Hecaton (That’s Greek for ‘a Hundred’)!

So today is a banner day…the 100th panel has dropped. It’s a fortunate coincidence that this panel features Cadmus as an old man, he was in the first panel that I did and it seems right that he should be around 99 panels later.

There’s an interesting story to go with this panel too. Sit a while and I’ll tell you! You may remember from high school history about the first triumvirate, which was made up of Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and some other guy. That other guy was Marcus Licinius Crassus. He was older than Caesar and Pompey and perhaps a little jealous of their accomplishments. Trying to win glory, Crassus went to war with the Parthian Empire to the east and was rather ignobly defeated and killed.

So what does this have to do with Mythology? Well the Parthian Empire was formed out of part of Alexander the Great’s old empire. Greek influence upon the upper class of Parthian society was significant, and it turned out that the Parthian king Orodes II was not only fluent in Greek, but was also a fan of the theater. After being given the severed head of Crassus, he had it used as a prop in a performance of the Bacchae of Euripides. Crassus got to play the part of Pentheus, the poor sod…

So enjoy the latest panel, I’ll have the next ready later this week. Do check back!

Consolidation

The newest panel, pentheus20, has been posted and work continues. I have decided to consolidate the story of Polydorus (Pentheus’ uncle and king of Thebes after Pentheus) into the Pentheus sequence, rather than create a separate sequence. The result of this is that the Pentheus sequence will continue for a short while after Pentheus himself expires. I promise not to drag out the sequence too long after the titular character’s absence. I’ll change the Myths page to reflect this revision shortly.

So my summer begins today. Seven weeks of glorious freedom from responsibility. I’ll try not to let the lack of structured time render me completely unproductive… but it might be tough!