Cupid and Dis
- Quick note: Dis = Hades, Tartarus = the underworld
- Ceres, goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships = Demeter
- Typhoeus = immortal storm giant
- OKAY, on to the story:
- Typhoeus wants to be a god up in heaven and as such is creating a serious ruckus on Earth. The ground is splitting open and Dis worries his domain will soon be cracked open and exposed to the lights. As such, he makes his way to the sky and circles the island Typhoeus is on before retiring back to the underworld.
- Venus sees Dis and tells Cupid to go make him fall in love so that she may claim Tartarus as her own. Cupid complies and takes his sharpest arrow, draws it back, and fires it right into Dis's heart.
- Prosperine = Persephone
- Proserpine is picking flowers when Dis sees her and falls in love. Dis snatches her up and takes her off in his chariot back toward his domain. As they are flying and she's crying out for help, a nymph named Cyane stops the god and tells him he can't just take that girl! He is supposed to ask her hand in marriage, not abuse her. Cyane then stretched her arms out wide, blocking Dis from moving further, but he just opened up the Earth below him and created a doorway to Tartarus where he escapes to.
- Cyane weeps and is so consumed with grief over Prosperine's rape that she withers away and becomes one with the Earth.
- Ceres was having something to drink when a foul-mouthed boy offended her and she turned him into a newt. She was searching for her daughter, but could not find her. Then, she happens upon Cyane who no longer can talk, but instead shows her daughter's bow in the mystical pool that sits in her area. Ceres freaks out and condemned all the lands for taking away her daughter. The lands grew infertile and barren as a result.
- Ceres asks for Jupiter's help
- Arethusa pleads to Ceres- please don't take it out on the land, it did not want to open up and let Dis escape with your daughter in tow!
- Ceres is shocked, then mad. She goes to the heavens to ask Jupiter for help. He agrees to bring back their daughter (even though he thinks her being with Dis isn't so bad) but only if she has stayed true to her fast and not eaten anything.
- The problem was that she HAD eaten something- a pomegranate from the garden. Only Ascalaphus saw her eat it but he rattled anyway. In response, Ceres turned him into he bird of bad news.
- Jupiter decides to split the year in half and have Persephone spend half with Dis and half with Ceres.
- Minerva = Athena
- Minerva is mad because Arachne is well known as a spinster and she doesn't worship Minerva.
- Arachne says she won't give credit to Minerva unless she proves she is better than her. So, Minerva takes the form of an old lady and tries to tell Arachne to respect the wisdom of her elders. Arachne essentially tells her to buzz off and have Minerva come challenge her herself. Minerva then takes her true shape, but Arachne is not shaken. They sit down to weave.
- Minerva begins weaving stories into her cloth. She includes Jupiter and Neptune arguing over the name of the city, herself, Athens, an olive tree, and Victory herself. She also does scenes of mortals who used to be gods, the date of the queen of the pygmies, Antigone who was turned into a bird by Juno, and Cinyras holding his daughter's limbs and weeping. She finished by adding olive wreaths of peace around the edges and her emblem of a tree.
- Arachne weaves scenes of Europa being deceived by a bull, Asterie held by the eagle, Jupiter as a satyr, daughter of Nycteus with twin offspring, Prosperine as a spotted snake.
- The judges liked Arachne's tapestry and Minerva gets jealous so she turns her into a spider.
Niobe Rejects Latona
- Latona decrees that all the women of Thebes must celebrate and worship her with displays of dancing, doing their hair, and music in the streets. Niobe, however, rejects Latona and refuses to worship her. She gives reasons why she is better and breaks up the celebration, ordering people to go home and take that crap out of their hair.
The Death of Niobe's Children
- Latona sends her sons to punish Niobe for her pride and unwillingness to let the worship of Latona occur in Thebes. They killed 4 of her 7 with arrows, then Apollo stabbed one. Next, an arrow flies through another son's throat. The last son begged for mercy but was shot down too.
- Niobe falls upon her sons' bodies and weeps, but then talks crap to Latona about still being better than her. In response Apollo kills 6 of Niobe's 7 daughters. She begs for Latona to spare her one child, her youngest daughter. Latona refuses and she is killed. I'm her grief Niobe turns into a marble statue, frozen in her sadness.
Latona and the Lycians
- Latona had just given birth to her two twins and went to get a drink of water when she met the Lycians who refused to let her drink from their pool. They jumped around and stirred up the bottom, their rudeness producing anger in Latona. She says, fine live in that swamp forever! She turns them into frogs.
Marysas
- Marysas is a satyr who challenged Apollo to a flute playing contest and lost. His punishment for losing was being flayed alive.
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