Myths on Maps

I've noticed instances in the text (listed below) where the son of Aiakos is mentioned; this would ostensibly be Peleus, however context points to this moniker being used synonymously for Achilles, who is the grandson of Aiakos. My research points to a clunky English translation, whereas the Greek seems to be closer to a figurative title rather than a literal genealogical marker, i.e. kin or descendant of Aiakos. Based on this, I have marked it up as Achilles, not Peleus, where appropriate:

16.131

17.43

17.481

18.217

If you get a retrieval error (signified by a never-ending 'Retrieving data...' notice) AND you want to help me figure out the problem, do this:

If the problem is with a place (in this case, the place is Lyktos), go here:
http://tomcat-stable.hcmc.uvic.ca:8080/myths/apps/mom/site/helpers/place.xql?id=lyktos
You should get back info on the place Lyktos in XHTML format. Change the xml:id to get a different place.

There are similar tools for each data type:
http://tomcat-stable.hcmc.uvic.ca:8080/myths/apps/mom/site/helpers/character.xql?id=hercules
http://tomcat-stable.hcmc.uvic.ca:8080/myths/apps/mom/site/helpers/group.xql?id=argonauts
http://tomcat-stable.hcmc.uvic.ca:8080/myths/apps/mom/site/helpers/event.xql?id=event_3

For each one, you need to provide the xml:id of the problematic entry (e.g. hercules, argonauts, and event_3).

In the case of Lyktos, and at the time of writing, the response was:

<exception>
<path>/db/apps/mom/site/helpers/place.xql</path>
<message>
exerr:ERROR Type mismatch: the actual type of parameter 1 does not match the type declared in the signature of function: round-half-to-even($arg as numeric?, $precision as numeric?) numeric. Required type: numeric, got xs:string. [at line 230, column 124, source: /db/apps/mom/site/helpers/place.xql]
</message>
</exception>

I think it's best to use akas to the spellings with Cs, so that people using the site will be able to find characters using those spellings.

At Il. 19.74, I think that this is personified/deified 'fate' as a concept, rather than a reference to the fates. Because it's capitalized in the translation we're using, it should probably be a character. The question of what, exactly, 'fate' is in Homer is much discussed. Perhaps put a 'see also' in the character/group entry?

You're right, Strife is "Eris." The word being translated as "Riot" is "Kudoimos," which is a masculine noun (so probably not a goddess). This isn't a proper deity per se, just another of the personifications of which Homer is so fond. I think you could go ahead and make a new character entry for it.

The word being translated as "Fate" is "Ker." She's a death goddess, and needs a character entry.

nb: since we gave a character entry to Ossa (Rumour), it seems only consistent to the the same thing here.

My inclination is to say that Doris the daughter of Oceanus and Doris the daughter of Nereus are two different people. The lists of siblings given at Apollod. 1.2.2 and in Homer 18.28 are otherwise different; the only overlap is Doris.

For names that are not very famous or familiar to most people, I prefer spellings with ks. So, we aren't going to go around spelling it "Akhilleus" but Kymodoke is to my mind a nicer transliteration than "Cymodoce." I will find and repost the guidelines about this.

"At that moment the valiant warrior Dolops son of Lampos sprang upon Lampos was son of Laomedon and for his valor, while his son Dolops was versed in all the ways of war. He then struck the middle of the son of Phyleus' shield with his spear, setting on him at close quarters, but his good corselet made with plates of metal saved him;"

I checked it against the OpenLibrary edition, and copied two small grammatical changes which give the passage greater clarity. It now reads:

"At that moment the valiant warrior Dolops son of Lampos sprang upon him; Lampos was son of Laomedon and noted for his valor, while his son Dolops was versed in all the ways of war. He then struck the middle of the son of Phyleus' shield with his spear, setting on him at close quarters, but his good corselet made with plates of metal saved him;"

Thalia is displaying the group Corybantes correctly as her offspring, possibly due to not having any additional offspring entries, but in Apollo's case the code for the group seems to be in conflict with the single value code representing his other offspring.

This disparity seems to be evident if you click on the character entry for Hector: the final two sibling entries display out of order as "Telestas. Troilus," (Troilus being a child of Apollo). After discussing it with Greg, the code seems to be correct but requires additional tweaking.

Edited to Add: This problem does not appear to be unique to Apollo. Agenor_10, archelochus, acamas_2, theano, glaucus_5, coon, helicaon, iphidamas, laodocus_2, polybus_3, aeneas, hermes, abderus, autolycus_2, cephalus_3, eleusis, eurytus_2, myrtilus, and pan are exhibiting the same display issue. There is no "groups.xml#whatever" to compete with the existing code for these characters, so the display issue appears to be unrelated.

The ORBIS site has an API (described here).
The site is pretty cool, and there are certainly cases where it would be nice to be accurate in describing routes between known locations.