got going?” Miguel asked, trying to keep the shield strong as he felt another shake, possibly from someone punching through.
“It is her divine side, possibly dormant before the armor unlocked it.” Artemis explained. "If the stories are true, she will get even stronger the longer this battle goes."
Helena gasped, realizing something. “No… it can’t be…”
\CRACK\**
The purple barrier began to crack, and with another punch, it broke through, shattering it open and destroying the whole thing. Landing in the middle was Cassandra, armor covered and magic oozing out so much it overwhelmed Artemis and Emily.
Acting fast, the Amazon pushed Helena and Julia away just as Cassandra delivered a kick to her abdomen. Then, she turned to Emily and Miguel, who created a shield from his hand to block her attack, but the force sent them back.
Vanessa jumped ahead, tackling Cassandra on the ground and tried to remove the helmet off of her head.
“Cassie, it’s me!” Vanessa yelled, digging her fingers in the opening of the helmet, using her whole strength to tear the cursed thing off. "You can fight it! I know you can!"
Cassandra tried to get Vanessa off of her, but the Silver Swan used her wings to pin her down.
"You are Wonder Girl! You faced down a lot worse than a stupid armor-"
A howl, a loud one, came from Cassandra's as she yelled at Vanessa, delivering a shockwave that sent the SCYTHE lieutenant flying off towards the wall of the house. Staggering to get back up, Vanessa raises her wings at the last second to block Cassandra's attack.
However, learning her lesson from the Artemis's fight, Cassandra grabbed the wings and swung her to the ground, hitting back first on the grass, hard. Vanessa pressed on her wrist to finish her armor covering her body, with it extending from her neck then covering her head to block her punch.
But the moment it connected, it caused a crack on the helmet, like an egg shell, nearly knocking Kapatelis out. And with each strike it cracked more and more until the last one broke Vanessa's helmet off.
"Cassie…" Vanessa grabbed her by the shoulder, pleading with her, trying to get any answer from the girl as she stared down on her with crimson eyes. "You have to fight it!"
Cassandra. No, Genocide, did not listen, instead raised her fist, ready to strike one last deadly blow-
*CLANK\*
Vanessa fell to the ground after Cassandra let her go, or rather, was forced to. The strike sent the rampaging girl through the walls of the Sandsmark home and into the front yard, the attack was powerful enough to stop Cassandra.
"Destroying another expensive NIGHT armor, Kapatelis?"
Vanessa looked to her side to see an armored hand extended to her, helping her up, she stood straight and saluted.
"Commander!"
Commander Hector Hall, twirling his mace after using it on Cassandra. "At ease, soldier."
She then heard two thuds behind her and turned to see the Twins walking up to their Commander. Bloodcrow was twirling his sickles, carrying a wide grin as always. And his brother, Warhammer, had his signature hammer resting on his shoulders.
"We heard your call, and we came," said Hall, before turning to the group, specifically on Wonder Woman who tensed up. "Leave this to us, you have done enough, as always."
"You can't take her!" Artemis walked up to the Commander. "And I will not let you hurt her -UGHH…"
Artemis got down on one knee, clutching her injured arms.
"Remember what I told you when we met, Wonder Woman," said the Commander, face forward and focused on Cassandra as she got back on her feet. "You are not needed, and I will make sure to remind you of that every time you bring collateral damage to my city."
His wings extended upward and his visor glowed red. Twirling his mace in anticipation of the coming fight.
"SCYTHE!"
The Twins gave a different expression at the command, unlike the grunts who answer eagerly, the duo already know what to do. With Bloodcrow letting a tongue out, excited for the battle. While Warhammer cracked his neck and readied his weapon.
"Fly out."
The wind intensified, and the skies began to change as it circle around the area.
The fight for Cassandra Sandsmark's soul begins.
*************************************************************

Wonder Women Vol 3.

Previous Issue <> Next Issue

Pan, Goat-God of Nature
Roscher's thesis, briefly is that the nightmare demon in antiquity is the great god Pan in any of his several forms, and that the experiences of the nightmare demon then was similar to that reported in the psychiatry and psychology of Roscher's own day. Having established this, Roscher leaves it. But we might go further, concluding that Pan is still alive. We experience him mainly through psychopathological disturbances, other modes having been lost in our culture.
Thus we may expect him in the psychotherapist's consulting room, and indeed there is evidence of his appearance there. This conclusion accords with a thesis elaborated in many of my works: the repressed gods return as the archetypal core of symptom complexes. The relations between mythos and pathos are part of the larger task of exploring psychopathology in terms of archetypal psychology. One implication of this psychology is that mythology becomes an indispensable discipline for the training of psychotherapists. Roscher's monograph which links mythology and pathology in its very title would be a basic text for psychotherapy.
Because of the satyr-goat-phallus nature of Pan, both the panic anxiety of the nightmare and its erotic aspects can be subsumed by one and the same figure. In Roscher's treatment of the figure, Pan is not a projected image, a kind of psychopathological complex created by fantasy to express sexual anxiety. His is a mythical reality. Although Roscher falls prey at moments to the rationalist-materialist view of the dream presented by Borner (that goat-haired bedclothes and dyspnea give rise to the Pan experience), this "explanation" of the nightmare nevertheless still rests upon the epiphany of Pan, who always remains as a vivid reality in the pages of Roscher. What emerges from his essay is the genius insight: the entanglement, the very unity of the mythological and the pathological.
When Roscher discusses panic and nightmare in animals, he shows his awareness of the instinctual level of the nightmare - particularly its sexuality. We see in his writing the same struggle with the "sexual problem" that was emerging at that time through many of his psychological contemporaries, Havelock Ellis, Auguste Forel, Ivan Bloch and of course Freud, to say nothing of the work of the painters and writers at the end of the century who were rediscovering the phallic goat-satyr in the deeper layers of human drive, and who, as did Freud with Oedipus and Roscher with Pan, expressed their insights in the configurations of Greek myth. Patricia Merivale, in her fine book, has collected a staggering assortment of examples of the nineteenth century's devotion to Pan, the period in literature that she says saw his heyday. Pan, by the way, has been the favorite Greek figure in English poetry; he outdistances his nearest rivals (Helen, Orpheus, and Persephone) in statistical appearance nearly two to one.
Greek myth placed Pan as god of nature. What is meant by that word "nature" has been analyzed into at least fifty differing notions, so that our usage of "nature" here must be discerned from the qualities associated with Pan, with his description, his appearance in imagery, his style of behavior. All gods had aspects of nature and could be found in nature, leading some to conclude that antique mythological religion was essentially a nature religion, the transcendence of which by Christianity, therefore, meant the suppression especially of the representative of nature, Pan, who soon became the goat-footed Devil. To specify Pan's nature we will have to see how Pan personifies it, both in his figure and in his landscape, which is at once an inscape, a metaphor and not mere geography. His place, Arcadia, is both a physical and a psychic location. The "caves obscure" where he could be encountered ("The Orphic Hymn to Pan") were expanded upon by the Neoplatonists as the material recesses where impulses resides, the dark holes of the psyche whence desire and panic arise.
His habitat in antiquity, like that of his later Roman shapes (Faunus, Silvanus) and companions, was always dells, grottos, water, woods, and wilds - never villages, never the tilled and walled settlements of the civilized; cavern sanctuaries, not constructed temples. He was a shepherd's god, a god of fishers and hunters, a wanderer without even the stability provided by genealogy. The lexicographers of myth give at least twenty parentages of Pan . He was possibly fathered by Zeus, Uranos, Kronos, Apollo, Odysseus, Hermes, or by Penelope's crowd of suitors. Hence his is a spirit that can arise from most anywhere, the product of many archetypal movements or by spontaneous generation. One tradition has him fathered by Aether, the tenuous substance that is invisible yet everywhere, and which word first meant bright sky or weather associated with Pan's hour of noon. If so unspecific and spontaneous, then why attribute to him parentage at all. This line was taken by Apollodorus (Frag. 44b) and Servius (On Virgil's "Georgia").
Certainly his maternal line is obscure. The main account from "The Homeric Hymn to Pan," and the one given by Kerényi in his Gods of the Greeks, has Pan abandoned at birth by his wood-nymph mother, but wrapped in a hare's pelt by his father Hermes (to be sired by Hermes emphasizes the mercurial element in Pan's background). Hermes took the babe to Olympus where he was accepted by all (pan) the gods with delight. Especially Dionysus enjoyed him.
This one tale places Pan within a specific configuration. First, enwrapped in the skin of the hare, an animal particularly sacred to Aphrodite, Eros, the Bacchic world, and the moon, imples his investment with those associations. His initiation garment means his initiation into their universe; he has been adopted by those structures of consciousness. Second, Hermes is his patron, giving Hermetic aspects to Pan's actions. They can be examined for messages. They are modes of communication, connections that mean something. Third, Dionysus's delight expresses the sympathy between them. These gods provide the archetypal cluster into which Pan fits and where we may most expect him to be constellated.
The mythologems - "the abandoned child," "wrapped in animal skin," and "pleasing to the gods" - may be pondered a long while. Their exegesis, which comes through living their meanings in our lives, may tell us much about our Pan-like behavior during moments of weakness and lostness (abandonment), as well as about our erotic luxuria, for, within the little love gage that the hare was, lies concealed in the uncultivated wilderness of Pan. What starts soft turns rough, and beneath the rabbit's fur lurks the goat. Yet the gods smile on our goatfooted child; they take it as a gift to the divine; they each find an affinity with it. Pan reflects them all.
As god of all nature, Pan personifies to our consciousness that which is all or only natural, behavior at its most nature-bound. Behavior that is nature-bound is, in a sense, divine. It is behavior transcendent to the human yoke of purposes, wholly impersonal, objective, ruthless. The cause of such behavior is obscure; it springs suddenly, spontaneously. As Pan's genealogy is obscure, so is the origin of instinct. To define instinct as an inborn release mechanism, or to speak of it as a chthonic spirit, a prompting of nature, puts into obscure psychological concepts the obscure experiences that might once have been attributed to Pan.
Above all we must remember that the Pan experience is beyond the control of the willing subject and his ego psychology. Even where the will is most disciplined and the ego most purposeful, and I am thinking now of men in battle, Pan appears, determining through panic the outcome of the fray. Twice in antiquity (at Marathon and against the Celts in 277 BCE) Pan appeared and the Greeks had their victory. He was commemorated with Nike. The panic flight is a protective reaction even if in its blindness the outcome can be mass death. The protective aspect of nature that appears in Pan shows not only in his affinity for herdsmen, nor in the word root (pan) of "pastor," "pastoral," and pabulum ("nourishment"), but as well in his role in the Dionysus train where Pan carries the shield of Dionysus on the march to India.
In the Eros and Psyche tale told by Apuleius, Pan protects Psyche from suicide. The soul disconsolate, its love gone, divine help denied, panics. Psyche throws herself away, into the river that refuses her. In that same moment of panic, Pan appears with his reflective other side, Echo, and brings home to the soul some natural truths. Pan is both destroyer and preserver, and the two aspects appear to the psyche in close approximation. When we panic we can never know whether it may not be the first movement of nature that will yield - if we can hear the echo of reflection - a new insight into nature.
As Reinhard Herbig says in his monograph, this god is always a goat, the goat always a divine force. Pan is not "represented" by a goat, nor is the goat "holy" to Pan; rather, Pan is the goat-god, and this configuration of animal-nature distinguishes nature by personifying it as something hairy, phallic, roaming and goatish. This Pan nature is no longer an idyllic display for the eye, something to walk through or long back to for sweetness. Nature as Pain is hot and close, his hairy animal smell, his erection, as if nature's arbitrary wayward force and uncanny mystery were summed into this one figure.
The "union of god and goat" - the phrase is from Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy - signified for the post-Nietzschean world the Dionysian mode of consciousness and the final diseased insanity of its promulgator. But thought Nietzsche was speaking overly of the goat-god, "in Nietzsche's biography," writes Jung, "you will find irrefutable proof that the god he originally meant was really Wotan. Thus, in attempting to understand the union of god and goat, which, as Merivale states, is "the stable focal point of my investigations," we must avoid confusing it with the Dionysus of Nietzsche in whose background was the Germanic Wotan.
Yet Nietzsche does penetrate one riddle of goat existence (and there are many, since the goat of the senex and the scapegoat and the Dionysian kid and the milk goat do not belong here) when he speaks of the horror of nature and the horror of individual existence. For the solitary goat is both the Oneness and the aloneness, a cursed nomadic existence in the empty places, his appetite making them yet emptier, his song, "tragedy." This is not the fat, jolly Pan of some statuary or the elfin piper we call Peter or the "deep emotional self" of D.H. Lawrence's Pan, but the Pan of the Homeric hymn who in Chapman's Renaissance translation is called "leane and lovelesse." <"I can fix him.">
The lechery, then, is secondary, and the fertility too; they arise from the dry longing of nature alone, of one who is ever an abandoned child and who in innumerable pairings is never paired, never fully changes the cleft hoof for rabbit's paw. He is called "unlucky in love," and we humans feel his sadness in nature's melancholy. There is a mournful tone of pipes in nature to which we retreat in romantic moments, yearning, lonely, and desperate. Pan may please the gods, but he never makes it to Olympus; he couples, but never wives; he makes music, but the muses favor Apollo. <Stray>
​
Imaginal Reality
To grasp Pan as nature we must first be grasped by nature, both "out there" in an empty countryside, which speaks in sounds, not words, and "in here" in a startled reaction. (This pan no one has better recreated than D.H. Lawrence.) Uncanny as the goat's eye, nature comes at us in the instinctual experiences that Pan personifies. But to speak of "personification" does the god injustice, since it implies that man makes the gods and that nature is an impersonal abstract field of forces, such as thought conceives it.
Whereas, the demonic shape of Pan turns the concept "nature" into an immediate psychic shock. Western philosophical tradition from its beginnings in the Pre-Socratics and in the Old Testament has been prejudiced against images (phantasia) in favor of thought-abstractions. In the period since Descartes and the Enlightenment conceptualization has held preeminence; the psyche's tendency to personify has been disdainfully put down as anthropomorphism. One of the main arguments against the mythical mode of thinking has been that it works in images that are subjective, personal, sensuous. This above all must be avoided in Western epistemology, and so in descriptions of the forces of nature. To personify has meant to think animistic ally, primitively, pre-logically. The senses deceive; images that would relay truth about the world must be purified of their anthropomorphic elements. The only persons in the universe are human persons. Yet the experience of the gods, of heroes, nymphs, demons, angels and powers, of sacred animals, places, and things, as persons indeed precedes the concept of personification. It is not that we personify, but that the epiphanies come as persons.
Could we step back from our times, step out of the pretensions of the fearing ego who would bring every atom of nature under its control? Then we might realize again that we are not the source of personified gods. We do not make them up, anymore than we invent the sounds we hear in the woods, the hoof prints in the sand, the nightmare pressure weighing on our chests.
For millennia and most everywhere, it was palpably evident that divine and daimonic figures appeared as persons. But the scientific Weltanschauung with its cut between observer and observed severed us from that witness, and its testimony became magical thinking, primitive belief, superstition, insanity. Since the imaginal figures still occasionally broke in among the brightest and best educated, as in nightmares, these figures had to be made up by us. They could not be allowed their autonomy, else the scientific universe itself could become a nightmare.
Classical scholarship, seduced by the reductive method of science, quickly joined in to explain these apparitions as "projections" and "illusions" made up "unconsciously" by the perceiver. So, we find still, in Phillipe Borgeaud's excellent monograph, an explanation of Pheidippides's direct encounter with Pan (on this messenger's run back to Athens from Marathon) as "only a projection of his wish." "It is not hard to imagine this tension, depression, and exhaustion by the time when, on his third day of constant running, he encountered the god Pan."
As the nightmare must derive from indigestion or a too-heavy quilt, so Pan must derive from physical dysfunction during a marathon run! Here scholarship not only fails its subject, it even denies the authority of the text that it is explaining. Herodotus says Pan burst in on Pheidippides, cried out his name, and have him a crucial message that saved Athens. The leaders of Athens believed Pheidippides, won the battle, and set up the Cult of Pan in Athens. Were the cunning and intelligent Greeks so deluded? Did all this come about because of the exhausted state of mind of a certain messenger who had a sudden bright idea and conjured up "Pan" to bless it with authority?
In his brilliant, thorough, and devastating critique of reductive falsification of "what actually happened," Charles Boer writes:
This was one of the greatest moments in the history of Western civilization, this apparition of a goat-footed God on the eve of a world-transforming battle, his message of help actually making a momentous difference in the course of events that led to the saving of democracy itself. It is just that no one today - especially professional mythologists - is permitted by the increasing constraints of the subject to take the story seriously anymore. Is the origin of democracy so small a matter, or is something wrong with mythologists?
You can take Pan's presence on the eve of Marathon "psychologically" (many ways), you can take it "symbolically," you can even take it "historically" in a twisted way (in which you account for the fact of the result, but dismiss the cause as mistaken). But you cannot take it seriously. Something else (if anything at all) must have happened, the scholars say, then what Pheidippides said happened.
... People on the other side of fifth-century Greece were of course privileged - and privileging! - to take Pan as the splendid imaginal reality he was. Imaginal figures were "visible" to them, heard by them, touched by them. They were not, at least in their eyes, "making this up."
Precisely this we learn from Roscher, in spite of himself. For Roscher, like his contemporaries (e.g., Ameling on personification), tended to conceive Pan as a composite embodiment of the rough and fearful qualities of nature, just as his charming nymphs were visions of nature's tender, graceful, and lyrical seductiveness. But Roscher's conceptual framework taken from empirical associationist psychology (ideas are bundles of sense perceptions) does not accord with what he discovered in the empirical reports about nightmare demons. They are not a reassembly of frightening qualities, personifications post hoc of bed clothes sensations. They are vividly real persons.
Dilthey insisted that personficiation was essential for humanistic understanding in contradistinction to scientific explanation, whose method requires conceptualization and definition. Lou Andreas-Salomé , following Dilthey, urged Freud to maintain this method of procedure essential to advance psychoanalysis as a humanistic rather than scientific psychology. Jung built his psychology upon the archetypes, which, though describable conceptually, are experienced and even named as persons. Jung went against the current of the times, moreover, by standing for images as primary data of the psyche and then taking these images at their sensuous emotional level, as the empirical phenomena that they are, and not as personifications of abstract ideas.
Dream language (as the nightmare shows), delusional and hallucinatory language, and folk langage speak in terms of persons. So must a psychology that would talk to the psyche in its own speech. Jung's movement away from abstract concept and toward sensible person corresponds with the movement from intellect to imagination which is peopled with palpable sense of images. Roscher's monograph - by stressing the person of Pan - contributes to that rediscovery of the imaginal which came to be known as the psychology of the unconscious, one of whose essential methodological departures from philosophy and science has been its language of personification.
A cry went through late antiquity: "Great Pan is dead!" Plutarch reported it in his "On the Failure of the Oracles." The saying has itself become oracular, meaning many things to many people in many ages. One thing was announcedL nature had become deprived of its creative voice. It was no longer an independent living force of generativity. What had had soul, lost it: With Pan dead, so, too, was Echo; we could no longer capture consciousness through reflecting within our instincts. They had lost their light and fell easily to asceticism, following sheepishly without instinctual rebellion their new shepherd, Christ, with his new style of managed care. The person of Pan the mediator, like an ether that invisibly enveloped all natural things with personal meaning, with brightness, had vanished. Stones became only stones - trees, trees; things, places, and animals no longer were this god or that, but became "symbols" or were said to "belong" to one god or another. When Pan is alive then nature is too, and it is filled with gods, so that the owl's hoot is Athene and the mollusk on the shore is Aphrodite. These bits of nature are not merely attributes or belongings. They are the gods in their biological forms. And where better to find the gods than in the things, places, and animals that they inhabit, and how better to participate in them than through their concrete natural presentations. Whatever was eaten, smelled, walked upon, or watched, all were sensuous presences of archetypal significance.
When Pan is dead, then nature can be controlled by the will of the new god, man, modeled in the image of Prometheus or Hercules, creating from it and polluting in it without a troubled conscience. (Hercules, who cleaned up Pan's natural world first, clubbing instinct with his will-power, does not stop to clear away the dismembered carcasses left to putrefy after his civilizing, creative tasks. He strides on the next task, and ultimate madness.) As the human loses personal connection with personified nature and personified instinct, the image of Pan and the image of the Devil merge. Pan never died, say many commentators on Plutarch, he was repressed. Therefore as suggested above, Pan still lives, and not merely in the literary imagination. He lives in the repressed which returns, in the psychopathologies of instinct which assert themselves, as Roscher indicates, primarily in the nightmare and its associated erotic, demonic, and panic qualities.
Thus the nightmare indeed gives the clue to the reapproximation to lost, dead nature. In the nightmare, repressed nature returns, so close, so real that we cannot but react to it naturally, that is, we become wholly physical, possessed by Pan, screaming out, asking for light, comfort, contact. The immediate reaction is demonic emotion. We are returned by instinct to instinct.
[To be continued... "Instinct"]

What is the undeniable way to determine whether or not a messenger is from God?
Can we identify the Representative of God by e.g. their appearance, their health, their eloquence, or their morals and manners? The answer from the Riser Aba Al-Sadiq is clear-cut...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=TTRgZuQL6Q8&feature=share
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (aleyhi salam) said in one of his speeches to the people that they should research and pay close attention and scrutinise their religion and their path, and that they should never allow anybody else to determine their hereafter for them. Every single person should use their own brain and come to the conclusion on whether or not what they're following is the truth or falsehood.
This is what the Imam (aleyhi salam) wants us to do. This is what the Imam (aleyhi salam) asked us to do from the very beginning. And so when I scrutinised, and thought about, and contemplated, and researched on whether or not ‘The law of Knowing the Proof’ was sufficient and the only way to determine whether or not a messenger is truly from God or not from God - which is that the messenger comes to us and he has a letter of appointment from God. He claims the will, he claims the prophecy of having been foretold on the tongue of a previous prophet or messenger, in addition to demonstrating divine knowledge, in addition to calling towards the Supremacy of God, or the system that nobody else can appoint a king or a ruler except for God.
If these three things are in an individual, is it sufficient and the only way to determine whether or not this person is from God? I thought about that. And I thought about what other way could it be?
Could a physical appearance be a way of determining whether or not a person is a proof of God?We find that Socrates (peace be upon Him) who was one of the 124,000 prophets and messengers, who were sent to humanity. One of the most brilliant minds to have ever lived. Even until today, universities and students study his thoughts and his teachings and materials. This great philosopher was described in the narrations as being extremely ugly. They stated that he had a nose which resembled the nose of a boar or a pig. He had lips that were like the lips of a donkey. They said he was overweight. He let his hair grow long even though the enemies of his people had their hair long. And rather his people, their ideals or understanding of what beauty was was these muscular, well-built, short haired individuals that you see in the statues of ancient Rome and Greece, Athens. So to disregard Socrates and his brilliance on the basis of his appearance, I think would be a grave mistake, because he proved that he was the most knowledgeable of his people at that time.
And Socrates came to his people with the doctrine of the Republic, and that the ruler is the Philosopher King. And he fulfilled the criteria of what it is to be a prophet or a messenger. Imam Ali (aleyhi salam) he came to the people and he was, according to many of the narrations, short and overweight. He had a belly and he was balding. He was not attractive. He was the opposite of the images that they have of him today that they sell in his name, making profit off of him in Karbala and Najaf, and the Shia world. And yet his appearance has nothing to do with whether or not he's the truth or not the truth. And in fact, one of the narrations of the Ahlul Bayt (aleyhum salam) says that the Proof of God is not known by his outward appearance. And so now we know that the outward appearance is not a way of determining whether or not he is truthful or not truthful.
Or what if the person I saw was unhealthy? What if he was diseased? What if he was sickly? What if he was struck with cancer or struck with leprosy or another illness? Would this be a sign that God is not satisfied with this individual, or the sign that he's cursed, or a sign that he's not from God?
And I found in the Old Testament the story of a prophet named Job, Ayyub (aleyhi salam) whom was struck by God with a disease that caused him to have boils, and caused that there be worms that infested his body, and caused him to give off a putrid smell to the point that the people in the town took his carcass and threw him out with the trash, and they considered that God was angry with him.
And yet this was not a way of determining whether or not Job was truthful because Job was a prophet, and he remained a prophet, and God gave him back and restored his health. So proofs of God can be struck with illnesses and diseases. So their outward appearance is not a sign and not a way to determine if they are proof of God, or they are truthful or not. Being struck with illnesses is also not a sign. One of the legs could not function, and that's not a way to tell. One of their arms could not function, and it's not a way to tell. One of their eyes could not function. They could have sores. They could have any disease.
“What about eloquence?” I thought. What if the prophet or the messenger was just not eloquent, and didn't have a strong vocabulary, wasn't a good orator or speaker? What if he couldn't talk properly? What if he couldn’t pronounciate properly?You know, a lot of the people, they claim that Ahmed Al-Hassan (aleyhi salam) is not a messenger of God because he mispronunciated certain words, or messed up a little bit in his speech or didn't use proper grammar.
Would that be sufficient enough to disregard his claim as a proof of God? And what I found was that in the Torah and also in the Quran, you have one of the greatest prophets ever, which was Moses, who was called the Speaker to God, the one who spoke to God ‘Kalimulah’. And ‘Kalimulah’, the one who spoke to God, couldn't even speak. He couldn't even pronounciate right. He had to make a dua to God to make his matter easy, and to untie the twisting of His tongue in order that the people may understand his speech. He had to ask God for support in the form of Aaron, who was an additional prophet sent to him to be kind of like a spokesperson who spoke on his behalf.
So not being able to speak properly is not a reason why the person can be doubted or disregarded as a messenger from God. So what other ways would there be to even determine if the person was truthful or not truthful? If God, in order to be just has to make his path clear, and his looks, and his speech, and his health are not signs on whether or not the person is truthful and not then what is?
I thought to myself, or maybe somebody could say, “Well, his behavior, his morals and manners.” That is the ultimate way of knowing if a person is from God or not. And it didn't take long before I remembered the story which is in the Sura, which is associated with the Imam (aleyhi salam), Imam Mahdi, and the Qaim. And that's the surah of the ‘Kahf’, the cave, which has in there its most important story, which is the story of Moses and the Righteous Servant. Moses receives from God the Torah.
And He thinks to himself that He is the most knowledgeable of all people, and he learned from God, all of God's ways, all of God's laws, all of God's morals and manners, and what God likes and what He deems to be evil. Moses thinks He knows good and evil, right and wrong. The Halal and the Haram.
And so God orders Moses to go meet a messenger from him at the junction of the two seas. Moses takes off. He goes to the junction of the two seas. He meets this messenger and he goes on a journey with him. And there are three stations that he stops at with the Righteous Servant. The first incident, they pass by a group of people that are on a ship, and they need a ride. So they ask these people, “Will you give us a ride?” And the people are nice enough. And they say, “Of course, come strangers enter into our boat, share with us in our food, share with us in our drink.” And they take them on a ride on the boat for free, free of charge. All of a sudden, after they eat, after they drink, Moses turns and he finds the Righteous Servant is beginning to - without them taking notice - to dig a hole in the bottom of the ship.
His intention is clearly to sink the ship. Moses, stunned, embarrassed, worried that they're going to be caught, turns to the Righteous Servant and says, “What are you doing? This is not good. This is immoral. God would not be satisfied with this. How do we repay good with evil? Surely what you're doing is an immoral act.” The Righteous Servant says to him, “Did God, not appoint me? Did he not say to you, follow the Righteous Servant? And I claim to be that righteous servant when you found me at the junction of the two seas. Be silent as I demonstrate my knowledge.”
Then he goes to the second station. Moses and the Righteous Servant. They encounter a boy. Moses is looking upon the young lad and he's smiling, admiring, seeing him playing. The Righteous Servant calls over to the boy. The boy comes close. The Righteous Servant pats on his head, and then he clenches his fist around the hair of the child, and he slams his head into a wall. The child falls back with his head bleeding. The righteous servant takes a knife and slaughters the young child. Moses now has just witnessed an act of murder. He's horrified, trembling in shock. God had told Moses, “Thou shall not kill.” And the Righteous Servant had just broken one of the commandments of God. If that is not evil, then what is?Moses freaks out and says to the Righteous Servant, “What have you done? You've killed an innocent soul. This child has no sin upon him. How could you do this? Surely what you are doing is a great evil deed.” The Righteous Servant tells Moses, “Moses? Did I not tell you that you would not be able to handle this? Be silent as I demonstrate my knowledge.”
And they continued to the third stance. And the third stance, what had happened. They came across a village of people. In the village nobody would offer them food, nobody would offer them drink, nobody would host them. They spit on them. They didn't recognize them.
The Righteous Servant is walking with Moses. What happens is they find a wall, and the wall is destroyed. So the Righteous Servant runs over towards the wall, raises his sleeves, and begins to fix the wall. Moses doesn't understand. He thinks to himself, “The nice people in the ship - you made the ship sink. The boy without sin - you slaughtered him. And now these people who threw trash at us, and spat on us, and didn't host us - now you're serving them and fixing their wall? This doesn't make sense to me.” And he objects for a third time. To where the Righteous Servant responds to him and says, “Well, now is the end of the path for you and I. You've objected three times and it's over. Now I'm going to explain to you the reasons behind my actions. As for the people that were in the ship, there was a king of the area, a king of the lands that was coming by, and he was seizing all of the ships. So I wanted to put a fault in their ship in order that the king not seize or not want to seize their ship. As for the child that I killed, I killed him because he was a disbeliever. He would grow up, although he had no sin on him, now he would grow up to be evil and give his parents a hard time. And for that reason, I did what I did in order that God may save them the trouble and replace them with the righteous seed.As for the wall, there was a treasure underneath the wall that belonged to a couple of orphans who lived in the city. Their parents were righteous and had left them a treasure underneath the wall. And I fixed the wall because I didn't want those evil people in the city to take their treasure. And all of what I did,” he says, “all of it - I didn't do for my own self.”
And so now we find a couple of different things. One is that it is impossible to identify the Proof of God based on the morals and manners. It's impossible to identify the proof of God, even by the halal and the haram, or whether or not he commits a sin or commits a righteous act. Because the whole point of that story, God was telling us that you cannot identify the messenger of God through your own wisdom, or through your own understanding of religion, or your own understanding of what is good and what is evil, or what is right and what is wrong, or what is halal or what is haram.
Because every person who has knowledge has above him somebody who has more greater insight and understanding of knowledge. - Excerpt from the Series 'Meetings with Aba Al-Sadiq' about the Law of Knowing the Vicegerent of God

If you'd like to add an event to our calendar, submit an event here. Please check with the event owners to see if events change due to weather. Have a great weekend!

Multi-Day Events

Jim Gaffigan at DPAC (Jan 27-28)

• Jim Gaffigan is a six-time Grammy-nominated comedian, actor, writer, producer, two-time New York Times best-selling author, three-time Emmy-winning top touring performer, and multi-platinum-selling recording artist.
• Friday 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
• Both 7 p.m. shows sold out
• Limited number of tickets for 9:30 p.m. shows
• $60+

Live Music at Beyú Caffè (Jan 27-28)

• NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble Jan 27 at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
• DL Zene Jan 28 at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
• $12+

FantasticRealm Film Series at The Carolina Theatre (Jan 27-29)

• These are the movie memories of your childhood. They once fired your imagination, made you laugh and cheer, and provided clear-as-glass heroes and villains. The iconic imagery in these movies—subconsciously or not—became the stuff of your daydreams. They are nostalgic, and joyous, and meant to be shared with your family and friends. The Retro Film Series invites you—and those you love—back to the realm of your favorite, most-cherished movie memories.
• $10 individual tickets 10-Passes: $80

Thursday, Jan 26

Pasión Thursdays at Luna Night Club

• Social dancing & complimentary salsa class every Thursday. DJ Kemo playing the best salsa and bachata till midnight.
• $8 prepay (Venmo annievelez15) or $10 at door. Student discount $5 all night (with proof of student ID).
• 8 p.m. - 12 a.m.

Boulders & Brews Meetup at Triangle Rock Club

• Show up and climb at TRC Durham, then head over to Hi-Wire for some brews! Bouldering begins at 6:30pm. Don't worry if it's your first time or haven't bouldered before; everyone's welcome!
• Your first visit to the gym with the Meetup includes free admission and gear rental, and subsequent visits with the meetup are $15 and include harness rental (outside of meetups, day pass rates of $19 apply and do not include rentals).
• 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Elijah Johnston / Teens In Trouble / Saturnalias at The Pinhook

• Elijah Johnston is a singer-songwriter from Athens, GA whose songs bridge the conversational songwriter fare of now and the hooky guitar based music of the past. Johnston has shared stages with acts like Noah Gundersen, Susto, and Elf Power, establishing a name as a skilled songwriter with a potent live show to match.
• Doors: 7:30 p.m. Show: 8 p.m.
• $10

Below Decks With Darkcore Truth / Simon Smthng / Uymami / Yespeez at The Fruit

• The Floor and Party Illegal join forces to flood the basement of the Fruit with forward thinking artists of the NC underground, foggy submarine vibes, and deep ocean bass pressure.
• 8 p.m. to 12 a.m.
• $10

Friday, Jan 27

Tasting at Ten at Counter Culture Coffee

• Every Friday morning at 10 am, Counter Culture Coffee opens their Training Centers to coffee lovers who want to learn more about Counter Culture Coffee’s high-quality, sustainably sourced menu.
• Free admission with registration
• 10 a.m.

Yolo Karaoke! at The Pinhook

• Yolo Karaoke is the best. The INDY says so and people who do and don’t read the INDY say so.
• Doors 7 p.m. Show 8 p.m.
• 21+

The Ethics of Now with Angela Garbes at the Durham Arts Council

• Join the Kenan Institute for Ethics and host Adriane-Lentz Smith for a conversation with Angela Garbes on radicalism, justice, and mothering.
• 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
• Free admission

Open Mic Stand-Up Comedy at Durty Bull Brewing Company

• Email both Ashley Preston at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and Bo Ma [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) to sign up!
• 21+ only and proof of vaccination required for indoor seating.
• 8 p.m. - 10 p.m.
• Free admission

Renaissance Disko at Rubies on Five Points

• Featuring VSPRTN and VER.
• 10 p.m.
• $5

JAM.BAE Fridays at Gojo Hookah Lounge

• Hookah, small bites, crafted cocktails, and music.
• 10 p.m. - 2:00 a.m.
• $10

Sonic Essence presents ELEVATE at The Fruit

• A night of pulsating techno that is sure to elevate your senses.
• 18+, please wear a mask
• 10 p.m. - 2:30 a.m.
• $10-15 sliding scale

Saturday, Jan 28

NC Rare & Vintage Beer Tasting at Historic Durham Athletic Park

• Beers are poured by 50-55 different brewery representatives in an intimate environment, allowing attendants the opportunity to learn what makes these beers special and meet the personalities behind them.
• 2 p.m. - 6 p.m.
• $95 - $125

The Mighty Messengers of Soul at The Blue Note Grill

• Long-time Durham favorite Terry Wiley gets added punch with this high-energy band. Drawing on over a century of experience among them, the best rhythm section around keeps the groove while Mr. Showtime himself – Delaney McQuaig – and the soulful sax of Bill Beamon propel Great into Mighty!
• 7:30 p.m.
• $10

Adult Spelling Bee at Bull City Solera

• Let's see who the best spellers of adult sounding and seemingly naughty words stack up in this adult spelling bee. Hosted by local entertainer and good friend, Adam Sampieri, join us for a night of laughs and possibly even some learning using adult spelling words sort of modeled after the Scripps National Spelling Bee...sort of.
• Prizes will be awarded. The entry fee is $10 which gives you a $5 credit toward food and drink.
• Free to watch and cheer, but no hints allowed.
• 8:30 p.m.

Dreamroot at Sharp Nine Gallery

• Dreamroot is a band/musical collective from Durham NC. The performance style combines pre-written and improvised sections, creating what Indy Week calls "One of the distinctive strains of the Durham jazz scene, melding R&B forms with modern jazz solos that all fit nicely into the length of a longish pop song."
• 8 p.m. - 10 p.m.
• $15-25

Back to the 80s: a Totally Rad Review at The Pinhook

• Join Groovy Tomb Productions at the Pinhook in Durham, NC for their second round of all 80s tribute in the form of drag and burlesque.
• Doors 7:30 p.m. Show 8:00 p.m.
• $15 presale $20 door

Fangirl Fantasy – Dance Party at Motorco Music Hall

• Fangirl Fantasy is the ultimate fangirl experience created by a fangirl for a fangirl. Experience all your fan favorites on the dance floor, from Top 40 hits to deep cuts from artists like The Jonas Brothers, One Direction, and more!
• 8:00 p.m.
• $18 advance $20 door

Sunday, Jan 29

Al Strong Presents Jazz Brunch Sundays at Alley Twenty Six

• Al Strong, the Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter, composer and recording artist, will bring a rotating lineup of musicians to perform during Sunday brunch at Durham's Alley Twenty Six.
• Brunch 10:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. 12 p.m. - 2 p.m.
• Make a reservation at alleytwentysix.com.

Cinema Sunday Movie Night at Corpse Reviver

• Fabulous themed cocktails including the "Snap Out of it!," "Keep the Devil Away" and "Blue Soup."
• Moonstruck at 3:00 p.m. Bridget Jones' Diary 6:00 p.m.
• Free admission, indoor seating is limited

(Eli)zabeth Owens & x0teric at Arcana

• Join harpist & songwriter (Eli)zabeth Owens and experimental electronic musician x0teric for a night of musical magic.
• 8:30 p.m.
• Free admission

Comedy and Music Open Mic at Moon Dog Meadery

• Presented with ComedyDurham. Sign ups begin at 6:30. Comedy, music, poetry, any artistic performance you'd like to share are welcome.
• 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
• Free admission

Visit article from Reuters (Grade: A+) or alternatively:

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Associated Press (A)	Constantine, the former and last king of Greece, dies at 82
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"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." 2 Timothy 3:1

The words contain a warning of imminent dangers. And there are four things in them: First, the manner of the warning: "This know also," Secondly, the evil itself that they are warned of: "Perilous times." Thirdly, the way of their introduction: "They shall come." Fourthly, the time and season of it: "They shall come in the last days."
First. The manner of the warning: "This know also" - "Thou Timothy, unto the other instructions which I have given thee how to behave thyself in the house of God, whereby thou mayest be set forth as a pattern unto all gospel ministers in future ages, I must also add this, 'This know also.' It belongs to thy duty and office to know and consider the impending judgments that are coming upon churches." And so, as a justification of my present design, if God enable me unto it, I shall here premise that it is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to foresee and take notice of the dangers which the churches are falling into. And the Lord help us, and all other ministers, to be awakened unto this part of our duty! You know how God sets it forth (Ezekiel 33) in the parable of the watchman, to warn men of approaching dangers. And truly God hath given us this law: If we warn the churches of their approaching dangers, we discharge our duty; if we do not, their blood will be required at our hands. The Spirit of God forsaw negligence apt to grow upon us in this matter; and therefore the Scripture only proposeth duty on the one hand and on the other requires the people's blood at the hands of the watchmen, if they perform not their duty. So speaks the prophet Isaiah, chap. 21, vs. 8, "He cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower." A lion is an emblem of approaching judgment. "The lion hath roared; who can but tremble?" saith the prophet Amos. It is the duty of ministers of the gospel to give warning of impending dangers.
Again: the apostle, in speaking unto Timothy, speaks unto us also, to us all, "This know ye also." It is the great concern of all Christian professors and believers, of all churches, to have their hearts very much fixed upon present and approaching dangers. We have inquired so long about signs, tokens, and evidences of deliverance, and I know not what, that we have almost lost the benefit of all our trials, afflictions, and persecutions. The duty of all believers is, to be intent upon present and imminent dangers. "O Lord," say the disciples, Matt. 24, "what shall be the sign of thy coming?" They were fixed upon His coming. Our Savior answers, "I will tell you:

1. There shall be an abounding of errors and false teachers: many shall say, 'Lo here is Christ,' and, 'Lo, there is Christ.'
2. There shall be an apostasy from holiness: 'iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold.'
3. There shall be great distress of nations: 'Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.'
4. There shall be great persecutions: 'And they shall persecute you, and bring you before rulers; and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.'
5. There shall be great tokens of God's wrath from heaven: 'Signs in the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars."'

The Lord Christ would acquaint believers how they should look for His coming; He tells them of all the dangers. Be intent upon these things. I know you are apt to overlook them; but these are the things that you are to be intent upon.
Not to be sensible of a present perilous season, is that security which the Scripture so condemns; and I will leave it with you, in short, under these three things:

1. It is that frame of heart which, of all others, God doth most detest and abhor. Nothing is more hateful to God than a secure frame in perilous days.
2. I will not fear to say this, and go with it, as to my sense, to the day of judgment: A secure person, in perilous seasons, is assuredly under the power of some predominant lust, whether it appears or not.
3. This secure, senseless frame is the certain pressage of approaching ruin. This know, brethren, pray know this, I beg of you, for yours and my own soul, that you will be sensible of, and affected with, the perils of the season whereinto we are cast. What they are, if God help me, and give me a little strength, I shall show you by-and-by.

Secondly. There is the evil and danger itself thus forewarned of, and that is hard times, perilous times, times of great difficulty, like those of public plagues, when death lies at every door; times that I am sure we shall not all escape, let it fall where it will. I will say no more of it now, because it is that which I shall principally speak to afterward.
Thirdly. The manner of their introduction, "shall come." We have no word in our language that will express the force of the original. The Latins express it by "immineno, incido," - the coming down of a fowl unto his prey. Now, our translators have given it the greatest force they could. They do not say, "Perilous times will come," as though they prognosticated future events; but, "Perilous times shall come." Here is a hand of God in this business; they shall so come, be so instant in their coming, that nothing shall keep them out; they shall instantly press themselves in, and prevail. Our great wisdom, then, will be to eye the displeasure of God in perilous seasons; since there is a judicial hand of God in them, and we see in ourselves reason enough why they should come. But when shall they come?
Fourthly. They "shall come in the last days." The words "latter" or "last days" are taken three ways in Scripture: sometimes for the times of the gospel, in opposition to the Judaical church-state; as in Heb. 1:2, "Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son"; and elsewhere it may be taken (though I remember not the place) for days towards the consummation of all things and the end of the world; and it is taken often for the latter days of churches; I Tim. 4:1, "The Spirit of vile lusts, and the practice of horrible sins." This rendered the seasons perilous. Whether this be such a season or not, do you judge. And I must say, by the way, we may and ought to witness against it, and mourn for the public sins of the days wherein we live. It is as glorious a thing to be a martyr for bearing testimony against the public sins of an age, as in bearing testimony unto any truth of the gospel whatsoever.
Now, where these things are, a season is perilous:

1. Because of the infection. Churches and professors are apt to be infected with it. The historians tell us of a plague at Athens, in the second and third years of the Peloponnesian war, whereof multitudes died; and of those that lived, few escaped but they lost a limb, or part of a limb - some an eye, others an arm, and others a finger - the infection was so great and terrible. And truly, brethren, where this plague comes - of the visible practice of unclean lusts under an outward profession - though men do not die, yet one loses an arm, another an eye, another a leg by it: the infection diffuses itself to the best of professors, more or less. This makes it a dangerous and perilous time.
2. It is dangerous, because of the effects; for when predominant lusts have broken all bounds of divine light and rule, how long do you think that human rules will keep them in order? They break through all in such a season as the apostle describes. And if they come to break through all human restraints as they have broken through divine, they will fill all things with ruin and confusion.
3. They are perilous in the consequence: which is, the judgments of God. When men do not receive the truth in the love of it, but have pleasure in unrighteousness, God will send them strong delusion, to believe a he. So II Thess. 2:10-11 is a description how the Papacy came upon the world. Men professed the truth of religion, but did not love it they loved unrighteousness and ungodliness; and God sent them Popery. That is the interpretation of the place, according to the best divines. Will you profess the truth, and at the same time love unrighteousness? The consequence is, security under superstition and ungodliness. This is the end of such a perilous season; and the like may be said as to temporal judgments, which I need not mention.

Let us now consider what is our duty in such a perilous season:

1. We ought greatly to mourn for the public abominations of the world, and of the land of our nativity wherein we live. I would only observe that place in Ezekiel 9, God sends out His judgments, and destroys the city; but before, He sets a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof. You will find this passage referred in your books to Revelation 7:3, "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." I would only observe this, that such only are the servants of God, let men profess what they will, "who mourn for the abominations that are done in the land." The mourners in the one place are the servants of God in the other. And truly, brethren, we are certainly to blame in this matter. We have been almost well contented that men should be as wicked as they would themselves, and we sit still and see what would come of it. Christ hath been dishonored, the Spirit of God blasphemed, and God provoked against the land of our nativity; and yet we have not been affected with these things. I can truly say in sincerity, I bless God, I have sometimes labored with my own heart about it. But I am afraid we, all of us, come exceedingly short of our duty in this matter. "Rivers of waters," saith the Psalmist, "run down mine eyes, because men keep not thy law." Horrible profanation of the name of God, horrible abominations, which our eyes have seen, and our ears heard, and yet our hearts been unaffected with them! Do you think this is a frame of heart God requireth of us in such a season - to be regardless of all, and not to mourn for the public abominations of the land? The servants of God will mourn. I could speak, but am not free to speak, to those prejudices which keep us from mourning for public abominations; but they may be easily suggested unto all your thoughts, and particularly what they are that have kept us from attending more unto this duty of mourning for public abominations. And give me leave to say, that, according to the Scripture rule, there is no one of us can have any evidence that we shall escape outward judgments that God will bring for these abominations, if we have not been mourners for them; but that as smart a revenge, as to outward dispensations, may fall upon us as upon those that are most guilty of them, no Scripture evidence have we to the contrary. How God may deal with us, I know not.

This, then, is one part of the duty of this day - that we should humble our souls for all the abominations that are committed in the land of our nativity; and, in particular, that we have no more mourned under them.

1. Our second duty, in reference to this perilous season is, to take care that we be not infected with the evils and sins of it. A man would think it were quite contrary; but really, to the best of my observation, this is, and hath been, the frame of things, unless upon some extraordinary dispensation of God's Spirit: as some men's sins grow very high, other men's graces grow very low. Our Saviour hath told us, Matthew 24:12, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." A man would think the abounding of iniquity in the world should give great provocation to love one another. "No," saith our Saviour, "the contrary will be found true: as some men's sins grow high, other men's graces will grow low."

And there are these reasons for it:

(a) In such a season, we are apt to have light thoughts of great sins. The prophet looked upon it as a dreadful thing, that upon Jehoiakin's throwing the roll of Jeremiah's prophecy into the fire, till it was consumed, yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words," Jer.36:24. They were grown senseless, both of sin and judgment. And where men (be they in other respects ever so wise) can grow sense less of sin, they will quickly grow senseless of judgment too. And I am afraid the great reason why many of us have no impression upon our spirits of danger and perils in the days wherein we live, is because we are not sensible of sin. (b) Men are apt to countenance themselves in lesser evils, having their eyes fixed upon greater abominations of other men, that they behold every day; there are those who pay their tribute to the devil - walk in such and such abominations, and so countenance themselves in lesser evils. This is part of the public infection, that they "do not run out into the same excess of riot that others do," though they live in the omission of duty, conformity to the world, and in many foolish, hurtful, and noisome lusts. They countenance themselves with this, that others are guilty of greater abominations. (c) Pray let such remember this, who have occasion for it (you may know it better than I, but yet I know it by rule, as much as you do by practice), that general converse in the world, in such a season, is full of danger and peril. Most professors are grown of the color and complexion of those with whom they converse.

This is the first thing that makes a season perilous. I know not whether these things may be of concern and use unto you; they seem so to me, and I cannot but acquaint you with them.
II. A second perilous season, and that we shall hardly come off in, is when men are prone to forsake the truth, and seducers abound to gather them up that are so; and you will have always these things go together. Do you see seducers abound? You may be sure there is a proneness in the minds of men to forsake the truth; and when there is such a proneness, they will never want seducers - those that will lead off the minds of men from the truth; for there is both the hand of God and Satan in this business. God judicially leaves men, when He sees them grow weary of the truth, and prone to leave it; and Satan strikes in with the occasion, and stirs up seducers. This makes a season perilous. The apostle describes it, I Tim. 4: 1, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times" (these perilous days) "some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." And so Peter warns them to whom he writes, II Peter 2:1, 2, that "there shall come false teachers among them, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction; and many shall follow their pernicious ways." There shall come times full of peril, which shall draw men from the truth into destruction.
If it be asked, how may we know whether there be a proneness in the minds of men in any season to depart from the truth? There are three ways whereby we may judge it:

1. The first is that mentioned, 11 Tim. 4:3, "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." When men grow weary of sound doctrine - when it is too plain, too heavy, too dull, too common, too high, too mysterious, one thing or other that displeases them, and they would hear something new, something that may please - it is a sign that there are in such an age many who are prone to forsake sound doctrine: and many such we know.
2. When men have lost the power of truth in their conversation, and are as prone and ready to part with the profession of it in their minds. Do you see a man retaining the profession of the truth under a worldly conversation? He wants but baits from temptation, or a seducer, to take away his faith from him. An inclination to hearken after novelties, and loss of the power of truth in the conversation, is a sign of proneness unto this declension from the truth. Such a season, you see, is perilous. And why is it perilous? Because the souls of many are destroyed in it. The apostle tells us directly, II Peter 2:1, of "false prophets among the people, who privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destructions." Will it abide there? No: "And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." Brethren, while it is well with us, through the grace of God, and our own houses are not inflames, pray do not let use think the times are not perilous, when so many turn into pernicious errors, and fall into swift destruction. Will you say the time of the public plague was not perilous, because you were alive? No. Was the fire not dreadful, because your houses were not burned? No; you will, notwithstanding, say it was a dreadful plague, and a dreadful fire. And pray consider, is not this a perilous season, when multitudes have an inclination to depart from the truth, and God, in just judgment, hath permitted Satan to stir up seducers to draw them into pernicious ways, and their poor souls perish forever?

Besides, there is a great aptness in such a season to work indifference in the minds of those who do not intend utterly to forsake the truth. Little did I think I should ever have lived in this world to find the minds of professors grown altogether indifferent as to the doctrines of God's eternal election, the sovereign efficacy of grace in the conversion of sinners, justification by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ; but many are, as to all these things, grown to an indifferency; they know not whether they are so or not. I bless God I know something of the former generation, when professors would not hear of these things without the highest detestation; and now high professors begin to be leaders in it: and it is too much among the best of us. We are not so much concerned for the truth as our forefathers; I wish 1 could say we were as holy.

1. This proneness to depart from the truth is a perilous season, because it is the greatest evidence of the withdrawing of the Spirit of God from His church: for the Spirit of God is promised to this end, "to lead us into all truth"; and when the efficacy of truth begins to decay, it is the greatest evidence of the departing and withdrawing of the Spirit of God. And I think that this is a dangerous thing; for if the Spirit of God departs, then our glory and our life depart.

What, now, is our duty in reference to this perilous season? Forewarnings of perils are given us to instruct us in our duty.

1. The first, is, not to be content with what you judge a sincere profession of truth; but to labor to be found in the exercise of all those graces which peculiarly respect the truth. There are graces that peculiarly respect the truth that we are to exercise; and if these are not found in our hearts, all our profession will issue in nothing.

And these are:

(a) Love: "Because they loved not the truth." They made profession of the gospel; but they received not the truth in the love of it. There was want of love of the truth. Truth will do no man good where there is not the love of it. "Speaking the truth in love," is the substance of our Christian profession. Pray, brethren, let us labor to love the truth; and to take off all prejudices from our minds, that we may do so. (b) It is the great and only rule to preserve us in perilous times, to labor to have the experience of the power of every truth in our hearts. If so be ye have learned the Lord Jesus. How? So as to "put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts"; and to "put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," Eph. 4: 22-24. This is to learn the truth. The great grace that is to be exercised with reference to truth in such a season as this, is to exemplify it in our hearts in the power of it. Labor for the experience of the power of every truth in your own hearts and lives. (c) Zeal for the truth. Truth is the most proper object for zeal. We ought to "contend earnestly for the truth once delivered to the saints"; to be willing, as God shall help us, to part with name and reputation, and to undergo scorn and contempt, all that this world can cast upon us, in giving testimony unto the truth. Everything that this world counts dear and valuable is to be forsaken, rather than the truth. This was the great end for which Christ came into the world. 2. Cleave unto the means that God hath appointed and ordained for your preservation in the truth. I see some are ready to go to sleep, and think themselves not concerned in these things: the Lord awaken their hearts! keep to the means of preservation in the truth - the present ministry. Bless God for the remainder of a ministry valuing the truth, knowing the truth, sound in the faith - cleave unto them. There is little influence upon the minds of men from this ordinance and institution of God, in the great business of the ministry. But know there is something more in it than that they seem to have better abilities to dispute than you: more knowledge, more light, better understandings than you. If you know no more in the ministry than this, you will never have benefit by it. They are God's ordinance; the name of God is upon them God will be sanctified in them. They are God's ordinance for the preservation of the truth. 3. Let us carefully remember the faith of them who went before us in the profession of the last age. I am apt to think there was not a more glorious profession for a thousand years upon the face of the earth, than was among the professors of the last age. And pray, what faith were they of.? Were they half Armenian and half Socinian; half Papist and half I know not what? Remember how zealous they were for the truth how little their holy souls would have borne with those public defections from the doctrine of truth which we see, and do not mourn over, but make nothing of, in the days wherein we live. God was with them; and they lived to His glory, and died in peace: "whose faith follow," and example pursue. And remember the faith they lived and died in: look round about, and see whether any of the new creeds have produced a new holiness to exceed theirs.

III. A third thing that makes a perilous season is, professors mixing themselves with the world, and learning their manners. And if the other perilous seasons are come upon us, this is come upon us also. This was the foundation and spring of the first perilous season that was in the world, that first brought in a deluge of sin and then a deluge of misery. It was the beginning of the first public apostasy of the church, which issued in the severest mark of God's displeasure. Gen. 6:2, "The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." This is but one instance of the church of God, the sons of God, professors, mixing themselves with the world. This was not all, that they took to themselves wives; but this was an instance the Holy Ghost gives that the church in those days did degenerate, and mix itself with the world. What is the end of mixing themselves in this manner with the world? Ps. 106:35, "They mingled themselves with the nations." And what then: "And learned their manners." If anything under heaven will make a season perilous, this will do it - when we mingle with the world and learn their manners.
There are two things I shall speak of on this head: 1. Wherein professors do mingle themselves with the world. 2. The danger of it.

1. Professors mingle themselves with the world in that wherein it is the world, which is proper to the world. That which is more eminently and visibly of the devil, professors do not so soon mingle themselves withal; but in that wherein it is the world, in its own colors - as in corrupt communication, which is the spirit of the world, the extract and fruit of vanity of mind - that wherewith the world is corrupted, and doth corrupt. An evil, rotten kind of communication, whereby the manners of the world are corrupted - this comes from the spirit of the world. The devil hath his hand in all these things; but it is the world and the spirit of the world that is in corrupt communication. And how hath this spread itself among professors! Light, vain, foolish communication!-to spend a man's whole life therein; not upon this or that occasion, but almost always, and upon all occasions everywhere Vain habits and attire of the world is an other instance. The habits and attire of the world are the things wherein the world doth design to show itself what it is. Men may read what the world is by evident characters, in the habits and attire that it wears. They are blind that cannot read vanity, folly, uncleanness, luxury, in the attire the world putteth upon itself. The declension of professors in imitating the ways of the world in their habits and garb, makes a season perilous; it is a mixture wherein we learn their manners; and the judgments of God will ensue upon it. In this, likewise, we are grown like the world, that upon all occasions we are as regardless of the sins of the world, and as little troubled with them, as others are. Lot lived in Sodom, but "his righteous soul was vexed with their ungodly deeds and speeches." Live we where we will, when are our souls vexed, (so) that we do not pass through the things of the world, the greatest abominations, with the frame of spirit that the world itself doth? Not to speak of voluptuousness of living, and other things that attend this woeful mixture with the world that professors have made in the days wherein we live - corrupt communication, gaiety of attire, senselessness of the sins and abominations of the world round about us, are almost as much upon professors as upon the world. We have mixed ourselves with the people, and have learned their manners. But -

1. Such a season is dangerous, because the sins of professors in it he directly contrary to the whole design the mediation of Christ in this world. Christ gave Himself for us, that He might purge us from dead works, and purify us unto Himself a peculiar people (Titus 2:14). "Ye are a royal nation, a peculiar people." Christ hath brought the hatred of the devil and all the world upon Him and against Him, for taking a people out of the world, and making them a peculiar people to Himself; and their throwing themselves upon the world again is the greatest contempt that can be put upon Jesus Christ. He gave His life and shed His blood to recover us from the world, and we throw ourselves in again. How easy were it to show that this is an inlet to all other sins and abominations, and that for which I verily think the indignation and displeasure of God will soonest discover itself against professors and churches in this day! If we will not be differenced from the world in our ways, we shall not long be differenced from them in our privileges. If we are the same in our walkings, we shall be so in our worship, or have none at all.

As to our duty in such a perilous season, let me leave three cautions with you, and the Lord fix them upon your hearts:

1. The profession of religion, and the performance of duties, under a world-like conversation, are nothing but a sophistical means to lead men blindfold into hell. We must not speak little things in such a great cause.
2. If you will be like the world, you must take the world's lot. It will go with you as it goes with the world. Inquire and see, in the whole book of God, how it will go with the world, what God's thoughts are of the world, whether it saith not, "If it lies in wickedness, it shall come to judgment," and that "the curse of God is upon it." If, therefore, you will be like the world, you must have the world's lot; God will not separate.
3. Lastly, consider we have by this means lost the most glorious cause of truth that ever was in the world. We do not know that there hath been a more glorious cause of truth since the apostles' days, than what God hath committed to his church and people in this nation, for the purity of the doctrine of the truth and ordinances; but we have lost all the beauty and glory of it by this mixture in the world. I verily think it is high time that the congregations in this city, by their elders and messengers, should consult together how to stop this evil, that hath lost all the glory of our profession. It is a perilous time, when professors mix themselves so with the world.

There are other perilous seasons that I thought to have insisted on, but I will but name them.
IV. When there is great attendance on outward duties, but inward, spiritual decays. Now herein, my brethren, you know how long I have been treating of the causes and reasons of inward decays, and the means to be used for our recovery; I shall not, therefore, again insist upon them.
V. Times of persecution are also times of peril.
Now, I need not tell you whether these seasons are upon us or not; it is your duty to inquire into that. Whether there be not an outward retaining of the truth under a visible prevalency of abominable lusts in the world; whether there be not a proneness to forsake the truth, and seducers at work to draw men off, whether there be not a mingling ourselves with the world, and therein learning their manners; whether there be not inward decays, under the outward performance of duties; and whether many are not suffering under persecution and trouble, judge ye, and act accordingly.
One word of use, and I have done.
Use 1. Let us all be exhorted to endeavour to get our hearts affected with the perils of the day wherein we live. You have heard a poor, weak discourse concerning it, and perhaps it will be quickly forgotten. Oh, that God would be pleased to give us this grace - that we may find it our duty to endeavour to have our hearts affected with the perils of these seasons! It is not time to be asleep upon the top of a mast in a rough sea, when there are so many devouring dangers round about us. And the better to effect this . -

(a ) Consider the present things, and bring them to rule, and see what God's word says of them. We hear this and that story of horrible, prodigious wickedness; and bring it in the next opportunity of talk, and there slightly pass it over. We hear of the judgments of God abroad in the world; and bring them to the same standard of our own imaginations, and there is an end. But, brethren, when you observe any of these things, how it is with the world, if you would have your hearts affected, bring it to the word, and see what God saith of it: speak with God about it; ask and inquire at the mouth of God what God saith unto these prodigious wickednesses and judgments - this coldness that is upon professors, and there mixtures with, and learning the manners of the world. You will never have your hearts affected with it, till you come and spear: with God about it; and then you will find them represented in a glass that will make your hearts ache and tremble. And then, - (b) If you would be sensible of present perilous times, take heed of centring in self. While your greatest concern is self, or the world, all the angels in heaven cannot make you sensible of the peril of the days wherein you live. Whether you pursue riches or honours, while you centre there, nothing can make you sensible of the perils of the day. Therefore do not centre in self. (c) Pray that God would give us grace to be sensible of the perils of the day wherein we live. It may be we have had confidence, that though thousands fall at our right hand and at our left, yet we shall be able to carry it through. Believe me, it is great grace. Point your private, closet prayers, and your family prayers this way; and the Lord help us to point our public prayers to this thing, that God would make our hearts sensible of the perils of the time whereinto we are fallen in these last days!

Use 2. The next thing is this, that there are two things in a perilous season,-the sin of it, and the misery of it. Labour to be sensible of the former, or you will never be sensible of the latter. Though judgments lie at the door, - though the heavens be dark over us, and the earth shake under us at this day, and no wise man can see where he can build himself an abiding habitation - we can talk of these things; and hear of other nations soaking in blood; and have tokens of God's displeasure, - warnings from heaven above and the earth beneath; and no man sensible of them! Why? Because they are not sensible of sin; nor ever will be, unless God make them so.
I shall range the sins that we should be sensible of under three heads: - the sins of the poor, wretched, perishing world, in the first place; the sins of professors in general, in the second place; and our own particular sins and decays, in the third place. And let us labour to have our hearts affected with these. It is to no purpose to tell you this and that judgment is approaching; - for your leaders, and those that are upon the watch-tower, to cry, "A lion; my lord' we see a lion." Unless God make our hearts sensible of sin, we shall not be sensible of judgments.
Use 3. Remember there is a special frame of spirit required in us all in such perilous seasons as these are. And what is that? It is a mourning frame of spirit. 0 that frame, that jolly frame of spirit that is upon us! The Lord forgive it, the Lord pardon it unto us; and keep us in a humble, broken, mournful frame of spirit; for it is a peculiar grace God looks for at such a time as this is. When He will pour out His Spirit, there will be great mourning, together and apart; but now we may say there is no mourning. The Lord help us, we have hard hearts and dry eyes under the consideration of all these perils that he before us.
Use 4. Keep up church watch with diligence, and by the rule. When I say rule, I mean the life of it. I have no greater jealousy upon my heart, than that God should withdraw himself from his own institutions because of the sins of the people, and leave us only the carcase of outward rule and order. What doth God give them for? for their own sakes? No; but that they may be clothing for faith and love, meekness of spirit and bowels of compassion, watchfulness and diligence. Take away these, and farewell to all outward rule and order, whatever they are. Keep up a spirit that may live affected with it: get a spirit of church watch; which is not to lie at catch for faults, but diligently, out of pure love and compassion to the souls of men, to watch over them, - to wait to do them good, all we can. As it was with a poor man, who took a dead body and set it up, and it fell; and he set it up again, and it fell; upon which he cried out, "There wants something within," to enliven and quicken it; - so is it with church order and rule; set them up as often as you will, they will all fall, if there be not a love to one another, a delighting in the good of one another, "exhorting one another while it is called today, lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."
Use 5. Reckon upon it, that in such times as these are, all of us will not go free. You find no mention of a perilous season in Scripture, but it follows some shall have their faith overthrown, others shall follow pernicious ways, and others shall turn aside. Brethren and sisters, how do you know but you or I may fall? Let us double our watch, every one; for the season is come upon us wherein some of us may fall, and fall so as to smart for it. I do not say we shall perish eternally; - God deliver us from going into the pit! but some of us may so fall as to lose a limb, some member or other; and our works will be committed to the fire that shall burn them all. God hath kindled a fire in Zion that will try all our works; and we shall see in a short time what will become of us.
Use 6. Lastly, take that great rule which the apostle gives in such times as those wherewith we are concerned, "Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure," - 0 blessed be God for it! - "God knows who are his."
What, then, is required on our part? "Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from evil." Your profession, your privileges, your light, will not secure you; you are gone, unless every one that nameth the name of Christ departs from all iniquity. What multitudes perish under a profession every day! Oh, that our hearts could bleed to see poor souls in danger of perishing under the greatest profession!
Will you hear the sum of all? Perilous times and seasons are come upon us; many are wounded already; many have failed. The Lord help us! the crown is fallen from our head,-the glory of our profession is gone, the time is short, - the Judge stands before the door. Take but this one word of counsel, my brethren: "Watch, therefore, that none of these things may come upon you, but that you may escape, and be accounted worthy to stand before the Son of God." Amen.

Okay so this is my first real post on Reddit, apologies if I do anything wrong. I’m not sure whether to post this in paranormal or in a mysteries subreddit, so I’ll do both. This story starts last year on November 5th. Around 3pm I got a phone call from a number in Fredonia, NY, which is about an hour away from where I live in Buffalo. I let it go to voicemail and this is what I heard:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nCqdVvnzFjrdUQsdIzJuS7jLhgXDcIFE/view?usp=sharing
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Obviously I'm freaked out. This isn't a voicemail I expected to hear. The creepy breathing, laughter and music box were super unsettling and I assumed that would be it. A minute or two after, I got a text from the number saying "Sorry wrong number." I figured as weird as it was, maybe it was just an accident. Maybe a prank intended for someone else. I started talking about it with my friends when a few minutes pass and I get another phone call from the number. After hearing the first message I definitely wasn't picking up the second and let it run to voicemail again. Here's the second message:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_1UK5bm5pNrE6jG9J6mTrW5-ScdOTyT4/view?usp=sharing
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Pretty much the same, just longer with a little more laughter and breathing. They followed up with this text:
https://gyazo.com/a6ee4d46bda4a674d50aa3c625d84757
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This response was very creepy. The fact that he supposedly called the same wrong number twice doesn't seem legit, especially being "one digit off." I ignored the message because I was honestly worried about getting murdered and didn't want to encourage this guy. I shared it with my friends who all thought it was creepy and eventually moved on. As time passed this event faded from memory and I never got any answers. Until today.
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I had purchased one of those reverse phone lookups for something a while back, and while watching 4chan and reddit story videos I remembered this incident and figured I should look into it again, since now I had the tool to see who called me. So with my friend and girlfriend, I used Spokeo or whatever its called and looked up the number. The search result gave me a possible person; a person named R Bialaszewski. Here's what it showed when I looked it up:
https://gyazo.com/94e8bbb15fcb46a65c82217748210cbd
https://gyazo.com/afb761e0870746447e4294858db65356
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As you can see, there are two results for the R Bialaszewski that Spokeo connected the number to. I ruled out Rachel because the voice definitely sounded masculine, though perhaps its possible it was her. Maybe someone can make a more clear connection. I then started to do research on Ronald S Bialaszewski. I wanted to find a Facebook or something to link the pieces together. Its also important to note that in the text message I received, the sender mentioned they were texting their brother, and Ronald had relatives that made him more ideal to look at. I searched the web for his name and this is what I found:
https://chautauquatoday.com/obits/details.cfm?id=27283#.Y5vydnbMKUk
The man who I assumed owned the phone number had been dead for five years. You can also see in his obituary that he had a brother, Stephen. I should address a problem first, though. When searching Spokeo, you can see it tells me it belongs to R Bialaszewski and lets me click on the link to take me to see either Rachel or Ronald. Clicking on either of their profiles and looking at their phone numbers shows that neither of them have the 410-7600 number that I was called from. This poses our first big question; is Spokeo 100% correct. I tried using another site and it also showed R Bialaszewski as the owner, but that could just be using the same software Spokeo does. I'm not sure how these sites work, so if you do know, please clarify for me. It's just odd that the site says that its one of these two yet neither have the number on their profiles. So take that for what you will, I'll go more into exploring other possibilities later, but for now let's entertain the idea that Spokeo knows its Ronald or Rachel, but isn't showing the number on there profile because it's an old number or something.
The reason I explained all that is because my first reaction was to go to his brother's page and see if his phone number was similar to mine, thus confirming it was him. I looked at Stephen's page, but his phone number is not similar to mine, definitely not one digit off like the original messenger said. This brings me back to the point about neither Rachel nor Ronald having the correct number on their profile despite Spokeo telling me they owned it. So from here we'll have to take it with a grain of salt. If anyone knows how to see maybe previous numbers or more numbers I'd be happy to check them to see if they match mine, but I won't be sharing my number publicly.
I also found the obituary for Stephen:
https://www.observertoday.com/obituaries/2021/11/stephen-j-bialaszewski-j
As I posted that link I just made a realization (I'm trying to put everything together nice for you guys and I'm still finding new information). When I first saw the obituary, it said he died in 2001 which I didn't look much in to. Upon further inspection, this was misdated. He died October 29, 2021. Exactly one week before I got the phone call. Was Ronald trying to call his brother now that both of them were dead? Honestly it's so close that its hard for me not to get freaked out a little.
Okay so there's my ghost theory. The creepy music, the demonic voices, the dates all could lead to this being some sort of miscall from a ghost. It might sound crazy, but its uncanny how things line up. The obituary was posted on November 1st and said the family weren't going to have a funeral, but a celebration of life on a later date. That date could've been November 5th.
However, without the clear connection to Ronald and Stephen I started to look other places. I looked up the phone number straight in google without the reverse phone search and found a barber shop in Buffalo. It's odd, doesn't have a website or much promotion, but exists. I gave the number a call to make sure it was the same one and it was. My buddy called it all the way and it went to voicemail with no recording. I looked through the Facebook and found more creepy evidence:
https://gyazo.com/d8622433c9880cea06d21bc8f9e528c0
The store had just reopened and had gotten a new number, less than a week after I got called. So in the matter of a week whoever had that number lost it and had it taken by these barbers. As I was looking into this I got a text from the number asking who I was and this is how the exchange went:
https://gyazo.com/f43b5c4a9770ecf4a73e59e3871f3120
https://gyazo.com/cce9046c3804f93c7bc0880f02a904ec
This proved that the number was under new ownership and the barbershop was unrelated to the mystery. Yet I still wanted some sort of connection. I continued to search for the number and any connection to a person when I found this:
https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/ronald-bialaszewski_id_G6801715178767869530
This is the only site that shows the number with a person attached. The hiccup is that this is Ronald J not Ronald S like before. I tried to search for Ronald J but this site nor any others have any information on him or who he knows. For all I know it could be the same person, which if it is would make the ghost theory even more likely. I just don't know. I can't find anything on Ronald J which makes it more difficult, so if anyone can find anything on him that'd be appreciated.
Alright so that's pretty much everything I know. Obviously there are problems. The numbers of Stephen and Ronald not matching hurts this case. I also don't know how long the number would be inactive after his death, so maybe someone else owned it in between Ronald and the barbershop. It just seems weird how it was given to someone new a week later, but maybe it was someone who had access to this inactive number that was pranking people. Another possibility is it was a son or grandson, but that would be hard to prove and the voice sounds like an adult. Who knows, maybe it's all an elaborate prank or something. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong people all together. If anyone wants to help piece it together that'd be awesome and I can answer any questions you have. As it stands, I'd like to believe that I got a voicemail from a dead man.

I am a 33yo Australian male, 181cm, 72kg. For the last two decades I mostly focussed on weightlifting to keep in shape with a bit of cycle commuting for cardio. Then when Covid hit a friend invited me to a running challenge and I downloaded Strava and my obsessionality took over, driving me to throw everything into optimizing my VO2 max. I focussed mostly on high intensity intervals for my first two years but reading about 80/20 polarized training, the importance of zone 2 volume, and Nils Van Der Poel, I decided to try and maximize volume and slowly built up to 80-100km/week, which I sustained for ~6 months prior to the race with only small interruptions due to minor injuries like a sore left shin and right hamstring. The former responded well to a 70% reduction in my running volume for 3 weeks and replacing each lost hour with 1.5 hours of zone 2 cycling. The latter resolved with stretching.
Mostly I was building fitness for fun and to see how low I could get my 5k at my local Parkrun, but then when I was planning a trip to Europe to visit family a friend challenged me to try the Athens Marathon. I thought and still think that running 42km is silly but as a history nerd I couldn't resist the poetry of running the original course from Marathon to Athens. The story according to Lucian, which may be mythical, goes that after the Athenians fought off the Persians in 490BC outside the town of Marathon, which means fennel, their messenger Pheidippides ran 42.2km to Athens to share the good news. He burst into the Parthenon and announced "Chairete, nikomen" (hail, we are victorious) and promptly collapsed and died of exhaustion. An auspicious omen for all who follow in his path.
My main issue going into my first marathon was uncertainty about what pace I could sustain for >3h, beyond the dreaded wall of glycogen depletion. Two weeks prior I did a 30k run and hit something of a wall at 27k but had no water or snacks. One week prior in Ireland I did a 22k run at 4:28 and felt great. For that run I wasn't tapered or carb loaded or wearing carbon plated shoes like I would for my race. On the other hand it was flat and 8 degrees, where Athens was hilly and 15 degrees. So I didn't know how fast was sustainable. I had this rough idea that as long as I kept my average heart rate below 170 I should be ok.
My short term prep went great, no injuries, was able to run while travelling thanks to my partner's patience and support, had great fun touring around towns on foot while doing so. Did have a minor flu-like illness (RAT negative) for the last week of prep but was already tapering and symptoms reduced nicely down to minimal by race day. Tapered well with good carb loading on white bread, jam, Turkish delights. Minimized fibre for 36h before the race. My nutrition on the day: 0530 4x slices of white bread 0730 1L Coca-Cola 0840 100mg caffeine and 40g carb gel. 0855 peed and thankfully didn't need to toilet stop again. 0903 crossed start line, took water from every station (which were at most 2.5k intervals from 7.5k to 35k) and drank a mouthful and poured the rest over my head to stay cool. Drank ~200ml isotonic Powerade at 5 stations too.
I found myself running ~4:30/km for the first half and my HR was 160 so felt increasingly confident. Knew there was a slow ascent from 20-31km though so slowed down a little to 4:35. Started getting a sharp 2/10 pain in my R hamstring at 25k which I feared might turn into a cramp and blow me up so slowed down further to ~4:40. As the climbing finished at 31k the pain had gone and I knew there was a downhill stretch so I allowed myself to speed up to ~4:25, then for the last 5k the adrenaline carried me faster and faster. The crowds were great, all the way from the start line, children offering olive wreaths, old folks dancing Zorba style, military bands. I interacted with them a lot, high fiving maybe 300 people along the way. I found if I flashed big smiles at spectators, pointed or waved, loudly thanked them in Greek or hyped them up with some eyyyyyys they responded really well and exploded into cheers. For the last 5k I turned off my music and just soaked up the vibes, playing off the crowd. I saw some Ukrainian flags at about 4k to go and shouted Slava Ukraini and got a massive crowd response so I basically shouted that every 20 seconds from then on and felt buoyed by the reactions.
Final time: 3:10:05 322nd place of ~20000 starters and 12607 completers. Strava link to see splits and elevation and HR: https://strava.app.link/MNQpSe4oWub
While I felt great during the run, the aftermath was a different story. Despite extensive training and careful preparation, I suffered 7/10 muscle pain from lower back to calves, blisters so nasty my shoes are bloodstained, and chafing so bad I feel like my entire groin is excoriated and I have first degree burns in my right armpit. But fortunately I never hit a wall of glycogen or electrolyte or water depletion.
Overall a great combination of luck and preparation. Grateful. The fact that I still have this degree of pain and incapacitation reinforces my view that running 42k is a bit silly and I'm not sure I'll do it again. But apparently everyone says this in the immediate aftermath. My next goal is to get my 5k below 18 minutes and perhaps rebuild some of my lost muscle mass and strength.
If I am allowed to end on a political note, historical Athens had me contemplating her complex legacy. The Athenians were not perfect. But they lit the torch of democracy, which still burns bright today, and gives us a world worth fighting for. When Pericles delivered his funeral oration here, he boldly spoke the truth - that rule of law is better than might makes right, and that government by the people is better than tyranny.
I believe today's inheritor of that tradition is Volodymyr Zelensky. He speaks that same truth clearly in defiance of aggression, cynicism and nihilism. Ukraine, too, is not perfect. But her people are trying to build a better society in the shadow of a tyrant. They fight for all of us.
I dedicate my meagre efforts to them.

"Millions" of people from around the world have reportedly tuned into a special televised service held by the so-called "delusional" Tennessee megachurch pastor Gustavus W. Gunderson III following his uncanny and bizarre prediction, which many believe "came true".
Yesterday, a hijacked United Airlines flight carrying 257 passengers was deliberately flown into the 60-storey UN tower in downtown Seattle. So far, no major terror group has claimed responsibility for the devastating attack, however, joint intelligence sources say that the Texas-bound plane, which had flown out of New Vancouver, was "hijacked by vengeful Arabs seeking revenge for the recent troop surge in Kuwait".
Last Thursday, Gunderson, who is the self-styled "Last Messenger of God" and is the head of Tennessee-based megachurch "The First Church of God", told thousands of members of his horrified congregation that "I have received a message directly from God. He has told me that a great cataclysm would befall the great Washington city of Seattle on Monday." Gunderson did not go into great detail thereafter and merely continued with his service like normal.
The megachurch pastor, who claims he has "hundreds of thousands" of members worldwide, heads The First Church of God, which currently only has 42,000 registered members worldwide, with The Holy Rock of God in Belltown, TN - his main megachurch base - having a capacity of 3,200 people. Gunderson has gained a lot of controversy over the last few decades, including his extreme homophobic views and his declaration in 2011 that the "Japanese disaster of 2011" was "a message from God". In 2007, he also told the people of Indonesia to "turn to God" following the cataclysmic deadly earthquake and tsunami which struck in October 2007, just 3 years after another deadly earthquake and tsunami caused devastation in the same country. The following year, he accused the teenage victims of the New Oxford high school mass shootings in New Oxford, Nebraska of "being punished by God for their premarital fornication". 77 high schoolers were shot dead and 111 children were injured after "bullied trio" Caleb Jackson, Harry Beecham and Toby Sangston launched "a coordinated attack with smoke grenades, banned semi-automatic rifles and homemade flashbang bombs". Republican US Presidential candidate, Harvey Bloom, was also criticised in 2007 for "receiving a hefty personal donation" directly from Gunderson himself. It ultimately saw the demise of his bid for the White House, but he recovered years later and became a US Senator for the state of Oklahoma, after publicly distancing himself from Gunderson and the Holy Church of God.
Gunderson claimed today, in an interview with NBC journalists, that "millions from around the world tuned into my service, seeking guidance and messages from God. This is the time of God. Many of his children will now come to Him in this time of great fear and need and confusion".
So far, rescue personnel and emergency services continue to comb the devastated area for more survivors and surrounding buildings have been evacuated over the fears the UN tower, which was hit yesterday by a hijacked Boeing 757, could collapse, after US government personnel voiced fears that the internal building supports and pillars on floor 42 "could completely collapse at any moment". The Seattle UN Tower - which is formally called The Merrick-Johnson Tower after it was constructed by Merrick & Johnson Innovations in 1981 - is a 60-storey tower with a mixed glass and limestone cladding and was previously the main headquarters of large financial services firms such as private equity group Hüber Equity, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, The Canadian Institution of Banking and also the Western US headquarters of De Beer's, McDonald's' largest rival worldwide.
Currently, the number of dead has been reported as "more than 1,200", with more than "3,000 people injured" after being caught up in the devastation in the surrounding area.
The disaster - if confirmed to be an act of terror - would be the worst terror attack to be carried out in a major US metropolitan center since the September 11th attacks of 2001, where 2 hijacked airliners struck the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan and a third hijacked airliner was "deliberately" crashed into the Empire State building.
When FBI special agent Larry Tubman was asked this morning to comment on Gunderson's prediction last week and whether the megachurch pastor would be questioned, he replied "there are currently no arrests warrants out for Gunderson, but yes, I can confirm that, in light of new information which has surfaced, he is listed as a person of interest. We are of course pursuing multiple lines of inquiry still and this is obviously a fast-moving investigation with all hands on deck."
The airspace over much of southern British Columbia, the entire state of Washington and much of Oregon still remains closed, with flights being rerouted or turned away altogether. A spokesperson for the Western Air Command of NAD (National Aerospace Defense of the United States) confirmed that "increased air patrols would continue for many days". Meanwhile, the USS Gerald Ford has docked in the nearby Goodge Air Naval Station in Athens, Oregon, with video showing several active F-16s onboard, sparking fears of more attacks.
Athens resident, Randy Deer, told ABC Athens affiliate CABC that he was "very worried". "There were so many fighter jets and military helicoters flying back and forth all through last night and then that carrier docks in Athens this morning. Sure, it's probably to reassure us, but all of this...and then the arrival of the carrier to top it all up - it just makes me think the government thinks there could be another attack. My girlfriend and I are taking our four kids and going east to their grandma's house for the time being whilst this all blows over. It doesn't help that the Fallon Peak fires are also wreaking havoc over in East Oregon, but my girlfriend's mum's house is much safer than here right now."
It comes as Washington State Governor Harvey Cain declared a statewide state of emergency and officially requested federal assistance from DC.
"This isn't just an attack against Seattle, the state of Washington and its people...it's an attack against America and the way of life of all Americans," he said yesterday afternoon.
Meanwhile, British Columbia law enforcement agencies and intelligence chiefs and Canadian federal agents have confirmed that they were "on hand to help Washington and US federal agencies in any way that we can" during the investigation.
In a video call with CBS this morning, Canadian Prime Minister Larry Armstrong confirmed that "Canada would be helping in any way it can".
"I have this morning spoke to US Secretary of State Ian Markham in Washington DC via telephone and also to President Vinson, who is enroute to Seattle and reiterated that Canada would be helping in any way it can. Investigators and law enforcement in British Columbia will be helping US investigators in any way they can to piece together what exactly happened to United Airlines 109."
PM Armstrong also confirmed that he had "invoked special emergency powers" to "stop all flights coming into New Vancouver".
Meanwhile, US steel and textiles billionaire, Tristan Barker, who owns a home near downtown Seattle confirmed to FOX news reporters that he would be "helping Seattleites in any way that I can".
"This is a devastating time," he told Prince Berger of FOX75. "This is a terrible time for all Seattleites and I will be helping everybody in any way that I can, including funding my own private search and rescue efforts, working alongside state and federal personnel. It's all hands on deck for this one."