Morning Star

[milo]

Milo - I enjoy tales of myth and this mighty one I certainly did too. Nice work. Namyh

thanks for reading and commenting.

[just mercedes]

hArumph. This is me failing to take notice of local mores. Please remind me if this is tired.

There’s no room for slackers
in this posting, Mr Coleridge,
or for dreamers.
Have you been drinking?
Dismantle that
stately pleasure dome
this moment
and clean up the caverns
of ice. The tea lady
won’t like that.
And for God’s sake, man,
do something about your hair.

[drdest123]

love it

[milo]

hArumph. This is me failing to take notice of local mores. Please remind me if this is tired.

There’s no room for slackers
in this posting, Mr Coleridge,
or for dreamers.
Have you been drinking?
Dismantle that
stately pleasure dome
this moment
and clean up the caverns
of ice. The tea lady
won’t like that.
And for God’s sake, man,
do something about your hair.

Just read this now.  It is interesting but I feel I am missing something.  Perhaps i am just tired.

[Erthona]

Milo,

Very well done. I don't know how I missed it. The whole is greater than the parts.

Maybe someone else has mentioned this, didn't have time to read through all the comments.
S4L3 "Gods"? elsewhere "gods"

____________________________________________________________________

JM well done "Kublai Khan" some woman needs to take Samuel in hand, of course all you really need do is:

weave a circle round him thrice,
to clean the cave and melt the ice.

Dale

[milo]

Milo,

Very well done. I don't know how I missed it. The whole is greater than the parts.

Maybe someone else has mentioned this, didn't have time to read through all the comments.
S4L3 "Gods"? elsewhere "gods"

____________________________________________________________________



Dale

Thanks, Dale.  no one mentioned it here though someone did mention the inconsistency of capitalization throughout the piece on a different site. I had intended the differentiation between Titans, Gods, Jove and then nymphs and gods to be one of specificity but it doesn't work.  Do you think i should capitalize all or none?

[milo]

minor inline edits to address "too many 'ands" as well as a couple minor punctuation tweaks.

[Erthona]

I don't know if there is a rule per se, but it generally seems that when people talk of the singular "God" of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims, it is capitalized to delineate it is that god an not one god out of a pantheon. When using the specific name of a god, such as "Jove" it should be capitalized if for no other reason than it is a proper name. When referring to a "god" which is one among many as in the Greek pantheon, traditionally it seems it is generally denoted by the lowercase "g" to show that he/she is one among many. All though I have never heard anyone say this is the case, I have always assumed it was as it just makes sense as the rationale. In terms of "God" with the big "G", there are some who because of anger towards one of the Abrahamic religions do not want to capitalize the Abrahamic "God", as protest or rebellion and use the lowercase "g" in order, at least in their minds, to diminish him/her/it. That it is tradition to capitalize the Abrahamic "God", due to the fact that he is the only god in that mythos which is shared jointly by those three major religion seems weighty enough to deserve that distinction. OK, so that takes care of the main God issues. Regarding the others, here are my thoughts and rationale.
Giants and Titans, of course when using their specific name such as Hyperion, one would capitalize the name, strangely enough, one should also capitalize Titan and Giant, even though they are technically "gods". The reason is that not only are these specific groups, they are the preeminent of those who go by that name by several factors of magnitude. Generally if one refers to the Titans anywhere outside of Tennessee, a person will generally know you are referring to the Titans of Greek myth. The point is that if one is talking/writing about myth in any way, or alluding to it, there will generally be no doubt which "Titans" is being referred to. Giants currently is lowercase, however "Gigantes" is capitalized, so I think it is not a stretch to go ahead and capitalize Giants when referring to the Giants of Greek myth, since technically one is referring to the "Gigantes". I think that capitalizing both Titans and Giants would bring more clarity as opposed to less clarity, or at least do no harm, as out friend Hippocrates would say. Strangely enough the lesser mythical creatures, in terms of their category name seems to not be capitalized. Neither "hamadryad," nor "dryad" is generally capitalized. Why that is so I have no idea and as Shrunk and Not Too Bright said nothing on the subject. I am at a loss as to why that is. Personally, in a piece of fiction I would capitalize "Faun" if I felt like it. I do not think to do so would cause confusion, and would simply emphasize the position of the creatures as being magical, and not just a strange but natural creatures, but a creature of some importance. I wish I had my copy of the Lion, witch, etc, as I seem to remember Lewis writing faun as "Faun".

Anyway, to answer your question, I would do neither, capitalize all, or not any. I think there is a legitimate difference between the Abrahamic God and the Greek gods. This is not to say this is an actual difference, but in terms of perception of Western society which is predominated by Abrahamic religions, I think whether one likes it or not, it is a distinction that will stay with us for a while. Outside of that I personally would capitalize everything else (even if Lewis didn't do so.) but maybe I place a greater importance on the lessor beings than some

I don't know if that is really an answer, but it at least set the table I hope.


Dale

 
             

[milo]

I don't know if there is a rule per se, but it generally seems that when people talk of the singular "God" of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims, it is capitalized to delineate it is that god an not one god out of a pantheon. When using the specific name of a god, such as "Jove" it should be capitalized if for no other reason than it is a proper name. When referring to a "god" which is one among many as in the Greek pantheon, traditionally it seems it is generally denoted by the lowercase "g" to show that he/she is one among many. All though I have never heard anyone say this is the case, I have always assumed it was as it just makes sense as the rationale. In terms of "God" with the big "G", there are some who because of anger towards one of the Abrahamic religions do not want to capitalize the Abrahamic "God", as protest or rebellion and use the lowercase "g" in order, at least in their minds, to diminish him/her/it. That it is tradition to capitalize the Abrahamic "God", due to the fact that he is the only god in that mythos which is shared jointly by those three major religion seems weighty enough to deserve that distinction. OK, so that takes care of the main God issues. Regarding the others, here are my thoughts and rationale.
Giants and Titans, of course when using their specific name such as Hyperion, one would capitalize the name, strangely enough, one should also capitalize Titan and Giant, even though they are technically "gods". The reason is that not only are these specific groups, they are the preeminent of those who go by that name by several factors of magnitude. Generally if one refers to the Titans anywhere outside of Tennessee, a person will generally know you are referring to the Titans of Greek myth. The point is that if one is talking/writing about myth in any way, or alluding to it, there will generally be no doubt which "Titans" is being referred to. Giants currently is lowercase, however "Gigantes" is capitalized, so I think it is not a stretch to go ahead and capitalize Giants when referring to the Giants of Greek myth, since technically one is referring to the "Gigantes". I think that capitalizing both Titans and Giants would bring more clarity as opposed to less clarity, or at least do no harm, as out friend Hippocrates would say. Strangely enough the lesser mythical creatures, in terms of their category name seems to not be capitalized. Neither "hamadryad," nor "dryad" is generally capitalized. Why that is so I have no idea and as Shrunk and Not Too Bright said nothing on the subject. I am at a loss as to why that is. Personally, in a piece of fiction I would capitalize "Faun" if I felt like it. I do not think to do so would cause confusion, and would simply emphasize the position of the creatures as being magical, and not just a strange but natural creatures, but a creature of some importance. I wish I had my copy of the Lion, witch, etc, as I seem to remember Lewis writing faun as "Faun".

Anyway, to answer your question, I would do neither, capitalize all, or not any. I think there is a legitimate difference between the Abrahamic God and the Greek gods. This is not to say this is an actual difference, but in terms of perception of Western society which is predominated by Abrahamic religions, I think whether one likes it or not, it is a distinction that will stay with us for a while. Outside of that I personally would capitalize everything else (even if Lewis didn't do so.) but maybe I place a greater importance on the lessor beings than some

I don't know if that is really an answer, but it at least set the table I hope.


Dale

 
             

your thoughts on the convention are surprisingly in line with mine (not that convention should always win the day).

I think i will try all caps for a bit and see how i feel about it.  Thanks for your comments.