h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A647129

Just so you know, I may have quoted J.K.Rowling but I am NOT a Harry Potter fan.
As for the article, it's on centaurs- the man/horse things that haven't yet got a mention in the guide.

Hi, Dastardly!

This is a good guide to the original stories about centaurs - I like it. One small point: I think in your Lewis and Rowling quotes you should give the character who is speaking, as well as the author - especially with the Rowling quote, since she doesn't normally write like that!

Azara

Done. And thanks

although it might be worth mentioning in the footnote that Zeus was in fact the king of the Olympian gods.

I think that instead of having so many (short) footnotes, it might be nice to have a little "Appendix" at the end, listing the gods and what they were known for... Or find some guide entries to link to about them (or write your own, if you want that work! ).

And I was a bit confused by the Hercules/Heracles thing--what is the connection between them? I didn't think that Hercules needed so much of a footnote as his relationship to Heracles did (were they the same person, but differently named?) Hercules is just generally rather well-known....

All in all though, I liked the entry. It was very informative, and presented a relationship between the gods... I don't generally think of them as being related outside specific stories, so seeing the wider picture was good.


the Shee

Hercules and Heracles are one and the same. Heracles is his original name, and Hercules is what it turned into once the Romans got a hold of him. They changed a lot of the names from the Greek myths for some reason.

you know what? i think this would be an amazing starting point for a series of articles concerning the Greco-Roman myths. Might make a good University project. Ever considered working on something of a slightly larger scale? I'm sure plenty of researchers would eagerly pitch in for this subject if you did...

I'll withdraw this entry from PR then, while I think about a uni project- sounds like a good idea though.

ooo!
is that inspiration I detect?

The name change is because Rome conquered Greece and the Roman language became more important. There was a vogue for changing many Greek names to Latin equivalents to demonstrate this. The same thing happened to many arabic names in myth and history when the Alexander took over.

That's just an fyi.

-- David, who fights yellow iguanas

A project sounds a good idea.

There's a lot that could go in it - like the Robert Graves theories of the myths being a representation of what happened in the real (political) world, with conquests and the overturning of matriarchal societies into patriarchal ones.

I'll keep an eye open on this one.

and of course separate but linked things(although i'm not quite sure how those uni projects work) on other mythical greek creatures/people(since an awful lot of them were partially human).

I've applied to do a project on Greek Mythology, there shouldn't be a problem. The official index is looking bare so I wrote an unofficial one so you can see what I intend to do.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A648119

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated, you all seem to have squillions of ideas so if you can help, please do.

congrats!

This is a good and interesting article.

The entry should start with a sentence or short paragraph which says what a centaur is. It can then go on to describe how they came about in the Ancient Greek legends.

One grammar point: "gave into" should be "gave in to".

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'Centaurs'.

This thread has been moved as per Researcher request.