Myth query

[mrissa]

Who is the most interestingly unfortunate female figure in any mythology for a big, burly, somewhat hapless hockey player guy (defenseman) to make a pass at?

I don't mean the instantly unfortunate mythological figures, the "you want to date me? gobble chomp you're dead" kind. I mean the "complicates his life in an interesting way" kind.

Carter (yes, for those of you who have been following along, it's one of those stories) has already had run-ins of various sorts with the Queen of Air and Darkness, the Puck, and Baba Yaga. In case that helps.

Comments

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

How about Helen of Troy?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

She air deed by the time hockey is invented, I'm afraid.

But the general impulse towards Homer's Idiot might not be bad: any of the squabbling trio might do. Or, God help him, more than one of them.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Medea

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Well, there's Andromeda if he gets there before Perseus, or Electra to be rescued from the father who wants to sacrifice her -

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

It has to be a *contemporary* mythological figure? Oh, dear. Your description made me think of Grendel's mother . . . she only killed (or attempted to kill) in revenge and self-defense . . .

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It has to be a mythological figure who could plausibly hang around into the present. Which means that most mortals are out unless we're going to posit a cyclical system. There can be a Tam Lin more or less every seven years, for example, so sometimes it's some Minnesota college kid and sometimes a hockey player and sometimes a Scottish guy. But I can't see how to get Helen of Troy into a cycle like that.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

eris. she'd be a little tricky to date.

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

Persephone during her seasonal appearance on earth? It wouldn't be fun to tangle with a jealous Hades...

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

Or perhaps that's the wrong season, if we're talking about Hockey... :(

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Unless the goddesses start squabbling again and in goes the apple and we're off to the races.

We may, in fact, be off to the races.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I was going to say: good thought to keep them occupied in the off-season. Unfortunately, Tam and Janet get married at Midwinter, and this has to be shortly thereafter, no later than late January/early February.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Just a little!

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

How about one of the little goddesses that hang on the back of Ares' chariot?

Discord, with her golden apple, maybe?

Or if you want someone from a different 'round of mythos, a hujing?

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

I would normally have suggested Persephone too except a story recently came out with her...by Elizabeth Hand, I think.

Maybe Artemis? Otherwise I'll keep my wheels turning.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Google isn't telling me much about hujing myths. What is it?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't think one story taps out an entire goddess.

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

He accidentally encounters Artemis naked in the sauna? But the hounds are stopped by campus security. Hilarity ensues.

Nah, probably a bad idea. :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

There is no campus, dear heart. That's only in Pamela's book.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

True--I think you're too good for people to think that you were "following" that story.

Also, having read the original story and having read your stuff before, I think yours would probably be better. I don't mean that to sound catty, but I really couldn't get into the EH tale, and I guessed the ending almost as soon as I started reading it.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

The Muses might be interesting. "His playing is inspired this season!"

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

Artemis is the goddess that I thought of, too -- however, the sauna is a new twist.

[palinade.livejournal.com]

What about folkloric figures like Columbia or Old Mother Hubburd?

Um... the Irish myths are peppered with female figures, but I'm not well versed in them.

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

It's a fox-spirit from Chinese mythology (as opposed to Japanese).

Every fox-spirit story I know that has romance in it is a cautionary tale, because they all end in madness, obsession, or heartbreak with a side of madness and obsession. (Most of the romantic ones I know are about either high born men with estates or poor but up and coming scholars.)

Some of them feature disabled children being cared for by the hujing. Those are the only ones that don't end in heartbreak-- well, except for the disabled child, when the village priest exorcises the hujing.

Others feature magic objects like mirrors, balls, pens.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If you go naked into the hockey players' sauna, you do not get to set hounds on people if they see you.

"Do not go naked into that good steam
Young men must sit, unwind at close of game...."

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

I thought of Persephone, too, and a jealous Hades...or Skadi, Norse goddess of winter and war -- I bet she'd be an interesting hockey groupie.