Myth

It was not very long ago and not so far away that fashion was born. It all started with Ares, the most active player of his time. Ares could pry open even the most chaste thighs. He was admired by his mortal as well as even his immortal friends. Dionysus, after a long drunken night barhopping admitted, “Duuuuuddeee, you certainly are a ladies man. Even my madskillz at wine could not challenge your skillz in women. I admit that you are the master womanizer.”
Ares’ father Zeus would brag about his son’s conquests at business meetings, asking Poseidon how many women Cyclopes had hooked up with in the last month. These discussions really bothered Hera, Zeus’s ball and chains. Hera was of the belief that Ares should settle down and give her “some damn grandkids already.” After centuries of nagging, Hera finally convinced Ares to choose a wife, citing that just like his ol’ pop, marriage didn’t necessarily need to stop him from sharing other beds.
Ares, as the personification of the fighting spirit and all that is manly of course required a wife of a similar caliber. This meant he wanted the hottest bitch in the universe as his bride. As gossip spreads like wildfire on Mt. Olympus soon every woman, god or mortal had learned of Ares and his new ultimate objective. Women were chiming to become his one and only, constantly calling him, sending love letters or flowers, and screaming to the heavens.
Ares quickly realized that there had to be some sensible way in which to deal with this daunting task. So, as gods do, he decided to organize a competition between the most attractive women in all the land.
Thus word spread and women began to schedule hair and makeup appointments for the date. Ares opened the competition to women of mortal and immortal decent, citing that he didn’t care where they came from or who they were as long as they were hot.
On the days leading up to the competition, ladies were brought from every corner of the earth, the one deemed most attractive out of every major country or province. The competition was designed so that it would emphasize the women’s beauty as much as possible; all women wore the same classic white toga, so as not to distract from the judging.
The competition day arrived and the opposition was stiff, with ladies threatening and attempting to sabotage each other at every turn. Ares himself was the only judge, and he was duly impressed by the hotness of the ladies present. However, it quickly became evident that mortal women were losing badly to the immortal women in the party. Although there were extremely attractive mortal women, none could compete with the unreal timeless beauty and grace of immortal goddesses. At last there were only three women left, all goddesses; Aphrodite, Artemis and Athena.
Each goddesses was beautiful in her own way to Ares. Aphrodite, as goddess of love and beauty, could not be rivaled in her classic sexual charm and sultry looks, clearly very experienced. Artemis, goddess of wildlife and the hunt, had an exotic and wild appeal, yet innocent at the same time. Athena, on the other hand, as goddess of wisdom and victory at war spoke to Ares’ own heart with a strong stoic and mysterious appeal.
Each goddess was undeniably beautiful, and it was impossible for Ares to choose one clear winner out of the three, so the competition was postponed. The competition was said to resume in one weeks time, but with new rules. A series of contests were organized, one each with a different shape and type of tunic. The first contest required a casual tunic, the second a dressier more business like dress, and the last essentially something slutty. But the real difference here was the fact that the ladies were able to design their tunics themselves.
A week passed, and the new competition drew even larger crowds than the last. All three contests went well, with all ladies looking hot. This time, at the end of the last contest, Ares had decided on a clear winner: Aphrodite. He announced it to the crowd saying, “Although all three women are attractive, Aphrodite’s last outfit was so slutty that it made her look especially hot.”
From that point on women everywhere learnt the importance of their choice of clothing in securing a mate and thus the first stirrings of style were born on Mt Olympus.


Journal Questions

I chose specific characters based on how they would fit with my overall idea and theme that I wanted to portray. I kind of developed my story around those specific characters when thinking it up, based on what I’d remembered from reading the myths as well as studying Greek mythology in high school. I didn’t really employ metaphors in my story at all, so I assume had I, I would have found it challenging. My point of view made descriptions easier, and the story telling easier, but I believe a reader would be less ready to relate to the story because of it, unfortunately. I chose to include dialog very seldom in this piece because it was difficult to do without sounding awkward, but when I did I felt like it cemented what I was trying to convey and gave it a more modern flair then the “narrator” voice could sufficiently fulfill. Every single part of this piece was challenging and difficult to write, from how much description to place into it, to how to convincingly use dialog, to how to make it sound convincingly modern. It was extremely difficult for me to get ideas, to set the tone, to attempt to make it entertaining yet not too inappropriate. Overall, I like the pretense of this piece and believe that in the hands of an actual creative writer it would have flowed better, and been actually successful.