SITE: The First Newsblog Contest! With Prizes!

The first anniversary of the New Olympian Agora, the fan-run newsblog for 'Class of the Titans', is coming-up very soon on May 7, 2007. Since we're so excited, we thought we'd celebrate by making like Achilles in Book XXIII of the 'Iliad' and hosting a fabulous contest with fabulous prizes!

Since I'm in a rush right now, I'll elaborate on things like rules, submission guidelines, etc. in a later entry. Below is the basic information, though it's subject to change until I set the final rules.

What kind of fabulous contest is this? Will I have to wrestle Odysseus like Telamonian Ajax did?

The contest will be a test of your knowledge of the show AND Greco-Roman mythology. Basically, you will write a short (emphasis on short) 500-750 word (informal) essay where you will take one of the show's seven main characters, select an alternate mythological ancestor, and explain why your choice works.

By explain, I mean you should cite specific examples from both the show and mythology to support your argument -- for example, if you think Turnus (of Vergil's 'Aeneid') is a good alternative ancestor for Archie because they're both kind of angry sometimes, you have to write-down examples for both. If I have time after my exams, I will write a quick example comparing Jay and Aeneas.

What about the fabulous prizes? Tripods? Trojan slave-girls? Cows?

At the moment, I will award the winner of the contest -- judged on creativity, strength of argument, writing, etc. -- with his or her choice of a classical work. The choices right now include Homer's 'Iliad' or 'Odyssey', Apollonius' 'Argonautica', Vergil's 'Aeneid', and Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'. If the winner has a strong preference for something else, I will consider it. Runner-up prizes have not yet been decided at this point.

Depending on how many submissions I receive, there may be two prize categories -- one for fans whose mythology knowledge is fairly basic and one for fans who have a strong classics background and can quote the likes of Homer, Pindar, etc. That's just to be fair, not to insult anyone. But again, this depends on the number of contest entries and their quality.

That's all I have time to elaborate on for now. More information to come later, but if you're potentially interested (you don't have to know for sure yet), please leave a comment so I can get some idea of the numbers. Thank you.