hermesseus

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And historians will call them-

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HE JUST GOT THERE

Also, suddenly his dad is back

That's a lot for him to handle, ngl

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Mama's boy

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paris with a shirt saying “if lost, return to hector” and hector with a shirt saying “i’m hector, i don’t know that guy.” is this anything

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Diomedes: It took me years to understand the “why the long face” punchline to the “a horse walks into a bar” joke because I just thought that’s a normal sized face to have if you’re a horse. It never occurred to me judge a horse by the standards of man.

Diomedes: I was a better person than all of you.

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i’m such a sucker for diomedes who keeps his cool in meetings with the kings and then takes it out on the battlefield. like imagine being a trojan, you’re already scared to death, and then the guy who kills you (diomedes) also shouts “ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID??” as he kills you. like you can tell he’s not talking to/about you (no he’s rehashing the whole conversation with agamemnon under his breath) but it’s still like. what the fuck guy. what the hell.

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More of Percy being pretty🌊

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Visit from an old friend

Both of Athena’s warriors seem to be quite experienced in God-stabbing field…..now we wait for Telemachus

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really quick comic based on this post by @fangirling-phoenix

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Can i also point out how freaking funny is that Telemachus went on a "diplomatic" mission, only to return cosplaying as Athena to kill the suitors?

Telemachus: "im going to kill those bastards"

Athena: "no not dressed like that"

Telemachus: "ok better?"

Athena: "yes bitch slay"

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he really NEVER gets a home huh. hes at thebes and then hes in argos for .2 seconds and then hes in calydon and then hes in argos for .2 seconds and then hes at troy and then hes exiled from argos and he just. never gets to go home.

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Still not over "father I've been stabbed, control your daughter" -> "shut up son I hate you, you're just like your mother, just die already"

The Iliad is probably one of the funniest books I ever read

Like I'll be having a not-so-good day, then remember how Hector had given himself an entire pep talk to fight Achilles. He saw Achilles running full speed towards him and proceeds to just book it.

Or when Menelaus got shot by an arrow in like in an ultimately nonfatal spot, and Agamemnon begins prematurely mourning him while he's standing there like 🧍‍♂️” you're scaring the men.”

Or when Odysseus is walking around the camps with a royal scepter and is just beating people with it if he finds them packing or suggesting to leave.

Or when Hector is brainstorming on how to face Achilles and for a moment goes, “Maybe I could talk with him, we’re both princes, we can both be rational, I could reason with him… that's a horrible fucking idea.”

I have more, but these, in particular, really tickle me.

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this is how it went right

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My humble contribution to the ship ｡⁠*ﾟ⁠+

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i think it's a sign of how (thankfully) far removed we are from that kind of violence that achilles' dragging of hector's corpse is so often framed mostly as an act of extreme disrespect, or only some brutal show of triumph. personally i think that's underselling both achilles' intention and what the trojans must be thinking as they watch it happen.

hector's corpse is divinely protected so it can't be damaged by the greeks after death; all that effectively happens in the iliad is that his body gets dirty. but under normal circumstances (and i'm not gonna impose realism on mythology, but the iliad is famously detailed when it comes to bodily trauma), the physical reality of dragging a corpse along stony ground for miles would be severe disfigurement and dismemberment. first the skin would wear off, then soft tissues, then extremities would start to detach. i think the iliad's original audience would be aware of that as an intended outcome.

achilles (who doesn't yet know that hector's body has been granted divine stasis) doesn't just want to parade his enemy's corpse, he wants to tear it apart ("i only wish that this fury inside my heart would drive me to carve you to pieces and eat your flesh raw..."), he wants it to not resemble a human anymore. he wants hector's blood and flesh to circle the city of troy. he wants to make it impossible for hector's family to gather the pieces of him to cremate and that way hector's spirit won't find passage into the underworld. that's what the gods are preventing from happening, they're not just keeping the corpse pretty for priam to pick up later.