I've been going through greek mythology and I tell you Heracles (or Hercules as the roman form) has a fascinating story. I've since looked him up when Madame mentioned his slicing of the hydra head. I like him. A perfect example of a syncretizaion of cultures and reinterpretations, have gone through enough hardship with sincerity o illicit empathy and had the strength to be a hero. notes!

"According to the sophist Prodicus, he was visited here by the nymphs Pleasure and Virtue who offered him a choice of two lives: either comfortable and easy or glorious and brutal. Heracles chose to suffer to achieve great glory." Okay now.,

Heracles' first wife was Megara, with whom he had several children. However, Hera caused Heracles to lose his mind and kill his wife and children in a frenzy. Heracles then asked the oracle what to do to atone for his sins, which lead him to the famed twelve labors. Interestingly enough some mix Psyche and Hera together. Psyche ,Ψυχή meaning soul and if this line of thought were to be followed - it wasn't a jealous god who drove Heracles mad, (making him innocent). It was his psyche/soul that destroyed his life. It was Hercules himself who made him lose his own mind. So it is our soul that destroys us? to redeem ourselves afterwards? Or are women always painted terrible in history?

Psyche is commonly depicted with butterfly wings, metamorphosys. Geometric representation of metamorpheses in alchemical graphs mimics these wings in this fashion:

\ / \ /

\ / \ /

/ \ / \

/_\/_\

Alchemical texts like to refer to soul/psyche as mercury, a grey liquid metal. it's commonly called Quicksilver though to suggest it's nature. It's a metal that behaves like a liquid representing the impermanent, shifting nature of our souls, calm quiet and forgiving to its container. Alchemy's root words initially mean the study of mercury. Another metal prized by alchemy is sulfur,(mercury's dua) a metal of passion, with a pungent smell and highly combustible. Reminds me of Hercules, and reading on Psyche, she sounds like quicksilver too. A distinct combinations and processys of the two (the sun and the moon, king and queen) are said to be the ingredients of the philosopher's stone. You know, a meeting of paradoxical opposites. The most mythical of great works or magnum opus.

notes 08/05/1901

I haven't figured out what exactly it was that master Berthold did when attending to his job as a civilian alchemist. One day I asked him and he pointed at the sink that could run no water.

'They asked me to fix it'

'You're a plumber'

'Rock, impeding their water system of the whole city, careful precise alchemy needed to salvage the town's economy in record time. They called me.'

'Alright'

He left quietly. Later afternoon, I ran the water at the tap, and watched it flow tip tap to the drain. Hmm, so this was what master did for a "living".

Another interesting greek story is that of prometheus a demigod and titan, which reminds me of ironically master Hawkeye. When Zeus hid fire away from man, Prometheus stole it by trickery and returned it to earth. As punishment Zeus chained him to a rock where an eagle fed each day on his liver, which grew again each night, damning him to eternal suffering; he was rescued by Hercules.

Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect as it could continue burning while floating on water. It provided a technological advantage, and was responsible for many key Byzantine military victories, most notably the salvation of Constantinople from two Arab sieges, thus securing the Empire's survival.

The information available on Greek fire is exclusively indirect, based on references in the Byzantine military manuals and a number of secondary historical sources such as Anna Komnene and Western European chroniclers, which are often inaccurate. In her Alexiad, Anna Komnene provides a description of an incendiary weapon, ...often regarded as an at least partial "recipe" for Greek fire:

This fire is made by the following arts. From the pine and the certain such evergreen trees inflammable resin is collected. This is rubbed with sulfur and put into tubes of reed, and is blown by men using it with violent and continuous breath. Then in this manner it meets the fire on the tip and catches light and falls like a fiery whirlwind on the faces of the enemies.

Constantine Porphyrogennetos' warnings show, the ingredients and the processes of manufacture and deployment of Greek fire were carefully guarded military secrets.

notes 12/15/1901

I've come on at civil organization structures with a vengeance. I've spared you the grudging details but I was hitting a wall. I couldn't figure out how to get the Hawkeyes out, and I don't know why the Master Hawkeye disliked all of my plans. I was coming into terms that I couldn't do this, and after master Hawkeye has not taught me flame alchemy for an entire year I was feeling pretty desperate.

Entirely stupid.

I thought that mrs. Hawkeye knew it, she was plastered on the bed weak and sickly so I thought she would be easy to break. I scared her, out of all things. But she didn't know where dear Berthold's research was.

I felt guilty afterwards. Mrs. Hawkeye was the type of woman who would still fix her hair because she wanted to look a little better for her beloved husband. She didn't deserve me scaring her like that, and I felt pitiful and useless. I sulked in the corner all by myself.

Master Hawkeye allegedly named himself Berthold a few years back. Understandably so, after Pierre Berthelot.

Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (25 October 1827) was a french khemyst with a scientific commission on thermodynamics research for applications on the franco prussian war. He pioneered the fields on saltpeter extraction , and nitrogen compounds. Notable are his studies on mechanisms of explosions, how slow flames can have abrupt accelerations under pressure, and subjected to gaseous mixtures. He coined the term shock wave, a rapid wave, followed by exothermic reaction that provides energy to sustain the velocity. This is historically known as detonation wave. hmmm. Pierre Berthelot was adamant to the press that his explosives research would have peacetime applications.

great. peacetime applications.

notes: yes, that cipher for wings/metamorpheses is pretty familiar, go check the tattoo now geeks I didn't make that up ;)