What this project is about.
This one is from Book 2.
How long it took to read this (aloud): 6 mins 56s
What it’s “about”: Sneaky raven, tittle tattle/snout gets turned from white to black for bringing bad news of adultery. The god goes nuts (of course) and kills his cheating human lover, who casually drops that she was preggers, before she herself drops.
Words I didn’t know: none
Quotable quotes:
He kissed the fallen girl and tried to force a victory over fate
How it lands to my eco-sensibility: nice line acknowledging the pain a cow feels when she sees her calf brained.
Obvious allusions, ways it was used (that I am aware of already) : Nyctimene doing an Anais Nin… At least in Ovid’s version – others have it as rape.
Nyctimene (/nɪkˈtɪməni/, Ancient Greek: Νυκτιμένη, romanized: Nuktiménē, lit. ’she who stays up at night’) was, according to Greek and Roman mythology, a princess and a rape victim, the daughter of Epopeus, a king of Lesbos. She was transformed into an owl by the goddess Athena, who took pity on her for her gruesome fate.[1] The owl was one of Athena’s most prominent and important symbols.
Etymology
Nyctimene’s name is derived from the Greek words νύξ (genitive νυκτός) ‘night’[2] and μένω ‘I stay’;[3] that is, ‘she who stays up at night (the owl)’. Both compound words are of Proto-Indo-European origin; νύξ from the PIE root *nókʷts,[4] and μένω from *men-.[5]
In order for the name to translate to ‘moon of the night’, as suggested by another proposed etymology,[6] it would have to be spelled Νυκτιμήνη with two etas instead of Νυκτιμένη with one.
Mythology
According to Hyginus, her father Epopeus desired her and raped her. Out of shame or guilt, she fled to the forest and refused to show her face in daylight.[7] Taking pity on her, the goddess Athena transformed her into the nocturnal owl which, in time, became a widespread symbol of the goddess.[8][9]
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the transformation was a punishment for “desecrating her father’s bed” (patrium temerasse cubile), which insinuates that she had sexual intercourse with her own father, but no further explanation is given of whether she was raped, seduced or herself the seducer.[10] In the Metamorphoses, Nyctimene’s story is narrated by Corone (the crow), who also complains that her place as Minerva’s sacred bird is now being usurped by Nyctimene, who is so ashamed of herself that she will not be seen by daylight.[10]
What I know I didn’t ‘get’: xx
To my knowledge, who’s used it why/how (RACC): xx
Further research questions: xx
Anything else: xx
marchudson.net 
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