The Name Game, or, Mary gets her rant on

[marycrawford]

Is anyone else driven to distraction by persistently misspelled names in fanfic? (OK, that was a rhetorical question. :-)

I get especially fed up in Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, because half the names are mythological. Sure, the characters aren't always congruent with their mythological versions, but can we keep the names the same? Please? No need for a script to verify the spelling, all that's needed is a quick web search or a mythological dictionary.

Or a Handy Hint from Heloise, even:

Hercules' wife is Deianeira. Not Deineira or Deaneira or whatever.

Hercules' mother is Alcmene, or Alkmene if you want to be Greek about it. Not Alcemene, even though some of the actors pronounce it that way. (I think they had trouble with the 'km' sound.)

And for Zeus's sake, 'Thermopylae' is the name of a very famous battle, as well as one of Hercules' and Iolaus' signature moves. That's what's so neat about the name - it implies that this was something they first tried during that battle. Therefore, please don't spell it 'Thermopoly' or any variation thereof. That's a type of glass fiber.

Comments

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The weird thing is that at school, we pronounced it Ee-oh-LAH-us. Yet another variation. Zoe, how about it? How would you say it?

That was one of the things I liked in your singer-of-Apollo fic - that Iolaus hardly recognizes his name because the singer uses a 'weird' pronunciation of it. And then he goes 'well, it fits better into the metre that way', heh.

And yes, don't get me started on 'Iolus' fics. (Bangs head against wall).

[zoesmith.livejournal.com]

Actually in in Greek it's Ιόλαος.

Ee-oh-LAH-us

That's correct.

[amorettea.livejournal.com]

I went by Edward Tripp's pronunciation guide (all writers of Hercverse stories should have a copy of "The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology." A quick look at all the myths complete with the occasional snarky remark.) Mr. Tripp says short i short o accent on l with long a schwa es. In Amurican, I would say i-aw-LAY-is, sort of. Hard to explain without phonetic marking and/or SOUND. At any rate. EEE-o-lus is WRONG.

But then again, Iolaus was Herakles' nephew and the son of Iphicles and Automedusa. (How's that for a great name?) And Herakles was a bisexual, cross-dressing drunkard with a bad temper and questionable hygience habits.

In my head, EEElous is the blonde guy played by Micheal Hurst and ioLAus is the character in myth.

You've read my singer story?!?!? Wow! Yes, I tossed in the name thing just to prove I was well-eddicated enough to know it. Heheheheh.

Amorette

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Is it me, or does Automedusa sound like someone who gets stung in the head by her own snakes?

Your Handbook sounds right up my alley. I'll look for it, next time I'm bookshopping.

You've read my singer story?!?!? Wow!

Yup. Brother Ghost is still my favorite of your longer stories, but I like the two original characters in this one, as well as Iolaus' voice. And I feel more than a little guilty that I never sent you email to tell you so. :-(

[amorettea.livejournal.com]

Heheh. Stung in the head by her own snakes. Snort. The book is out of print but I got it used for under ten bucks. Very handy reference.

I was going to say, thanks for you kind words on. . .and realized I can't remember the name of the "singer" story or the name of the singer! Yikes. I've written too many things, I guess. . .

Amorette